Nature Mandala
Nature Mandala is a new series I am starting July 2013. My constant inspiration within my artwork is nature. I have come to the conclusion nature is my safe haven. I am a person who dislikes change and never deal with it well. Although nature is constantly changing, willingly or not, I am comfortable with it. When everything in my life is stressful, nature is where I can breathe. Nature is my sanctuary. Mandalas are used in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. They use these mandalas to create their own "sacred space." By using these mandalas to inspire me, I have decided for this new series I will be going into nature and creating mandalas using the materials I can find. I have been researching artists' works such as Andy Goldsworthy to give me ideas about mediums I can use within nature. The Buddhist monks pour the sand from their mandalas into rivers, oceans, etc to show the constant flow of nature. By using materials that I can only find in nature, I will also be using this approach.
This is the first mandala I created for my series. I don't want to create these mandalas in the same place. I decided to pick a place close to campus, the Hackler golf course. For this series, I will use whatever I find around me. I have been interested in trying this "nest" technique within the mandala. I think it was pretty successful. I like the use of different shades of green. Andy Goldsworthy uses value in his own work and I was inspired by it. The nest creates a comfortable, proctective feeling just like nature does for me within my artwork.
For my next two mandalas I stuck with the same place, but in different locations. I took the impermanence to the next level in this place. As I was trying to finish this mandala, a boat passed by and created waves. I was at first going to not use this as one of my mandalas, but it shows the cycle of nature so well. This could be a different path that I can take these mandalas in. Although I never destroy these mandalas, possibly I can create them and let time pass before taking the photo. This will show the cycle of nature in process.
For my next two pieces I chose to go to the beach. The image above is a mandala made out of rocks. I didn't get a final image of this piece prior to the waves. Like I said after my first four images, I wanted to start showing the process of the cycle of nature. Although this mandala is not enclosed or a perfect circle, I still see it as a successful piece. It shows the change and impermanence of nature that I've been wanting to show.
I'm starting to have trouble finding places to do my mandalas to make sure I have access to different materials. I also don't want to stay in the same location to these mandalas. As I drove past the mall today, I came across several types of leaves, flowers, grass, etc. I also wanted to try out Miranda's idea of putting it in a puddle or in this case a man-made pond with calmer water. I also had to work fast because I soon noticed a no trespassing sign next to the pond. I really like how simple this mandala is and how you can see the mandala breaking away, starting the cycle of nature.
For my final two mandalas, I decided to go to a location where I needed the most peace right now; school. I never realized how many types of plants and flowers our campus had which made it an even better location for my final mandalas. I really enjoyed the plants that have a similar color palette and wanted to use them within the same mandala. I did go back to this piece an hour later and it was left untouched so unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the cycle of nature. I really enjoy this mandala.
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For my next piece I went to the Wildlife Preserve up in Cherry grove to create it. I had more access to different materials this time around. I love using new leaves and dried leaves together to show the impermanence of life. That was the motive of the Buddhist monks when using the sand within their mandalas. Sand is so light and can be blown away by a slight breeze, but it always continues the flow of nature. I enjoyed using shells within this mandala. It's more relevant to the place we live.
Although I am not a big fan of insects, it was amazing to see the ants take over this piece as I was finishing it. I think of a campfire when looking at this piece which brings back that comfortable feeling from the first mandala. When I picked this location I didn't realize how limited I was in materials, but I feel like I accomplished this pretty well with that limitation. I really enjoy the brown and green together, they complement each other well. I created a layer of sand for the last layer of the mandala to keep it in enclosed just like the Buddhist Monks do to hold their spirits within the mandala or in other cases hold the universe together.
This mandala is made from parts of seashells. This one did remain in a circle after a wave came. I like the arrangement of of the seashells. This doesn't show a very vivid cycle of nature, but I think it shows the beginning of the process. The waves from the ocean are so unpredictable and its amazing to see how rocks can be taken faster than a small seashell. Nature has a mind of its own and the process is interesting to watch.
For this mandala, I wanted to stay away from the water. At this point I was worried about getting caught so I was in a bit of a rush. I was hoping to show the process of the nature cycle, but I didn't have enough time to wait. I do enjoy the yellow in the middle because I have yet to use yellow within my mandalas. I would have liked to put a little more time into the detail of this piece, but I still see it as a successful mandala. I hope to have more time to leave and come back to these mandalas in the future.
Within some of my artist inspirations, the spiral pattern has been a repeated pattern. I wanted to try this spiral pattern out for myself. I still consider this a mandala because of the implied circle. This is a very simple mandala, but I still think it is successful. I like the scale of value throughout the leaves. Spirals are seen as never ending and this relates to the continuous cycle nature goes through.
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