And the Circle is Complete

The first mandala is finished! This particular mandala, is the one that Heather originally started (part of the intrigue of the deal). What I did to finish, was handled mostly in watercolors. I also managed to find an image of a bird with its mouth open for the center circle (that's a photocopy and acrylic), Really though, it was mostly watercolor work. I really felt that this piece, need not be so afraid of color, so I went with it and drove it hard. Now, let's take a look at the mandala from its inception, shall we?

Cycle 2, Round 1:

Heather Gordy to Shana R. Goetsch
Houston, TX to Milwaukee, WI

Cycle 2, Round 2:

Shana R. Goetsch to Heather Gordy
Milwaukee, WI to Houston, TX

Cycle 2, Round 3:

Heather Gordy to Shana R. Goetsch
Houston TX to Milwaukee, WI

Cycle 2, Round 4:

Shana R. Goetsch and Heather Gordy
Mandala completed in Milwaukee, WI

In your face, Universe!
*triumphant squawk*

Cycle Five Jive

We have a new artist in the fold, and this time, the art really will circle the earth! Momo Luna is from the Netherlands and I know her through the blog world. She has her own blog called Momo Luna Signals where she has quite a few fans (and quite a few post responses that I cannot read, being that they are written in Dutch) and an amazing amount of art, personal thoughts and music.

Momo Luna has sent a few images along, so that we can see some examples of her style. She has noted to me, these are the pieces that are closest to her heart. When asked her primary medium, she wrote, "My primary medium is pencil, ink, watercolours, acrylics, dreams and music."

I think we will get along in this partnership, just fine.

The Beginning

Momo Luna
Arnhem, Gelderland, Netherlands

Little Girl So Old
Momo Luna
Arnhem, Gelderland, Netherlands


p.s. You can also bid on an original Momo Luna piece on ebay, right-the-heck now!

Stuck Together For a Moment

Cycle 1, Round 3 (continued):

Wes Way to Shana R. Goetsch

Harrisonburg, Va to Milwaukee, WI


This is Wes' piece, all stuck together, however briefly (it came to me cut-up, and stacked in a package).
Okay, now I am taking this apart again.

Big Wheel Keep on Turnin

Next on the agenda...the Seven Chakras. the word "chakra" come from the Saskrit, meaning "wheel". Elbee has nicely tied in some references, with some coincidence. I always like that combination, for inspirational purposes. Elbee happened to be thinking of ideas for this mandala, saw something that mentioned Chakras, and noticed she was holding seven of these wheel shapes in her hands. How about that!

Said 'wheels' are somewhat heavy, and look like stone or clay, but I think they are a form of plastic...when I tapped them, the sound was more plasticy than elemental. So Elbee glued on seven of these wheels, and armed me with the knowledge of her thought pattern on the Seven Chakras. Again, I will be making this piece slightly larger and square, so that it matches the others' size. Here is her mandala:


Cycle 4, Round 2:

Elbee to Shana R. Goetsch
Tallahassee, FL to Milwaukee, WI

For the piece that I worked on this round, I also attached things. This includes a piece of metal that has been sitting on a table in my living room for, I kid you not, the last 6 years. It's just been waiting for this project, I assume. So I attached it, then I painted a little bit with watercolor, and then I also attached a googly eye. Googly eyes are round and not eye-shaped...seems weird somehow. This particular googly eye happened to be the exact shape/size of the center circle that I covered it with. Another 'meant to be' moment for this round.

Shana R. Goetsch to Elbee
Milwaukee, WI to Tallahassee, FL

All this talk about wheels has made me think of Proud Mary by the fabulous Tina Turner...

Deconstructing the Circle

Wes Way has obliterated the circle. And I am so happy and excited about it. He cut the mandala up into sections, and also added onto each of the pieces with different approaches and medias. I see collage, pen, garbage twist ties and construction paper. I also see WORDS on this mandala...

"We find out who we are by digging through the wreckage of what we thought we would be"

That is so perfect, and it looks like I will, in fact, be "Constructing the Universe". So I'm glad D. just sent me that guide on the topic a few days ago. (whew!) I look forward to assembling this, and will take another photo, and make another post about it when I do. Until then, here is what I received. Wes has a bag full of tricky little tricks...

