It's been a while-Healing Art making

It's really been quite a while since I last posted here.  My life has flowed into new directions...since my dear friend and cofacilitator, Patricia's  death.  I have been almost obsessively, making Mandala Amulets, from both her mandala's and mine.  Working with her Illuminated Mandala images, has been a healing process for me.  Gathering, cropping, working with the images in Iphoto and turning them into amulets has taken over almost all my other art endeavors, except creating SoulCollage® cards, in my groups.  

Here is the backstory;   I had been making pendants from my art as well as found art, since the fall.  They turned out so lovely that I began to sell them and found them to be quite popular.  Plus the whole process appealed to my love of making things in multiples.  I am  maker.

Healing Star Mandala

Universal Shapes

I made a pendant of one of Patricia's mandala's as a Christmas gift for her. It actually was of her Star Mandala...which is this one here.  She wound up giving it to her caregiver as a gift.  A dear friend of hers, who was at the house during her last month of life, commissioned me to make a series of these for all the women in the loving circle of friends that surrounded her during that time...and I have continued to create them along with Amulets from my own mandala images.So one  thing has led to another, and another and I have continued this artmaking journey for months.  The interesting thing is that this whole process has brought me closer to Patricia, and led me full circle back to viewing all of my mandala's in another light.

Flowering Color Wheel

In order to get an image to be strong in a smaller format, there must be a lot of contrast and not a lot of detail in order to reduce the image  to a contact sheet size. So I am viewing my work with a different lens.  

Heart Healing

I also have realized that I am always soothed by doing things in multiples, which is why I love creating mandalas. Mandalas, have repeating patterns in them, and creating repetitions makes one feel safe and comforted.  Kind of like a visual fence that encircles what is important, what is in the center,  the heart of the matter.  

Goddess of Balance

I have also found more of her  original mandala's, as we  a community of women friends, now go through her art and her possessions, and I have photographed them with an idea to reproducing them in the future.  It has allowed me to really and truely see and appreciate her art, in a deeper light.  And when I work with the images, she is in my mind in a different way, which has taken a lot of the edge off of my grief around losing her.  Healing Indeed!

Soul Mother

Another thing has happened, and that is that this whole process, which has included making the Amulets from all of my mandalas, ( I am now calling them amulets instead of pendants, which alludes to the power inherent in these images) has begun to  bring me a greater sense of abundance, and a new direction for making money.  

I have always felt that my art, and in particular my Mandala drawings, have work to do in the world. That these images enhance and support others, separate from the healing power of creating them,  that the images are meant to inspire others. This has become clearer with this process.  I am grateful and blessed by this entire process and my sadness has been a process of personal transformation.  

Thank you to all who have been following my  musings, in this blog over time, and who find their way here synchronistically.  Always remember that doing Art heals, in subtle and profound ways, whether you feel you can do it or not,  --- JUST DO IT!  you never know where a process will lead you.

Until the next time...when I plan to post my new series of SoulCollage® cards.

Namaste'  

Caterina

"Doesn't Everything Die at Last and Too Soon?"

I haven't written here since the beginning of the year.  I have a good, dear long time friend, who has been my business partner, teacher, sister and more, who is dying of cancer right now.  My life has been thrown to the winds, as I have tried, along with other close friends, to be there, respond to crisis after crisis and all the needs that arise as someone moves towards the end of their life.

I have been overwhelmed with grief, sick of heart, and also in a state of sacred grace and awe at this process of letting go, and caregiving in different ways.  Facilitating a helping hands website to provide information on her needs and journey, has engulfed my life and time.

Patricia  and I met in the masters program at Sonoma State University in 1985, in a co-counseling class.  We became co-counselors during the semester, and  deep friends over time.  When I first met her, I told her point blank, now don't get any ideas about becoming friends, I am overwhelmed and have to many friends in my life, so I don't want or need any friends.  That first statement, became a story we laughed over many times.   During our time in the Creative Art Therapies program, we were always stunned, by how parallel our art was.  I would be working on a piece and not see her for a month or so, and we would realize that  we were both be working on a similar image, theme or visual statement.

We became co-partners in the Creative Arts Studio, and for  almost 20 years we had a community expressive arts studio, here in Santa Rosa, at 3 different locations.  In 1992, right after my mother died, Patricia treated me to a weekend Mandala Retreat at the Angela Center in Santa Rosa, with the late Judith Cornell.  That was the beginning of our both taking every class we could from her, training and then teaching her work and becoming facilitators of Judith's Illuminated Mandala Process.

Our lives have been very intertwined.

I had not planned on writing this story here, I rarely disclose my deep personal experiences here, but this feels right.  So I have shared one of Patricia's mandala's done in response to Mary Oliver's poetry.

(She turned me on to Mary Oliver as well, what a gift)

So this is an honoring of Patricia, her art, her gifts and her loving generosity.

Patricia setting up at a Mandala workshop that we taught at the Cosmic Cowgirl Studio in Healdsburg.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

Journey Center Mandala workshop-

Patricia and I facilitated half day, introduction to the mandala process workshop,

 at the Journey Center, in Santa Rosa  yesterday. 

 The Journey Center is a place to come for spiritual renewal, and 

we were very impressed with its beauty, energy and sense of spirit filled possibility.

 Here are the photos of the amazingly beautiful mandalas that were created in that short amount of time.

                                                Although most of them are still in  process,

                                    the experience  of creating them was  calming,

                                                                     focusing

                                                                       mindful

and filled with insight.

Hopefully, some of the women who attended will send photos of their completed mandalas.  Nevertheless, I love to share the powerful images that are created, each  mandala unique and stunning. whether complete or in process.  

This hopefully will be the beginning of doing more mandala classes at this beautiful, healing spiritual center.

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.