The Flower Mandalas blog has a dual purpose:
- To explore the use of art as a means to healing and transformation.
- To ask for your help in completing The Flower Mandalas Project.
Purpose #1: My intent is to use my own Flower Mandalas and related ideas and thoughts as a springboard for a broader exploration of the topic of art, healing, and transformation. I invite you to contribute your own experiences with art, healing, and transformation to the Art, Healing, and Transformation group on Beliefnet.com. I hope that a lively discussion will ensue there. I will moderate this group and, with your permission, post a selection of your contributions on the Flower Mandalas blog. You may also contact me directly at phototransformations@davidbookbinder.com.
Purpose #2: I’d like to ask for your responses to the Flower Mandala images posted here, either briefly as comments to the blog posts or in detail on the Behance Network Fifty-Two Flower Mandalas page. My plan is to create a book of 52 Flower Mandala images, each one paired with an inspirational quotation and original essay which in some way complement the image. My hope is for each image-and-quote-and-essay triad to resonate with a fundamental aspect of human experience.
Thanks for listening and sharing.
- David
David J. Bookbinder, LMHC
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posted August 23, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Amazing flower mandalas! I often focus on flowers as a way to remember my own ability to bloom, to open up without fear or worry.
Dr. Bolte Taylor’s is an amazing story. Since the first time I watched her TED presentation in May, I have adopted “I am the life force power of the universe” as a sort of mantra to remind myself of the eternal positive energy within and all around me.
“…being tapped into something much larger and more universal than myself…. a conduit for a vast energy that joins us all.”
When I really get involved in making a drawing, I lose track of time, I lose track of who “I” am, I lose track of my society, my family, the weather, everything — and simultaneously I merge with the subject, the paper, the pencil. It’s brief, but it feels totally great. Sometimes when I feel stuck in a mood or mentality I don’t enjoy, I can turn it around by focusing my intent through drawing. It gives me a break from the negative, worrisome, problematic thinking, thinking, thinking!
Check out my daily art journal:
heartstorms.wordpress.com