Leafing through Improvised Life’s archive, we came across artist Meg Hitchcock,’s assemblages of letters cut from sacred texts and formulated into others. They reminded us of mandalas: harmonious radial images designed to create a calm, contemplative feeling.
We could imagine focusing on several of Hitchcock’s images in the midst of our day…
…like What a Wonderful World, its letters cut from the Koran (above)…
…and the Buddhist Prayer for Peace, each letter cut from the Methodist Hymnal…
…or the Red Lotus Mantra — Om Mani Padme Hum —made from letters cut from Bible, with threads from Tibetan prayer flags…
Like a mandala, they evoke wholeness and connection…
The deconstructed idea of the mandala that many of Hitchcock’s work evoke got us thinking about mandalas we’ve seen in the natural world.
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And then there are those made in Nature like the ephemeral spirals James Brunt creates, knowing they will be washed away…
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All are images we can carry with us, in our heads or a phone or screen, or printed out and taped onto a wall…to check into when we need a few moment’s of calm and illumination…
