This mandala was the second one I did on Maui. It was to honor the Sacred Mountain that I have such a connection with. I had been making a necklace that was inspired by a conversation I had with an angel I met at Castle Lake in the Shasta area. The necklace was inspired by my understanding that the radiance of the heart needed to be protected in healers who often have open hearts in a culture that does not “see” this. I started to make a breastplate out of one thousand crystal beads, planning to include the shape of a pink heart fashioned by pink crystals in the center of it. This necklace is represented in this mandala by the inner circle of white dots. The snakes encircling the inner circle symbolize transformation and the red feather represents the passionate commitment of the activated heart.
The whole mandala is set on a background of cosmic stars and the central star represents radiance and light, the most healing energy of the cosmos and a key element in our current healing crisis. The necklace can be seen in the near future on our sacred jewelry section of this website. The mandala is dedicated to the Angel whose name I do not know.
After creating primarily geometric shapes in the mandalas I was doing, I began to feel the need for more organic, living symbols. Having worked with animal medicine for years, I decided to start with the butterfly, an ancient symbol of transformation as well as transmutation. Changing shapes is a powerful and important skill in the shamanic world and the butterfly can be an important reminder of this capacity in all of us.
After doing many mandalas based on Eastern imagery, I found myself doing a more traditional mandala, starting with simple geometric shapes, putting them in concentric circles radiating from the Center. This mandala is based on the star and ended up having a lot of intrinsic motion within it because of the shading in the triangles as well as the directional motifs on the outer edge of the circle. All of this was unintended by my process, but as usual; the motifs were built on a foundation of magic.
For many years, I have worked with the Four Directions symbolically in both the Shamanic tradition as well as the rituals I have performed with my tribe of friends. After working with such a feminine energy in the Dragonfly piece, I wanted to try something more native to the land. This more masculine mandala soon arrived to meet my desire.
This painting was inspired by my wish to have the masculine and feminine energies in balance and harmony, through compassion. It followed a story that my brother told me about being rescued on the high seas after a sudden storm overtook his fishing boat and threatened to sink it. A pod of dolphins suddenly arrived and calmly accompanied the boat back to the harbor. It was evidence of the beauty and harmony that can come about through compassion. even through cross-species communication. In this painting, the female dolphin is in a state of radiance while the masculine dolphin honors her.
While painting in my studio to the strains of Beethoven’s music from the “Immortal Beloved”, I was suddenly struck by the power of the music as well as the subject matter which was this beautiful flower called the Passion Flower. Suddenly, I experienced the synergy of the erotic, the beautiful and the cosmic. Combining these three sources is the basis of the state of grace. I felt like a momentary midwife to this energy and was in a state of awe and appreciation to have experienced this synergy firsthand.
This painting was a spontaneous response to having issues of money arrive in my consciousness while I was in my studio just fooling around one day. The painting initially started with the spherical image and the dollar signs. Later in the evening this little creature arrived. Part of my process is erasing images out of a background color and revealing images I do not expect. Upon doing some research I found that this image was related to Native American mythology and was known as the “Spirit Dancer”. I then realized that this was the energy framework that would bring abundance to me. The coyote was also part of the trickster, a good omen for doing business.
A heart-shaped sunflower blossom that grew in my friend’s garden after her husband died inspired this painting. She believed that he was trying to communicate with his love for her through this flower and asked my to paint it. I did the whole painting but left a section blank in the middle when I could not find the right image for the completion. Suddenly, it occurred to me to put a silk chiffon dress in front of a fan and paint it. It reminded me of Spirit coming through the power of the Sun with light and love and beauty.
This painting honors the role of the Divine Feminine in healing the planet. The Shamanka is the Feminine Wounded Healer and she can travel between the worlds, gathering information from the healing forces of the Invisible realm. The raven is one such messenger informing us about the importance of the soul and its purpose within each of us. The tipi represents the respect that is shown by the Native American culture for all of life in all its forms.
This painting was inspired, in part, by the death of a family cat and is about women and their cats and the mystical intuitive realms that they both inhabit. If domestication does not override their naturally wild and instinctual nature, both are privy to inordinate supplies of wisdom. The Earth needs this wisdom badly at this time. Here, the cheetahs are protecting the angelic being, a messenger from the invisible realms, so that she can deliver her messages.