Cycle 1, Round 3:

Wes Way to Shana R. Goetsch

Harrisonburg, VA to Milwaukee, WI

For my mandala, I sent Wes a variation on the symbol he used the last round. I just duplicated it...many times, and painted a different pattern in the center. After that, I tried to uncrinkle the piece by ironing it, and then I juiced up the color a tinge. The ironing aspect, was so that the crinkly paint pattern would only remain on one side of the mandala, since I left the other side blank, for Wes. I also thought seriously about how it could be hung up, eventually. I'm thinking a tree branch and loops, so that it hangs like a tapestry. Here's what I did...

Cycle 1, Round 3

Shana R. Goetsch to Wes Way
Milwaukee, WI to Harrisonburg, VA

STAY TUNED FOR THE (RE)CONSTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSE!

Falling Down and Getting Back Up

While the mandala was on its way to me, from Danielle, I received an email from her. I share this with her permission, but I think it illustrates one of the challenges that lie in store for each of the artists working on this series: when to stop....since it's a shared project.

"...you are gonna have to change stuff. i have a hard time with this...i usually work with an idea of a finished piece in my head and this is really painful. not know where it's going or when to stop working....working on the thing, was like i kept falling down but couldn't figure out why.

sorry i fell down on yer project."

(ETA: Let me clarify, that I found this letter to be so cute and humorous, because she had nothing to worry about. Yet it brought up a relevant struggle for artists, 'the letting go'. I think every one of us has had the same thought in our minds, at some point during this process. I know I felt as if I 'fell down' on it during round two with Heather.)

I also received several photocopied packets from D. along in the package. One is called "Animal Speak" and has a lot of information about spiders in it. The other is a packet entitled, "A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe" which contains information regarding the Breath of the Compassionate (the universe being formed around it) and eight-fold geometry.

...Grandmother Spider has eight legs, doesn't she? D. is one smart chic.

D. has hand-painted (not airbrushed!) a pattern, of which I assume to be eight-fold geometry, onto the piece she sent me this round. She used gold, which is one of the colors she told me she has been using a lot lately. I went a different route, and used a reductive method on the piece I worked on. I scraped the paint from the wrapping paper in selected areas (no easy task), and added an Egyptian-looking eyeball (it's actually Alicia Key's eyeball) because I felt that the pattern was reminiscent of the lotus flower and other Egyptian symbols. Here we go...

Cycle 3, Round 2:

D. Garzelloni to Shana R. Goetsch
Chicago, IL to Milwaukee, WI

Shana R. Goetsch to D. Garzelloni
Milwaukee, WI to Chicago IL

Circling More Than It Should

So, because of a major mailing snafu, Heather has not received her mandala from me yet. I checked the tracking, and it is getting sent back to me again! (*shakes fist*) This ruins the whole system, U.S. Post Office! Anyway, I still received her piece today, so I will be posting them both now.

Heather has continued the tree motif and filled up the circle. She then added on the few extra inches needed to make the pieces equally sized. The pieces of paper she applied on the edges are torn, rather than cut, and look like they have water based media on them. I am excited to finish this one up. She has still left me with a lot of free reign.

The one that I sent to Heather (which will be re-sent, when I get it back....and they had better not lose it in the meantime.), I think is the best one that I have contributed thus far to this project. I decided on a scarab beetle image (see previous post) because of many references to it being the "creator" in so many cultures and religions. Also, I felt that I needed something with wings, that maybe wasn't a bird also. This is a jeweled scarab, in fact, complete with a ring of dung balls, for her jeweled scarab embryos. In-person, and up-close you can see that I incorporated a metallic, acrylic paint into the beetle shell. I have always loved beetles, and I have one tattooed on my back. This was me infusing a little meaning into the mandala. I hope that whenever Heather actually receives this(!), that she is pleased to finish it up.

Cycle 2, Round 3:

Heather Gordy to Shana R. Goetsch
Houston, TX to Milwaukee, WI

Shana R. Goetsch to Heather Gordy
Milwaukee, WI to Houston, TX

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!

Every One of Them, Unique

Guess what! I received a package today...Elbee and I have exchanged our first mandalas. You will note that sizes and formats are different, for now. I plan to actually keep the square format of the one that Elbee started, and then build upon whatever I get back (it is pictured here as an 8" x 10"). A square format, how did I not think of that before!? Brilliant.

Elbee has started with a thicker stock of paper, and then gently glued a circular "snowflake" pattern on top of it. It's made of tissue paper, which I thought was really delicate and cool. She also placed another circular shape on top of that one. The mandala reminds me of doilies and my grandma Goetsch's house (comforting and warm in the winter).

