Mandala- Part 5

I have returned from my trip and have finally gotten caught up on all the chores.  I actually had a day or two to get back into my studio.  We are so busy these days that I feel like I hardly have any time to get to be in my studio working on something.  I am trying to get back into the swing of things. 

Anyway, I finally get back into the studio and try to get started on the Mandala project again.  Regular readers know that I have been working learning about Mandala.  I am working on learning how to create Mandalas by using a book titled: Mandala Luminous Symbols for Healing by Judith Cornell, Ph.D.  And when I opened the book to start on the next chapter I ran smack into the part that was stressing me out the last time I worked on the project.  The book has many pictures of beautiful Mandala.  Some were hand drawn by very artistic people; some were computer generated.  What stopped me was that I know that no matter what I do my Mandala was not going to look anything like them.  My drawing ability seem to have stopped at around age six.  It took a few days to get past the fear factor.   

The only way to learn is to go ahead and face the fear and get on with things.  This chapter has a meditation on the CD.  The reading said that you had to let go and draw whatever image came to mind during the meditation.  The book also said that you should draw whatever image came to your mind during the meditation no matter what it was.  The book also said that many times people rejected their Mandala because they thought it was too hard to portray.  The recommendation was that you trace around a picture of what you would like to portray in that case.  A final recommendation was that you make some thumb nail sketches before committing your design to a final sheet of the black drawing paper. 

So I sat down and meditated.  I did have an image come to mind.  It was a night scene of a waterfall on a river.  It was dark and the stars were out.  I could see a river that came up to a waterfall.  The
water was dark but bright light reflected off rippling waters making the water look luminous.  The bright light was an orb that was pulsing and vibrating with energy.  I want to be clear about this part.  It was not the sun or moon, but some strange orb vibrating with energy.  The orb had a glow surrounding it like some sort of glowing mist.  It also had bright ray coming off of it.  From time to time a discharge of energy would take place and lightening bolts of energy would come out from the orb and strike the water, land, or the air.  The bolts were different colors.  In the dark, the land and foliage was barely visible for the most part.  Once in a while you could make out a tree or bush, but mostly it was just dark almost to the point of being a silhouette.  The water was glowing translucent blue and white.  That is what I saw.  It did not seem very Mandala-like to me but there you are.  So now it was time to commit it to paper as best as I was able.

 I created one quick pencil  sketch right after the meditation.  Things did not look quite right.  Memories fade quickly.  Then I did a very small drawing in colored pencil.  After that I did a larger drawing in colored pencil.  I am not sure whether it was better or worse.  I guess my next drawing will be full size.  I had a very strange feeling while I was doing the third drawing.  The exercise reminded me of an old science fiction movie called Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Early in the book/movie people found themselves making the same figure over and over again.  They drew it, modeled it in clay, painted it, baked it, made the shape out of mud, you name it.  They made it without knowing why.  That was kind of the feeling I had with the sketch.  The picture means something to me.  I just don't know what it is.  Maybe I'll figure it out sometime.  I'll have to see what is next.  Maybe it will help get some clarification.

Other than that, I have not had a lot of time to do anything.  I missed my creative time so much that I ordered a packet of note card Artist tiles.  They are only three and a half inches on each side.  I thought that if I worked on something small that I might have a little time to do something.  I really need to be creative on a regular basis.  I was experimenting with glazes, clear Gesso,and acrylic paints to see what effects I could get.  Seriously, I would love to learn to paint and draw better, and the only way to do that is to practice.  I may not have time to fill up a sketch book page, but I can do something that takes me only a few minutes.  I painted a couple of flowers.  It is not much, but it satisfied my need to say to myself, "See, I did something today".

I have not yet gotten back to the Walking Stick Z project.  The last few days the temperatures have been in the upper 90s.  This year we seem to have a lot of biting flies.  Going out in the yard has been a miserable experience.  I am hoping for better weather next week so I can get out and work on the walking stick.