Amanda Sage
Birth nameAmanda Sage
Birth date19 April 1978 (age 48)
Birth placeDenver, Colorado, United States
Known forPainting
TrainingWaldorf School, Michael Fuchs, Ernst Fuchs
MovementVisionary art
Websitewww.amandasage.com

Amanda Sage (born April 19, 1978) is an American painter and teacher who co-founded the Academy of Visionary Art in Vienna and the Colorado Alliance for Visionary Art. She has worked internationally, training and collaborating with Ernst Fuchs and Michael Fuchs, classical artists who taught her the Mischtechnik technique.[1]

Early life

Amanda Sage was born on 19 April 1978[2][3] in Denver, Colorado.[4] She developed an early interest in drawing as a young girl, which she attributes to a home environment that actively fostered artistic activity.

Sage's family moved to Deerfield Beach, Florida during her childhood. There, she became involved with the Unity Church.[4] The family returned to Colorado, settling in Boulder, where Sage spent her adolescent and teenage years. She regularly practiced morning meditation at the Unity of Boulder Spiritual Center, and also engaged in Church-organized vision quests and meditative retreats.[4]

Sage attended Shining Mountain Waldorf School, graduating in 1996.[5] She credits her high school art teacher, Hikaru Hirata-Miyakawa, for introducing her to "semi-realism," acrylic painting, and the works of Ernst Fuchs.[4]

Art

Studies and early career

In 1997,[6] Sage traveled to Vienna, Austria, to study classical painting with artist Michael Fuchs. She learned the Old Masters' method of Mischtechnik; Ernst Fuchs, Michael's father, had revived this style of painting in the 1950s.[7] In 1999, after her two-year apprenticeship, Sage began working with Ernst Fuchs. She assisted with Fuchs's lifetime project in the Apocalypse Chapel in Klagenfurt, Austria, working with him until 2007.[6][7]

During this time in Vienna, Sage connected with other artists and began to develop her own technique. In 1999 and 2000, she taught underpainting at the "Old Master, New Visions" seminar in Payerbach, Austria. The event was organized by Phil Rubinov-Jacobson, one of Ernst Fuchs's students in the 1970s.[2][3][4] Sage obtained her own studio space in 2000, located in the Viennese WUK cultural center, where she organized events and was a board member.[8]

Sage traveled to Bali in 2006. During this two-month artistic "vision quest," she first used the egg motif that would appear in many of her subsequent paintings.[4]

Career

She began to exhibit her work in the United States alongside other artists beginning in 2007.[8] She began to be represented by Galerie 10, which had also represented Ernst Fuchs, Manfred Deix, Rudolf Hausner, Helmut Kand, Anton Lehmden, Arik Brauer, and Wolfgang Hutter.[5] Sage then moved to Los Angeles, California,[8] where her works were exhibited at the Temple of Visions gallery.[2]

Sage has painted live, conducted workshops, and delivered lectures[8] at exhibitions and festivals, like Inner Visions at the Boom Festival in Portugal,[9][10] Palenque Norte's Burning Man,[11] Harmonic Spaces in Australia,[12] Art Basel Miami,[3] and the Nexus Global Youth Summit.[5] Her works are in galleries and salons worldwide, including Vienna, Australia, and Italy. In the United States, her works have been shown in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Colorado.[8]

Visionary art organizations

Sage is one of ten members of the Visionary Guild who studied under Fuchs, which is part of the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art that opened in September 2013.[4] Sage conceived the idea for the guild and worked in concert with Laurence Caruana and A. Andrew Gonzalez—whom Sage met in 2000 while working with Ernst Fuchs—to establish it.[13] The Visionary Guild elected to base itself in Vienna because of the influential Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. The academy is located near Ernst Fuchs' studio, the Palais Pálffy, and the Phantasten Museum, which also showcases Sage's works.

Two other guild members, David Heskin and his wife, Aloria Weaver, later founded the Colorado Alliance of Visionary Artists (CAVA) with Sage.[4]

Style, themes, and methods

Sage is considered to be a visionary artist.[14] Her portrait and figure-works are usually created with the intent to inspire spiritual and personal transformation; they feature waves of "intense color" that Sage claims convey boundless growth opportunities.[8]

She draws inspiration from live music and her own ideas and emotions. She begins each painting by developing a narrative, then allows the work to emerge spontaneously, often listening to music or audiobooks to avoid overthinking. When she paints live, Sage often receives a nugget from a conversation as inspiration for her work.[4]

She describes visionary art as a cultural phenomenon. Believing that "art is a powerful, symbolic language," she explains her ultimate goal to create a culture of empathy for living beings and the earth, explaining, "it's a practice, a meditation, and a dedication that takes me into a space of contemplation."[4]

The egg is a common motif in her works, which is representative of Sage's intention "to create portals that open to the infinite possibilities of being and expressing so that we may remember and rediscover who we are, where we originate from, and where we are headed." Another symbolic reference is "the train," intended to convey regenerative, infinite journeys of spiritual transformation.[4]

References

  1. ^ Brown, David Jay & Hill, Rebecca Ann (2018-11-13). Women of Visionary Art. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-62055-694-8.
  2. ^ "Artist: Amanda Sage". Visionary Arts Foundation. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  3. ^ "Amanda Sage". Temple of Visions. Archived from the original on 4 February 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  4. ^ Seth M. Walker (8 August 2013). ""Carrying the Torch into the New World": Amanda Sage and the Visionary Art Movement". nomos journal. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  5. ^ "Alumni profiles: Amanda Sage". Shining Mountain Waldorf School. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  6. ^ Biedronka, Szymon (2025-12-20). "Psychodeliczna kaplica w starym kościele — Apokalipsa E. Fuchsa". Magazyn WhiteMAD - moda, architektura, design w jednym miejscu. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  7. ^ Staff, Psychedelic Times (2021-09-17). "Visionary Art and Psychedelics: Interview with Amanda Sage". Psychedelic Times. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  8. ^ "about amanda sage". nomos journal. 8 August 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  9. ^ Graham St John and Chiara Baldini (2012). "Dancing at the Crossroads of Consciousness: Techno-Mysticism, Visionary Arts and Portugal's Boom Festival". Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Carole M. Cusak, Alex Norman (ed.). The Netherlands: Korninklijke Brill NV. p. 543. ISBN 978-90-04-22648-7.
  10. ^ Daniel Pinchbeck & Ken Jordan (2012). Exploring the Edge Realms of Consciousness: Liminal Zones, Psychic Science, and the Hidden Dimensions of the Mind. North Atlantic Books. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-58394-517-9.
  11. ^ "Amanda Sage - "Vision Mapping for the Golden Age"". Palenque Norte. 28 August 2012. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  12. ^ "Harmonic Spaces & Earth Frequency Festival 2014 – featuring Anderson Debernardi & Amanda Sage". Byron Community Centre. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  13. ^ "Biographies". Academy of Visionary Arts, Vienna. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  14. ^ Orion, Damon (5 September 2012). "The Art of Awareness". Good Times. Retrieved 8 October 2012.

Further reading

  • Hilary Simmons (2008). Metamorphosis 2: 50 Contemporary Surreal, Fantastic and Visionary Artists. Jon Beinart (ed.). beinArt Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9803231-1-5.
  • Brian Stewart (2007). Dreamscape 2: The Best of Imaginary Realism. Fantasmus-Art. ISBN 978-8-7990636-9-7.