Mandalas and more

I have been truly remiss in posting here.  My life has been filled to the brim, with new work, creative endeavors and more and more SoulCollage® experiences.  So where to begin, with Mandala's of course.  A week ago,Patricia Waters and I facilitated a Gratitude Mandala Day, at the  Journey Center in Santa Rosa. It was a  sweet, small group,  and we all moved very deeply into the healing aspects of creating Mandala's.  None of us completed our mandalas, but everyone got  quite a bit done and loved every minute of it.   So to continue with  my usual love of   sharing  this process  I am posting the photos that I took of that day here.

 Scale of light practice drawings...

 Small mandalas

 Here is Elizabeth with her absolutely magical mandala that she started at our 

Fall Mandala Day and recently finished.

 Here is a close up of her stunning mandala.

Stay This Moment

 Heart Energy Abounds as we focus on gratitude.

 As the day drew near to an end, almost everyone started to add 

the life energy of color to their mandala's.

 Patricia flew in from the big island the night before our workshop, and swam with a turtle  so this experience was reflected   in her wonderful healing mandala.

 This final one is my mandala, which is obviously just in its beginning stages.  

I will post this again as it progresses.  

Focusing our intentions, and awareness on what we are grateful for, while being present in the 

moment for whatever came up, was a very powerful experience.  

I am really blessed to be doing and sharing this work with others.  I am truly grateful for more life.

Color, Color and More Color - Color Wheel Mandala Day

Well, there were a total of 8 of us, drawing in the heat of the approaching summer this past Sunday, in my studio in Santa Rosa  CA.  As the weather heated up, so did the vibrancy of color that emerged in everyone's mandalas.

Here we all are at the beginning of the morning, as we began our day.  Not everyone is shown here.

In the beginning stages of creating mandala's, drawing with white prismacolor pencils on the black paper, using the scale of light to illuminate the essence of the image, 

out from the dark ground of the paper.  Always so, powerful!

In the afternoon, we began to add color, and our images heated up 

along with the temperature of the room.  

Often times it takes an act of bravery to add color to the already developed black and white mandala, which is always so stunning.

But it is always worth the risk, and takes everyone to a new level of engagement and satisfaction.

I love watching the image and colors emerge and how excited everyone becomes as their mandala's come to life.  Here they are in the beginning stages of emergence, as color starts to blossom.  We place them on the wall periodically, to stand back and view them, giving our eyes, hands and bodies a chance to rest from this very detailed work.

This is a small Virgin of Guadalupe mandala, that Sue, drew along side her larger one, to honor an image  that she photographed recently.

Almost complete.

Working with the color wheel is a simple yet powerful way to create a beautiful mandala, that allows spirit to come through in a striking way.

This is Patricia's mandala with all the color down, now she will develop it more fully.

This is my mandala, I didn't get too far on the day of the workshop, I was feeling under the weather, and worked slow and since the workshop was at my studio, I had the luxury of taking an extra long lunch break and a nap that day.  I will post its development in later posts.

This is Lake's mandala, also still in process, I am so drawn to the quality of energy and movement in it.  I look forward to seeing it as she puts more time into it.

Yes! So powerful and with such a wonderful sense of movement.

I love how this process, transcends peoples early art woundings, and allows people to see their creative potential.  This mandala was done by Rusty, who didn't think she could create something new. What a stunning and expressive mandala.  She left feeling renewed and ecstatic about her creative possibilities.

And lastly Sue's mandala, I love how the energy emits from the hand, radiating out in all directions. After initial hesitations about the hand, it worked out so perfectly.  

So thats it for now.  If I get images back of completed mandala's I will post them here, as well as my mandala as it progresses.  Blessings to all. 

Changing the Look of my Blog and my Evolving Mandala

The other day I started playing around with the design of this blog, and once again was unable to return to its previous  look, so hence it new look.  I actually like it better now, it feels more airy and open.  So hence welcome to the new look of this page.  Blogger has some new features, and I am eventually going to try to add some extra pages.  But this is enough for now.  All this technology is too much for me, and I need to take breaks from the computer.  

One of the ways I have been retreating and renewing myself, is by the ongoing work on the mandala that I began at our Summer Solstice Mandala retreat.  I have decided to share its process, from the beginning drawing to the place I am at right now.  It is now completed yet, but getting closer.  

Here is the beginning drawing.

With the scale of light being developed.

Color, color and more color.

This is where I stopped drawing at last evening.  I wish I had left more black, but I seem to have a tendency to fill in all the spaces.  That is something I keep reminding myself to work on, not only in my mandalas, but also in my life.  Creating these images, always bring up a metaphor for me, that guides me on my personal growth issues and process.  This mandala is all about honoring, health, growth, new directions and beginnings, as well as loving all the sprouting seeds in my life.  I will post the finished mandala another time.

Mandala Emerges as I flit from project to process

The Mandala that I began on the solstice slowly emerges as I flit like a butterfly from thing to thing. Without a structure of consistent work in my life, one would think I would be more productive. In many senses I am accomplishing alot creatively, but it is in a scattered way. More like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower.   Drawing Mandalas is centering and focusing, but only if one spends a bit of engaged time doing it.  I go from drawing, to making jewelery, to photographing items to sell on my new etsy store....and then do a bit of carving on my encaustics,  some collageing in one of the 3 journals I have going and then dash out to the Y for a swim.  Ahhh, life in the scattered lane.  I am loving it, but feel I need to focus on just one thing. Or do I?