©1998 Patricia Lay-Dorsey. Please use with attribution.
* Three of these drawings can be found in Sustaining Voices, an anthology of women's spiritual journeys, published in 1998 by WOMANSPIRIT, 867 Victoria Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9A4N5, Canada.
Originally derived from Hindu circular depictions of deities, mandalas in Western spiritual traditions have come to signify meditative drawings that use a circle format. When first introduced to this way of praying with my hands, I felt I had come home. To reflect divinity spinning like the earth, sun and moon, rather than "right side up". To allow the mandala to form as clay on a wheel, spiralling from an unseen source into being. The perfect centering tool.
In early summer 1998, while healing from two nasty falls and a couple of cracked ribs, I found myself in a place of scattered discouragement. I looked at my art supplies, picked up a rapidograph pen and filled it with black india ink. Not since art school had I been interested in doing pen-and-ink dot drawings. They take an inordinate amount of time, but now time was my greatest ally...so I began to draw mandalas, dot-by-dot. I respected the gradual unfolding of each image with no judgements or plans, often finding myself surprised at what emerged. Somehow I knew when the drawing was complete--when it had said all it needed to say--and I would start another.
When
my body was healed, the drawings were done. I offer them here as windows
into each person's spirit. I give them no names that you might circle your
depths freely, with no preconceptions. Just click on a drawing to see it
enlarged.
©1998 Patricia Lay-Dorsey. Please use with attribution.
* Three of these drawings can be found in Sustaining Voices, an anthology of women's spiritual journeys, published in 1998 by WOMANSPIRIT, 867 Victoria Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9A4N5, Canada.