Colorful Mandala

I have not been able to get outside to work on my walking stick.  The weather is just not working with me.  We have had more rain.  Sometimes it rained on and off during the day.  Once it rained all night. The grass is so wet that I do not want to be out standing on it holding an electric wood burning tool.  The day or two when it has been dry enough to be outside I have had to be away from home.  One of these days I will have a day at home when I can get outside and do some wood burning.

Since it has been rainy, I have had to amuse myself inside.  I have been working with a book on how to make and use Mandala:  Mandala Luminous Symbols for healing by Judith Cornell, PH.D.   I have also been playing around with a book on how to make Zentangle art: The Art of Zentangle 50 inspiring drawings, designs, and ideas for the meditative artist.  I guess the Mandala I created is a fusion of what I have learned from these two books.  I used Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils on black Canson paper.

As I blogged about the Celtic Knot Work several posts ago, it is better to have a good ability to visualize the outcome before you start working.  It is easy to spot a mistake in a repeating pattern. 

Third time is a charm.  I hope that I will have some wood burned Celtic Knot Work on the walking stick by the next blog post.

One other thought before I go:  I have noticed lately that my picture layout is changed on the Yahoo emails.  I am sorry if that has caused confusion when I label something Photo 1, etc.  I will be more mindful in the future that the photos may not appear in the same order on different platforms.

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.

Mandala - Part 4

Second attempt of Exercise 2.

Regular readers know that one of my current project is working from a book about Mandala.  The title of the book is Mandala Luminous Symbols for Healing by Judith Cornell, PH.D.  As I blogged last week, I had difficulty getting started on the second exercise because I had a block against doing something that felt childish.  After I finally did the lesson I had a great time with it.  I decided that I should try the lesson again giving it more attention and doing the lesson in a round shape.

This time I learned something about expectations.  I started out with an expectation that I would have

First attempt.

the same type of fun experience that I had the previous time I did the exercise.  Not so much.  I learned other things, I enjoyed the experience, but it
was not the same experience I had of having my Inner Child come out to play.  I guess I was a little disappointed, but I also realized that by coming to the exercise with expectations I had set myself up for that disappointment.  I think it is important to enter into theses things with no expectations and to be open to the lessons learned.  I did learn something from doing the exercises again.

When I did the exercise this time, I felt that I concentrated more on sensing energy.  In my drawing I tried to represent what I was feeling of the flux and flow of energy.  I concentrated on feeling energy move.  I was trying to feel where energy was strong and where energy was less strong.  For a while I had thoughts about the spaces in between: those small spaces that energy must jump across to get from one space to another.  I was also trying to express that I was simultaneously part of the field and yet in some ways separated from the field.

Adding a third hand added a new dimension to things.  Two hands tended to make me think that this is just me.  A third hand, since it was also mine, made me think that there was another part of me that was participating; some inner portion of myself that had come up to take part in the endeavor.

The book had suggested an 18 inch circle.  If you did not have a large enough piece of paper it suggested using just a half sheet of black paper.  The first time I did this exercise I used a portion of a sheet of paper.  The sheet I used was barely large enough to get two hands drawn on it.  I actually had started out with a circle drawn on it, but had to choose between keeping it circular or having enough room for two hands.  This time I grabbed a platter and traced a large circle.  However, the circle was only 14 inches.   In a way I'm glad that I used the smaller diameter.  This drawing took just over three hours to complete.  I don't always have that kind of time.  It was not necessary to color in the entire circle.  That is just what I was inspired to draw.

Being inspired may not be the only driving force behind my drawing.  About two-thirds of the way through the drawing I was wondering what had possessed me to take on such a detailed picture.  At that point I realized that my enthusiasm for the second drawing was not just inspired by making a picture of my hands.  I realized that during the guided meditation a suggestion had been made that I would feel free to visit that exercise again and again.  And here I was, gleefully plunging into the same exercise a second time.  I should know better.  I have learned a great deal about Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  I thought I should bring this up in case any readers should purchase the book and suddenly find themselves unexpectedly deciding to make numerous aboriginal style hand paintings.  There appear to be post-hypnotic suggestions embedded in the meditation.  They are more effective when listened to on the CD than just reading them.  It is worthwhile to read the exercise through before listening to the CD and decide if there are suggestions that you might want to cancel out.

