On Reflection

It's been several weeks since I've been back from Bali and in reflection I can see that this wasn't just a trip to do an art retreat. Having never been there before and other travelers I spoke to not mentioning it, I had not thought about the people and the land being so connected, quietly and sometimes not so quietly sacred and powerful. Bali is a walking ritual - from the time I awoke in the early morning till the time I fell in to bed late at night, I witnessed so many examples of thoughtful placement, beauty, order and sweet offerings. At the same time I experienced a very real sense of how tenuous life is, that I needed to be ever present with all I was doing, seeing or experiencing. Stepping out of a Holy Temple onto a road full of chaotic traffic and heckling stall holders, residing among multiple types of insects, barking ghecko's and other unidentified critters, walking on narrow,slippery, mountainous paths with a drop into a valley on one side of me or learning salsa dance steps in a Balinese Jazz club with a group of people I had just met, all seemed to require an equal amount of attentiveness. I can now see that in the last 10-12 years I had lost a lot of confidence from being in a body that was quite often ill or immobile. Facing so many fears and daily challenges in Bali and at the same time enjoying myself immensely, I was able to build a new understanding of my inner resources. Celebrating life in all it's many guises ( including some time each day devoted to exploring painting , colour, creativity and our inner journey ) was a nurturing and joyous thing to do for myself. This was facilitated by Dawn Meader and the planning and flexibility that went into the activities of the art retreat was visible daily. Being in Bali I could feel my heart opening to new awareness and possibilities. It is taking some time to integrate all that took place and I am glad that I had time either side of the actual workshop to acclimatise and adjust to both entering that space and leaving it. It added to the richness of my experience and allowed me some breathing time. I feel so grateful on so many levels.

Ubud Bali

Poem 20-4-2011

What a sweet cacophony  

Exotic mix of sounds

all melding intricately 

every sense alive

and tense with expectation

the earth awake and thriving

the land a heated mass of writhing

juicy people, working, walking,

talking, offering, laughing,skypeing

birds are bathing, dogs are sleeping,

butterflies playing and gecko's are dreaming

rain drops splashing ,colour jumping

Life so rich my heart is thumping

Bali

I arrived last night into this magical, lush rabbit warren called Santra Putra just 10 minutes walk from Ubud village.I'm getting acclimatised and finding my way through the maze of walkways, meeting new people and enjoying the wild, natural environment co existing with a very busy and at the same time laid back Balinese life. More later and photo's as well but for now I am going to get some rest.

Autumn Light

Autumn, in the Southern hemisphere, has finally arrived and the garden is breathing a sigh of relief and blossoms are popping up everywhere. Colour and light are changing, softening and somehow intensifying. Theres a cacophony of birdsong in the morning that would wake the dead. After the long, hot, dry summer the sweet smell of the earth and these first rains is a beautiful, heady elixir and pulls me outside to paint or draw.

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com

Bali here I come

Yesterday I met with some of the women I will be sharing the Bali art retreat with. Preparation has begun in earnest and I am really looking forward to exploring a new place ( for me) and experiencing Balinese culture. Dawn has painted a picture (pun intended) of what we will be doing during the workshop and one of the things is the act of creating  a  temple/shrine based on our own personal gifts - this has stirred my creative juices and I am getting very excited. When I used to mosaic a few years ago I created a few shrines which are hanging in the garden with little ledges for tea candles to sit on. One of them I made for my mother when her own mother died and it hangs in her garden. I felt it was a way to connect because my grandmother is buried in England and so we had our own little ceremony here. I am wanting to not only paint temples and shrines but transfer some of those into pop-up 3D images also. This trip is bringing together 4 of my loves - travel,creating temples and shrines, mandala and pop-up art. I am so ready to experience the joy, nurturing and sacred spaces that make up the whole of this beautiful workshop. I feel, Dawn , through her knowledge and experience, which she so generously shares with us, is guiding me to a place I have been preparing for all my life.

I am so grateful.

Mandala Musing

I finished  a mandala I have been working on all week and I am noticing how the act of creating it with placement and colour choice and the actual painting is affecting how I perceive my outer world. I seem to be seeing colour and design in nature in a new way. I'm assuming that all artists have been experiencing this through all time and that maybe as children we experience something like this. I am rediscovering parts of myself and awakening awareness of my world, even to the point of noticing mandala's on my skin, in my breakfast or looking into someones elses eyes. It's a bit like when I liked a particular car design a few years ago and then I started seeing those sort of cars everywhere I looked. Prior to that I had not noticed them at all. I love that mandala's are everywhere and in everything, in every atom. Beauty appears even in something I perceive as ugly. How funny is that?

Playing with Blog site design

I've just spent a couple of hours navigating around the blog site design tools and changing the look of the page. Time flies when you have no idea of what you are doing. Steep learning curve. Enough of this. I am off to finish a mandala I started yesterday. The house is quiet and it's time to attune to that. I've added some links to websites you might like to browse.

Intro

Hi,

 This is my first intro to Blogging . This Blog will preview art I am exploring and creating and be a place I can post songs and poetry and travel updates. I am visiting Ubud in Bali, for the first time, on the 18th April and attending a 6 day art workshop with Dawn Meader ( wonderful woman artist ).

I first became interested in Mandala's and Mandala art about 20 years ago when I lived in Denmark, in the south of WA. I remember doing some Mandala art and feeling very intimidated by my lack of artistic ability ( based on what I perceived art and artists to be). I dabbled a bit and then left it alone. A few years later I created a Mandala as part of a womans circle I was attending. I don't think I had the awareness then to notice how happy I feel when I am working on mandala's. I framed that piece in an old clock face and it is still hanging on our lounge room wall. A few years later I purchased a lovely book on mandala by Bailey Cunningham called Mandala Journey to the Centre and this title was the inspiration for my Blog name. I was also gifted two Mandala colouring in books which I would sit and colour from time to time.

Throughout the following years I  experimented with Mandala in sand art, mosaic and several other mediums. It was always present and yet somehow in the background and never fully acknowledged as the central element of life that it is. Present in all creation. So, now I am finally acknowledging it and placing it at the centre of my daily life and exploration into art. I derive an immense amount of pleasure and an upsurging of joy in my being when I notice mandala's myriad forms in nature and then translate that into art pieces which are so much fun to create.