THE COVID MONTHS | MANDALA

Julie Harding the Curator of Northern Guild proudly showcases the Mandala Project co-ordinated by Anna-Lou Lambie.

The response to Anna-Lou Mandala Project has been warming and so interesting to collate.  I would like to thank her and all the students who took part for their generosity and patience in working with the project. I sent everyone an e-mail asking them for a few words to explain their Mandala. This is what they say.

Anna-Lou

I Listened

‘Getting an idea for a project, letting it go out into public and then bringing it back into my personal work is always an interesting process. I had to get into the moment and really let go of the bigger project picture which was actually easy for me because I love Mandalas! There is something so utterly supportive of a circle that means, for me, I can fully let go and express my feeling in that moment and have it held completely on the page.

Working through this mandala and reflecting on the pandemic was an interesting moment. I felt layers that had to be seen and had to interact with each other. In working with a large amount of water I had to let go of how the final piece would turn out which reflected the situation perfectly. Will the colours be as dense? Will they fade? Will they change? I had no control nor idea. Interestingly the piece named itself ‘I LISTENED’. The name reflects for me the part of the pandemic which was purely about sitting and observing. Letting in what has happened and sensing into how that interacts with me internally. I feel that this piece reflects how I felt in that moment. I feel that I listened.

Stuart and his Partner Mirren

Stuart

‘I love creative stuff but rarely have the time to sit down and dedicate myself to something like this, but I'm on the course and this is right up my alley so it was lush to do, especially the two of us  together.

I sat down with our big box of art and crafts stuff along with special items that popped up whilst I was looking round the house. It was really beautiful to just allow creativity to flow and see what emerged- it skirts the edge between fear and excitement perfectly. I feel the vibrant colors represent boldness and there is a lot of order, albeit in a kaleidoscopic way. I feel hypnotic when I look at it, almost as if it's one of those moving optical illusions, but then I focus on the little Hindu God in the Centre and feel very still and at peace.

 Mirren

 ‘I drew from the soul with intention to feel. It represents my core value of embracing imperfection as its own authentic beauty standard opposed to symmetry. I used candles given by a close friend for the hexagon shapes, a stone Mayan calendar to complete the outline of the mandala, a tree of life earring for the top and bottom chain and some lighter wood for the outline. It all came naturally

when looking at the objects I had chosen, where to place them, as they chose me.

Reflecting on the year, I feel the mandala represents the vortex from my inner and outer world. My

perceived need for containment as a form of security. But I can appreciate the beauty of the chaos

and unknown, feeling slightly saddened I felt the need to contain the mandala within a rigid border!

The spirals are something I usually draw along with the figure of eight which fill the spaces between.

Overall a brilliant exercise which I got a lot out of.

 Matt

‘My mandala was not much more than a doodle really but I like doodling like this - in a semi-structured way - as so often they seem to give an insight into whatever unconscious processes are going on.

I'd got some biscuit cutting rings from the baking drawer and the sizes of the two circles I used just felt right, giving a narrow band and then lots of room in the middle. The outside being graphic in black and white while the inside was full of colour felt inevitable. When I was little we used to use a compass to draw curves within a circle which if done correctly would give a symmetrical flower like shape and I did something similar, using one of the cutters to make the curves instead of a compass. That it didn't become a perfect symmetrical shape felt fine - it felt abstract and more interesting. Using the colours like I did, almost randomly filling each section, is something I've found myself doing a bit of recently and it reminds me of stained glass.

So there is a real contrast between the two areas. The outer monochrome, ordered, controlled, while the inner is colourful, fragmented and free. I’ll leave you to read your own meanings into it. But I do find it interesting that the black and white triangular shapes seem to be pointing towards the centre. Maybe there's a connection with me choosing to send you my mandala?’

