Sunday Sketches

The other day, my favorite place to walk my dog, the Chehalis Western Trail, had been cleared of leaves. I realized it was a metaphor relating to having a clear path and it appeared that everything along the path was inviting and beautiful.

When I returned home, I decided to create a mandala capturing this walking meditation. I started by painting a colorful path across the circle and then added some of my experience. I felt the need for words and let them flow along the path.

Walking Mandala
watercolor
18" X 24" More Sunday Sketchers.....

Sunday Sketches

I woke early the other morning with lots of thoughts going through my head. I took a dose of my own creative remedy.........a mandala painting! Painting a mandala is like a meditation and a journey through the "mind field."

I usually let the colors and shapes flow and go with whatever appears be it an image or pure nothing. At first, the two center images were bonded and floating together in a sea of...... Then, one image sprouted branches followed by its separation and trajectory of the other. I am not sure of the meanings and will allow some time and space for processing.

Any thoughts?

More Sunday Sketchers

2012 Mandala

Mandala, a sacred circle, creations have been a discipline of mine to connect with myself. I began these way back when I was in a masters program in art therapy and learned that Carl Jung began this method of self-discovery.

What I really enjoy is the freedom and meditative state which occurs when creating mandalas. I guess the process is most important to me regardless of the product. Process versus product is the continual tension of art therapy theory.

After several inquiries about mandala paintings on my website, I realized that I had abandon this practice. Why?

Why not! Even though I sat down to create a mandala in December, it has sat uncompleted at my drawing table until today. Being in an introspective couple of months, I was open to what transpired in the process of creativity. I know frogs represent cleansing, but I am still wondering about the meaning emanating from this creation.

Frog, kaleidoscope, rocks, grounding..........hmmmmm?

Image After Meditation

Into the dark days, but I surprisingly found a sunny spot.

One might think I have cat blood, but just a positive reaction to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

On another note, have you ever seen a depressive cat?
They totally know the benefits of sunspots.

After meditating in the sunspot dressed in hat, gloves, and blanket, I went indoors to paint a mandala. This image appeared.


I know not where this is going.........

Stay tuned!

Reviving The Mandala

I have the honor and privilege to work with a practitioner from Sri Lanka because I am on the faculty of the International Trauma Treatment Program. My role is to facilitate the exchange of information in trauma treatment using art therapy.

My approach is to engage the practitioners in creating art and learning from the process how art therapy might benefit their work with traumatized people of their country.

This is the second practitioner in the program who works at the Butterfly Peace Garden in Sri Lanka. The Butterfly Peace Garden (BPG) is a non-governmental organization established in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka in 1996. Children are brought to the BPG each day from surrounding villages in groups that are mixed with respect to gender and ethnicity (e.g. children from Tamil and Muslim villages). A typical program cycle runs one day a week for nine months and involves activities drawn from a range of visual, dramatic and musical arts. Activities are conducted by adult animators skilled in one or more artistic discipline, who have in many cases experienced psychological wounds similar to those of the children who come to the BPG. The BPG has for several years served as a model for innovative and effective programs for war-affected children, families and communities.

Today, I was feeling a bit "traumatized" from the rushed day I had been experiencing. I explained to the practitioner how "centering" it is to create a mandala especially without any preconceived image. Drawing a circle and creating shapes, lines, and forms with colors inside the boundaries of the circle can be very therapeutic. It is calming and very similar to meditation.

When creating a mandala, I find that images may appear and I can choose to bring forth that image, or not. What appeared today was the image of a female dancing. I wondered if it were a message to me........

to dance with the flow of life rather than to react? There is a free feeling; a sense of joy and power to this movement.
It makes me smile.


This mandala has awakened my intuitive nature and I know that there is more to come. It is posted on my wall so that I can see and hear its message.

It has revived my interest and love of creating mandalas.

Mandalas and STARS

I will be doing four art sessions with the participants of the STARS Program at the Senior Center in Olympia, Washington.

The STARS and Respite Care Program offers supervised therapeutic activities in a group setting for frail seniors and disabled adults. With excellent staff and volunteers, STARS is able to offer fun and creative client focused activities along with excellent personal care. While their family member is enjoying the day at STARS, caregivers are able to receive a needed break, enabling them to continue to give loving care.

