Sacred art of the mandala

Having just gotten back from Laguna Beach I am set to go for more creativity in my painting and in my life. It was a fascinating workshop with Paul Heussenstamm of Mandalas.com. Spending 4 days painting mandalas in the presence of his outstanding mandala masterpieces was a great experience. This was my first time creating such a large mandala, having been drawing or painting all of my mandalas on a small scale. Whether small or large, though, to create a mandala is a wonderfully meditative experience in itself - very centering. It is also healing, as Carl Jung explored so thoroughly. When creating a mandala, I find I can never avoid having it somehow reflect what is going on in me, my mind, my heart, and my life. And within that exploration is often the struggle, represented so well by my artist's struggle, as I create, and there also is the answer to the struggle, the beauty and knowingness already there. It's there reflected in both the process of creating the mandala and in the mandala image itself.

And of course it was very fun besides : ) to have the luxury of painting all day for 3 days straight, away from home, no laundry, no dishes, no nagging phone calls. I will try to have my Purple Mandala posted to my blog in a few days. I have been creating a drawn mandala - often a 20 min. drawing meditation - most mornings a week for quite awhile now. This process was more complex, of course, being a 24 inch square canvas, instead of a 9 x 9 inch drawing. But I recommend the simple drawing for a way to connect quickly with the magic meditation of the mandala: draw a circle, make a point in the middle and then draw whatever design, lines, pictures that come to mind. You can also use colored pens or pencils or crayons. It is amazingly healing. I recommend Carl Jung's beautiful book, MANDALAS, for a fascinating search into the healing aspects of creating mandalas. As for me, I hope to start creating LARGE ones. Look here to see some future image postings.