"Flower Mandala"
For over six years I have used the practice of drawing mandalas as a form of meditation. This discipline helped me to keep my head and my heart in the right place during what was a pretty rough period in my life. When I look back at my drawings from those years, I am transported right back to the time and place in which they were drawn. When I began drawing mandalas I had no idea that doing so could be or would become such a powerful tool for me.
I still draw mandalas every now and then, but not nearly as regularly as I once did. Photography has taken their place as my creative discipline. In the past few weeks, however, I have discovered that there is a way for me to meld photography and mandalas. The above image is a mandala made from a photo that I took of some flowers on our patio. I love the image itself, but even more so, I love that it becomes a jumping off point for meditation. What is this image saying to me? How is the Creator speaking through it to me? I am looking forward to continuing my experimentation with turning my photographs into mandalas.
While playing tonight, or is that praying? Whatever I was doing, I also created this image. To me it looks like an illuminated "E" and makes me think of my baby, E3 :-)