Today was the first day of my art program with the group. I brought in books with photographs of mandalas and shared about how to create a mandala. The media we used for this activity was colored markers.

Enjoying being creative........


STARS Program Director, Cheri Knighton, assists one of the seniors

Divine Forces - Art That Awakens The Soul

I just learned that Paul Huessenstamm's book, Divine Forces - Art That Awakens The Soul, is now available.

Paul who creates incredible mandalas believes in the mystery of the artist. The action of the artist involves surrender, letting go, allowing, opening, petitioning, prayer, and inner supplication. Paul believes that a transformation takes place spontaneously without conscious participation of the individual. He or she simply wakes up to the fact that something larger than his or her own sense of self is operation inside and expressing itself through action in the world.

Paul shares the spiritual path of the artist in his book. The artist, according to Paul, is truly an instument It is not a choice or a willed expression.

I cannot wait to read more.

ordered a copy!

Today's Mandala

As I was working with our two International Trauma Treatment Program practitioners from Liberia and Serbia, I noticed how engaged they were with their art. Usually I do not create art myself during an art therapy session because I would not be attentive to my students. But, today was different!

So much is happening in my life that at times I feel overwhelmed. When I create a mandala, I find myself in a natural meditative state. Images appear and I move with them unraveling insights. It is a dance of mind, body, and the creative spirit. As the story unfolds so does the art.

Today's mandala turned out to be the tree of life. Representing my world at the present time; colorful, vibrant, and growing.

I find it interesting that the mandala was created diagonally............hmmmmmmmm.



Tree of Life

Waiting for Inspiration

Wikipedia defines artistic inspiration as sudden creativity in artistic production.

Where does inspiration come from?

Today I was hoping inspiration would show up if I went into my studio. I did not know what to paint? I sat at my drafting table where I create my watercolor paintings and waited. Do I create a collage or a more traditional watercolor painting? What is the subject?

My discipline is to paint at least twenty minutes a day. I felt frustrated, yet compelled to put paint to paper. Many times when I am emotional or wanting to make some connection with Self, I paint a mandala; a Sanskrit word meaning holy or magical circle. Basically, I paint inside a circle which becomes a meditation. Maybe if my mind were quiet, inspiration would find me.

Being an art therapist, I am always asking myself the significance of the images which appear. Today it was a duck with something, figurative-like, on its back. I painted playfully and wondered.

I am beginning to believe that there is a process to spark the creativity whereby inspiration visits. It comes from engaging in art. As the saying goes, "just do it!"

Sand Mandala and Deconstruction

This evening for the last class of the Create Mandalas for Personal Expression and Awareness which I taught at The Evergreen State College, I brought colored sand. We talked about the Tibetan Sand Mandalas and how the Native American Indians create sand mandalas. Then we let loose ourselves.

I watched as different techniques were invented; from paper tubes such as decorating cakes to dispersing sand from the palm of your hand. Of course every mandala was unique.

The mandalas were created on a large, thin piece of cardboard. After we discussed our mandalas and found the significance in our lives, one of the students began to tap the edges of the cardboard and the mandala transformed. We all tried this technique and were fascinated with the process.

I know that the idea behind sand mandalas is an exercise in impertinence, but I did bring my camera. We were so intrigued with the transformations that I documented them. Here is my sand mandala and its deconstruction.

What FUN!

Mandala Class

A small group of students signed up for the Mandala Class I teach at The Evergreen State College extended education program. Actually, small classes are fun and more intimate.

The other evening I brought the medium of craypas to explore and had the students create a mandala for an hour and fifteen minutes. They were amazed by the meditative quality of the process of creating a mandala. The students were open and able to gain insights into their art and their process.

"This is fun!" rang in unison when the class ended.

Usually I do not create art myself when I teach class as my tendency is to go off into my own creative world and neglect others. Feeling the desire to create a mandala, I asked the student's permission to join them.

I found myself enjoying the flowing shapes and tried to reframe from a blossom flower type image that appeared, but then I gave in to it. I have not decided if it is above ground growing or in water..........what is your feeling?



Growing

World View of Mandalas

What is a Mandala?

The word "Mandala" is from Sanskrit, a classical Indian language developed over 2,300years ago. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model of the organizational structure of life itself-a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community. Tibetan Buddhist believe that the mandala is "a matrix or model of a perfected universe," says noted Buddhist scholar, Professor Robert A.F. Thurman. "Every being is a mandala.... We are our environment as much as we are the entity in the environment."