What I started with, was the back of a mailing package. Really, I was that literal this time 'round. Anyway, I liked that I could not rip off the bubble wrap, it was well-secured. So I flipped it and noticed a blank "canvas" for me to use. I figured that If I made the paper very wet and used watercolors, that the bubble wrap texture would automatically show up, to a degree. Being that they are little circles, I thought it was fun for a background, so I let the color take its time seeping and saturating, Then I placed a heavy jar on top of the wet piece, centrally, so that it would create the indent, or impression of a circle. Now, let the show begin...

Cycle 4, Round 1:

Elbee to Shana R. Goetsch
Tallahassee, FL to Milwaukee, WI

Shana R. Goetsch to Elbee
Milwaukee, WI to Tallahassee, FL

Flocking Together

For lack of a better term, I think Wes and I are the two biggest tree-huggers of the bunch. Natural, why yes we are! Wes has ascribed a particular symbol to this first piece. It's Big Drum in the Sky Religiony. What I like about this most, is the texture showing through with the brushstrokes. The piece that I worked on for Wes this round is slightly changed, color-wise, just a bit more muted than it was before. Then I added some strips of paper (4) that represent each of the elements, earth, air, water and fire.

Cycle 1, Round 2:

Wes Way to Shana R. Goetsch
(Harrisonburg, Va to Milwaukee, WI)

Shana R. Goetsch to Wes Way
(Milwaukee, WI to Harrisonburg, VA)

Birds of a Feather

What I did here, was duplicate Heather's original art, and make the circle a bit smaller, so that everything was symmetrical. Then I added some color, envisioning the circle as the sun, or a fire ball (Ring of Fire). What Heather did was use her imagination. (I am sooo getting shown-up by her.) She made colored wings on paper, and then glued them on. Then she glued even more stuff on. It's sort of Harley Davidsonesque, but a very good solution, I'm happy with what I got here, and happy to expand upon it. And I'm not too worried about the (lack of) what I sent to Heather this round because, guess what? That's the mandala I get to ultimately "finish". The finishing seems like the best fun, and I am a perfectionist. That last round may take me forever.

Cycle 2 Round 2:

Heather Gordy to Shana R. Goetsch
(Houston, TX to Milwaukee, WI)

Shana R. Goetsch to Heather Gordy

(Milwaukee, WI to Houston, TX)

...and, just for kicks, Social Distortion covers Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire

...and Crop Circles

The Hidden Truth. Watch this video.

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/34994/Crop_Circles_The_Hidden_Truth/

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.

Writing, Divination and Magick

Runes, and an "artist, non-artist". The next person sharing this project with me is Elbee. She is not a professional artist, but she does some heavy duty scrap-booking, and has definite artistic flair. Elbee is the only one in this group so far that I have met in person, as well. I have known her since we were 14, in fact. So, we have a self-proclaimed (because I don't think it matters that much) non-artist up next. Elbee and I have decided to use an 8" x 10" format, and go a more 'found objects' route with the mandala. I think this project is shaping up to be very diverse...

Scrap-booking example
Elbee, Tallahassee, Florida

Hand-gathered stone, hand-painted Runes
Elbee, Tallahassee, Florida

Hand-gathered stone, hand-painted Rune (detail)
Elbee, Tallahassee, Florida

Everything you ever wanted to know about Runes can be found here. And over at pbs.org you can write your own name in Runes. It's a fun activity for a grand new year!

Celtic Mandala/Triad

"Celtic Mandalas, with their special content from the art of the ancient Celts, invariably have a dual-dimensional format, relating to the belief that it is possible to travel from the earthly realm into the Otherworld of Celtic legend."

This is an excerpt from medieval magic, which you should check out because it goes into details about each, basic, Celtic Mandala pattern.

Incidentally, one of the examples of a Celtic Mandala, the Triad, originally came from Asia. It was an ancient oriental symbol representing the 'world soul'. Later on, it was adopted by the West, and is still considered the mandala of Catholicism: 'father, son, and holy ghost'. (However, I prefer the older, Druid Threefold meaning of 'maiden, mother, crone'.) This symbol is also currently used by the US Department of Transportation. Really.


AND, I found free Celtic Mandala coloring pages from whats-your-sign.com. (all in pdf format, just scroll down near the bottom of the page, and download) ENJOY.

