Fall Mandala- Process of a Drawing....

About two weeks ago, myself and my working partner, Patricia Water's, led an Illuminated Mandala workshop, focusing on the change of the seasons, from Summer to Fall.  

We are both facilitators of the late Judith Cornell's Mandala Process.  The workshop was a wonderful day and I have shared the groups process in my last post.  I have finally finished my mandala and am sharing the process of the drawing here.  

This is my original drawing, using white prismacolor pencils on the black paper.

In this second image you can see how I add the scale of light (reversed shading) to the images on my mandala, illuminating the shapes with light.

  

 In this drawing I have begun to add color, in some cases going over the white and in other areas, leaving the white light uncolored.

 Each step of the way is primarily unplanned, and whenever I do something I don't particularly like, I go with it, letting it take me where the drawing wants to go.  Allowing it to change and evolve organically.

Here is the final pieces, a lot more subdued than the last image, but still illuminated.  The intention of this piece was release as well as trusting the process of life and change to guide me, as we move into the winter, the dark, the unknown of the cycle of life.

This mandala, along with many of my other mandala's will be available as a matted print on my etsy store, for purchase.  Patricia and I take these workshops on the road, so if you are interested please get in touch, here.  Our next scheduled Illuminated Mandala Seasonal workshop will be a New Years Intention Mandala Day in January of 2010. Please check our website at the Creative Arts Studio for updates on the details.

Butterfly Mandala - Completed

Butterfly Mandala

Primacolor Pencils on Paper

Well I am finally finished with the Butterfly mandala.  I worked on it, on and off for about 5 days.  My focus is a little off, so I would draw for a hour or so, put it aside and come back to it again, several times a day, with taking a day off in between.  Something about this process, has helped me find my clarity of focus and as I worked I could tell my that my mind got clearer as my stamina grew.  

Day by day I feel stronger and have more confidence in my legs.  The butterfly seems a fitting symbol for the healing process I am engaged in at this time.  

Whats next?  Well maybe another mandala, getting out my journal again, or just sinking into a book or another movie as I rest in between practicing walking and stretching my hip.  

The interesting thing about having this blog, is that as I recuperate I have avenue for sharing, show and tell of my art, which I love to do.  It allows me not to feel so alone or isolated in this journey.  I am a rather extroverted person, and being house bound and dependent on others is a challenge.  So I appreciate this venue as well as any comments from other readers, viewers, voeyuers out there across the  universe.  

Speaking of Across the Universe, I saw that movie yesterday, and I loved it.  Check it out, it is an under rated, off the A list gem of a movie.  Ciao.  Caterina

Recuperating....

Exactly two weeks ago today, I had total hip replacement surgery on my left hip.  I had the right one replaced 4 years ago.  So, the past month of my life has been  a busy 2 weeks of preparation for this surgery and then....the surgery, return home and then recuperating.  So this blog has been totally on the back burner of my mind and my life.

Now I am finally beginning to feel rather like myself and with a successful surgery behind me, that will make my life transform in terms of physical limitations.  I am moving daily into more and more gratitude.  I went into the body shop and had a part replaced and now it is time for self nurturance and healing.  Art has always been a healing, transformative activity for me, and now more than ever, I find myself longing to get back to drawing.  So...

Prior to my surgery I painted background pages in my most recent journal. About a week after surgery I spent time here and there doodling and working randomly on a few of the pages, moving energy and letting artmaking begin to be a part of my daily recuperation schedule.   

So as I doodled two of the  themes that emerged, were  butterflies and mandalas.

                                          Here are some other  pages that I worked on.

 

                               Windows opening to other windows....possibilities, new ways of looking at things

The movement and energy I need for healing, instinctual energy, wild ness contained and focused.  

The image of flowering came up for me during a hypnotherapy session before my surgery, as here it presents itself to me in my journal process.  Reminding me that healing is a growth process and happens naturally, just as the process of drawing unfolds naturally.  So, yes healing happens. 

     Each of these pages, were instinctual, spontaneous drawings, that unfolded as I went back and forth from one to the next and back again.  My mind roaming, my hand moving, and my energy begining to move.  Now a week later, and two weeks exactly from my surgery, I have taken the butterfly and began a new mandala.  Using that symbol as a healing image to help with my transformation to health, vitality, freedom of movement and the ability to walk with ease.  I will post more of how my art and healing merge in the days to come.  

Working on my Mandala....

I have  slowly been working on the mandala that I started at our Intention Setting Mandala Day last Sunday.  I often work in bits and pieces, and the mandala process suits this way of creating very well.  I realized long ago that it can be hard for me to carve unlimited time for doing art, so by leaving my work out, I am able to  sit with it for 20 minutes or more at a time, and slowly allow my work to evolve.

The essence emerged at the workshop and I am always amazed at how a little bit of drawing over a consistent time period grows slowly, strongly and steadily.

This is where my mandala was on Sunday...I was placing my attention on balance, in many areas of my life, body, spirit, heart and mind.

I realized that I wanted this to use a rainbow palette and let each one of the colors blend into the other.

Letting a sense of loving acceptance surround my intentions and be what balances me as I move through my life in the coming year.

I love how each color changes the energy and brings more life and vibrancy to the image.