The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose.

Olympia Arts Walk; April 24th & 25th

Tonight downtown Olympia, Washington, celebrates the arts in our community at the 38th annual spring Arts Walk. For artists, art lovers and the art curious, this event is a wonderful opportunity to embrace the arts in all forms! Maps with listings of venues and artists are available at participating locations. The Luminary Procession starts at 9:30pm on Friday night.

Saturday is the 15th annual incredible Procession of the Species Celebration beginning at 4:30PM. Last year's was an entrancing kaleidoscope of brilliant colors, delighted by 27,000 smiles beaming together. It is a parade not to be missed! Beginning at 3:30pm, 7,000 pieces of colorful street chalk will be handed out along the entire Procession of the Species route for people to draw the art of one's individual spirit in the streets.

In addition, at 2:30pm, featured Arts Walk artist, Heather Taylor, will be on hand to lead the creation of a "Hold the Earth Street Mandala." A beautiful street mandala large enough to fill the intersection at Legion and Capitol Way! Heather will need help to fill all of the colors in...chalk will be provided!

I will be showing my watercolor paintings at the Tea Lady which is on the corner of 5th and Washington in downtown Olympia. I will be there on Saturday and a couple of hours early Friday evening. Along with watercolor paintings, tiles, cards, and prints will be available for purchase. The show will be on display for a couple of weeks.

COME OUT AND CELEBRATE ART!

View From The "Titanic"

Just finished my second painting which I named the View From the "Titanic" in the Mexico Series.

Why, you might be wondering? Let me tell you the story.......

This lovely deck area is where I spent time painting a couple of mandalas while staying at Sanoviv. It was my favorite spot.






Nice, huh?!?!?

I later learned from Francisco that the staff call the small deck the "Titanic" because of its shape and the way it sticks out above the ocean.

Looking south the hillside is draped with ice plants and they were in full bloom due to the warm, Mexican sunshine. I thought it would make a great watercolor painting. How do you feel?

Mandala Watercolor Painting #5

Beginning a new watercolor mandala painting, the initial line resembled a hummingbird, yet very stylized. I decided to go with the image. The hummingbird is my totem animal; from the Native American teachings the hummingbird represents joy. It also appeared in the second mandala of this series.

The hummingbird sings a vibration of pure joy. Flowers love hummingbird because nectar-sucking brings about the reproduction of their families. Plants flower and live because of hummingbird. Hummingbirds can fly in any direction, and can also hover in one spot and appear to be motionless.

According to Native American teachings, if hummingbird is your personal medicine, you love life and its joys. Your presence brings joy to others. You join people together in relationships which bring out the best in them. You know instinctively where beauty abides and, near or far, you jouney to your ideal. You move comfortably within a beautiful environment and help others taste the succulent nectar of life. Hummingbird hears celestial music and is in harmony with it.



This mandala relates to my joyous life; and, as my friend, Fernando says, "the beautiful colors of [my] essence," which is held lovingly.

Vertical Mandala

Having been away a long time, before beginning to create a mandala watercolor painting, I felt the urge to place my watercolor paper vertical. This was unusual as all previous mandalas have been painted horizontally. I laughed! I had dramatically made some changes in my life and my spacial orientation wanted to change with it.

I began this mandala similar to the previous four painted in my studio; the colorful line snaking across the center of the circle. I talked about this line symbolically representing me and taking form since my mother's death. In the last painting the shape began to sprout branches, but this time a human shape appeared to me. Yes, I was floating! Yet, from my hand vibrant, abundant life was blossoming (nearly overwhelming by its size and weight). I thought I was floating in water, but instead the water turned into clouds and I added the peaceful ocean scene below.

Needing more support, the mandala image became embodied by the suggestion of hands lifting it to the sky. I am open, receiving, while gently being held.

Mandala Insights

Hooray for Fridays! It is my day in the studio and I was looking forward to creating another watercolor mandala painting before I slip off to Mexico to pamper myself.

Mountains and a body of water appeared in my mandala today in addition to the free flowing image that has threaded its way through my previous mandala paintings. The image has been my starting brush strokes which seems to take me into the painting. Landscapes and especially active bodies of water accent the last three mandala paintings.

