Finding the lines: an interview with Lotus Burnquist

Lotus Burnquist is the artist behind Autonomy Skateboards’ latest board series, featuring portraits of each team rider, including her mom. We jumped on the phone with Lotus to talk about her inspirations, what it was like growing up as the daughter of two professional skateboarders, carving her own path, getting wiped out by a skateboard as a toddler, the similarities between dancing and skating, and what’s next in her creative endeavors.

How did that opportunity to work on the Autonomy board series come about?

My mom told me that Autonomy was looking for artists and would be interested in possibly having me do some kind of graphic for the new board series, including one for my mother. I thought that would be so cool to do something where my mom is included and it’s something that has my art on it.

I reached out and I talked to them and they kind of let me do a little bit of whatever I wanted. They said they were looking for some kind of portrait of each of the pro skateboarders on their team in the style that I do. I usually draw in more of a cartoony, kind of fictional style of character, but I had really wanted to push myself and try to do a more realistic approach to it that still has some kind of element that is still me — so some kind of missing component or something that wasn’t just realism. I was really excited so I jumped into it and just figured out what I could pull out of it. I was actually really proud of what I came up with.

You’re a self-taught artist, right? How long have you been making art?

Yes, I’m self-taught. My grandma is an artist and she does all types of art. She painted when I was young. She’s into mosaic, she’ll make clay, she’s just kind of an all-around artist. I grew up around her because my parents were traveling a lot. I lived with her most of the time and she was always doing paintings and I was always so interested in it. She would let me borrow her pencils and give me a canvas and then kind of just let me go off on my own tangent and see what I would come up with. She would teach me little tricks like, “oh if you want to draw a hummingbird you can draw these shapes.” So she really was the one that inspired me and got me into it. As I got older the world around me kind of influenced what I would paint or what I was interested in drawing. But most of my technique definitely came from her. So I’d say I started drawing when I was about 3 or 4 years old. She still has some of those drawings and paintings to this day.

Speaking of growing up, I want to talk to you about what that was like. You obviously come from a pretty impressive skate lineage, so did you also get into skateboarding or did you just see it as the uncool thing that your parents did?

I always had a lot of respect for it and I always thought it was something that was really cool but I think at the time, when I was young, I didn’t realize that it was something not everyone was doing. You know, it was so normal to me. They would put my crib by the skate ramps during sessions with their friends, and I was just kind of sitting there in my own little world witnessing it. I know how to skate around but I don’t know many tricks at all. The first time I ever tried to drop in I ate it on my butt so hard that I never tried to do it again [laughs]. So I kind of gave up on that.

But eventually what happened is, I took the complete opposite route and I got heavily into dancing. I did ballet for about 11 years, or something like that, but it wasn’t something I was into first either. I kind of just went into it for hip hop and funk because I love music. My family was also very musical so I was just drawn to it. It was a perfect little combination of creativity. Eventually it was required for me to do ballet. I hated it at first and I rebelled against it because it was the opposite of my entire way of being and where I came from. But I ended up being really good at it and I got really into it. I dedicated a lot of my childhood to getting better at ballet and doing that when my parents were out and doing the skate thing.

I’ve always thought there are a lot of similarities between skateboarding and dance. Do you see any parallels?

Oh, absolutely! In both, technique is everything. Whether you have your own style of doing it, and whether that puts you outside of the crowd, you still have to have the foundations. You have to have good balance and you have to practice everyday — even the tricks that maybe are easy to you in your mind — because you can’t go and invent new things and spin off of it if you’re not with the basics. So I think that’s something. And you have to know how to balance and fall correctly. With ballet and dance, if you don’t know how to fall then you don’t know how to manage risk and you can really injure yourself and not be able to do it anymore.

You mentioned that you traveled around a lot when you were younger and I take it that was to contests and skate events with your parents. What was that like moving around all the time? Were there any particularly cool places that you went or cool experiences?

Absolutely! I stopped traveling with them when I started going to school more seriously but there was a really good chunk of time when I was just traveling with them non-stop, to X Games or whatever they were getting into. I remember we went to Thailand when I was maybe 4 or 5 and it was so beautiful. It was just such a different culture. You’re on these elephants, and you’re going to see these rubber trees, and I just remember in my head thinking, “wow the world is so big.” It was so weird to then come back and have these kids around to me that were just sort of oblivious to this world of culture that’s out there. But I was always very grateful that I got to see it and I think Thailand was very beautiful. I did go to Australia once but I got bit by mosquitoes so bad! For some reason I just attract mosquitoes a lot so Florida and Australia I try to avoid [laughs].