Anyway, enough on that for now.  Next blog post will be on my walking stick project.  It is still raining.  

Mandala - Part 3

Regular readers know that I am working on a couple of projects at the same time.  I am switching back and forth on blogging about the projects.  If you are following the Walking Stick Z project, I will be blogging about that project on Sunday.  Today I am blogging about the the Mandala project.  I am working on the second lesson in the book: Mandala Luminous Symbols for Healing by Judith Cornell, PH.D. 

I had a hard time getting this lesson off the ground.  The lesson said to draw a Mandala by tracing around your hands using a white pencil on a black background.  After the hands were drawn, you had to decide where and how to illuminate the Mandala.  I "humphed" and I grumped, complained, whined, and procrastinated.  I just felt the project was "childish".   After all, children trace around their hands all the time. 

Finally I ran out of excuses and decided to get on with the project.  I finally rationalized my way into getting the lesson started.  I said to myself that if I had paid for a class and that was the assigned exercise for the group that I would go ahead and do it rather than refusing to get started.  Well, since I had purchased the book in order to learn something about Mandala,  I finally decided that it was time to get with the program and get on with the exercise whether I liked it or not.  So I did get started.  I read the chapter, then put on the CD and listened to the guided meditation and started to draw.  The exercise said that if you did not have a large sheet of black paper to make a Mandala just use a partial sheet and draw.  It also suggested that you draw in at least three hands.  I did not go that far, because I was still not totally on board with the exercise and because I needed to purchase some large black sheets of paper.  And then a wonderful thing happened.

Once I traced my hands and started to color in the dark areas my attitude changed.  Somewhere along the line I started to have fun.  The circular scribbles that I was using to color in areas became spiral galaxies.  Where I perceived that lines of energy intersected I added stars.  About half way through the exercise I realized that I was really enjoying myself just playing around.  This was not a serious piece of art.  The idea was just to get your Inner Child to come out and play.  And my Inner Child was saying, "Hello old friend.  Where have you been?  I haven't seen you for a while."  So much of the time I am trying so hard to get it "right".  Or I am working hard to meet a deadline in order to have something to post on the blog. 
I feel pressed for time rather than taking time to enjoy the process.  It was a total joy just to sit there and play. 

Great art?  No.  But it was great fun.  So in a way, it was very healing, which is the idea behind the book.  The exercise that I did not want to do turned out to be truly beneficial.  It just goes to show that sometimes what is resisted the hardest is what is needed the most.

Mandala 2

I really enjoyed beginning working with the Mandala book.  The first mark was a little intimidating, but after that I enjoyed getting started on the project.  It is a matter of relaxing and letting go enough to begin.  For me, there is always that inner critic who says it is not going to be good enough.  I have to battle down that inner critic before I can get started.

The book I am working with, Mandala Luminous Symbols for Healing, 10th Anniversary Edition,by Judith Cornell, PH.D., Quest Books, USA comes with a CD of meditations and exercises.  I used to work a lot with guided meditations but had drifted away from them.  It was refreshing to work with a guided meditation again.  I felt very relaxed afterwards.  The meditation is also printed in the book.  I found it helpful to read the meditation first, then play the CD.  After that, I was ready to do the exercise.  I suppose you could actually do the exercise while the CD was playing, but I prefer to work in quiet.  In the past I have found that whatever music or CD I am listening to tends to affect the direction of my work.  I would rather work in silence and allow the ideas to well up without interference. 

In the past, I have mentioned on my blogs that I know I am on the right track when synchronicities begin to happen.  I have already had two since I started this project.  It is as if the universe is telling me that it wants me to continue in a particular direction.  The first synchronicity was was on my Facebook page.  The day I began the Mandala project a video of a sand mandala created on a pottery wheel was placed on my Facebook page.  It was a mesmerizing video of patterns of shifting sand.   The post was made just as something someone thought I would find interesting.  She had not read the blog.

The second synchronicity came right after my last blog post.  In that post I has said I had thought that the Muse was the mythological inspiring spirit for a man and the inspiring spirit for a female was called a Djin.  That was incorrect.  The correct term for the spirit supposed to inspire women was called a Daimon. (Pronounced DYE-mon).  I was reminded of this the very next night after I had made the incorrect blog post.  I read a book of meditations in the evening before going to bed.  That particular meditation was on courting the spirit of inspiration.   The meditation indicated the proper term.  I actually did know that, I just had a temporary failure to recall the proper term.  It is not as if the book of meditations was art focused.  The meditations are about many different subjects.  This one just happened to hit at the time necessary to give me the information I needed.  In other words, a synchronicity.