 Nic

‘Throughout this last year, many of us have been looking for those rays of hope that seem to have been gently stretching their way onto our morning windows. As the summer sun starts to work its way closer to us, we start to say goodbye to the spring of 2021 and the last fifteen months of disruption, uncertainty, and confusion.  Managing the ups and downs has been difficult and for many of us will still continue to be part of our lives as it ever was. I can recall difficult times at work, with family, trying to find the time for my own needs, and balancing my own happiness and struggling with disruption, uncertainty, and confusion in all of that.

I sit down to create this mandala, thinking of the last fifteen months and all the people that have been part of this time in my life, pre and post Covid. I think of all the children I have adventured with and adults that have journeyed bravely into their own past, present, and exploring their futures.  I feel content to take this time to think of them and the impact they have also had on me. I take my time to run through the process shown by Anna-Lou remembering to breathe with my thoughts. I take my time to collect objects around me taking in the experience of reflecting on this global experience effecting all of us.

I can feel the sun shining down and decide to add the yellow sun into the background of my picture. I noticed there were blue items all around me in the objects I had collected, each small and delicate.  I began drawing my circle and patterns started to emerge. My phone pings loudly in this silent process. My friend had text a picture. It was an unexpected black and white picture. It disturbed the work I was doing which left me uncertain and confused as to what it was. I put down my drawing and took a closer look. It was a sonogram, she was having a baby.

Joy filled my heart for her and the life she was sharing with me. What adventures awaited this child? What would I learn from them and them me? What a powerful sense of hope I suddenly felt rush through me for the future. I looked over at my mandala and could see this was almost at a close yet something was missing. It was missing the something in the middle the heart of the picture. I decided to add my friend`s baby feet to the centre. The child who was coming into the world during disruption, uncertainty, and confusion.

Nothing felt confusing about this child. I had yet to meet them yet I felt a certainty that I would protect them. A clarity that I felt love for them and their mother. I felt a sense of calm in embracing them into this art work rather than feeling disrupted by their presence. In this moment of calm, reflective peace, mother and baby had inadvertently shown me that while the world is constantly changing, it’s the changes that make it so beautiful, exciting, and worth exploring. This mandala gave me the opportunity to explore my own inner peace. It was always there. I had been disrupting it with my own uncertainties and causing myself confusion in the process. My moments slowed with the creation of this mandala so I could recognise that these moments we share together are worth slowing down for.

Shonadh

‘The definition of Nodus Tollens is the realisation that the plot of your life doesn't make sense to you anymore. This was how I arrived into lockdown having been training at the Guild for 5 years.

Lockdown gave me space, permissions, freedom, time to breathe, and the silence I needed to make changes. It had taken the world being in crisis for me to give myself the permission and to recognise the feeling of Monachopsis which is defined as the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place, as maladapted to your surroundings as a seal on a beach—lumbering, clumsy, easily distracted, unable to recognise the ambient roar of your intended habitat, in which you’d be fluidly, brilliantly, effortlessly at home.

I have changed everything. My Nurturing Parent has ridden in on a white horse with crowds cheering and rescued my Free Child, I celebrate how differently I think, I've allowed myself to be clever, to stand up for myself and to be seen. 

I am filled with enouement: the bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self. But I am a time traveller and I know that my twenty three year old self would have felt this energy from future me and hung on for her beautiful life. 

Anyone know the word which defines the ambient roar of your intended habitat, in which you’re fluidly, brilliantly effortlessly at home? That’s where I’m headed.

 Julie

‘I made my Mandala/ medicine wheel as a form of meditation to help me release new intentions into the world, to soothe calm and heal myself and those others who need it also.

I came across this quote while I was reading and want to share it with you all.

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty”

Walter Sullivan, “The Einstein Papers: A Man of Many Parts,” The New York Times, March 29,1972

‘I would like to Thank Anna-Lou for this creative and inspiring idea and her work designing the exercise. And a massive thank you to all of the participants who took part and shared their creativite visisons.

Please take a few moments to share your own feelings and thoughts in the comments box below. We would love to hear from you.