Collages

from w
By overlapping two images I made some new pictures - mainly of the mandorla (overlapping circles) pictures. They get complex and messy at times and hard on the eyes perhaps.

Symbols and mandorlas

from w,
When I was looking for pictures of mandalas for a church powerpoint project for next Sunday, I came across some down-loaded images of my mandorla paintings. A mandala is based on circles and a mandorla is based on two circles that overlap and this is a medieval symbol they say of the liminal space between opposites such as 'heaven' and 'earth'. A shape like an almond. Other use of symbols I used were an opal - a gem that is very Australian, and then I used different colours to represent earth, water, fire. However I don't think the folk in my home church would be much interested in these pictures. I've added a few other mandorla images found on google. One explanation of the mandorla as a Christian symbol is that Jesus is the man and Christ is the savior; the Mandorla is the point of Christ--the integration of Divinity (God the Father) and Jesus the man. I think this is an interesting concept. Also I am convinced that there are moments in life that are very special and where there is grace that is in such contrast to the mundane ordinariness of life i.e. between 'heaven' and 'earth'.

Nothing is lost on the breath of God

from w
An art exhibition proposed by the Uniting Church invites artists to produce visual art works on the topic of 'Holiness'. Wow! Some huge topic and what colour is 'holiness'? I was thinking in terms of beauty actually as I'm not too much into piety. Perhaps something from Julian of Norwich or Hildegarde of Bingen, or even the song by Colin Gibson 'Nothing is lost on the breath of God'. I was looking for something like an opal and found what I wanted in a throw-away old book on minerals that was going to the recycling bin. So I used the cover, cut it up, and then used stones I'd bought at the Reject Shop and some gum leaves and played about with the scanner, etc. Hence a few results.

the shape produced by overlapping circles has a special name, something like a mandala or mendala or something. The idea is when the extraordinary meets with the ordinary, where 'heaven' breaks into 'earthly' things, and I always want to stay focussed on things of the earth like stones and leaves. I might make a series into a powerpoint presentation as paint and canvas cost money!

(added later: The word is mandorla or almond shaped and it's about the space between opposites.)