Mandala Making Magic
This week the Creative Oasis Day Trippers headed to PigmentSchool of the Arts to make our own mandalas. I’ll be the first to admit that Idon’t spend as much time playing with visual art projects as I’d like. I tendto gravitate toward writing and music for my personal creative time, but Istill enjoy making collages and water coloring, ect…
That’s why it’s so wonderful to have a group like the DayTrippers that gives me the opportunity to make a creative play date and diveinto something I normally wouldn’t – such as creating my own beautiful mandalaand inviting others to join me!
Tori Pendergrass who runs Pigment School of the Artsprovided us with a basic outline, loads of great art supplies to play with andgentle guidance when we need it. I provided a creative pre-trip prompt thatasked us to consider what we may want our mandalas to represent. (and also gavefull permission to just have fun with it and forget the representative part ifthat didn’t resonate) I’m very attracted to mandalas and their many meanings,hence my Creative Oasis Coaching™ logo!
A few of Tori’s weekly adult students were also in thestudio space with us. The atmosphere was inspiring, congenial and chatty.Creative camaraderie was another reason I created the Day Trippers. It’s so niceto get out and meet other like-minded creative spirits. (I wish I had takenmore photos – but I was pretty wrapped up in making my mandala.)
Our two hours of drawing, doodling, cutting, gluing,painting, chatting and sharing creative inspiration flew by and this is my endresult. I got to play with collage, tissue paper, watercolors, colored pencilsand glue! To me, my mandala represents organic growth, radiating positiveenergy in life, natural balance (rather than perfection), and joy! But it wasalso simply a blast to create. There was no pressure for it to be one thing oranother. All of our mandalasturned out so differently and so beautifully. (again – I wish I’d taken morephotos!) Here's mine:
How would it be to make your own magical low-pressuremandala? Lowest pressure? Simply draw a circle on a piece of scrap paper anddoodle it in. Have a little more time to play? Draw a circle on a piece ofcardstock and use a variety of materials to fill in the space. It can be asymmetricalor not. It can use one medium or five. It can be one color or many. The mainthing is to just have fun. Time a concern? How would it be to set a timer andgive yourself just ten minutes to see what you come up with? If you’re havingfun and have the time – you can keep going. If you’re having fun, but need towrap it up, what if you came back for ten more minutes the next day?
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| My Mini-Mandala on tiny post-it note created in less than 30 seconds! |
For follow-up ideas as to what we might do with ourmandalas I shared these “what ifs”:
What if you posted your mandala on your fridge for the nextweek to remind you how good it feels to take time out for creative play?
What if you cut your mandala up and created a collage or acard to share with it?
What if you wrote a poem or song or created a dance inspiredby your mandala?
If you live in the DFW area, I hope you’ll join me and theCreative Oasis Day Trippers for future outings. If you don’t, I hope you’llconsider scheduling a creative trip of your own very soon.
Until next time, all the best from my creative oasis toyours,
Jill
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