Finding Fire Mandala

Finding Fire, Acrylic and mixed media on board, approx 40x40cm

This new mandala is about finding your inner 'fire', your personal power, strength and optimism. It's about being connected to your inner sun and overcoming challenges using your own resources, staying positive and not letting external or internal 'darkness' get you down.



It was also a way to introduce re-cycling and a more textured, three dimensional approach to my mandalas; I've always loved the dimensionality of the Tibetan monks sand mandalas. I built up the textured areas using paper maiche made from old newspapers, and the sequins were left over from a previous project. I can't wait to print this one onto a bag!

Co-incidentally, as I was finishing off this piece I saw an interview with Australian artist Tim Storrier, who is best known for depicting - you guessed it - fire, in his canvasses. The synchronicity of life never ceases to awe me.

Calling my muse

I've been a little blocked this week and decided that rather than wait for inspiration to hit, I would have to do something to help encourage it. I have been really enjoying discovering the world of artists blogs, something quite new to me, particularly the artists that encourage challenges and the use of prompts, such as the Creative Every Day, Arty Girlz Challenge and Awfully Big Art Adventure blogs, so I decided to break out of my routine and utilize some of these methods.

My goal was to set myself a challenge that would help get me out of a mini 'rut' and break away from my usual routine so I wrote a bunch of words on slips of paper, and drew some out randomly. The words I got were 'pink', 'inspiration', 'white' and 'quote'. I loved the synchronicity of drawing the word inspiration, as it's something I have been wrestling with this week.

I did a little research and found this quote by artist Albert Ryder (1847-1917)

'An inspiration is no more than a seed that must be planted and nourished'.

This really resonated with me.

I really wanted the piece to reflect the inspiration I have received from looking at the work of other artists, especially the scrapbookers, mixed media and collage artists, which is why I chose the approach I did. It helped me deviate from my routine big time!

Lately I have been looking for ways to incorporate re-cycling into my art, and use up all the bits and pieces that tend to accumulate over time (I hate to throw anything away 'just in case' it could end up in an artwork one day), and this seemed a perfect opportunity to rummage through my stash.


Symbolism has always interested me, and the way things can have many meanings and associations depending on the viewer. For instance the flower made from beads represents several things to me; mandalas and how much they inspire me, the five senses and how we interpret and appreciate the world around us through our senses, love and romance and the feeling of being 'in love' with the world, and the beads also remind me of the lovely friend who gifted them to me and who also inspires me.

I chose the cloudy background because inspiration is often a gift of grace, I love the way that ideas seem to just fall out of the sky sometimes!

I also set myself a time limit, I wanted this work to be finished in one afternoon, as my tendency is to keep going and going on a piece until oftentimes it ends up being abandoned, or taking so long that it loses its feshness.

I am not one hundred per cent happy to call this work a finished piece, and am resisting the urge to have another session with it. But there are some things I really like about it and it really did the trick of getting the creative juices flowing again and was a very valuable and worthwhile exercise to do. I would highly recommend breaking out of routine and giving yourself a creative shake-up once in a while. I am raring to get back into the studio and go on with my ongoing projects now. And I owe a big thank you to all the inspiring, creative and talented bloggers out there. Thank you.