AN ENCHANTING CHALLENGE

In my last post I alluded to some exciting news and this is it.  A couple of months ago I submitted three of my photos of my earth art mandalas to a national juried art show.  Artists were invited from across the USA to submit their work.  In the final selection 51 artists from 14 states were chosen and I have the honor of being one of them.

My art indeed is different.  It is transient. The wind or waves take it away.  I capture the compositions with digital images.  My art is made in two mediums; 3D earth art and photography. On the left is the 8 x 10 photograph selected for the show.

If being chosen to display wasn't honor enough I was also asked to create an installation outside the mansion entrance.  The mansion is located within one of my favorite state parks here in Massachusetts.  It is a park that I frequent several times a week during spring and summer.

I have been busy foraging.  There is an opportunity here to go big and I am taking it.  I have designed a 7' mandala to be constructed using foraged materials from all around the park.  I have made a template so as to get a better grip on types of materials and quantities needed.  Friends have helped me forage and I am out with Sr. Benjito several times a week gathering things during our trail walks. He loves it and of course I do.  This truly is a project made of love.

There are some challenges on this one though.  I have been asked to create a piece that will stay in tact for the duration of the show (three weeks).  Mother Nature can you really hold off the rain and wind for three weeks?  It has been so dry here that as an artist I would make that request but as a nature lover I simply can't.  We need the rain. So yes, I have been challenged in this design.  No stones can be used near the mansion and nothing edible.  The deer, squirrels, raccoons and birds could do a lot of damage to a 7' nature mandala.  Things will need to be wired and weighted down and any template used will need drainage holes.  Construction will be done atop the cobblestone entrance and not on the forest floor.  And at the end of the show on October 4th all trace of the installation will be removed with the foraged items returned to the woods.

I am challenged but it is an enchanting challenge.  All will work out divinely.  Do I know what the piece will look like in the end?  Absolutely not.  I have a good plan but...  I will spread out my foraged paint box of colors and textures and let the nature muse use my hands and whisper directions in my ears - again.

Materials Photos:  Queen Anne's Lace, Goldenrod, Birch Bark