VivTown, Population: 1

  

   

This is a mandala I created during the first snowstorm of the season, which happened to fall on the Winter Solstice. It was warm and toasty at the kitchen table and yummy food was being cooked while I painted. I made a wish for all my dear ones while I sat there dipping my tiny brush into richly colored dabs of guache. This is the second mandala I’ve made in the past month. I have to say I relish making them. I love the mystery of not really knowing what it will look like until I’m done. It requires sitting still, sticking with the process. This mandala took me about 4 hours to complete. There were times during the process when I thought — this thing is ugly! But I knew it would become a thing of beauty (or, at least a thing) in the end, so I just kept going, as I am want to do — I just keep going.

Here’s another one I made:

As it happens, I made it on my oldest son’s  14th birthday. This one took about 3 hours. It was another snowy day (hmmmm there’s a pattern here) and we were hunkered down in the warm house with movies and various baked goods.  Every once in a while my son would peek in to my studio to see how it was progressing. At first, he wasn’t very impressed, but by the time it was finished, he thought it was totally cool.  Wishes for my son are inside this one: wishes for passion and zeal and love and health and humility.