Serendipity is defined as ‘a seeming gift for finding something good accidentally’. That’s how I found Sarah Ann Greene.
I’m not surprised. Those of us on the mandalic path are bound to intersect like a good Vesica Piscis. I was attending a yoga teacher training, and one of my fellow yoginis laid Sarah’s 2009 Calendaron me. Nice! Every month is a visual treat.
But when I read about her PROCESS, things got even more interesting.
The drawings and paintings are all done completely free hand, using no compass, rulers, or aids of any kind. There is no plan regarding shape, symmetry or color. They all start with a dot on the center of a blank page and a creative impulse. She may work anywhere from 3 days to 5 months on a mandala. She explains:
” I don’t have visions beforehand, they simply spill from my pencil tip. As they come forth, each layer has a deeper meditative effect on me. I spend most of my time not actually drawing, but learning what each layer has to teach me until it is time to move on to the next one.”
I find this small but incredibly important detail one that is often disregarded in the Creative Process.
The WAITING, the LISTENING, the WATCHING.
Often, art is valued as a commodity. Judged with linear thoughts such as “How long did it take her to do that?” or “My kid could do that.” Certainly in Sarah’s case, one can easily witness the intricate work and understand how it could take months to complete a drawing. But the point is that the creative process, no matter what the medium, will require this meditative frame of mind of the artist. This critical aspect of the creative flow is quite difficult to quantify or measure. In yogic terms, this SPACIOUS GAZE is known as Drishti (pronounced: drish-ty). This is a point from where your concentration is directed inward.
Sarah Greene had a deep connection with mandalas when they spontaneously started to emerge as freehand drawings during a difficult and confusing time as a teenager. Without knowing how to draw them, she put the pen to the paper and invited them. They showed her an order and intelligence that lived inside of her that she hadn’t been aware of, and of inner capacities and beauty she hadn’t known. They also helped still the noise in her mind.
Sarah’s experience is a Divine Intervention with Art – Mandalas as Medicine. I truly believe working with the circular form can heal us in so many ways. And even if we are feeling great, they will just make us feel greater!
Everyone can benefit from stilling the mind, playing with color and envisioning their own inner beauty in sync with life’s resonant geometry.
“My hope is that the mandalas bring you some of the joy and benefit they have brought me: knowing that there is a center of stillness inside no matter what is occurring in life, knowing that when you get a big enough perspective there is an intricate order governing even the most seemingly chaotic situations, and realizing that we all have great beauty and untapped capacities dwelling within us waiting to be expressed when we begin to trust our own feelings and creative impulse.”
So, Serendipity brought mandalas to Sarah, and her to me, and now, dear reader, perhaps something is clicking for you?
Art Saves Lives. I’m just sayin’…
