Greetings! Thank you for visiting Orange Spiral Arts!
Today's post is a meeting summary about the September 2019 MN Visual Journal Collective gathering at Wet Paint.
Our meeting topic was the mandala. Briana (one of the co-facilitators of the MN Visual Journal Collective) shared some resources and personal journals where she used mandalas and journaling as a way toward self-discovery and healing.
Briana recommends the online teachings of Julie Gibbons, who taught The Great Round, based on The Mandala Workbook by Susanne F. Fincher, and offers a variety of online workshops centering around the mandala. (Ha! Did you catch that pun?)
Here are some of the resources shared by Briana.
The Mandala Workbook by Susanne F. Fincher.
Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing by Judith Cornell
Creating Personal Mandalas: Story Circle Techniques in Watercolor and Mixed Media by Cassia Cogger
Here's a free tutorial by Cassia Cogger for creating a gratitude mandala.
Briana also mentioned a more structured form of creating mandalas called Yantra painting. Find out more here.
Next, the floor was opened up to participants at the meeting to share their experiences with creating mandalas.
Nell shared her experience with making mandalas at the beginning of a class she took at Split Rock Arts Program many years ago. She said that participants enjoyed the mandala process as a way into the day so much, that often students would also create one at the end of their session. Nell also shared the following mandala book by Kathryn Costa.
Kathy shared some mandalas she is working on for a class on mindfulness and meditation at the White Bear Center for the Arts.
Linda talked about traveling solo in Alaska, and using a mandala making practice as a way to document her experiences of the day.
Kari shared a similar idea of gathering experiences and nature items from a trip and placing them into a mandala in her travel journal.
Lakin shared how she spent a year creating a mandala a day, and then used her images as gift wrap. Currently Lakin enjoys the Koala Tools circular grid journals available at Wet Paint.
Heather mentioned an interest in the dot mandala making process where you use a set of tools of varying sizes to create your dot patterns. This process is helping her let go of imperfection, as any mistakes tend to get magnified as the pattern grows.
Karena shared her expressive art created where mandalas just sort of showed up in her work.
Thank you so much to everyone who shared a visual or a story about how you use mandalas in your creative process. It's so good to see and hear about a variety of examples.
After this initial group sharing, we all worked in our journals for about 45 minutes, and mandala making was encouraged.
Here's everyone hard at work and in their creative zone.
At the end of our meeting, participants were invited to share the mandalas they just created, or any other visual journaling work. This is always such a fun part of the night. Everyone's work is so inspiring to see and hear about! Thank you everyone!
Nell shared her mandala and also mentioned the Sketchbook Project from the Brooklyn Art Library in New York. Find out more here.
Carol used water-soluble pencils for her mandala.
Carol also does fiber journals, as she is a quilter. She generously passed it around for everyone to see and touch.
Below is Linda's mandala from the night. She was reflecting on some labyrinth walks she took in Arizona.
Nan shared some recent paper printing work she did in a class in Duluth, MN.
Molly shared her mandalas from the night, as well as her altered collage journal. Molly is teaching at Artistry MN in Bloomington this fall. Look under Fiber for Altered Book Art Journaling with Molly Anthony.
Briana is offering several classes at Wet Paint this fall. She also has classes online on this Orange Spiral Arts site. Thank you in advance for your interest and support.
Briana's Classes at Wet Paint, Fall 2019
Getting Started with Visual Journaling-3 Wednesdays, October 9, 16, 23, 10:30am-1:30pm Fee $126
Introduction to Abstract Alcohol Inks-Saturday, October 19, 10am-12pm Fee $56 (includes kit + yupo)
Introduction to Abstract Alcohol Inks-Tuesday, November 12, 5:30pm-7:30pm Fee $56 (includes kit + yupo)
Liquid Watercolor Mandalas-Sunday, November 17, 1pm-4pm Fee $48
Introduction to Abstract Alcohol Inks-Ages 11+ -Sunday, December 29, 3pm-5pm $56 (includes kit + yupo)
You are always welcome to call Wet Paint to register for a class. 651-698-6431
Briana's current online class is Introduction to Abstract Alcohol Ink Art. I cover a lot more territory than the 2-hour in person workshop at Wet Paint. This class makes a great addition to the live class.
More of Briana's online classes can be found by clicking the "Learn" tab from OrangeSpiralArts.com or by clicking here.
You are never too young or too old to experiment with art supplies!
You and your creativity matter.
Thanks so much for reading this post!
Sending Blessings and Gratitude to You,
Briana
