Inspiration
Sarah Greene
Working notes
I suppose what I would like to share is really my relationship to the creative process. How creativity is a prayer and a ritual and brings forth hidden truths from within me. How I am reflected in my creations and have an opportunity to become more integrated and know who I am in more empowered ways.
Every mandala is a prayer and as completely freehand drawings, take up to a year to complete. I can only explain the experience as digging the rabbit hole by which to descend and retrieve lost parts of myself. To make the unconscious conscious. And of all the mandalas, Inspiration was one of the most intense creative experiences I have incurred thus far. I met some of the darkest places inside of myself as I dove in to meet all the places where inspiration could not touch. And throughout, I had experiences that reminded me of the Light at the end of the tunnel which allowed me to keep digging. Without those moments of resource and being held by the people I love, I'm not so sure I would have survived this one. I know that sounds intense, but it's true. To invite in-spiration is to invite breath, life, spirit and a willingness to meet resistance to all these things, including my desire to not exist at all: to ex-pire. In sharing it, I hope to share the medicine I received: a connection to something far greater than myself, the space to let it in and allow it to express itself through this body, blood and bones becoming the piece of art you see in front of you.
Every mandala is a prayer and as completely freehand drawings, take up to a year to complete. I can only explain the experience as digging the rabbit hole by which to descend and retrieve lost parts of myself. To make the unconscious conscious. And of all the mandalas, Inspiration was one of the most intense creative experiences I have incurred thus far. I met some of the darkest places inside of myself as I dove in to meet all the places where inspiration could not touch. And throughout, I had experiences that reminded me of the Light at the end of the tunnel which allowed me to keep digging. Without those moments of resource and being held by the people I love, I'm not so sure I would have survived this one. I know that sounds intense, but it's true. To invite in-spiration is to invite breath, life, spirit and a willingness to meet resistance to all these things, including my desire to not exist at all: to ex-pire. In sharing it, I hope to share the medicine I received: a connection to something far greater than myself, the space to let it in and allow it to express itself through this body, blood and bones becoming the piece of art you see in front of you.
About the author
Sarah A. Greene has had a deep connection with mandalas since she was 18, at a time of confusion and conflict, when they spontaneously started to emerge from her as freehand drawings. Without knowing how to draw them, or with an idea of what "mandalas" were, she put the pen to the paper and watched them emerge. They showed her an order and intelligence that lived inside of her that she hadn't been aware of, and of inner capacities and beauty she hadn't known. They also helped still the noise in her mind.
Around the age of 26, she had a life-changing awakening in the form of a head injury. Emerging from a darkness that had been consuming her existence until then, she has since been fully dedicated to the path of healing and soulful expression. In addition to her artistry, she is also a gifted, intuitive bodyworker and has explored work in the field of birth as a doula and midwives apprentice. Her passion of opening up to the current of Life as expressed through the creative impulse has brought her to practices such as yoga, qi gong, dance, somatics, tantra, meditation, and singing, all of which inform her ability to drop in more fully and completely to the depth available in the present moment from which the mandalas now emerge.
The drawings and paintings are all done completely free hand, using no compass, rulers, or aids of any kind. There is no plan regarding shape, symmetry, or color beforehand; they all start with a dot on the center of a blank page and a creative impulse, and the rest unfolds from there.
Around the age of 26, she had a life-changing awakening in the form of a head injury. Emerging from a darkness that had been consuming her existence until then, she has since been fully dedicated to the path of healing and soulful expression. In addition to her artistry, she is also a gifted, intuitive bodyworker and has explored work in the field of birth as a doula and midwives apprentice. Her passion of opening up to the current of Life as expressed through the creative impulse has brought her to practices such as yoga, qi gong, dance, somatics, tantra, meditation, and singing, all of which inform her ability to drop in more fully and completely to the depth available in the present moment from which the mandalas now emerge.
The drawings and paintings are all done completely free hand, using no compass, rulers, or aids of any kind. There is no plan regarding shape, symmetry, or color beforehand; they all start with a dot on the center of a blank page and a creative impulse, and the rest unfolds from there.