MANDALA comes from Sanskrit meaning “CIRCLE“. It is often a spiritual or ritual symbol commonly associated with Hinduism and Buddhism, but in western culture the CIRCLE motif or MANDALA was popularized by Carl Jung. In Jungian psychology the MANDALA can represent the unconscious self and one’s effort to reunify the “Self” and direct one’s [...]]]>

MANDALA comes from Sanskrit meaning “CIRCLE“. It is often a spiritual or ritual symbol commonly associated with Hinduism and Buddhism, but in western culture the CIRCLE motif or MANDALA was popularized by Carl Jung. In Jungian psychology the MANDALA can represent the unconscious self and one’s effort to reunify the “Self” and direct one’s focus in meditation.

The MANDALA shape also often represents the universe or cosmos, with the outer circle sometimes representing wisdom. According to The Berzin Archives, there are FOUR levels of offering: an outer offering, inner offering, secret offering, and offering of the nature of reality. Berzin also says that some mandalas are NOT round, but can be bowls, palaces, etc…

The mandala is significant in many cultures and religions and often a theme in artwork. Currently, three of my mandalas are being shown in the “Spirituality of the Mandala: Reality in the Round” show at Nails in The Wall Gallery St. Lukes in Metuchen, NJ.

My mandala series, “Little Men and the Inner Circle”, is a symbiosis of primitive figures drawn by my children and my photographs of petroglyphs we visited while hiking in the American west. FOUR is a common element in mandalas and my FOUR primitive figures are filled with various petroglyph symbols of man in his environment. There is a sense of self reflection, wonder, timelessness, centering, spiritual energy and the swirling universe in the artwork. The OUTER CIRCLE in my mandalas supports the INNER CIRCLE of humanity.

My art process involved using my children’s FOUR primative images into which I collaged photographic film positives of rocks, petroglyphs, and other textures. These FOUR transparent primative images were exposed onto zinc plates, etched, and then cut into shapes. The figures were used in ALL of my seven mandala monoprints; each printed with different themes, colors and background imagery.

To create the different backgrounds, I used other printmaking techniques such as relief roll, collagraph, painting on plexi, and embossment. All were inked and printed on paper on an etching press.

You can see more primitive monoprints on my website in the Family Album Hieroglyphics series with includes the Little Men and the Inner Circle mandalas.

A symbiosis [...]]]>

A symbiosis of two art forms was the basis for the “Family Album Hieroglyphic” series – my children’s “stick figures” and my photographs. When my children were young, our family took many trips in Colorado and Utah. We hiked through the canyon lands and visited many unusual rock formations, cliff dwellings, pueblos, petroglyphs and pictographs.

At the time, there was a direct relationship between the primitive “stick figures” my children had drawn and the petroglyphs and western landscapes I was photographing. I combined the two art forms and exposed them on to zinc plates which I etched, inked, and printed on paper on an etching press. That was the creation of this intaglio print series “Family Album Hieroglyphics”.

The intense emotions evoked in my children’s “stick figures” validated many family and cultural issues that are commonplace to everyone. Fears, friendship, loneliness, ethnic and gender issues, strife, pets, holidays, sports, and celestial configurations were captured in their simple, yet complex renderings. By combining my children’s primitive “stick figures” and my photographic backgrounds, I created art images that tell multiple stories with a sense of depth and compassion. The “Family Album Hieroglyphic” intaglio prints ALL tell stories and recollect emotions that we can relate to.

“Man, Full With His Memories” brings back recollections of both friends and foe, happiness and hostility. A faceless tree-like figure is imprisoned by hand holding pairs of smiling figures in “Mr. Lonetree Stands Alone”. This print depicts alienation, loneliness, and the need for relationships. “Women, They’re All the Same…” is a common, but inaccurate statement. Although a satirical art piece, my child’s rendition of women’s hairdo’s is humorous. Are women really so robotic in nature?  “Jack Be Nimble…” is spoof on the well known rhyme and Halloween spooks. “Indian Memories” is as haunting as Edward Munch’s “The Scream”, which is one of my favorite works of art and depicts intense human emotion. “Man’s Best Friend, Or Is It?” tells about our preoccupation with our favorite pet, the dog.

I’m fascinated with many other primitive art forms and enchanted by the symbolism and story telling involved. I’ve visited many “prehistoric” or Upper Paleolithic caves such as Lascaux in France and Cueva de la Pileta in Spain. The stories about the discovery of these caves is remarkable too! In Lascaux, the sophistication of the so called “prehistoric artists” is exemplified by the overlapping of animals, use of perspective, and blending of colors. Egyptian hieroglyphics in later centuries was a formal pictorial writing system that also influenced my art.

Stories We Tell is a common theme in artwork throughout the ages!