Craftours Lifestyles Magazine December 2018 | Page 29

o
Love:
ndalas awakened my creative joy.
of Japanese watercolor paints. These would
be two ingredients that led to my creative
re-awakening. While my friend puttered in
her garden, I sat on her deck and lost myself
in the feeling of the paintbrush as I swirled
and blended colors along the surface of
the paper. I awakened my sense of play as
I sprinkled salt or tapped scrunched up
plastic wrap on the page, and watched how
the wet paint dried in unexpected patterns.
Looking through this journal, you’ll find
mandalas, an art form where shapes and
colors often repeat from a center point.
I had learned about mandalas 17 years
earlier when I taught a high school graphic
design program. The art teacher on faculty
had studied art therapy, and recognized in
me a contemplative sort who would take
to creating mandalas for self expression
and insight. Mandalas would appear in
my art over the years, but it wasn’t until
this dark moment in my life when I felt
the comfort they can provide in times of
distress.  Painting the mandalas reminded
me how much I loved the creative process
and how much I didn’t want to give up on
life.
Five months later, I would launch the 100
Mandalas Challenge--a personal challenge
to create 100 mandalas in 100 days. I was
curious about how the mandalas that we
create reflect our inner landscape of ideas
and feelings. If I created a mandala each
day, what would I find? What stories would
surface? At that point, I had been blogging
for six years and invited my friends from
around the world to join me in this challenge.
I committed to posting something new each
week to fuel our shared curiosity and give
us ideas for our mandala practice. The more
I explored the topic, the more I fell in love
with it. There was so much to discover;
from different ways to construct mandalas
to finding examples of circular art in every
culture. Showing up each day led me to find
my voice. I gained clarity and confidence,
and tapped into a place of peace and joy that
resides deep within each of us. By sharing
this creative journey with others, I opened a
door for thousands all over the world, many
of whom were looking for a creative way to
find their own peace and joy in the midst
of the challenges that life was serving them.
What I love most about the mandala is
how it’s accessible to everyone. I often hear
people say that they can’t even draw a stick
figure and that they are not creative. Within
15 minutes, I show them that they are, in
fact, creative; they too can experience the
joy of drawing mandalas.