Letting the energy of compassion for self and others radiate out into the world.

This is as far as I have gotten today.  I look forward to finishing it soon.  With a series of hopefully big rain storms coming into northern California in the next  days, I will lose myself in drawing while it rains. I love to do art when its raining.   And the ongoing work on a mandala is one of the joys of life.
What a wonderful way to start the New Year.  MOre to come..

4 Elements Mandala Workshop

Our Mandala Workshop focusing on the Four Elements was a lovely, inspiring day for everyone who attended.  The Cosmic Cowgirls Studios was bright and vibrant.  Some of these photos give a sense of the colorful walls filled with the art of Shiloh McCloud, founder of the studio.  We felt invigorated by the surroundings, and inspired as well.

Here is Diana Rose helping us in the morning with set up putting prismacolor pencils at tables all around the room.

The walls show off the paintings of many Cosmic Cowgirls...our altar is in the center of the space, surrounded by tables forming a circle, so we all can sit and view each other as we drew.
Getting ready in the morning as participants arrived.
Here is Patricia and Diana Rose.  Patricia and I have been facilitating the Illuminated Mandala Retreat days for over 10 years.  We are both Certified Facilitators of Judith Cornell's Healing Mandala Process.

We work in circle  paying attention to the center of our beings opening to the light within and the compassion of heart energy.  I love seeing the winged heart hanging over the window in the background.

We begin with small black and white mandala's practicing the scale of light, imagining our pencils to be light wands that connect with the divine light within and bringing it into form on the procreative dark ground of the womb of the paper.


Here is a small mandala done as a Healing Mandala for Harriet Wadeson, one of the grandmother mentors of the field of art therapy, with color added.


In the afternoon we began our larger pieces, focusing on the Four Elements and our associations with them as well as how the elements of earth, water, fire and air resonate in our bodies and our lives.
We always give participants permission to do whatever they are impelled to these workshops, and it is always a gift to witness what evolves and the personal healing the occurs as a result of the drawing process, meditations, visualizations and personal intentions for the day.




Each mandala is as unique as the individual who creates them.  At the end of the day we share the inner stories that unfolded as a result of the process.  It is such a blessing to do this work.

The Four Elements

Unfortunately, I did not take photos of many of the completed mandalas.  By the end of the day I was a bit exhausted and since  our timing went over a bit, everyone was ready to move into the rest of their evening.  But these images give a sense of the ongoing process and the day.  I have begun a mandala and will post it's progress on later blog posts.  Most people don't complete in the day.  Drawing mandalas and  working with prismacolor pencils is a slow and meditative, dreamlike experience that  often take a while to unfold into completion.   The next Mandala Retreat Day will be in September right around the Autumal Equinox, I will post the dates here, when we have settled on exactly where and when we will facilitate it.  Blessings to All .  Enjoy the Summer!!!!  

Sun Mandala- Finally Complete

As I prepared my supplies for teaching tomorrow's mandala workshop, I pulled out this mandala that I did at last years summer solstice retreat day.  It just didn't feel complete and I realized that it needed something more.  I found myself wonderfully lost for hours several evenings in a row, drawing in more rays to  make it more of a Sun Mandala.  Here is the completed ( at least for now) mandala.  

I definitely like it a lot more now and it really expresses the energy of expansion that the summer, and the sun makes me feel.   Mary Oliver has a wonderful poem about the sun.   Here it is.

The Sun

 

Have you ever seen 

anything 

in your life 

more wonderful 

than the way the sun, 

every evening, 

relaxed and easy, 

floats toward the horizon 

and into the clouds or the hills, 

or the rumpled sea, 

and is gone-- 

and how it slides again 

out of the blackness, 

every morning, 

on the other side of the world, 

like a red flower 

streaming upward on its heavenly oils, 

say, on a morning in early summer, 

at its perfect imperial distance-- 

and have you ever felt for anything 

such wild love-- 

do you think there is anywhere, in any language, 

a word billowing enough 

for the pleasure 

that fills you, 

as the sun 

reaches out, 

as it warms you 

as you stand there, 

empty-handed-- 

or have you too 

turned from this world-- 

or have you too 

gone crazy 

for power, 

for things?

Mandalas- From Spring Blossoming Retreat Day- in the begining

The Spring Mandala Retreat Day was a wonderful, meditative, and nurturing experience.

I am posting photos from the morning part of the workshop, so people can see the evolution of the mandalas that people created. Here the mandalas are all hung on the studio wall, so we could stand back and look at them from a distance.

In the begining........

The second day of spring, was a rainy day in Northern California, perfect for a long idyllic day of drawing, slow and meditative mandalas.  After spending part of the morning doing smaller mandalas on black paper, we began our larger pieces.

The studio was filled with flowers, which were both inspiration and visual prompts for our blossoming mandalas.  I am always amazed at the uniqueness of each person's expression.

We applied the metaphor of blossoming to our lives as well, with our mandalas being external expression of the seeds of personal transformation that were being set and opened in the spring.

Several people used the Calla Lilly as their jumping off point.  

I took many photos of the evolution of the mandalas.  I will post more of them later.  Since very few of the 8 participants finished their mandala's on Saturday, they plan on sending the images to us later.  I will hopefully post them all together at a later date.