...That Carries Countless Tensions

I love this part. Today in the mail, I received another artist's first mandala piece! Danielle Garzelloni has sent me something complex and wickedly precise. (I actually uttered "ooooo, complex!" when I opened it) I tend to think of stained glass when I look at it now. Both of these pieces will eventually make it to 18x24" size, as one of us has overshot the agreed upon size, and one of us has undershot it, purposely. This snafu will just add a new element/layer into that piece, I think. Danielle has started her mandala on what looks like patterned wrapping paper, with gesso or white paint thinly applied over the top. I think it was reflective paper originally. She then helpfully drew a complex web of circles as a guide for me to possibly follow, beyond the ones that she perfected in black.

And speaking of webs, the piece I started for D. had some key words included in the package. The words I gave her are: "Grandmother Spider", which is a reference to a Native American tale. Grandmother Spider made the stars in the sky. I thought this was such a sweet, and yet powerful concept. The story, and the character of her legend reminded me of my own strong grandmother. So I drew upon imagery from her (and my) ancestors for the concept of Grandmother Spider in this mandala. We'll see what D. chooses to do with the information, I'm not holding her down to that plan (but I hope she considers it). Here we go...

Cycle 3, Round 1:

D. Garzelloni to Shana R. Goetsch
(Chicago, IL to Milwaukee, WI)

Shana R. Goetsch to D. Garzelloni
(Milwaukee, WI to Chicago, IL)

A Single Tension

If there were a winner, Heather would win. But there's not, so she'll just have to be happy with the fact that I'm super impressed and extremely nervous. These two mandala pieces are so vastly different right now. This will be challenging and fun for me, as she has forced me into drawing my ass off. Heather has started with an intricate graphite drawing on paper...and I have started with a glued piece of paper that has random watercolor drippings on it (*rolls eyes at self*). But hey, this is what I asked for, a project, and an experiment. On with the show!

Cycle 2, Round 1:

Heather Gordy to Shana R. Goetsch
(Houston, TX to Milwaukee, WI)

Shana R. Goetsch to Heather Gordy
(Milwaukee, WI to Houston, TX)

A Modest Form

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.

Given and Received

I must admit, I am extremely excited to start doing this. And I will be just as soon as I officially post this. Here are the products of the very first mandala swap! We both used the color orange, and I started with acrylics. The mandala I sent was on un-primed, brown, loosely woven linen, and Wes has started with watercolor on pre-primed, cloth-backed, canvas-grained paper.

Cycle 1, Round 1:

Shana R. Goetsch to Wes Way
(Milwaukee, WI to Harrisonburg, VA)

Wes Way to Shana R. Goetsch
(Harrisonburg, VA to Milwaukee, WI)

Agreeing to Surrender

"To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance..."

The Story of Creation

The Body as Symbol

Flow Through the Feathers

(Text supplied Heather Gordy)

Shields, power symbols and medicine wheels were commonly created and used amongst most Native American tribes. These shields (later called mandalas) were thought to bring its owner good luck, prosperity, health and happiness. The most common mandala known is the Dream Catcher. Legend has it that if you hang this above your head while you sleep, the bad dreams would be caught in the web while the good dreams are allowed to flow through the feathers back to you. Feathers were extremely important to most Native American tribes and are used often in their mandalas. It represented ascension and spiritual strength. Chiefs would wear them in full head dress as it symbolized there communication with the Great Spirit and expressed their wisdom. Native American mandalas were created using buffalo hides, eagle feathers, furs, bones, sinew, and if painted, were done so with natural pigments.

Speaking of feathers...

The next artist in this collaboration is Heather Gordy. Heather is a graphic designer who lives and works in Houston Texas. However, her passion has always been for illustration and fine art. She takes a lot of chances with her art, and consistently experiments with a wide variety of media. Working with acrylics, and found objects, her newest works strongly reference birds, wings and feathers. She states, "I've realized that it doesn't really matter what has been created, but the journey of creating it, is most important." Heather is now finishing up a sketch book project that features some deliciously dark imagery, including gravestones, and cemetery statues. More of her work can be found at www.hgordy.com or heathergordy.blogspot.com.

Flight of the Ego
Heather Gordy
Houston, TX

Murder of Crows
Heather Gordy
Houston, TX

Silence of the Crows
Heather Gordy
Houston, TX

I thought Heather would be absolutely perfect for this mandala project. I also recently found out that Heather's maternal grandmother was full blooded Cherokee. There are interesting things to come of this, I'm sure of it!

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.