Mandalas

First mandala

While I was at a Couch surfing hosts home, she had lots of Cambodian and Buddhist inspired decor and stuff around her whole house. I started using mandalas as a context for my patterns. I have played around with doing Venn diagrams and other forms with the mandalas. For now, these are studies.
The materials I have been using are blotter paper (yes, the paper used in intaglio, meant to soak up water), water color, and gel pens. Initially, I draw the mandala with patterns in pen, which not only marks the paper, but also since the paper is very thick, it indents it. Then I add water color. I don't know if it is just the indentations of the lines or if there is an oil in the gel pens, but when I add color with water color, it keeps the color contained within the shapes.
With patterns, I have been thinking about perception of organic versus geometric. Generally-speaking, organic lines are associated with nature and seem curvy and unpredictable, potentially unruly. Geometric lines are associated with humans, straight, precision. I have been focusing on straight lines to create patterns and shape, associating it with human intention, intervention, and intelligence. Yet, as a human, I can't draw a perfectly straight line simply by hand. I try to draw straight lines, but the consistency of what the pattern looks like really appears with lots of repitition, not by the steadiness of my hand. Organic patterns/ nature patterns on the other hand, are quite mathematical and seem to be more precise than human hands (think fractiles).

Gave this as a gift to our friend Louis

So these mandalas are my first 10 paintings for this field study. I am excited to get back to oils, but its been nice how convenient and easy to transport water colors is.

Unfinished

Unfinished