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.

Tree of Life Mandala Workshop

Here are the process photos of the Tree of Life Mandala Workshop that we led last Sunday.

I love to  the witness the process people go through during these mandala experiences.  This image is of our beginning small mandalas where we  practice the scale of light in a circle. We always stop and put them up on the wall, to get a better overview of what we have done, as well as to stretch, and rest our eyes.  It helps to stand back from one's work.

Here is an image of everyone drawing around the large tables in the middle of my studio.  It was  a wonderful group of people, with such good energy.

The following photos are a sampling of everyone in the midst of starting their larger mandala.

Although our focus was the Tree of Life, everyone had permission to go in their own personal direction in their mandala.

This mandala was an honoring of the hope of the one tree that was left after the tsnumani and earthquake that happened in Japan.

                                               Another Tree of Life Mandala.

                           Keeping the pencils really sharp really helps in this drawing process.

                              It is always amazing to see what emerges for people in their mandalas.

By the afternoon we did some color blending exercises to give people the courage to dive into color.

             Here are some more of the black and white mandalas......I am sharing the evolution of pretty much everyone's mandala's here.

I love to see how they change as more and more scale of light shading brings depth, light and life to them.

                        And now comes the color, vibrant, brilliant rainbow scales of color....

It is often difficult at times,  to add color to these powerful black and white mandala's... some people really hesitate and it is not uncommon for some folks to either love or hate these first tentative steps into adding color.

                                                                             Hope

It is amazing how different each one becomes, and how unique everyones use of color is.

Only one person completed their mandala that day, everyone else was in different stages of the process.
This is a slow and meditative process, about being in the moment with what is coming up internally, as well as how it is mirrored in the mandala that is drawn.

This is Doris's powerful healing mandala, here sharing was a rich and deep model for where the mandala process can lead.

This final mandala is my Tree of Life Mandala in different stages of development.

I am now just beginning to add color to my mandala and I will share it here when it is complete.

Hopefully, the mandala group will send me images of their completed mandalas.  If and when that happens I will post it here for the world to see.  Until the next time....Ciao

Color Wheel Mandala - Flowering Colors

So, along with backing my newest SoulCollage® cards, framing for this Friday's Sacred Circle Mandala show, and life, I have slowly but surely working on my newest mandala.


I began this one at our last mandala workshop.   Something about working on a color wheel mandala is soothing and invigorating at the same time.  I love have a repetitive pattern to work within.  Making patterns gives me feelings of safety and comfort, without worrying or considering where or what to do next.  And blending colors, softly letting the pencil circle around and around, watching new and vibrant shades emerge, fills me with energy.

So during a busy time, I still was able to carve bits of time in my late afternoons and early evenings brining to life another mandala.  I love how this process fits so well into my life, and shifts how I feel.  It's meditative quality stops the world and lets me dive into the moment.

My  newest mandala.  Enjoy.

And another mandala to share with you all

Today in my email I received this photo of another completed Spring Shapes mandala.  This was drawn by Paula DuVander.  Once again, it is so interesting to see how even when working with similar motifs, ie the 5 universal shapes, each mandala is so different and unique/

When I look at this vibrant, colorful mandala, I am reminded of the thick texture of needlepoint or the vibrant colors of Huchiol yarn paintings.    I am so pleased that folks continue to send me images of their completed mandalas.  I will be sure to post them as they arrive.

Enjoy the spring...

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.

Mandala Workshop- Recent Images...

I am finally posting the images from our recent Autumn Equinox Mandala Retreat Day.


We had a wonderful, small circle of women, drawing and sharing in my studio, last Sunday.  The weather really co operated, thankfully and it wasn't as hot as this weekend, with Indian Summer blazing away  here in northern Ca...otherwise the studio would have been like a sauna.

 Photos speak louder than words for the process so here are some from that day of what emerged and our process.

Here are some of the small practice mandala's that were created just in the white on black.

 The contrast of the white prismacolors on the black canson mi tientes paper is always so stunning.  It is hard to jump into color, because often these  are so perfect just as they are.

This is the mandala that I began that day.  It really expresses alot of my feeling about transitioning into autumn and the approach of winter.  Actually, fall is my most favorite time of year, but their is always a bittersweetness to it as well.

Lots of release and letting go is inherent within it.

There is something about the dark center that is so provocative

After a wonderful morning of diving in and drawing small mandalas, we began our bigger ones and then created small test color wheel mandalas, practicing blending the rainbow prismacolor pencils that we use in the process. Color is so exciting, and it changes everything.

 We use a limited palette in this process, just 6 colors plus white.  Aquamarine, true green, yellow, orange, magenta, and violet.

                                 With these 6 colors it is possible to mix hundreds of vibrant colors.

The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.╡

>

> - Kahlil Gibran -

Here are all the mandala's in process up on the wall.  Because this is such detailed work, we need to give our eyes, hands and backs breaks.  Often times when you stand back and look at what you are doing, it is possible to see the work in new ways. The mandalas will let you know what the next step is.

Please note the intricate detail on this amazing mandala.

Close up..........

This is the mandala that I began that day, in process. I will post the completed process at a later time.

This is Patricia Waters mandala in process, created with a dear friend in mind who is going through some traumatic life changes.  

Most everyone in the group promised to send the completed mandala images to me, perhaps those will be included in another post.  

I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self

 I had attained what was for me the ultimate.

 C. G. Jung