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..

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?

Evolution of a Mandala -Full Moon Mandala

Here in Northern California, the changing of the seasons are subtle, on the surface it still feels like summer, yet in my body and my psyche, I can still feel the turning of the wheel of the seasons and the inevitable turn towards the dark.  Autumn exposes itself daily, in the vibrant colors of the leaves, the changing of the sunlight as it moves lower and cooler towards the horizon, and the bold orange autumn moon, rises over the valley of the moon.

Since I am so process oriented, I decided to share the  process of the drawing  of a mandala, that speaks strongly of the moon and the changing of the seasons.  This Full Moon Mandala, was created in honor of the winter solstice.  As the seasons, glide effortlessly one into the other, I continue to be drawn to this piece.   

I usually photograph as I am drawing, every step of the process, sometimes obsessively.  Here is my creative journey for this mandala.

Matted  prints of this mandala are available for sale on my etsy store

SoulArteEclectica

Greeting cards of this mandala, as well as T-shirts of it are also available for purchase on my 

Cafe press store.