Arty Wood Walks Mosaic Mandalas
In October 2019 we continued to deliver a second series of workshops using mosaic as the medium, as it had been very successful in the previous year, we invited the women to produce circular mosaics based on the mandala process.A maṇḍala – literally "circle" is a spiritual and/or ritual geometric configuration of symbols or a map (in Shintoism) in the Indian religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism or Japanese religion of Shintoism representing deities, or in the case of Shintoism, paradises, kami or actual shrines. In modern, typically American use, "mandala" has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a time-microcosm of the universe, though it originally meant to represent wholeness and a model for the organizational structure of life itself—a cosmic diagram that shows us our relation to the infinite, the world that extends beyond and within our minds and bodies.
Then the women once gaining confidence went on to produce more integrate patterns using Islamic principles of geometry. Again, the women enjoyed the group walks lead by the park ranger and collected leaves and flora as they leant about the history of the park.