Artist Talk and an Introduction

We have a <3 Heartland: Artist Talk video. SCORE! This has been kindly edited to just my portion of speaking, but as you'll soon see, many others chimed in so it was more of a discussion, in the end. More than half of this video is in reference to the recent Art That Circles The Earth Exhibition at MICA PLACE.

I would also like to introduce you to Paula, who was one of the artists that showed with us, but whom I have not yet introduced to you. I was trying to figure out an appropriate way to do it without having an image of her personal art. But you know what? Paula has been my mentor for the past two years and if I know her at all, I know her through her speech, her conversation, her patterns of communication. SO, when you watch the video, Paula will pop in at some point and speak for awhile. There, whew, I feel so much better about sharing "Paula" before I share our mandala with you....which should be my next post, coming up soon.

Until then, please enjoy this video of me talking about art...the first half is the ATCTE exhibition and the second is my personal work, The Psychology of One. 

Please enjoy and SHARE!  And let me know what you think!

(it's technically unlisted, so you'll need this link to share) http://youtu.be/LFwVwW0g7UQ

So Far...

Hello Everyone! The mandala collection has been updated and added onto my flickr page. To see them all so far, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artinshanaty/sets/72157623028372536/

New Artist in the Fold

We have a new artist who will be participating in the ATCTE project! Brian Sylvester, sometimes known as Inkpunk Artworks  will be joining in the mandala making. Brain says he mainly works on canvas now, so we'll see what we get out of this collaboration! He is from the state of Massachusetts, it'll be a shorter jog for the mandalas to go between there and Maryland. Here are some examples of Brian's work (which I feel has quite the ethereal quality to it, despite the fact that there is such a controlled style in the rendering. Someone on his blog remarked that it was "Sacred Geometry". I tend to agree)...

And for some reason, I tried to comment on the last piece on his blog several times, but blogger seems to have not accepted any of them. I have no idea what happened there. So I'll say it here...the last piece is brilliant/gorgeous Brian!

Beauty and Chaos

So I have a blogger friend, someone whom I follow...Laura, on Beauty and Chaos. She's been taking these photos every day, usually of nature, but sometimes she has people. In general she's pretty outdoorsy, and I strongly suspect she's in college studying something science-y and biological. The other day, she took a photo of her slime mold, inside its circular, perti dish home, and I found it to be really cool. (It reminded me of some of my own 365.series watercolors.) And in addition to that, we get a good science-y lesson from her

She named her slime mold Leonard. Click the link, he's so worth it.

p.s. I also updated the blog, with better photos of Moma Luna's first round (the previous post). See the post, and better photos here.

Simplicity

I searched for "circle" on youtube. This came up on the first page, so I'm posting it. Who doesn't love The Lion King, huh?



I cheesily, just cried. More collaborative mandala pieces are coming soon, but until then, check out this link. An artists who uses nature as a medium. (sometimes in the shape of a circle)

Dung Balls (really)

"The scarab rolls his pellet, and life is born in it as an effect of nondispersed work of spiritual concentration. Now, even in manure an embryo can develop and cast his "terrestrial" skins, why would the dwelling of our celestial heart not be able to generate a body too, if we concentrate our spirit on it?"

-Taoist belief found at insects.org.

dung beetle from Wikipedia Creative Commons

Scarabs/beetles were used as religious symbols in prehistoric Shamanism, Buddhism, Taoism and Judeo-Christianity. They were also found in imagery throughout ancient Egypt, Greece, India, and Iran. One of the basic reasons why I think beetles/scarabs were used so universally, is because of their dung balls. Yes, my whole premise is based on poo....but they roll these balls made out of feces, larger than themselves, and then they implant their little scarab embryos inside for the gestation period. New life out of a ball of refuse, no wonder they are credited with being the creators in most of the above mentioned cultures.



(They don't know it yet, but one of the three mandalas I send this Tuesday will have a scarab/dung ball connection, and the above quote inside the package. Head's up for one of you.)

Please check back late next week for more updates on the progress of these mandalas!

