Day One -100 Days for Mandalas – Summer Creativity Camp
May 31st, 2012
DAY #1
June 1st is the first day for 100 Days for Mandalas, the summer camp of creativity. Today, or any day this week, create a mandala. Your mandalas can be shared and shown on this blog. More info below about how to share your mandalas online. My previous blog gives more information about how this is an easy summertime journey of creativity.
There is a guided meditation in this blog to help you get started. Each Monday of this 100 day journey there will be a new blog post about mandalas, shared mandalas and a new guided meditation.
WHAT IS A MANDALA
For some joining in, mandalas are new experiences. So for a short summary, here goes.
Mandala means sacred circle in Sanskrit. A mandala is an image, nature or human made, in a circle with a seen or unseen center point. Creating mandalas has the effect of helping people find their center point and from there experiencing a calm creative effect in their lives. Anyone can create mandalas, the images that are created come from within, from a place of deep inspiration and knowing. Creating mandalas is not about creating art, it is about discovering your creative self.
There is a different experience making marks and images in a circle, just as if you stood within an open geodesic dome with half a sphere surrounding you, it is different that standing in a rectangular box. Circles and spheres are what nature creates on earth, in the heavens, and in our cycles of life. Making mandalas is an attunement to nature’s patterns within and without.
CREATIVITY CAMP – NO ART EXPERIENCE NEEDED
This camp is open to anyone, no matter what kind of art experience you have had, or not had. Often people fear making art because they feel they aren’t artisitic, or they will be judged as unartisitc (often the most critical judge lives in their own mind), or anything to do with “art” makes them run the other way. But have no fear this is not “art” in the traditional sense. It is making marks as simple as doodles to complex designs, whatever works for you.
GUIDED MANDALA MEDITATION #1
When I teach my Morning Mandalas, Meditation & Journaling workshops, I always lead a guided meditation before we create mandalas. For those who join me, this is the foundation of creating, a way to touch our deep centers and from there begin to make mandalas. It is like the icing on the cake, but even more than that. There is no music with this meditation, just my voice. For reasons of copyright and complications in recording, this is what I offer. If you like, you can provide background music to this meditation.
With the help of my friend Lydia Ruffin, singer & songwriter & more, we figured out how to record these audio guided meditations. Turns out the fancy dancy software didn’t work as well as an IPhone app. So here is my first ever recorded guided meditation. Enjoy.
Click Link Below for the first Mandala Guided Meditation. The length is six minutes plus a few seconds.
Mandala-Meditation-One-for-100-Days-For-Mandalas
MANDALA INSPIRATIONS
In my previous blog, I told the story of how 100 Days for Mandalas came about. My friend and co-teacher, Kelly Larson and I decided to share our mandala making over 100 days. This is a summer camp for creativity, an easy journey to find your creative center.
Here are a few mandalas from Kelly, me and others who have taken my mandala workshops, for inspiration during this 100 day journey.
HOW TO MAKE A MANDALA
Making mandalas can be as simple as taking a crayon and making a few marks in a circle. Or it can be a complicated design within a circle format. Either way, these are both mandalas. What is important is to allow yourself to make these marks in whatever way happens. A piece of paper and a way to pencil in a circle – plates work well – are the beginning. Or if you are like me, discovery of new art supplies in papers, pencils, paints, brushes, etc. etc. etc. is on the top five of life’s greatest pleasures. Also coloring in a mandala coloring book brings people to a space of creative flow. Any age can color from a coloring book, as shown by these lovely ladies coloring from my mandala coloring book designs. Either way, creating your own unique design, or mandala coloring books, lets your soul speak to you through images, simple or complex.
SHARING YOUR MANDALAS & THOUGHTS
I will post mandalas each week on my blog from those who would like to share. Please send jpeg images. If you would like your name to be posted as the mandala maker, please let me know. If you would like to write something about your experiences the best way to do that is in the comment section of this blogs, at the bottom of the page. Send your photos to: linda@creativityforthesoul.com.
PHOTO TIPS FOR SHARING MANDALAS
What works best is to take photos in diffuse even light. An overcast day outside is ideal, or someplace in the shade where natural light is bright, but there is no sun shining on the mandala. Natural light gives the best color, instead of inside light. Turn off the flash. Use a plain background. A cloth, or sidewalk, cardboard backing from a paper pad or sketch pad works well. Hold the camera directly in front of the center of the mandala, so the sides are shown evenly. Make sure the edges and background are all in the photo and showing somewhat. I can crop the excess off. My largest size of blog post photos is 640 pixels wide for the cropped image, so you don’t have to create large photo files for sharing. If you have an IPhone or Smartphone pictures can be emailed directly to me: linda@creativityforthesoul.com.
ENJOY YOUR MANDALA MAKING
I can’t wait to see and share the creativity of this journey. Enjoy the guided meditation and the creative journey.
