As Promised, More Catch Up

I must say...and I probably said this the last time I posted, but I don't remember, so I'll say it again.
The recovery from my procedure on Monday has been much more difficult than anticipated.  I've had this done before, and it wasn't really a big deal.  This time...Big Deal.
But I've been trying desperately to create..what I can while being flat on my back, in bed.


My husband, the computer genius that he is, figured out how to get the pictures out of ArtRage.  Still, not sure how I feel about this program.  One thing that drives me bonkers...I keep loosing my cursor.  I have no idea where I am.  Then I have to search and find myself....what a strange thing to say.


Lately, I've been thinking about Mandala's.  The World Dictionary defines Mandala as:

— n
1. Hindu & Buddhist art  any of various designs symbolizing the universe, usually circular
2. psychol  such a symbol expressing a person's striving for unity of the self (in Jungian psychology)


I have always been fascinated by Mandala's.  I they fascinate me, and I can get lost in them.  In college, we had an assignment, to do a mirror image design of something in nature.  I chose a fish.  Our next assignment was to put it in a segmented circular design...I didn't realize I was creating my first mandala.  I often find myself drawing in circles, or with patterns.  They aren't mandalas, but they both have their roots in that study.

Here's what I accomplished this rest of this week:

I was playing with ArtRage making some patterns.
I liked this one, but I couldn't figure out how to get the bullseye out of the center....

As you can see, getting rid of the bullseye was harder than I thought.
I ended up blending the paint together (of course if I wanted to d that I couldn't.)

Again, Playing with ArtRage. (something easy to do when stuck in bed)
You know usually when I do create a picture I like, but don't know...there's just something about it that's not quite right.
I'll do it again and normally, I like the second one better...not this time....

I changed the background texture on this one.  And the colors just a little bit...

put in some more grass...and made the leaves swirl (thought I liked that, until I looked at the first one)

The leaves are too small.  The grass is too much...it's simply not as good.  Oh well.

Here is the finished Mandala that was working on.  Please forgive that it's not proportional.

I did this all free-hand, it started out as just a little doodle, but I really like how it turned out.

This is my circle of life.  The center are the roots in the earth.  The blue is the water.  The light yellow green, represents birth.  The red is the vigor of life.  The dark between birth and the vigor of life are thorns.  They represent the hardness of life.  For some of us, our illnesses, others the death of a loved one, war, famine... 

Ah, but the purple are the wings of angels  (the ones we meet on earth, and otherwise).  And the dark yellow represents the stars in the sky.

I finished this mandala yesterday.  It made me feel good.  It was lovely to work on.  I've noticed while I'm working on a piece I don't notice my pain as much.  I'm proud at how much I've accomplished this week, while lying in bed.  The mandala I'm especially proud of.  I'm amazed I've was able to do it, with my head hurting so, and being so drugged up from the medication.

One last thing.  I only had a little to finish on the mandala yesterday, but didn't feel like starting a whole new project, so I colored.  It was such fun!

I hope you enjoy it, as much as I enjoyed coloring it.

You see, you don't have to be an artist for art to help.

Break out the coloring books, and the crayons (for my mother's 63rd birthday, I gave her a box of 64 crayons...you know the ones....the box with the sharpener built right in!  It was the biggest box you could buy when I was a kid.)

We had a ball with them.  And used them often when she was sick with cancer.  We would color, and do puzzles.  Such memories I have.

Robert Fulgham once said: “Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air--explode softly --and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth--boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn't go cheap, either--not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.” 

How wonderful is that!  Don't you deserve a box of 64?  I know you do!