The Living Light of Other Worlds.
Using exclusively natural materials – such as flowers, roots, and tree bark – as paint, Philadelphia artists Bixa Burgos and Dan Cole collaborate to translate the invisible world to canvas. Their work explores the energetic, harmonizing quality of plant based colors, and invites the viewer to linger in a state of quiet stillness.
Thought forms, known by Tibetan Buddhists as tulpas, are energetic patterns that exist in nature and are formed by our thoughts. In her 1905 book Thought-Forms, Annie Besant describes forms that represent inherent qualities from the astral and mental planes. According to Besant, “The radiating vibration conveys the character of the thought, but not its subject.”
The portals channeled through this work are likewise intended to record the essence of the process, reflecting the life energy of the dye plants as well as the hands’ of the artists. The work is an invitation to see what is otherwise unseeable – a channel of communication between humans & plants.
Bixa Burgos is received a B.S. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University in 2018, and an M.S in Textile Engineering from Philadelphia University in 2020. Dan Cole has an undergraduate degree in painting from Tyler school of Art and has been working as an artist and artist’s assistant since 2010.
Our Medium
Our work, influenced in part by Frankenthaler’s soak stain technique, is created by dipping folded canvases in consecutive flower dye baths, blending layers of thinned pigments to create vibrating images. The colors are derived exclusively from plants such as indigo, marigolds, madder root, goldenrod, and many, many others. The pieces strive to reflect the life energy of the dye plants harvested for this work.
Contact us at studio@thoughtforms.art
Thought Forms 