Friday, February 27, 2015

Art With Heart

This is my most recent mandala-making effort. I made it specifically to donate to an auction to benefit the camp scholarship fund at The Center in Palos Park, IL. This is the third year that I have made something for their annual fundraiser and it's really a privilege to have the chance to help out by doing what I love! All of the money raised on this one evening will be used for scholarships for kids who wouldn't be able to go to camp otherwise. The Center is a most wonderful and unique place offering many programs in a wide variety of areas....everything from art classes to spirituality classes to a children's farm and nature based pre-school! And it seems very fitting that the woman who purchased this artwork is a member of the Sanders family----the family of the man who began to realize his dream of building a place like this over 75 years ago. She is going to give it to her grand-daughter whom I have been told is a really great person, goes to graduate school out in Wyoming and is studying Environmental Science. This all a bit synchronistic for me as I happen to LOVE Wyoming and I was once a college student studying Environmental Science! It all makes me feel as though this mandala is going to end up exactly where it is meant to be!

Friday, February 6, 2015

Getting Back in the Groove

I realized recently that I haven't made a mandala in quite awhile. Way toooo long! I want to do a somewhat larger one to donate to the annual fundraising auction at The Center so I thought I had better get "warmed up" a bit before I start on that one! I had no plan for this one. I just wanted to get used to the feel of the colored pencils and the gel pens and try and remember what color looks good as shading on another color. One of these days perhaps I should take some notes! Or not. It's kind of fun to have to experiment. I love blue, have a blue bedroom and I think that's where this one needs to end up. It's not very large....maybe 8" across. But it sure felt good to be creating this!