Balcony Mandala
Sun, May 22, 2011 at 10:22PM "I was a little excited but mostly blorft. "Blorft" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years."
— Tina Fey
Do you have any habits regarding your journals? Moleskines are my doodling and drawing journals, and it takes me a long time to work through one. So when I start a fresh Moleskine... I can't draw on the first page! I jump to the second. When the book starts filling up, I go back and draw on the first page. I don't always do pages in order, sometimes I work on one side and go back and work on the backs of the mandalas I didn't like so much. Anyhow, I trick myself into getting started - otherwise I feel like the first drawing has to be a monumental work worthy of the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
The kids have one more week of school, I'm trying to gear up for summer break but I have been extremely tired the past month. Getting stuff done is extremely difficult when all you want to do is nap.
Anyhow, for this one I started with criss-cross lines and drew doodles along the lines... they remind me of the scrollwork on wrought iron balconies.
Fun finds...
Brian Kasstle's Calendar As Art piece for Create Mixed Media.
At Sobre Chie, photos of a lovely red shoe in production.
A Children's Outdoor Fairy Garden, with lots of ideas for little fairy worlds at Pink & Green Mama.
The stunning art quilts that Opal and Amy of Here2There created in a monthly block exchange project.
Reader Comments (4)
This does look just like wrought iron! Beautiful!
I never start a journal - or any other kind of notebook (even spirals!) - from the front. I always start at the back. It's a win-win for me: No new-notebook jitters and plenty of room to write. Plus, my journal looks "new" all the way to the end. LOL.
I usually put some kind of picture of myself on the first page. Sometimes it is a photo, sometimes a self-portrait. A kind of way to 'claim' the journal.
Ellen says that looking at your art makes her happy. She wants to know when you are going to publish a coloring book. I pulled out a blank-unlined journal and said "Here is one!" She was not amused and delared "the happy comes from what is between the lines, not from making them. I want the joy that comes when you color them in."
I don't know how to explain what I like so much about this mandala--the way the lines create a split, because the designs on each side are not mirror images. I would like to see a post where you guide us through creating mandalas. Have you written one before? What is the process for getting started?