Take a deep breath, relax, focus on your breathing. Take another breath in, and out again, slowly. This was the advice of artist, Sue Norman, who visited the Year 10 Art class and guided the class through the process of creating mandalas.
If one is focusing on the breath then you are relaxing your whole body and therefore will open the doors to your creativity. The Year 10 Art class certainly felt relaxed and produced some beautiful pieces of work.
Sue encouraged the students to work from a centre point to instil a sense of being centred, then work from the centre point in an unplanned manner, just let the mandala evolve, and continue to breathe gently and slowly. If students were stuck on what to do next, then it was time again to just focus on the breathing.
Two weeks later Sue invited us to Brighton Beach to create mandala’s on a large scale in the sand. We used sticks and rakes to make one giant mandala for the public to view and appreciate. What a wonderful opportunity this was to create a personal but very public piece of art only to have this washed away with the tide.
Verity Clark
Art Teacher
