From International Artist Magazine #70 December 2009/January 2010:
On Rose Mandala 1:
My inspiration
This work is about self discovery and actualization. Our subject reaches for and unites with her deepest self, and so discovers that essence reflected in all things. She can now function with greater purpose and assuredness within the kaleidoscope of our interdependent world. I felt the mandala to be the perfect vehicle to express this concept and moreover to evoke the feeling of making this kind of connection. The mandala is a sacred symbol that has been employed by cultures the world over to unify and focus attention, to harmonize a fragmented mind or limited sense of self, to express aspects of life that transcend words and letters, and to inspire healing. Rose Mandala 1 is part of a series of mandalas that I am creating simultaneously along with my other contemporary figurative work. The Mandala series fuses the function and graphic element of mandala with the realism of western figurative academia.
My Design Strategy
This piece was designed to honor the function and visual scheme of a mandala while breaking into something that hasn't been done before. The circular aspect of the piece (arms/drapery) keep the eye moving around and within the picture plane. As with a traditional mandala, they encourage the eye inward towards the center of the piece from the borders. Via the figure's hands (closest element) and the swan (farthest element) the eye is also moved towards the center straight from the viewer to a distant horizon.
The content of the 2-D mandala design is almost exclusively representational- presented as 3-D realism. Shape and depth are viewed in two different ways simultaneously. It reminds me a little of Rubin's Goblet in which the image appears to be either a goblet or two faces depending on how you look at it. Two different perceptions resulting from the same stimulus points back to the theme of the work: the wave realizing it's the ocean.
I did want to avoid perfect symmetry in the piece. More of the figure is seen on the bottom. The swan and the crown suggest which way is up. The background is unique to each quadrant, and each face is a little different from the rest.
