This week the Creative Oasis Day Trippers headed to PigmentSchool of the Arts to make our own mandalas. I’ll be the first to admit that I
don’t spend as much time playing with visual art projects as I’d like. I tend
to gravitate toward writing and music for my personal creative time, but I
still enjoy making collages and water coloring, ect…
That’s why it’s so wonderful to have a group like the DayTrippers that gives me the opportunity to make a creative play date and dive
into something I normally wouldn’t – such as creating my own beautiful mandala
and inviting others to join me!
Tori Pendergrass who runs Pigment School of the Arts
provided us with a basic outline, loads of great art supplies to play with and
gentle guidance when we need it. I provided a creative pre-trip prompt that
asked us to consider what we may want our mandalas to represent. (and also gave
full permission to just have fun with it and forget the representative part if
that didn’t resonate) I’m very attracted to mandalas and their many meanings,
hence my Creative Oasis Coaching™ logo!
A few of Tori’s weekly adult students were also in the
studio space with us. The atmosphere was inspiring, congenial and chatty.
Creative camaraderie was another reason I created the Day Trippers. It’s so nice
to get out and meet other like-minded creative spirits. (I wish I had taken
more photos – but I was pretty wrapped up in making my mandala.)
Our two hours of drawing, doodling, cutting, gluing,
painting, chatting and sharing creative inspiration flew by and this is my end
result. I got to play with collage, tissue paper, watercolors, colored pencils
and glue! To me, my mandala represents organic growth, radiating positive
energy in life, natural balance (rather than perfection), and joy! But it was
also simply a blast to create. There was no pressure for it to be one thing or
another. All of our mandalas
turned out so differently and so beautifully. (again – I wish I’d taken more
photos!) Here's mine:
How would it be to make your own magical low-pressure
mandala? Lowest pressure? Simply draw a circle on a piece of scrap paper and
doodle it in. Have a little more time to play? Draw a circle on a piece of
cardstock and use a variety of materials to fill in the space. It can be asymmetrical
or not. It can use one medium or five. It can be one color or many. The main
thing is to just have fun. Time a concern? How would it be to set a timer and
give yourself just ten minutes to see what you come up with? If you’re having
fun and have the time – you can keep going. If you’re having fun, but need to
wrap it up, what if you came back for ten more minutes the next day?
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| My Mini-Mandala on tiny post-it note created in less than 30 seconds! |
For follow-up ideas as to what we might do with our
mandalas I shared these “what ifs”:
What if you posted your mandala on your fridge for the next
week to remind you how good it feels to take time out for creative play?
What if you cut your mandala up and created a collage or a
card to share with it?
What if you wrote a poem or song or created a dance inspired
by your mandala?
If you live in the DFW area, I hope you’ll join me and the
Creative Oasis Day Trippers for future outings. If you don’t, I hope you’ll
consider scheduling a creative trip of your own very soon.
Until next time, all the best from my creative oasis to
yours,
Jill
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