Mandala as grief art therapy

This posting will likely change frequently as I add, extend, edit, and modify what I find as I work on mandalas.

The Surrey Art Gallery Association had one of it's "Thursday Artist Talks" last night.  I've got pretty much zero talent or knowledge about art, but, in a possibly vain attempt to expand my horizons, I went.

The artist is local, a software engineer by day, and said that she started mandala art as a way of relieving stress caused by, and during, the pandemic.  I didn't expect to participate, just to listen and see what was said, but the artist gave a list of requirements to start (which was fairly simple: paper, pencil, eraser, ruler, compass, protractor, and you can extend from there), and there was a "hands-on" time towards the end of the presentation.  I was surprised to find that, even with just paper, pencil, and copying a grid "through" another sheet of paper; and even with my non-existent art skills; I was able to get a start on some ideas fairly quickly.

I can see that mandala art would be good art therapy.  For those, like me, with no skills, there is enough structure to get started, and the procedural nature of the art makes it possible for us non-skilled to actually do something.  Following the structure and processes requires concentration, which provides a focus that can take you away, if only for a time, from your grief or problem, and give you a bit of mental respite, which can allow for different types of healing.  The "hands-on" exercise that you included at the end demonstrated to me that it would be possible for a non-artist, like myself, to actually participate.  (I've had all kinds of "art" workshops over my life where we were told "there are no wrong answers!" and then what I produced was definitely wrong.  This was the first time that I've produced something that someone made a positive comment on  :-)

To get started with mandala art, start by making a grid.  It's a circular grid, not rectangular.  Don't worry, I can't draw a circle either.  This is where the compass comes in.  (Since a compass has a point on it, you don't want to do this directly on your good dining room table.  You may want to get either a stack of paper, or a grocery store flyer, or a pad of paper of some type, to have as a drawing surface while you are creating the grid, or, at least, the initial circles.)

I have some old rulers and stuff laying around in a corner of s shelf.  This is what I hauled out:

The only compass I could find was a high-end engineering model, and I have no idea why I have it.  You don't need anything that fancy: a cheap thing from the stationary display in any grocery or dollar store is good enough.  Like the three cheap protractors that I found.  This isn't engineering, it's art.  (Remember, creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.)  This is all you need to get started, and you probably have everything around the house (even if you have to scrounge in your kids' desks or book bags to find it).  If you really get into mandala art, and find you want better tools, you can always get them later.

You start with a point, reasonably close to the middle of your page.  (Remember, art, not engineering.  Reasonably close is good enough.)

(Yes, that's it there, just under the end of the shadow from the compass.)  This is your set point for the centre of your mandala grid.  You'll put the pin part of the compass on this point for each circle.  (This is about the only time you have to be really accurate and consistent in any of these steps.)

Draw a circle with the compass.

Then you draw more, increasingly larger, circles, making sure that you are careful to place the compass pin point in the same place each time.  As you make larger circles, you can measure the spacing (if you are anal retentive, like me), or you can just make them larger.  (Remember, art, not engineering.  Also, creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Varying the spacing may give you interesting effects.)

When you have made enough circles (strictly defined by you thinking, "OK, that's enough circles for now"), you start to form your grid, with straight lines.

I'm going to briefly jump ahead here.  You can, but you don't need to, bisect the circle(s), and have bilateral symmetry.  A lot of mandalas, particularly those with religious symbolism or significance, have uneven numbers (and even prime numbers) of divisions.  However, the artist who gave the talk was big on bilateral symmetry, so we'll start with that here.  Later we'll work on uneven numbered divisions.

Bisecting the circle is easier than it sounds.  You simply place your ruler on the concentric circles, making sure that the edge is on the centre point.

Then you draw a line along the ruler's edge.

Congratulations!  You have bisected the circles!

Next, you take your protractor, align the centre point of the protractor with the centre point of your circles, line up the base line (or the 90 degree line) with your bisect line, and start marking points around the edge of the protractor.

What numbers you pick depends on how many divisions you want for your mandala.  (Remember, there are no wrong answers.)  If you want four points, mark every 90 degrees.  If you want eight points, mark every 45 degrees.  If you want twelve points, mark every 30 degrees.  (For the mathematically inclined, simply divide 360 by the number of points you want.  So, if you want ten points, mark every 36 degrees.)

Next, set your ruler to align one of the marks you made around the protractor with the centre point, and start drawing the grid lines.

Continue with all the marks until you have a complete grid.

At this point, let your creativity (and, possibly, mistakes) take over.  There are few rules.  About the only one is repetition.  Most mandala art creates forms that mirror over the grid lines, and repeat around the circle.  However, you can vary that, too.

At this point you can darken the lines with ink, darken *some* of the lines with ink, colour in certain parts of the pattern you have created ... or start again with another grid, and another mandala.

You can do a search on the Internet to find more about mandalas, traditional symbols to use in mandalas, the religious or philosophical meaning of mandala symbols, using mandala art in other shapes, and, of course, there are hundreds and thousands of YouTube videos that will teach you to make mandalas.  If you want to search them out, there is plenty of material there.

Or, you can just make your own grids, and your own mandalas, for your own purposes.  Look!  I've just wasted three hours making a brain-dead simple mandala, and creating this posting!

Some research into arts therapies.