Rana Lotfi

Rana Lotfi is inspired by dreams, reality, memories, love, death, art, and the magic of being alive. Her paintings are an expression – a distillation – of the impressions made on her own experiences and cultural background. Inspired by an intense love and passion, she paints expressively with intuition, and the resulting artworks are a reflection of her inner world. She likes to give the viewer a glimpse of her world, inspired by her fears, dreams, and feelings.

The message of Rana’s art may be to communicate political, spiritual, or philosophical ideas, to create a sense of beauty to explore, sometimes for pleasure, or to generate strong emotions. All of these messages together make up the meaning of the artwork – the meaning of the art being the most important part of artistic creation and the ultimate purpose of creative work.

Born and raised in Damascus, Syria, Rana doesn’t consider herself unique and tries to constantly educate herself and to be aware of the changes happening around her, walking on the path of self-development that keeps her up to date with the changing times. For Rana, true artists are learners for life; they believe in growth and are always focused on improving their work. This is what Rana is aiming for – and perhaps through this path of exploration, she becomes unique. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

“ART IS FREEDOM, PASSION, PERSONAL WITH VISUAL MESSAGES”

I Want my Practice to Reflect My Relationship Between my Upbringing in Rich, Historic Part of the World.

And my Current Experience as an Arab American Artist, I like Mixing the Old with the New and Taking things in a Third Direction.

The inspiration of my work captures the spirit and essence of my surroundings to create personal passages through my previous and current experiences. I was born and raised in Damascus, Syria, throughout my childhood and adulthood, I was a frequent visitor to the Museum of Arts and Antiquities in Damascus that has one of the world’s best collections of artifacts of ancient civilizations.

My visits to contemporary art galleries in Damascus and Beirut helped me combine some of the cultural elements with the modern life that surrounded me and shaped my artistic vision by using poetry as a visual means to add calligraphic elements to elevate the painting to a higher visual and intellectual experience that resonates with the viewers. Some of my poems expressed on canvas with Arabic calligraphy lettering that hugs the images to create a unique contemporary visual experience that tells a story about who I am as an artist and how I’m connected between my birthplace, the Syrian culture, and my immigration to the US through the American culture.