Sunday, October 5, 2014

Mandala #4 -- Working with situations that used to baffle us


























































This mandala took on a life of its own much more than the previous ones. No matter what I did, I couldn't make it work the way I wanted it to. After I made a decision to fill in some of the background with the shade of green called "hedgerow" (the green that had originally been only a thin border line), the pencil kept breaking off. In the far distant past, having a drawing feel like a failure could bring me to tears. Years later, I learned that when it seems as if a drawing or painting is "ruined," I can keep going with it, letting the "ruined" part lead the way.  Below is an example of that phenomenon. "Self-Portrait with Brothers of Mercy and Night Falling From The Sky" was painted in gouache and watercolor in 1990 during the First Gulf War:















As I was working on this one, I left the room for a few minutes.  When I returned, the wet paint in the sky had dripped down into the ocean and the wave. After a moment of shock, I went with what had happened and turned the drips into the bars of a cage or prison bars. The painting had a life of its own. This is the painting that my mother asked if she could buy. I offered to give it to her. She insisted on paying for it. When one of my father's brothers saw it on a visit from Minnesota, he said, "Your daughter is a philosopher." Unless I said something, it never occurred to anyone that it had not been my intention for there to be bars between the three people and the ocean, but when faced with that dripping paint, I made a decision to use it.

With Mandala #4, I felt that "hedgerow" had taken over the mandala and "ruined" it.  Although "hedgerow" looked fine when used sparingly, I didn't at all like seeing so much of it. Suddenly it occurred to me to play with the colors using iPhoto, including seeing what the mandala would look like in black and white. When I arranged the black and white version with a version I preferred to the original version, I found that I liked the way that the three of them looked together. "Hedgerow" no longer looked so awful to me.

Still, I like the third version best.

Oboe remains noncommittal:















5 comments:

The Solitary Walker said...

A fascinating insight into the artistic process, Am.

Sabine said...

Your mandalas are so very impressive.

When you wrote about the list with all the different names of the pencils recently, I was reminded of the shade cards for knitting yarns:
http://www.knitrowan.com/yarns/rowan-finest

Anonymous said...

Love seeing these versions of the same (yet different) mandala. The painting with the sky dripping is quite spectacular. Wow!

am said...

Thank you, Solitary Walker, Sabine and robin andrea.

Solitary Walker -- Always a baffling process (-:

Sabine -- Oh yes! Funny the associations that go with color. The yarn called "Charm" is something like "hedgerow."

robin andrea -- Makes me wonder what my mother would have been doing now with iPhoto and her mandalas. It meant so much to me that she hung that painting in her bedroom.

am said...

Thank you, Solitary Walker, Sabine and robin andrea.

Solitary Walker -- Always a baffling process (-:

Sabine -- Oh yes! Funny the associations that go with color. The yarn called "Charm" is something like "hedgerow."

robin andrea -- Makes me wonder what my mother would have been doing now with iPhoto and her mandalas. It meant so much to me that she hung that painting in her bedroom.