Tag: mandala

Remembering

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

Being in Delaware Water Gap is not about making art, and I need to remember that. I always have high hopes of feeling creative while I’m here, hanging out in the space where I used to paint for so many years. There is a small area that I keep carved out in the room where I spent so many happy hours and that now functions mostly for storage. I always imagine that I will feel enticed to spend time in that room sitting at the drafting table drawing and painting small things. I keep paints, pencils, charcoal, paper at hand just in case, but it never seems to happen. So accept it, Susan, and release the feelings of self-doubt and guilt that go along with not creating for two or three whole weeks at a time.

Remember that being in Delaware Water Gap is about doing lots of Reiki, selling mandalas, showing paintings, seeing friends, listening to music at the Deer Head, taking walks, and having fun. It’s about reconnecting with my history, staying connected to so many people that I love, keeping my East coast energy alive and well. And that’s more than enough.

Seven years into this process, still loving the art of being bi-coastal.

Onward…

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

This has been an amazing summer for me.   I’ve barely left home.  And I have developed what for me is almost like a routine.  Emails in the morning.  Sit outside, eat lunch, and read a little.  Work in the garden.  Work in the studio.  Work in the garden a bit more if there is still light in the sky.  Make a basket or a bracelet.  Cook dinner with lots of wonderful things from the garden.  Watch a movie.  Sleep.

A very simple, magical summer!

Tonight is the opening at ESU.  Finally!

Then on to the Jazz Festival!  Come see this and other drawings there!  And of course, Anita’s fabulous jewelry, Marci’s great photos, Stan’s inspirational music, lots of mandalas, and more…

Back home at the end of September to establish another routine.  Onward!  Upward?  Let’s hope so!

Perfection

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

This jellyfish was so beautiful!  Hanging out on the clear, cold water on a semi-cloudy day.  It could change almost instantly from a deep pink blob to this glowing circle, this flower from the sea.  A mandala made by nature, so beautiful in its soft pink perfection, its petals softly being moved by the water all around it.

There’s a part of me that wants to be able to paint that jellyfish exactly.  To capture each detail, even though that is not my style and I’d never capture what my eye could see.  It was so fascinating to look at and seemed to say come closer, come closer.  Look at me.  Let me entice you. Please enjoy my beauty.

But I remembered that the jellyfish could sting me.   This perfect circle could be deadly.  So I kept my distance.  This was not my mandala.  It didn’t belong to me.  I think that I’ll paint the essence of it.  I’ve felt into its perfect world and transformed just a little part of it into my own.  It’s color and form are part of me now.  Both the blob and the lovely under water  flower.  All one.

 

Time After Time

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

Somehow it all comes together, and keeps coming together.  My past, present and future.  The chance to share my art work, my ability to practice and teach Reiki, the deep need to stay connected with dear friends, the desire for jazz.  Feels so complete, familiar, safe.  But let’s not forget the humidity, the allergies, the poison ivy.  The reality.  It’s all here in Delaware Water Gap, all around me.  All OK.  Somehow it works.  Four times a year.  Coming back.  Time after time.

Being a Tourist

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

 

 

 

 

 

On Memorial Day, I met my cousins in Seattle.  In seven years, I’d only been to Pike’s Market once.  Now I’ve been there twice.  Had drinks for the first time at a well-known Seattle Irish pub called Kell’s.  Rode the Monorail.  First time.  And from there went to the top of the Space Needle.  All fun to do.  Being a tourist wasn’t so bad.  From the Space Needle, I could see the Olympic Mountains and it was comforting to know that my home lay beyond them to the North.

I took a ton of pictures from the top.  What interested me the most was to find a shape or a color that drew my attention from far so above, and then to zero in on it with my camera and to see what happened.  These two photos have not been cropped or edited.  Some of them feel like living mandalas or mandalas in the making.   We’ll see.