Mandala Sharing – Words, Color & Nature Inspirations
September 18th, 2021
Mandala Sharing – Words, Color & Nature Inspirations
A recent Mandala Circle started with a check-in of friends. The mandala gatherings were few and far between due to Covid. We gathered and spoke about our months apart. I then lead a guided meditation and we made art in the music filled quiet room with silent sounds of creative flow. The art materials chosen and what is created are always a surprise when we share after several hours of mark making. This last gathering was no different. The sharing revealed what everyone’s creativity brought fourth. Perhaps the most timely and fitting wisdom shared were the words of Wendell Berry on Ann’s mandala.
Ann Brune’s mandala with wise words and the truth of blue.
Ann also explored purples, different than the blues and greens of most mandalas she creates. The words conjure images of purple beauty.
A color card with its striped colors, and dots (a frequent theme of Ann’s) is a simple elegant display of color.
Nature is Christine’s life. She picked a small bouquet of Blazing Star (liatris cylindracea) and Missouri Black Eyed Susan (rudbeckia hirta) from her many acre restored prairie and brought it to the Mandala Circle. Her circle of purple and green dance around yellow with a dark center that draws you into its depths and golden rays.
Christine Torlina’s purple and yellow mandala inspired by flowers from her prairie
Veggies from Christine’s garden often find themselves in a circle mandala.
Karen’s recent dragonfly encounters inspired her art with dragonfly heads and wings created out of white paint fingerprints. She found the wisdom of what dragonflies share in the Animal-Speak book by Ted Andrews.
Karen Martinez’s dragonfly art
On the other side wisdom words with one dragonfly.
Linda’s bright orange and yellow cut out flower with 3D metal brads in the center sings against the deep teal background. The petals float off the page with a center holding them steady, perhaps a reminder of our centers holding us steady.
Linda Massie’s cut out flower with 3D center
The iridescent golden spiral moves around the center of Linda’s mandala with blue and purple circles, hearts and flower shapes. Perhaps inspired by the bouquet of liatris and black eyed susan.
I played with a fine tipped mechanical ink pen that thrills me with its detail. The loose background of watercolor and the fine black lines create imaginary flowers I would love to see grow in my garden.
One of my fantasy flower mandalas
I often find photos of real flowers on the internet that seem as fantastical as my flower mandalas, so perhaps my mandala flowers bloom somewhere on this earth.