The photo above is my second exercise from the book.  The exercise only tells you how to make a drawing.  What you draw is of what idea wells up into your mind.  The exercises build on one another so that you progress through to more difficult Mandala.  Eventually the exercises lead into color as well, so things won't always be in black and white.  However, black and white is a very comfortable place to start.

I know that not all of my readers are going to be interested in Mandala.  I am concerned that I may grown bored if I only focus on making Mandala.  I am going to switch between the Mandala project and a second project.  This is not all that unusual for me.  I usually have more than one project going at one time; usually a quilt project and paper mache' project, or something to that effect.  When I reach an impasse on one project I put it down for a few days and work on the other project until I have had time to work things out.  The projects don't generally begin at the same time, as they are this time.  Starting a project alongside one that is already in the works seems to help with the motivation needed to start the new project.I find that I have to limit myself to no more than three projects at once so I don't get too scattered.  Eventually one project becomes primary and
receives most of my attention.  I will also be blogging on my second project intermittently during the Mandala project. The first blog post on the second project will be on this Sunday.

Beginning the Mandala Project

I have my favorite medium but once in a while I feel the need to try something new.  If I do only one thing, I begin to feel stuck in a rut.  New ideas don't come as easily.  I guess I am in on of those phases at the moment.   Usually I have a backlog of things I can't wait to get started on, but at the moment I'm not really feeling like starting anything.  That is why I decided to get back to something I started on a long time ago, but was sidetracked after an being injured in an accident.  This project has some special themes that seem like it might help get me back on track.  Another reason for not getting anything going is that Spring is here
and outdoor projects, trips, and events are

This is the workbook with exercises.

holding my attention.  After a cold and snowy winter, it is just to nice to be indoors.  As the
summer heat builds, I will be spending more time indoors, which means more time in my studio.

Mandalas are ancient ideas.  They are drawings about energy manifesting as vibration and light and creating form.  It is energy coming from elsewhere and manifesting into something tangible.  In a way, this is how all art is made.   A project starts as an idea.  Some people say that they feel inspired to make something, or that something they have seen or heard has inspired him or her to create a piece of art.  Think about that for a moment.  Something that was not there before managed to come enter into someone's mind as an idea.  That idea is then manifest into form.  Something has been created that was not there before. 

Where do these ideas come from?  In ancient times people said it was a Muse, an actual spirit.  (At least for men it was a Muse.  I think the term used for spirits inspiring women was a Djin.)  Later ideas, such as those written about by Carl Jung call it the Collective Unconscious, psychic material stored in the unconscious.   Some people call it the Abyss.  Whatever the actual name or method, if there is one, something entered into conscious thought and proceeded through physical effort (energy) to become a solid object. 

Since I am stuck for manifesting ideas at the moment, working with the Mandalas seems like a good way to get started again.  Focusing on creating symbols that represent the process of creation will hopefully help stimulate creation in other areas.  The brain tends to develop in areas that are given attention and exercise.

I am planning on working with Mandala in a couple of different ways.  My primary focus will be on a workbook with exercises on creating healing Mandala.  Why healing?  What is burnout but a form of psychic illness.  The cure for burnout and depression is to bring energy and light back into your life.  The book I am going to be working with is called Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing.  Judith Cornell, PHD. : Quest Books, Wheaton, Illinois, USA: second edition 2006.  This book is still available on Amazon.  I will also be working with some other forms of Mandala from time to time.  I will tell you the books I am working from as I get to them.

The photo above is one of my first exercises from the book.  It is just about envisioning light manifesting.  I had a hard time starting it.  Sometimes just making the first mark is intimidating.  The only thing to do was begin.  I could only come up with the idea of the Big Bang.  There was nothing; then there was an a moment when energy tore from somewhere into our sphere of existence.  Then came an explosion, and matter went spiraling out in all directions.  It is not great, but it is a start.  I will see how it goes from there.

I am not sure how long this process of working with Mandalas is going to take.  I also plan to be working on a walking stick.  I will be blogging about both projects as they come along.  Maybe between the two projects I will feel like I am getting back to having all sorts of ideas again.