Saturday, April 21, 2007

Mandala

I recently joined a new online group called The Artist's Muse. This is also the name of a book recently written by Betsy Dillard Stroud.

The group is going to discuss the book chapter by chapter and using the deck of cards included with the book, we will come up with challenges to create a piece of art.

In the first chapter, there is a challenge to create a personal mandala. A mandala is a circular shape and has symbols that mean something to the artist. The symbols can be graphic shapes or colors or anything that have some sort of meaning. Our personal mandala could be made out of any medium we choose.

While creating my mandala, I kept thinking about nature. I love gardening and flowers and beautiful scenery found in nature, so this is what my mandala is about. I started with a paper/fabric background and added the colors of green, blue, and yellow to represent the sky, sun, and plantlife. The shapes you see in the mandala are flowers, leaves, and swirls to represent beautiful plants. I also included shapes symbolizing stepping stones and shapes to indicate trellises or arbors for plants to grow on. The design is inked on with pen. The piece measures 20" square.