Mail-Art Mandala Mom

Whenever my mother comes to visit, we love "comparing notes" about our art-making pursuits, and we usually do some sort of crafting activity, like the envelopes we made this past month.

We decided that it would be fun to send each other art-full mail in between our face-to-face visits.  Check out the first bit of mail art fun I got from Mom just this afternoon:

I love the illustrations she used for our addresses:  Her return address was written on a rubber-stamped note paper carried in a bird's beak, and my address was written in old-fashioned billboard she drew next to a road filled with old-fashioned rubber stamped cars...so clever!

Inside, I found a truly awesome mandala:

In her letter, packaged in its own embellished envelope (see below), she explained that she created a blessing wheel for me.  You know how when you try to keep a gratitude journal, you end up thinking about the same old (albeit wonderful) things:  family, friends, house, etc.  With the blessing wheel, I can focus my gratitude by pointing my finger and spending the day mindfully appreciating whatever it lands on.  Isn't that brilliant?!

I am so amazed by my mom's artistic pursuits.  I wrote about her mandalas already, but she is also creating a Griffin and Sabine-style book, following the Postcard Challenge on the Art and Sole blog.  She has also started maintaining an art journal, along with journals for her travels and the books she has read.  She has even started her own version of altered Rolodex cards!  I told her that she needs to start sending me photos of all of her work, because it's going to get a little unwieldy for her to bring all of her projects in her suitcase to show me the next time she visits!

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6 Weeks:  Mind. Body. Soul.

An e-Course with Leslie of {Words of Me Project}

Starting on Monday, Leslie of the Words of Me Project, is offering a free eCourse called 6 Weeks:  Mind. Body. Soul. 

Leslie is going to offer art journaling prompts, recipe ideas, quotations, techniques, and special guest posts.  Her goal is to uplift and inspire us to live our best life.  Each week will revolve around a theme, word, or idea with the goal of incorporating positive energy into our lives.  

I have been reading Leslie's blog for about a year now, and she has so much kindness, encouragement, and art to offer!  She is a loving and generous spirit, and I am excited to share this journey of her first eCourse with her.  If you would like to join in, visit her blog for the prompts, and you can also take part in the course Facebook page.  I hope to "see" you there!

Mom-dalas

My mother visited this past weekend, and brought some of her art to share with me.  Since she doesn't have her own blog, I insisted that she let me take photos and share her work with you on mine!

My mom is one of those people who will insist over and over again that she's not "artistic" or "creative."  She seems to think that those are labels reserved for "certain kinds of people," and not for her.

Yet, there isn't a moment of my life that I don't remember her cooking, sewing clothing, crocheting, hooking rugs, writing and journaling, candlewicking, cross-stitching, and decorating--all pretty "artistic" and "creative" in my book!

When I got so excited about Zentangles last year, I shared my new interest with her, and her own talent for the pasttime really took off.  Many of her tangles are done in the form of mandalas.

We have talked about her tangles during our phone conversations (she lives in Kentucky and I live in Pennsylvania), but I had not seen any of her work until she brought them along on this visit.  When I saw them, I knew that you should see them too!

I love her innovation, like using the small scraps of security envelopes to add color and pattern to this design:

And look at the adorable lips on this patterned fish:

Amazing and talented?

Why, yes!  I think so, too!

Mandalas

Since I started reading Tammy's blog, Daisy Yellow, at the beginning of this year, one of the things I have most enjoyed have been her mandala drawings.  I didn't really know anything about mandalas, and I certainly had no idea how to draw one, but I liked looking at the different designs she created.

Back in August, I started to do a little "research", and checked out a couple of books from the library about mandalas. 

Some of my mandala note-taking

One of the things that made the biggest impression on me is how mandalas are found everywhere in the natural world.  Crystals, atoms, hurricanes, the solar system, sound waves, hair shafts, a fetus in the womb, the rings of Saturn, snowflakes, tornadoes, snails, shells, sunflowers, roses, daisies, an octopus, the iris of an eye, pincones, an apple slice, starfish, spiderwebs, the cycle of the seasons, animal migrations....all are mandalas!

Bailey Cunningham explained in Mandala:  Journey to the Center, that "the circle becomes a container to hold your most cherished ideas and emotions.  You organize your thoughts around a central point that represents a particular theme or concept, and express ideas and meanings by choosing symbols and colors that reflect your intent."

It sounded SO meaningful and interesting, yet I still had no idea how to get started.  I even took notes on all the different radiations and their meanings:  3 radiations suggesting wholeness, 4 suggesting stability and order, 7 suggesting divinity, etc.  I understood that to create a mandala was to create intricate designs along multiple radiations.  I just wasn't sure how to do that!

Just two weeks ago, I came across Rainy's website, Honey & Ollie, and I noticed she had a mandala tutorial in the left margin of her page.  She describes a mandala as "a meditation that you build up in layers.  Work from the inside to the outside."  Simply put a dot, spiral, flower, circle, etc. at the center, and then build up your design around it.  She provided a link to a web site with basic henna motifs, and suddenly it all kind of clicked in place for me. 

After some more note-taking, I tackled my first mandala.

Keep in mind that these are not patterns of my own making.  Some are copied as-is from the sites I was looking at, and for the others, I put together the patterns I found there. 

As I started to draw the mandalas, I was reminded very much of the Zentangles I have been enjoying all year.  They look so complex and difficult when looked at as a whole, but when you just make one mark at a time, and let the patterns build up over the page, it's a simple but focused process.

I am not a "mindless doodler"...I wish I were!  For me to make these designs and patterns, I really have to focus and concentrate.  Drawing both Zentangles and mandalas is a soothing, restful pasttime for me.  It has also been an exercise in giving up perfection, which is a valuable exercise for me to undertake.  I know that some folks working on mandalas get out the rulers and compasses, and I even bought some of these tools when I first intended to create some mandalas.  But at this point, I have put that approach to the side in favor of freehand drawing that brings me greater satisfaction.  How fun to have such imperfect lines and spacing, and yet enjoy the results so much! 

Finding Warren's web site, The Doodle Daily, has opened up another whole set of mandala symbols to incorporate into my designs.  I don't think I have anything symbolic going on in my drawings so far.  Right now, I still feel like I'm getting used to the process, and exploring design and pattern options.  I do lots and lots of thinking while I'm drawing, though, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if my work gets more personally symbolic when the designs and patterns come to me naturally, rather than from me looking on the computer for ideas to copy or incorporate.

This mandala is a copy of one of Warren's designs.

Drawing these mandalas was the perfect art experience to bring along with me when I traveled to Atlanta for Thanksgiving this past weekend.  All I needed was a little notebook of drawing paper (which I bound for myself with my Cinch machine) and a black PITT artist pen.  I took along some colored Sharpies, too.  Nothing bulky, nothing messy, and I had a great "arty" outlet to enjoy while I was away from home!

Have your read about mandalas, or created them yourself?  I have MUCH to learn, so please share your knowledge and resources with me in your comments.