Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Replenish the Coffers


8 x 11.5 Mixed Media Collage on pre-painted watercolor paper,
assorted fibers, german foil, Golden fluid acrylic

Mandala:
[Sanskrit maṇḍalam, circle.]
-in Jungian psychology a symbol representing the effort to reunify the self.
-any of various geometric designs (usually circular) symbolizing the universe; used chiefly in Hinduism and Buddhism, as an aid to meditation

This collage was to be 'MY' aid in meditation. My attempt at filling the coffers. The coffers = to my depleted spirit and deported demeanor. Now, I for one have never been able to sit still and meditate for more than 5 minutes before my mind goes off reeling in a million different directions. So I found that cutting pieces of paper, many pieces of paper for hours on end will serve this purpose.

Peacefully cutting, meandering in non-linear thought, merrily I go, snip-snip-snip in my euphoric state when all of a sudden in my zoned out overzealous cutting spree I took a chunk of my finger. Luckily for me, I was in that state where people can walk over hot coals and don't feel a thing. Hee..same idea, the pain didn't come but the blood did and in great amounts. Barbie bandaid to the rescue as evidenced by this pic below: (forgive me while this is not my index fingers best side)


I restored my sense of peace and resumed... snip-snip-snip. Now, my next step in mindfulness training was to randomly, incohesively fashion these snippets of colorful papers, asst. cut up greeting cards, wrapping paper, vintage text and fibers into a circle utilizing a watercolor painting I had done awhile back but was not fond of (never throw this stuff away). Now I admit, the one thought that did cross my mind was that I wanted the background of this colorful circle to eventually be black so the color would vibrantly stand out.

I stayed with this process quietly, delicately placing snippet over snippet until my circle was complete. I was now ready for the finale, the layer of black paint to cover the existing watercolor. As I began randomly, splashing black paint over exposed color I noticed what appeared to be a bird emerging in the bottom left hand corner. My 'aha' moment, so I worked around the color in black and my bird came to be.

My zen state is just about resonating to an end when my container of Golden Carbon Black paint launches out of my hand and in sssllloooowww motioooon finds it's way to the white stone tile floor exploding all over my walls, face and clothing. Now let me say that for a short moment I was back in that "hot coal walking state" when I got up and decided to take a paper towel the size of a postage stamp to clean up this mess...then fight or flight kicked in and I realized I'm in trouble and need more Brawny.

Now this is a sure fire way to crack the meditative code. Let me now tell you as a sidenote: WARNING! do not let Golden Carbon Black Paint sit for ANY length of time on any surface especially white stone floors as this paint does not move as quickly as it does when you squeeze it out of the bottle.

Next meditation aid: clean floors on hands and knees scrubbing with scouring pad to get black out of grout and off of tile. Oh, grasshopper!

I learned patience.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! My other blogspot: "The Way I See It"

18 comments:

Paula J Atkinson said...

I find this piece of art very restful. You can get lost staring into the depth of the colours & shapes.

Kris Cahill said...

Awesome and hilarious post! And a fabulous collage too.

Though I have only recently found you, I enjoy what you do so much that I have something for you on my blog, 'Art & Clairvoyance'. Please stop by to pick it up.

Thank you.

dawn said...

the band-aid even goes with your beautiful collage.

K Hutchinson said...

What a beautiful piece! The textures and the colors are wonderful!

Julie Prichard said...

sweet mary! This is amazing. YOU are amazing!! I love how the bird magically appeared. This is a glorious page..I really mean it!

John M. Mora said...

Strong and lovely page and a great story interwined. The bird is the perfect anchor.

We all need Brawny sometime.

Irene said...

That was a very amusing story about the creation of a mandala. I am sorry that your finger and the tile and the grout had to suffer as a consequence. But you did have some nice meditative moments and that's what counts. I admire people who have patience to create intricate pieces of art. Who can be patient in the process. Apparently your art is meditative to you, so that's a good thing.

Corinne said...

What a beautiful piece of artwork. You will never forget the process in making this one. You know after meditation it is always humbling to do work (housework), so there you go. You meditated fully today!!

Evidence of an Artistic Life said...

Thank you for stopping by my blog-I am really enjoying yours! Great variety of wonderful art! So much eye candy!!
chris p

ginny said...

Great post...I could just picture myself doing what you were doing but not saying it as well!

Trijnie said...

Its so interesting to read the creatingproces.
The result is realy beautiful
Trijnie

Sanja said...

love your collage!beautiful work als always! :-)

Christine LeFever said...

Bloody awful! But, that band-aid is really cool.

So how is your depleted spirit and your deported demeanor? I would fathom very well considering the journey and the end accomplishment. Way groovy!

Christine

Unknown said...

your mandala is exquisite. your writing made me giggle.
~sue okieffe

dianeclancy said...

This is a wonderful mandala! And quite a story to go with it!! A lot of fun ... in the telling, not the doing.

~ Diane Clancy
www.dianeclancy.com/blog

Ann Christine Dennison said...

:-)))))
Oh dear so much for mediation!
I love the resulting mandala.
I do hope you managed to get your white stone floor completely clean again!

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