Joan Lansberry's Mandala Process
How will each new one evolve? It is the JOY OF DISCOVERY!
(from my journal Weighty Matters:)
August 16, 2001 - B
"New Mandala"
I was looking at various mandalas on the web, and I saw so many beautiful, inspiring ones. I am impressed with how evocative they can be, and went to sleep last night with images of mandalas floating in my head. In the morning, I had to see what I might create. Today's effort is now the most favorite of my efforts.
I hope I'm inspired to do another soon.
August 22, 2001
"Another Mandala"
Pleased, I am, to have made another mandala! This time, I wanted to take the spontaneous approach of the 'doodle' mandalas, and combine it with color. I was fairly pleased with my result.
not bad . . .
But then I got to playing around with it in Picture Publisher. I was surprised how much better I like the altered version.
better . . .
It's gone into my mandala pages, as I am pleased with it. In my
web journeys, I've been quite impressed with the immense variety of mandalas out there. Some even make my efforts seem raw and unpolished. But I think my mandalas have an unique strength. They seem to hold up well as an organic whole. Many of those spellbinding creations out there were created from a splinter of a digital photograph, and then arranged kaleidoscope wise. Some are exquisitely pretty, but it all goes to the fragmented original. I start with the whole square (or circle), and work each addition as an evolutionary process. That's the joy of creating them, to watch them as they evolve. I never know when I begin, just what the finished product will look like. It becomes the joy of discovery. I hope my viewers find each of them unique in their approach at the moment of creation.
August 23, 2001
"Some Call It Art"
Some Call It Art
The juxtaposition point
isn't where you think it is.
It's that fine sense point
that needs refining.
A surer edge,
a crisper clarity,
a more balanced symmetry,
WE would be balanced,
symmetrical,
send our parts to the four
corners of the earth
with such fine evenness.
WE would do this,
and make of our lives,
an art.
And thus, through the ages,
ancient wise ones
have painted,
drawn in sand,
and etched in crystal
symbolic blue prints
for life.
Some call it art.
JAL, 8 - 22 -01
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from ''The Art Of Transformation''
July 17, 2003, revised August 3, 2003
(from my journal Markings Along The Path, after discussing an event which made me very angry:
So herewith is my expression of ANGER:
Angry!
(Click on picture to see full size)
Making the mandala was a wonderfully cathartic experience. I have made something BEAUTIFUL out of something that was PAINFUL. This is one aspect of TRANSFORMATION I find especially HEALING.
There is a deep reason why the making of mandalas is so satisfying. It is Ma'at bringing forth ORDER out of CHAOS. A mandala site declares:
The mandala is a template for the mind, a state of peace and order, a resolution to the chaos within. In Jung's words, "The severe pattern imposed by a circular [or quadra-symmetrical] image of this kind compensates the disorder and confusion of the psychic state-- namely, through the construction of a central point to which everything is related." (p.4, Jung, C.G. Mandala Symbolism. Translated by R.F.C. Hull. Bollingen Series/Princeton, 1959) ('Quadra-symmetrical' is my addition, as mandalas need not possess circular elements.)
The process of mandala making is one of evolution, the very essence of Xeper, also spelled Kheper , which means 'willed conscious evolution'. As I begin one, I have no idea of how it will evolve. The choice of background color in turn calls for the initial element, which then calls the secondary element, which continues like this until I sense balance and wholeness between all aspects.
Go to Gallery of newer mandalas?
Go to Gallery of older mandalas?
©Joan Lansberry, all rights reserved
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