Do you still get to travel to places with your parents now for any events?

Yeah, no I haven’t traveled with my parents for a minute. The last time I went somewhere with my dad was Brazil in 2016. He travels there quite frequently and has a house out there, and a lot of his business is based out there, so he will constantly go back and forth. I was able to go there a lot more than other places. The last time I went I was about 15 and it was really beautiful. He had just moved into a new place with his lovely wife, and my half-sister lives out there, so it was cool to see that part of my family. It’s just a different world there. It’s really beautiful and it’s always good to visit. Actually, I need to visit sometime soon because 2015 doesn’t sound that long ago in my head but then I’m like, “oh my gosh it’s already 5 years ago!”

Do you have any funny stories or experiences with you and your mom when you were growing up?

I mean maybe it’s not funny, but I do remember we were at my house and I was walking around the backyard bowl — and when you walk around my house it’s really close to the coping. I think it was Lyn-Z [Pastrana] skating and I was walking over to my mom and Lyn-Z shot her board out and it hit me right in the face. Then the party was over, I was a crying baby, she felt so bad, and my mum was like, “oh my gosh, you’re fine, it’s OK!” It was kind of chaotic. Looking back, it was kind of funny growing up and being so close to the skate bowl but being so oblivious to the dangers.

No wonder you didn’t want to get into skateboarding!

[Laughs] It probably scarred me. I was maybe 2 or 3 years old, I guess. I was only just old enough to waddle around and I wasn’t totally aware of what was going on.

Coming back to the future and your art, what are you working on now?

Well, right now I’m just working on producing as much of my art as I can. I just recently finished a Zodiac series of mine, which is like a portrait series. It’s kind of just my style of art and each zodiac sign has a woman to represent the characteristics and personality of that zodiac. It took me about 4 years, on and off. It’s pretty much the same thing over and over again — a different woman’s face — so that can get kind of mundane over time. But I’ve finally finished it. So hopefully in the near future, if I produce enough art, I can put some kind of art show up, or auction them off, or make prints. I’m just thinking of creative ideas of what I can do with my art rather than just keep it on the canvas.

I have also been working on building a portfolio, putting something together with little art pieces in a sketchbook because eventually I’d like to get into tattooing. So I’ve been trying to work on that and see if I can get some kind of apprenticeship here in the near future. I think to be able to put my art on people permanently would be such a cool thing … and also nerve-racking [laughs].

Do you think you will do anything that crosses over with skateboarding again?

I’m totally open to the idea. The Autonomy project was really, really fun. I got a lot of good experience from it, trying new things that I’ve never really dived into before. So I would love to do another board series, or you know, maybe even collaborate with a women’s skate clothing line, or shoes, or anything like that.

Any shoutouts before we end?

I guess I almost feel like I owe it to my grandma to talk about her a little more because I feel like I wouldn’t be here doing this without her growing up. My grandma really helped me with the idea that art doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to be something that everyone else is doing. My grandma taught me that you need to create whatever is coming out of you, and a lot of the time that can be an emotional experience. It can also be about telling a story, but it doesn’t have to tell your story — you can invent a story. You can get so creative with art that it doesn’t have to be just paintings, or clay, or whatever. My grandma would explain that you could create a new medium every day. People are folding paper in crazy ways and it’s still art.

So I think my grandma was a really big inspiration to me and as much as I still kind of stuck with the medium of paint, she challenges me to go into new avenues with it. That was one of the reasons why I was so quick to jump on the idea of putting it on a board. It’s cool that people can skate with someone’s art, and that it was created by the daughter of someone who fought to get more recognition and support of women in skateboarding. It’s empowering. So I definitely have to credit my grandmother and I also have to credit my mom for working so hard on that. I’m just doing this in honor of her and how hard she fought to get her name out there. I thought it would be a really cool dedication to her and my grandma.

Interview: Sarah Huston
Photos: courtesy of Lotus and Autonomy Skateboards