Alexis Lowe

I am an artist based in Manassas, VA working towards my second bachelors degree in Anthropology/sociology. I graduated with a Bachelor’s of science degree in Art in 2023. I’m a lover of all things floral.

I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado and moved to Oregon in 2020 to pursue my Bachelor’s of Science degree in Art, which I graduated with in 2023. I moved to Manassas, VA in 2025.

My Artist Statement:

I make paintings and prints of flowers as metaphors that resonate with my emotions and experiences and give a glimpse into how I view reality. As someone with bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorders, operating with flowers is my way of coping with my emotional feelings of being pulled from the extremes of mania and depression. I display my subjects as if they are self-portraits to communicate my feelings of disorientation and anxiety, as well as how these transition over time. Each flower is its individual that holds the understanding of life, beauty, deterioration, and the constant shifting of mental states. I create multiples to explore the differences between gradual and instant change and the late realizations of the passing of time. I operate with repetition because of the uncertainty of my level of strength and the way I am obsessed with the thought of time and health. 

While being bipolar, I am constantly uneasy about the future and what comes next. I array flowers in odd and lonely places to exhibit where I have been and how my situations, memories, abuse, and loneliness have changed me. As I cannot verbally communicate my emotions and personal experiences, I choose to bring them to life through something beautiful, fragile, and sensitive to time. I feel emotionally connected to my subjects; they are a way to project my sadness into a different form to make them powerful. They help me become more present with my feelings and reality to understand better what they mean. I am immensely drawn to flowers because of their background meanings, especially ones representing strength. They remind me how quickly something fragile and pure (such as my mind) can gain or completely lose power in the blink of an eye. My paintings become self-portraits. The connections I depict between them directly portray my connection with myself, the loneliness and anxiety this comes with, and the fear of succession and the unknown.