08 Wednesday Feb 2012
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It is good to be back after a long break.
Today, borrowing from the Buddha –
The source image is of a chandelier that hangs at One King West Hotel, Toronto.
Source image
Detail - click to enlarge
10 Saturday Dec 2011
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Members of the artist co-op I’m in have pooled our pennies and our talents and opened a new gallery in Windsor, Ontario. Located at 4749 Wyandotte E (just a few doors east of Pillette) in Windsor, Ontario, the brand new Back Room Gallery – an Artists’ Co-op is home to the work of 17 Windsor and area artists and artisans, and we’re growing every day.
You can see a selection of my mandalas there anytime. The gallery is open Tuesday – Sunday 10-6, Fridays 10-8 for December. Tuesday – Saturday 10-6 after that.
We went from THIS:
To the gorgeous space featured in the slideshow below, and we’re not done yet. Still more art and artists to install! Come check us out.
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05 Wednesday Oct 2011
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On Saturday, I was part of my co-op’s Culture Days event and was able to demonstrate how I make mandalas. A few visitors became actual mandala designers – sitting with me and making the decisions about which photo to use, how it should be resized and rotated and then finally selecting the specific bit of the picture used.
Some people sure did have a good eye for it. Here are some of my favourite results.
by Kadilia Adili
from this photo taken by me at Lighthouse Cove 2011
by Felicia Thiessen
From this image taken by accident at Milk Coffee Bar
by Ankar Arkin
From this picture taken of the black light room at the recent Fun House Gallery
by Merry Ellen Scully
from this photo taken at Port Franks, On.
I hope to do more interactive creating at future events. This was my favourite art show so far.
02 Friday Sep 2011
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This is one of my personal favourite mandalas ever.
The content is meaningful to me – it is a moment of calm on a day filled with waves of violent storms. It is a pause, bringing the relief that remind us how little we really control, despite how well we can fool ourselves otherwise.
He does not need opium. He has the gift of reverie. ~Anais Nin
Daydreaming is also a pause. It can refresh our minds and our spirits and help us be in this moment in an unmeasured way. That’s why this mandala is one of my submissions in the Edge of Wake, an art show about daydreaming going on right now at Milk Coffee Bar (downtown Windsor, ON).
Sky Drama Mandala souce image
Sky Drama Mandala - detail. click to enlarge.
26 Friday Aug 2011
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If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life. –Rachel Carson
A life-long, indestructible sense of wonder. What a great wish.
A country drive last weekend had us at Mitchell’s Bay, Ontario, just in time for me to photograph these incredible colours over the bay.
Sunset on the Bay - detail. Click to enlarge.
Sunset on the Bay Mandala - source image
17 Wednesday Aug 2011
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“The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have. – Norman Vincent Peal
The image for these mandalas came from Barbara Ann O’Leary, who takes photos of fire and movement.
Streaking Energy Mandalas - source image
Streaking Energy Mandala - detail. Click to enlarge
Streaking Energy Mandala - detail. Click to enlarge.
04 Thursday Aug 2011
Posted in digital art, mandala
I started to think about writing something informative or insightful about lichen, maybe some background about how lichen grow or perhaps something about the beauty of the most humble forms of life… but as I scanned various sites to prepare something, I realized I just wasn’t very interested in lichen. (Lichen-lovers, you can just keep comments to yourselves. I am very comfortable with my own lichen indifference.) The symbiotic nature of lichen is very cool… they are like kefir grains that way. I do like kefir.
But what I find more interesting than lichen are the people who find them interesting. Check out the drawing below, or go here to Wikipedia for a huge, highly detailed version. I do love the range of human hobbies and the passion people sometimes invest in obscure things.
"Lichenes" from Ernst Haeckel's Artforms of Nature, 1904
My mandala is made from an image of crustose lichens, taken on a beach in New Brunswick, 2010.
