In this their 16th Conversation on Art, Artists Stanley Greaves AA and Akima McPherson discuss Bernadette Persaud’s Lotus of July.
Akima McPherson: In several of Bernadette Persaud’s paintings she features the lotus, often as a dominant element. The lotus, she says, serves as a point of departure for exploring philosophy and her background. In Lotus of July, the lotus is a personal symbol of time and transience; the beauty of the flower after blooming disappears in three to four days, she notes. The lotus, therefore, becomes a source of contemplation for ideas such as permanence and impermanence, time and timelessness, beauty and decay.