LORI HIGGINS WAS ON HER WAY TO PALAU (a tropical island some 4,600 miles  west of Hawai‘i) for a diving trip when a layover in the Aloha State changed her life.  She decided to check out Maui.  “It felt so right I never left,” says Higgins. Her fourth day on Maui, she started working as a scuba instructor at the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa.  Six months later, Higgins picked up a paintbrush and became a self-taught artist, consumed with the study of the old art masters and determined to find her own creative distinction.  

What made Higgins pick up a paintbrush?  “I got a craving to create something,” she says.  “I was looking for a way to channel my feelings and emotions.  I bought a whole bunch of acrylic paints, laid them out on the palette and before I could do one brush stroke all the paint dried up.  I then remembered the smell and feel of oils, so I went back to Ben Franklin’s and bought oils.”

That was 1997. Today her main medium remains heavy rich oils, often featuring a sepia-toned palette that inspires a sense of agelessness.  “I place my subjects in a non-descript time or place so the subjects could be offering a flower lei to the skies a hundred years from now, or a hundred years ago,” states Higgins. 
 
Higgins soon started showing her work at Addi Gallery in Lahaina.  A year later, she met her business partner, Glenn Harte. Although they were completely opposite in experiences and perspectives, she knew they would make a winning team. In fact, she believed she and Harte could become a powerful, dynamic force in the art world.  So, in 2003 Higgins Harte International Galleries, an artists’ representative and business management company, was formed.  Higgins Harte represented, published, marketed and sold art to other galleries that included Higgins, Anthony Quinn’s Estate art and more.

A year into their venture, they were offered the Addi Gallery location in Lahaina.  In January 2005 renovations began, Higgins Harte International Galleries opened its doors in February 2005.

Higgins had many role models in life that taught her dedication, inspiration, dream-catching, creativity, and spirituality. Her great grandfather initiated the East Coast Boy Scouts of America; her grandmother was the first woman acting governor of New Jersey; her father is a retired FBI and Naval Reserve Captain; her stepmother is a successful business owner; and her mother is the epitome of support and encouragement.  

After being raised on the East Coast of the U.S., Higgins embarked on a world journey that included the U.S., Central America, Europe and remote corners of the Himalayas in Nepal and Tibet. Higgins also attended Schiller International University in Germany and
England where she earned a degree in Psychology.

“The pivotal point of my life came in 1994,” Higgins states.  “I became a volunteer relief worker/convey driver for a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) giving humanitarian aid during the war in Bosnia.”  It was an incredible experience and ripped open a window into reality and allowed Higgins to peek into the raw extremes of human nature, from pure love to pure hate and all the shades in between.  “While in Bosnia,” Higgins says, “I realized the importance of experiencing extremes.  How can one acknowledge and appreciate the white in life if one has not experienced the black?”  

This realization is expressed in her exquisite angel paintings.  To Higgins, angels represent the soul and she often portrays them in the throes of anguish or defeat.  Higgins believes “Those who face darkness and do not run from it, will find the light.  For every single thing in this world emanates its own kind of beauty.  I don’t agree with the new age stream of thought that negative feelings and thoughts should be replaced with positive ones.  I believe that these negativities in life need to be acknowledged and confronted, not dwelled upon, but understood and transformed.  Only then can we continue on our transformation through this life.”

Propelled by her spiritual beliefs, and by her experiences as a woman who has had to prove herself in many diverse situations, Higgins chose to paint the power of the female subject more so than the male form.  The expression, body stance and eyes are the crux of her paintings.  She believes “The eyes are more like mirrors that reflect ourselves back to
us, rather than being windows to the soul.  I see my painting as my own spiritual purification, and in turn, a gift from my soul to the soul of the world.”

Higgins’s original oil paintings and limited editions are exhibited at the Higgins Harte International Galleries in Lahaina alongside works by Anthony Quinn, Tony Curtis, Rembrandt, Chagall, Renoir “and many more legends, modern masters and the famous of the future …” The gallery offers fine art auctions and acclaimed local and master artist events, as well as “Friday Night is Art Night in Lahaina.”  Art Night has locals and visitors alike strolling the streets enjoying music, shopping, and meeting featured artists as they work.

Considering her globe-hopping  experiences (and the demands she’s made on her own guardian angels), today Lori Higgins says: “I now wake up every day determined to become the best artist that I can become, so that I am prepared to contribute my part in the shift of consciousness that this world needs.  I can’t be sure where destiny is leading me, but I am so grateful every day for choosing this path.  Aloha and bless you all on each one of your journeys.”

Maui offers Higgins the spiritual inspiration and natural beauty she embraces and with the immense success of Higgins Harte International Galleries on Maui, plans are in the works for a mainland gallery.

If you are not lucky enough to live on Maui, you can visit Lori Higgins’ website at www.lorihiggins.com and view her galleries. Works displayed online include categories “From the Soul,” Island Spirit,” “Still & Fantasy,” and her inspirational poetry. Higgins sees sculpting as her next creative endeavor.