Lichen Mandala - detail
Lichen Mandala - source image. Click to enlarge
02 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in digital art, mandala, Uncategorized
Erieau 2 Mandala
Erieau Mandala
It was a pleasure to be in Erieau this past weekend for the shade, grass, lake breezes, great volunteer team and some of the nicest attendees we’ve encountered at any show yet.
Today’s mandalas are two different looks of the iconic Erieau lighthouse. The source images and detail views are below.
Also, this is for one of the visitors to my booth, Hillary, who told me about this song. Although I’m a fan of Peter, Paul and Mary’s, I’d never heard this one before now. Here they are, performing the haunting “The Great Mandala”
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Erieau - detail. Click to enlarge
Erieau Mandala source image
Erieau 2 - detail. Click to enlarge
Erieau 2 source image.
28 Thursday Jul 2011
Posted in digital art, mandala
28 Thursday Jul 2011
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Ditto everything I wrote in the previous post.
(I have a number of completed designs in the queue so will continue posting more frequently this week. Things should return to my normal pace soon.)
Bounty Veggie -detail. Click to enlarge.
Bounty Veggie-source image
27 Wednesday Jul 2011
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abundance, blue, bounty, bright green, fruit, multi-coloured, plenty, produce
Abundance is, in large part, an attitude. ~ Sue Patton Thoele
The photo used to create this mandala was taken while on a drive through Essex County (Ontario) on the Talbot Trail. We spotted the roadside stand and stopped for onions, and because everything looked so amazing we left with the onions plus potatoes, tomatoes, beans, berries and… well, you get the idea.
Sometimes when I see this kind of abundance I think of how privileged we are here, in this part of the world at this point in time, and how many billions around the world today and throughout history have never known this kind of plenty.
I try to maintain that awareness as I move through my day to day concerns.
Bounty Mandala - detail. Click to enlarge
Bounty Mandala - source image
26 Tuesday Jul 2011
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20 Wednesday Jul 2011
Posted in digital art, gallery, mandala
A ship is safe in the harbour…but that’s not what ships are for. ~ John A. Shedd
This is one of those images that I can’t make up my mind about. At first glance, I don’t think it works. At second, I like it. At third… nope. Etc. etc. Does it work for you?
The source image was taken at Deer Island, Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick. © Kathryn Tisdale 2011.
Fishing Boat Mandala - source image
Fishing Boat Mandala - detail. Click to enlarge.
13 Wednesday Jul 2011
Posted in digital art, gallery, mandala
The sun is the god of the day,
So turn from him your cool cool face away.
Lest in his hot passion he seeks,
To ravish the lovely rose petals that grow on your cheeks.
Your dainty, delicate cheeks.
I’ve known that verse most of my life, and while I have been known to misremember things now and then, I recall the chorus sang it during our high school production of Man of La Mancha. Nothing at all came up when I put the lyrics in a google search, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, flawed memory and all.
I often think of these words at this time of year, when I become hyper aware of the sun’s intensity.
I was discussing this with friends the other day – two of us redheads and one very fair blond — all women of a certain age — and we came to the conclusion that the normally-pigmented just don’t understand how harsh, hot and glaring the summer sun can be to those of us who evolved in fog.
The summer sun is why I was drawn to this image of a covered bridge — it, and its grove-like setting suggests the perfect respite from the bright and glaring outer-world.
This image was taken 2010 in New Hampshire? New Brunswick? See what I mean about my memory.
Covered Bridge Mandala - detail. Click to enlarge
Covered Bridge Mandala - source image
23 Thursday Jun 2011
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In Southern Ontario, at the mouth of the Thames River on Lake St. Clair is a little out-of-the-way-place called Lighthouse Cove, home of an iconic lighthouse that has inspired all three of the following mandalas. I’m looking forward to sharing these with the people there on July 2 (you’re all welcome, too!)
Do you have a favourite?
Lighthouse Cove - source image for all 3 mandalas.
Lighthouse Mandala -detail. Click to enlarge
Lighthouse Cove 2 - detail. Click to enlarge
