Mandalas

Mandalas are a unique art form – My Mum, Joyce was overjoyed to find a creative outlet for her frustration and worry when my Dad, Andrew was put into long term care several years ago. Joyce found that concentrating on the repetitive shapes took her mind off the concerns of everyday living and gave her some respite.

After putting the ones that she had mailed to me away for quite a while, when looking at them again, I was struck by how so many of the designs resembled my favorite plant group, the succulents! Others are definitely organic, and resemble other plant structures. You tell me what they look like!

I’m so pleased to offer this extensive collection of drawings in groups of 10 for $28.00, plus shipping. I suggest you use them for decoupage on a wooden box, or tray. Colour them in your choice of media; felt pen, pencil crayon or paint. They also make wonderful art projects for children, who love the twirly effects like a kaleidoscope. I could see them used as sun catchers, copied into glass, or as the foundation for embroidered pillows or quilting projects. Please send me pictures of your projects to put on this site as inspiration for others.

Please note that the mandalas are all numbered and dated!

Correspondence from Joyce about the mandalas:

March 13 2001

Here are some of my earlier mandalas. I keep on doing them and they keep on changing. The ones with the design in the corner are to be folded for notelets….

You will see a couple of my mandalas are vortexes and the one I drew that night (she’s referring to an episode that happened with Andrew wanting to go home from his long term care facility – Jacki) was another vortex. It is really interesting what comes out as you explore the circle. Cat showed me some of her drawings last night and of course she has lots of her painted mandalas about. It was interesting to see how different our ideas are, we could even exhibit together if we wanted!

May 23 2001

Here are more mandalas, hope you enjoy looking at them. I like some more than others, but it is still surprising how different they all are….
71 - Has the appearance of flax on distaffs.
72 - After reading a book set in Northern Queensland which described the flora.
73 – All the question marks after seeing Cat’s exhibition!
74 – After meeting an East Indian man at the 7-eleven and talking about Iraq and Jordan to him.

And so it goes on, some are nicer than others, guess I am depressed sometimes and designs are not so pretty – what can I say!

It is interesting how some have a lot of movement, usually the vortex variations and others are very static, yet others have a lot of depth. All in all it’s been good experience, hope you enjoy them.

63 – Embroidery?

Joyce lives in Tatla Lake B.C. and enjoys (is addicted to!) fibre arts such as knitting, spinning, weaving and felting; bird watching and drawing. Andrew passed away in November 2006 in Williams Lake.