I’m certain that if you’re browsing Instagram at all you’ve happened upon a mandala or something similar. They’re usually black line drawings that are circular, geometric, and heavily detailed in nature. The variations out there are vast! Painted mandalas have become wildly popular as well as wood cuts, laser cuts, simple doodles, yarn/thread creations, wood burning, flower arrangement, and everything in between. But what exactly is a mandala? What are it’s origins, what does it truly symbolize, what makes them so special? Good questions! We’ll get there in time over this mandala series but I would first like to start this series by sharing my perspective on mandalas, what they mean to me, and what I enjoy about them so much!
Mandala work is some of my most treasured and favorite work of my personal art practice. First and foremost, to me, my mandala work is active meditation. There is something very calming, hypnotizing, and all together stress reducing about the art of creating a mandala. There’s something to be said about creating a repetitive and intricate pattern over and over again over the the vastness of a blank piece of paper. At a certain point everything, including myself, seems and feels endless. The possibilities are endless, time is endless, our existence is endless, and the simple places that the mandala I’m working on in the moment is endless!
From a very, seemingly, non-spiritual place-I truly enjoy working small. And I enjoy working small and intricate because I just love detail! And if you also love detail, than working on mandalas or something of a similar nature is a perfect place to truly get lost in the details. Just strictly speaking on utilizing the simple materials of pen and paper you can get so small and so detailed with just a 005 sized Micron! Not to mention all of the detail possibilities when you factor in different materials such as paints, inks, thread, wood, etc.
There is also something to be said about the precision, geometry, and math that is involved in constructing a mandala.
To me, the mandala is like the unfolding of a moment in time in the ether.
Our reality is constantly ebbing and flowing, shifting, folding and unfolding, all at the exact same time. A mandala, in my practice, is a capture or a still frame of any one of those infinite moments. In capturing that moment, the geometry and math in everything is revealed. And to translate that moment, you need some level of geometry and math to express it! While I never thought I was very strong in math when I was in school (I legitimately almost failed geometry), the math and geometry utilized and applied in the world of mandalas makes complete and utter sense to me-and not only that-I love it! Call it context, call it perspective, call it growing up-either way mandalas have certainly been an avenue for me to explore, cultivate, and continue to grow my math skills.
In my practice, and many mandala practices and traditions, it all begins in the center. For me, the center is where its at! That’s what we feel right?
It’s all about trying to find our center. Our balance. Our point of calm, of quiet, of peace
There are no smooth seas without storms and it’s always good to be able to find the eye of the storm (your center) when you’re in the shit. Because, ya know, the shit will come. And the shit will go-but there’s something to be said for being able to maintain a sense of inner peace, inner centered-ness through the shit that kinda lets you know everything is going to be ok. Even when your whole life currently feels like a pile of burning tires. Part of my mandala practice, is coming back to my center. Sometimes its about finding it again. Other times it’s about constructing a new place, maybe putting a nice addition on my center. Maybe I wanna put a pool in for the really hot days, you know what I mean. Building up that internal sanctuary is essential; and it doesn’t really matter how you do it or what that practice for you looks like so long as you gift yourself the time to do it. And for me, mandala work is part of that time. Part of the gift to myself. And it’s really nice if you guys like it too.
Which brings me to my final (at least for now) reflection on my mandala work. Besides it being a very personal practice, I also share my work so that it may become part of your personal practice as well. Whether you choose to pick up a pen and paper and meditate in that way or if my work is able to somehow give you a moment. Stop time if even for a bit just so that you’re able to just breathe. So that you can get real close, see the details and reflect on all the little details that comprise you of who you are. And also get close to see the different mistakes and fuck ups that I make in a piece. I leave them in and/or pivot and create a different pattern that I never intended on. Same shit with you, with me, with all of us. A) you only notice the flaws if you hyper focus on them *why would you wanna do that to yourself or others?! Like what is the actual point of that practice? B) The flaws make the whole. The flaws need to be there for the whole to be there. Same same. And C) sometimes what I thought was a huge mistake leads to some of my most interesting/creative/way-out-of-left-field work but I love it! Never would have happened if I wasn’t willing to make a mistake. And it certainly wouldn’t happen if a mistake led me to scrapping the whole piece. Again-same shit with you. Make a mistake and either learn/evolve/grow/be better/pivot/create something awesome but don’t scrap it all.
Have you ever been curious about beginning to explore creating mandalas? Do you enjoy the idea of incorporating mandala work as a form of active meditation and/or contemplation? What about mandalas do you enjoy? What draws you to them?
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing more of my research into the origins of Mandalas, the different cultural interpretations and rituals surrounding mandalas and I’ll also be sharing tips/tutorials/printables on how to begin constructing your own mandalas! They became fully encompassing and totally addicting once I learned the framework; getting the basics down will set the foundation for you to be able to run wild with the practice!
Let me know what you would like to know about the mandala or the construction/creation of them! I will do my best to help and give you all of my knowledge and know-how!