december fotoplay: gallery 11

Early this morning, on this first bright day of the New Year, I opened my inbox and found this jewel of a mandala. It was sent to me by Beverly, one of my students, along with this note: Happy New Year, Marcie. As you can see, I’ve sent you a mandala that I made from your card. I hope you are smiling. Do you know that I have been making a mandala nearly every day since your wonderful Shake Up Your Art class at CMCA? I’m sure you remember that when you introduced us to the idea of mandalas, and asked us to make one by cutting up our own paintings, I was not very happy. In fact, I left your workshop thinking that the mandalas were the weirdest and most frustrating part of the day. Well lo and behold, isn’t it ironic that the very next morning, I woke up in a sweat after the most vivid dream, where I was swimming in a big circle, swimming so fluidly, with such ease, around and around in a pool that was lined with the most beautiful mosaics, and in a daze, half awake, I went into the kitchen and started cutting up a magazine… I was making a pile of such wonderful shapes, in such bright colors, and I began moving these shapes around, arranging them on the table. And before I realized what I was doing, I had formed a mandala. I actually gasped. It was hypnotic, the process, and so calming. And what I made was so beautiful to me. Thank you again for the workshop. All the best to you in 2012. Beverly.

These last two images were sent to me by a photography friend, Chris, who I met in New York so many years ago, at the rented darkroom space we both used on 19th Street. Chris’s email to me was very brief: It’s a New Year, and I am placing two things at the center of my life: Awe and Abandon. It seems to me that all of my problems come from my either forgetting how Awesome it is to be alive, or my holding myself back from my real impulses, not allowing myself to jump into my life with Abandon.

I’d like to take a moment on this New Year’s Day to thank all of you who have created such imaginative work. Here’s to a truly Happy New Year, filled with Awe and Abandon…