Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mandalas…

One of the things I enjoy doing and can get totally lost in, is to go ‘blog wandering’…Leah, from Creative Every Day, makes it really easy for me to wander the blogs of others like me, who are exploring their creativity, with the widget she puts up each week…Leah hosts the Creative Every Day Challenge that I have joined this year…

As I was blog wandering around the other day, I came across Kathryn, from Collage Diva and her post called ‘Do you see mandalas everywhere?’ At the end of her post she issued a challenge…to photograph and blog about the mandalas that you see in your environment this week.

In her Soul Journal prompt #21 - Mandalas, Kathryn teamed up with Megan from the Four Ravens blog to talk about Mandalas, what they can represent and different ways of making them...there are some wonderfully inspiring ideas illustrated…

When I was doing “The Artist’s Way”, a few years back, in a group with my Cariño and 4 women, on one of the nights that I was to organize the group, I chose, as our activity, making mandalas…it was fun, although Oma may remember it as being a frustration!

Some time after taking The Artist’s Way journey, I took another course at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa…it was led by Debra Faulk, who later performed Cariño and my wedding ceremony…Debra is now the minister at the Don Heights Unitarian Congregation (and we miss her!)…the course I took was called Evensong…it was another wonderful journey…here is the description for it:

“Listening is at the core of Evensong. The curriculum focuses on paying attention to people, "hearing them into a deeper sense of their own humanness and wholeness, and into community." Participants explore individual life journeys through sharing thoughts, experiences, doubts, and beliefs about religious concepts.”

One of the exercises was to create something that summarized your spiritual life experiences…I chose to do a mandala…


















I think it was in that same year that a group of Tibetan monks came to Ottawa...Cariño and I saw them chanting...what an amazing experience that was!...they also set up at the Ottawa School of Art, in their art gallery, and made a sand mandala...the whole process...the making and then the dismantleing of it took a week...every day there would be at least 2 of them working on it...they took turns and about 8 hours a day were spent making this creation...they had special pipets that they used to place the sand, seemingly a grain at a time into the pattern...it was a gorgeous creation and fascinating to watch them...at the end...they took it all apart again...













Kathryn and Megan demonstrate a number of ways to create mandalas and have listed links to many more inspiring ideas. I have loved and been interested in mandalas for years and this Soul Journal prompt has fired it all up again! I bought my first mandala years ago at a craft show…it is one of those things that has followed me and been hung everywhere I have lived…I call it my mandala tree…

















I also have a framed poster of an ‘Energy” mandala…it jumped right off the store shelf and into my possession a few years ago…it is a computer generated one and full of fantastic detail and rich colours…


















It is funny how things crop up in your life when you are being receptive…and I think being actively creative makes us more receptive…the book I bought for myself when on my road trip and have been reading – "The Artist’s Muse – Unlock the Door to your Creativity" has a chapter on mandalas and after I read it and was freshly thinking about them again, they start popping up everywhere! So I have pulled my “Mandala – Journey to the Center" off the shelf and with the addition of the Soul Journal prompt…I am surrounded and filled with mandala energy!

Further to the Soul Journal prompt #21 - Mandalas contest, I decided to create an affirmation mandala...












I went looking for a nice affirmation that spoke to me at Creative Affirmations, under the Happiness Affirmations...I chose: "I release all negativity and hold joy in my heart."...then I decided to make a 'wonder bubble' like in my "Sitting Under Mandara's Tree of Wonder" painting...they are happy, colourful spheres...I painted the background for the card...I love blue...wrote the affirmation in the ring around where the 'wonder bubble' would go and then I attached the 'wonder bubble' with gel medium...I also masked off the circle area and splattered the background of the card with inks...

6 comments:

Kathryn Costa said...

Oh my what a mandala rich post you have here. Isn't it neat how things find us? Mandalas have found you and sparked your creativity. I'm so happy that you've found your way to the Soul Journal blog. I look forward to sharing the creative journey with you.

{soul hugs}
kathryn

Oma said...

Oma does remember the mandala evening as a source of frustration ... but this is a wonderful post and I feel inspired to do something creative with wool after seeing your mandala tree.

Anonymous said...

What wonderful mandalas.
I can relate to your comment about blog surfing. I love exploring art blogs for inspiration.
Thanks for your post!

The Mini Mum said...

I love those Mandalas. I'm with you on the blog surfing too. That's how I got here LOL

Anonymous said...

I think it is so inspiring to see how the sections of your mandala have "doorways" out into the world...so you can give & receive...very thoughtful...lovely post and enjoyed it all...

Leah said...

what a wonderful, wonderful post!! so much beauty and color and wonderful sharing. thank you! i'm fascinated by mandalas as well. that sand mandala is so stunning!!