Hello again. Since I have started posting to Instagram (and it is so easy) I have neglected my blog. I want to do some catching up. When the pandemic started I bought a large sheet of hot press watercolor paper and started making a very large Zentangled mandala. I still have not finished shading it, but this year I want to finish things. I have developed a daily art practice over the last 10 months and would like to share what I have made with you.

The piece on the left is called Illuminated Journey and is a large (24×36 inches) mixed media collage that I made for a call for art. The call for art was a presentation to a hotel chain that was looking for art by local artists. Our art association didn’t have anything else going on, so we put up a show with a lot of different styles of art. It turned out that they were looking for landscapes and traditional representational art, but it inspired me to make this piece so I’m happy with the outcome. I put a lot of work into it and didn’t have an end in mind so it kept evolving. The inspiration for it is a book I got from the high school library purge that occurred while I was in my residency at North High School. The book is called Victorian Inventions by Leonard de Vries. If you look at the details in the close up pictures you can see a wide variety of transportation related inventions.

The backgrounds of the six small mandalas include vintage book pages that I wrote over with a blue pen. I saw an old journal with small blue writing in it that really looked interesting. I’m always on the lookout for interesting ways to write in my journals and art without it being legible and this is a new favorite. The mandalas that have black circles as a background include an unusual textural element, a circle of chipboard covered with black gesso and the netting that vegetables come in. It was kind of tricky to do, especially in a circle, but I love the effect and plan to play with it in the future.

I hope you have some beauty in your day.