Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Mandala

The Artists Muse is a new group set up to discuss and work on Betsy Dillard Stroud's book The Artist's Muse.

The first challenge is to create a personal mandala.

I started one on watercolour paper and one on calico. The one shown is the paper version as the quilted one isn't finished yet - need to add some hand stitching and charms.
I painted them both using watercolours and Twinkling H2O's. The lines are drawn with Adirondack pens.

My theme is Inspiration.
Colour is very important to me. I used orange/yellow to signify energy and joy. Pink to be playful. Purple is a sacred colour and appears in many of my favourite flowers. It is also a romantic colour. Turquoise represents femininity and water - the sea for me, I love its changeable nature.
I have used strong colours to represent strength of course.

The triple spiral is a symbol of rebirth (a thing I am going through) but also here represents the biggest influences on my creativity.
The beach and sea.
Nature and in particular flowers.
Music - I never do anything with out music playing. All sorts of music, I have very eclectic tastes. Oh, and as my friends and neighbours will tell you, I sing a lot - very loud ;0)

The figure in the centre is my take on "the man in the maze" which represents a persons journey through life. My figure is drawn in turquoise for femininity and therefore represents me.


This was a wonderful exercise that I have thoroughly enjoyed doing.
It has given me quite a lot to think about.
More than that, the group that has come together to do this is so very talented and friendly it is going to be great fun to work with them. The other mandala's are fantastic too, have a look here!

9 comments:

Terri Stegmiller said...

What a great mandala, Alis. The meanings and ideas behind your design are great.

Annica said...

Your mandala is beautiful! I very much enjoyed reading about your thoughts and ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing your fabric mandala.

Val said...

It's lovely Alis. Hope you do finish the fabric one, although I must admit I can't see anything wrong with this one! Just beautiful.

Joolz said...

just beautiful!

Kari said...

I love it ALis, Love the triple spiral especially. Look forward to seeing the fabric one, will you sew on it too?
Hugs
Kari x

Lara Lorelei said...

Alis

Lovely work as always, and your expanation of the symbolism is just wonderful and clear, not like my ramblings.
Claire xx

Unknown said...

Alis your mandala is just wonderful and I love the explantion that you gave for your color choices and design...thanks so much for sharing your creativity..

Digitalgran said...

I can only repeat what the others have said Alis. It's a great Mandala and I just love your explanation of how you got there.

Jill said...

Beautiful Alis and the meanings so well explained and expressed in your work. I too look forward to seeing the stitched one. Seems I may just have to invest in this book ;o)
Jill x