Art
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The art pieces I am offering here are called mandalas. The word "mandala" is a Sanskrit word meaning "essence" + "having" or "containing". It roughly translates into "circle-circumference" or "completion".
Mandalas describe any of various geometric designs (usually circular) symbolizing something that in itself is complete. In Hinduism and Buddhism it is often a depiction of the universe. It can be used as an aid to meditation and centering ourselves.
The East has an ancient tradition of employing mandalas as a way to connect to the sacred.
My Own:
The mandalas below are part of my Visual Affirmations Series. In 2008 I created 30 of them in four weeks.I was feeling so excited about using the colored pencils for the first time, that all I could do was create another one, another one, and another one. I told all my friends that I could not visit with them as I had 'mandalaitis', a very serious condition that required me to keep creating mandalas.
In the context of death and dying I am offering these meditation mandalas as a tool to create peace and ease for ourselves. We can use the various designs to visually contemplate our connection to a challenging but worthwhile subject.
Let's assume there is a particular quality or feeling that we want more of in our life and for ourselves. For example "forgiveness" or "peace".
We can buy (or create) a particular mandala which represents those qualities to us. We then hang our mandala somewhere in our home, where we see it frequently and easily. For example over the kitchen sink, next to the bathroom mirror, or at the end of a hall way.
Every time we look at it, we can say the words associated with our personal mandala, look a the image, and evoke that particular feeling that we associate with the meditation mandala.
This way we can bring that particular quality into our lives, by looking at something that pleases us.
You have 2 options to hang your personal mandala:
1) the way the image appears on the website in its regular square format, or
2) turn it 45 degrees and hang it from one of its corners in its diamond shape.
It is up to you which shape speaks to you more.