The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
-Empedocles

The spiritual mandala series is focused on religious or spiritual people, beings or symbols. I have always associated mandalas with spirituality and that’s one of the things that drew me to them in the first place.

A few years ago, I remember watching an episode of House of Cards that oddly enough featured a few monks creating a sand mandala. They spent days working on the design which contained the most intricate details and then nonchalantly blew it away. It was just gone.

It was a lesson in detachment, obviously. I think anyone who has ever lost someone can relate to all the details, memories and thoughts associated with that beloved person seemingly disappearing and wondering where it all goes. 

It’s unlikely that I could ever attain this level of detachment. But creating mandalas has helped me to let go in other ways. For example, I am learning not to judge my creations on the page or in life quite as much. It isn’t about creating something perfect. It’s about creating something authentic and abandoning the harsh criticism.

And even though I might work on a drawing for days, when it’s done, it’s done. And can let it go. I use the same tactic I learned from The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I take a picture and then I regift the drawing so that someone else can experience it. The fun is in the creation.

The overall creative process is also very spiritual to me. I remember reading once about one of the saints who used to sign her art with the symbol for the holy spirit. This really resonated with me because it is very clear to me that ideas, thoughts, words and inspiration come from some deep well within. I have experienced this while writing and drawing. It’s a similar feeling I get of drawing something forth. It kind of pulls you in. And sometimes it comes at inconvenient times. But you just have to go with it.

I believe we tap into the collective consciousness, its divine inspiration, maybe all of these things. When it comes to spiritual and religious matters it seems like we often use a lot of words which mean the same thing. God, Yahweh, Allah, Abba. We keep trying to get it right but you can’t really capture something so large with a word.

The ideas and inspiration belong to all of us. But we are all blessed and lucky to be able to bring our own unique perspective, approach, style and personality to our creations.

I was raised Catholic so I’m most familiar with the Christian icons, symbols and concepts. I plan to explore religions and spiritual concepts more soon. I minored in religious studies and have always been fascinated by all religions and philosophies.