Me Mandala
Description
Me Mandala
32"x46"x1"
Acrylic hand made paper, sand, and mixed media on canvas
Pamella Allen 2016
This work is featured in the new publication, "Brooklyn On My Mind: Black Visual Artists from the WPA to the Present" 1st Edition ( Release Date December 15, 2018)
The self-study is constant in my arts practice, and speaks of everyday encounters of intense inspiration. Moment, memory and the mystic of nature is always the muse as I create and appropriate lived experience by layering and collage of deconstructed visual elements that I illustrate, paint or photograph along with tactile elements created by nature that I gather on my journeys over land and sea.
To create this series of mixed media paintings entitled My Mandala, I have appropriated the ritual, therapeutic and storytelling use of the mandala in indigenous cultures throughout history. To make My Mandalas, I use my own artifacts and archetypal images, the motion of repetitive form, the written word, and earth elements such as sand and soil to create a landscape grounded in the mystic of nature. The desire is to make a place of "one-ness" in the process of creating the mandala that translates to the viewer as a place of inspired peace, a place of meditation.