About the Mandalas

I started painting these watercolor mandalas when I when to a very special conference in October of 2004. It was a gathering of tribal elders, healers and grandmothers to create a Council of Indigenous Grandmothers comprised of wise women from around the globe. I attended the pre-conference where the women were getting together and then the conference where these Elders were meeting with western women leaders like Gloria Steinem for discussion and healing. It was a remarkable week where we were treated to prayer rituals from many cultures at sunrise and sunset and the wise and healing words of many people. The was dance and celebrations too. Anyway, sometimes in the late evenings or early mornings I would pick up my paintbrush and start painting a mandala. These were not the type of painting I was used to doing, but I finally understood their power in creating a meditative and calm focused vibration. Each of the mandalas I painted that week represented to me, one of the grandmothers. Every one in while I find myself wanting to paint another one. It's very relaxing and as I said, meditative. I definitely recommend it. They don't have to be perfectly round or symetrical either to have power. Funnily enough, since I never got around to getting a compass drawing thingy, I just take various cups and saucers from my cupboard to pencil in some circles of varying sizes on my fresh page, and then just go from there with no particular design in mind. Sometimes I just think about the person the mandala is inspired by, sometimes I just follow my own tastes in colors and see what emerges. Some of my mandalas remind me of certain chakras.

Francine Marie