Hexenringe (witches/sorcerers/fairy rings)

Mortals who have danced with the fairies are rarely safe after being saved from their enthrallment. Often, they find that what seemed to be but a brief foray into fairyland was indeed much longer in the mortal realm, possibly weeks or years. The person rescued from the fairy ring may have no memory of their encounter with the sprites, as in a story from Anglesea recorded in 1891. In most tales, the saved interlopers face a grim fate...

The natural history, and the myth of the "fairy ring", from wikipedia is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring

Mysterious fairy-type rings are also found in Africa.

Wassily Kandinsky and the Circle

I was alerted to this by a Milwaukee area artist, Todd Fillingham via twitter @reply.

"I also learned of Kandinsky’s growing love affair with the circle. The circle, he wrote, is “the most modest form, but asserts itself unconditionally.” It is “simultaneously stable and unstable,” “loud and soft,” “a single tension that carries countless tensions within it.” Kandinsky loved the circle so much that it finally supplanted in his visual imagination the primacy long claimed by an emblem of his Russian boyhood, the horse."

-from The Circular Logic of the Universe, by Natalie Angier

I feel kinship.

The Story of Creation

The Body as Symbol

It Reacts Upon Its Maker

From ‘Alchemical Studies: Commentary on “The Secret of the Golden Flower” C.G. Jung 1957

“When my patients produce these mandala pictures, it is naturally not the result of suggestion…The pictures arise quite spontaneously, and from two sources. One source is the unconscious, which spontaneously produces fantasies of this kind; the other is life, which, if lived with utter devotion, brings an intuition of the self, of one’s own individual being. When the self finds expression in such drawings, the unconscious reacts by enforcing an attitude of devotion to life. For in complete agreement with the Eastern view, the mandala is not only a means of expression, but also produces an effect. It reacts upon its maker. Age-old magical effects lie hidden in this symbol, for it is derived from the “protective circle” or “charmed circle”, whose magic has been preserved in countless folk customs.”

The above information was supplied by Danielle Garzelloni (text emphasis hers). She also happens to be the second artist in this project. Danielle is an artist currently living in Chicago, Illinois. Although her media varies, she has always been thematically consistent. In her work, she serves up ancient symbolism, geometry, psychology, gods, goddesses, animal totems, and spiritualism. All of this, with a dollop of the alchemical on the side. She has fascinating work...

The Moon in the Hare
Danielle Garzelloni
Chicago, IL

Providence II
Danielle Garzelloni
Chicago, IL

Mermaid II
Danielle Garzelloni
Chicago, IL

You can find more of D. Garzelloni's work here.

Introductions

The circle. It's so simple, and yet so complex. It means everything, and yet seemingly nothing at the same time. This blog will celebrate all things 'circular', and what the shape ultimately means to society, science, religion, and more. Mandalas are particularly on my mind right now.

I recently proposed a collaborative project with several of my artist friends, all of whom live across the country from me. Each of these collaborations will no doubt develop their own separate set of rules in the coming months. The one rule that I requested? Let the image be a circle, a mandala. The pieces we create will inherently travel. It is vagabond art. Each artist in a pairing will start one piece, send them through the mail three times, so that they 'cross' each other. Then they finish the piece that the other artist originally started. We will trade, and we will expand, and we compound a relatively simple idea.

So far I have started my collaboration with an artist known for his intricate and expansive collages, Wes Way of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He puts a lot of time and effort into all of his pieces. Recently he has been seen collaging skateboard decks and other three dimensional objects, as well. Here is a sampling of his work...

Light/Dark (Yoni)
Wes Way
Harrisonburg, VA

Light/Dark (Yoni) detail
Wes Way
Harrisonburg, VA

Multicolored (Indian on a Horse)
Wes Way
Harrisonburg, VA

I am known for my watercolor paintings, mixed media and found objects pieces, figurative work, and a maddening amount of circles. For the sake of narrowing things down, here are some circles...

365.forty-four
Shana R. Goetsch
Milwaukee, WI

365.fifteen
Shana R. Goetsch
Milwaukee, WI

365.forty
Shana R. Goetsch
Milwaukee, WI

What kind of mandala are we going to get out of this collaboration? Stay tuned to find out.