Today it came to me that the floating image is a self-image; amorphously taking shape. In the third mandala I was budding and in this mandala I am reaching out, growing and branching. The first mandala I am enmeshed in emotions and blurred, and the second mandala I am small and thin barely there. I see myself transforming as I continue to process loss.

In addition, the background of the past three mandalas have watery feelings which give each mandala a floating quality. Again I return to the symbolism of the ocean and a returning to the womb......so much meaning!

More Mandalas

I have been enjoying creating watercolor mandala paintings this past week as a barometer to my emotional well-being. Usually I create a mandala in one painting session and sometimes add the background color the next day.

Exception; I repainted the background on this mandala after living with it for a few days. At first I wanted a yellowish glow which is not so apparent when posted on an earlier blog, but the painting called for blue. I like it much better.

What do you think?

On another note of blue, I found myself contemplating the depth of the ocean and all the symbolism associated with the ocean in relation to Mother Earth. I thought about the deep connection with my mother.

Here is the mandala which came out of this meditative painting session.

I have yet to understand the floating orange image, but I know it will be revealed in due time.

Art Speak

I have been creating mandalas in watercolors to assist me in processing the recent loss of my mother. I find that during the meditative process of creating a mandala that thoughts and visual images appear. In my second mandala painting the shape of a hummingbird appeared.

The hummingbird happens to be my totem animal, and I took notice of what it might be telling me. According to Native Americans our fellow creatures, the animals, exhibit habit patterns that will relay messages of healing to anyone astute enough to observe their lessons. When you call upon the power of an animal, you are asking to be drawn into complete harmony with the strength of that creature's essence.

It is said that hummingbird conjures love as no other medicine does, and that hummingbird feathers open the heart. Without an open and loving heart, you can never taste the nectar and pure bliss of life. To brother and sister hummingbird, life is a wonderland of delight - darting from one beautiful flower to another, tasting the essences, and radiating the colors. Hummingbird sings a vibration of pure joy.

I am honored by the presence of hummingbirds; this winter as I was painting and a hummingbird showed up at the window, at my mother's funeral reception a hummingbird joined us, and while I was painting the second mandala in the series processing the loss of my mom this hummingbird image appeared.


Having just finished reading art therapist, Shaun McNiff's book, Trust the Process, I will re-frame from adding meaning to this mandala. Shaun believes that it is important to contemplate images with the attitude of withholding judgments or explanations of any kind. He says the interpretation of art can be approached as a tantric discipline that reflects upon visual qualities. He asks, "Why is it that we fell the need to respond to visual communications verbally?"

What do you think?

What is a Mandala?

Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning holy or magical circle. I first learned about mandalas in a dream work class I took for the art therapy curriculum. Psychologist Carl Jung began drawing circles and designs and noticed that they somehow corresponded to his inner situation, feelings, impression, and thoughts. He concluded after some study of the matter with his own drawings and also the drawings of his patients that these circular drawings were therapeutic, first to draw, then to look at. Jung finally arrived at the conclusion that the Self, the wholeness of the personality, is reflected in the mandala. He felt that the mandala that a person spontaneously drew in any given moment was a gentle reminder, or urge to live out that person’s potential, something he called the person’s total personality which he called individuation. He felt that attention to the symbols the unconscious gave in response to queries for deeper meaning could enhance and speed personal growth and understanding.

How I Create a Mandala Painting

When I have a dilemma or when feeling a need to get in touch with myself I create a mandala. I created my first mandala as a project for the dream work class in 1989 and have been making them ever since. Some days I choose to listen to music while creating mandalas and other times I prefer the silence and sounds of birds or wind outside my window. In the process of creating a mandala I find that a meditative state naturally occurs.

My first Mandala to help me process the recent loss of my mother has two versions. As I began painting the flowing line across the page, it reminded me of an iris which was the flower I chose for the funeral spray. I played with the image as I painted while listening to meditative music. I thought of nature as I quickly painted the background, but was not thrilled with the results. I was drained and decided I would return to the painting the next day.

First Version

Second Version

I felt the need for a dark, earthy background which is challenging to obtain with watercolors. Persistently, I painted the background twice drying the paper between applications. In this version the mandala stands out with no distractions and feels important. The role my mother has played in my life. Psychologically speaking it is very symbolic of the spray of orchids on Mother's wooden casket.

I will continue creating mandalas as my healing process..........