Tag: Susan Bradford

bubbles

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

On 11/11/11, I was at a basket making workshop. We made a basket that had a two-twill base with eleven spokes on each side. There were eleven women in the room, including my wonderful teacher Polly Adams Sutton.

For many, it was a spiritual day, and I felt that I spent it in the perfect spiritual way for me, hanging out with lovely creative women, learning, weaving, talking, laughing, eating and sharing.

A small bubble, a small haven, but so important.  Joined with so many other small and wonderful bubbles that I inhabit from time to time, they form my little world.  And I am very grateful for them all.  The eleven-eleven has come and gone.  I am still here, attempting to choose a bright future for myself and for the planet.

One basket at a time.  One bubble at a time.

Grace…

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art
the newest mandala

It seemed like a good idea.  I decided to do a mandala about Grace several months ago.  I took a few notes and did a few doodles, and then put it aside.  My thoughts about grace were all over the place, but that only made me realize how much I needed to work on it.

This quote from Anne Lamott kind of sums it up, “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”

It is such a tricky and elusive word.  And working with it began to reflect my longing to pin things down, to understand the whys and hows and whats of my own life.  I want physical grace as well as grace on a spiritual level.  I want that ever popular state of grace.  I want it to permeate my thoughts and actions on all levels.  I want to live with grace and age with grace.

Yet my personal journey while working on it was not particularly easy, almost as if I were being shown how much work there is to do.  I’m not exactly sure what I learned, but I know that it made me think and look and feel a lot.

And that’s enough for now.

Better and better

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

I like circles because they are such an obvious reflection of how we experience our lives – from moment to moment, day to day, week to week, and then on to months, years, and even lifetimes if that is included in your personal belief system. As I go from one circle to the next, I am becoming increasingly aware that my basic structure doesn’t really change, I just get better and better at functioning within it.

For instance, right now the concept of Communication is really up for me. I am being challenged by how I communicate within my primary relationship, with my friends, and with myself. So to get a little more insight into the situation, I started to look at the Communication mandala that I completed several years ago. I remembered all too well why I put that dark wavy line in the center to represent that black place deep inside myself, the one that stops me from knowing what I really need to say and then saying it. And I was struck that the words I wrote at that time to describe the mandala could have been written yesterday.

“Once I find a new way of communicating with myself, I can then communicate so much more easily with others.”

That is still the way I plod through things today. How I am able to slowly transform that dark, confused core into an open and lighter place. The hope is that I can go through the process a little faster each time and truly transform some of those old, painful patterns into something new, creative, and fresh.

20111103-034730.jpg

Better and better

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

I like circles because they are such an obvious reflection of how we experience our lives – from moment to moment, day to day, week to week, and then on to months, years, and even lifetimes if that is included in your personal belief system. As I go from one circle to the next, I am becoming increasingly aware that my basic structure doesn’t really change, I just get better and better at functioning within it.

For instance, right now the concept of Communication is really up for me. I am being challenged by how I communicate within my primary relationship, with my friends, and with myself. So to get a little more insight into the situation, I started to look at the Communication mandala that I completed several years ago. I remembered all too well why I put that dark wavy line in the center to represent that black place deep inside myself, the one that stops me from knowing what I really need to say and then saying it. And I was struck that the words I wrote at that time to describe the mandala could have been written yesterday.

“Once I find a new way of communicating with myself, I can then communicate so much more easily with others.”

That is still the way I plod through things today. How I am able to slowly transform that dark, confused core into an open and lighter place. The hope is that I can go through the process a little faster each time and truly transform some of those old, painful patterns into something new, creative, and fresh.

20111103-034730.jpg

Mandalas Abound

by susanbradfordart, posted in Mandala Art

I really like it when life shows me mandalas.

We went to Port Townsend last week, met some friends from Canada, and had a little get-away. Lovely company, wonderful food and wine, brisk walks all around this historic Victorian town, and an excursion to Fort Worden State Park where the movie An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed.  Nice to see a military base that is no longer in use!

We stayed in a two-bedroom apartment right in the middle of town and could walk everywhere.  What a great find!  Full kitchen, wood stove, fresh flowers on the table when we arrived, right next to a garden, tons of privacy, our own little deck that no one else could see.  I was ready to move in!

But perhaps my favorite thing was the mandala in our bedroom.  Beautiful, inspiring, uplifting.  All that a proper mandala should be.