Rose Mandala

We forget all the time. We forget to look at the sky, touch trees, smell flowers, to see. It is lucky we can breathe without effort, as our minds are so busy we could easily forget that too. Immersed in our frantic daily living we lose the energy of being. Thoughts of desire fill our minds as we try to get what we want as fast as we can, while we miss the roots of what sustains us, nature. I navigate the territory of interactive public artworks and holistic art interventions. My work is a cross-cultural hybrid within the conceptual framework of a minimal outdoor sculptural installation with structures for the public to use for meditation, protection, and wishing. These works have references to Zen sand gardens (Japan), mounds of prayer stones (Asia, Middle East), flower mandalas (India), prayer flags (Tibet), maypoles (Europe) and wishing trees (everywhere) to name a few. All cultures historically have used natural and alchemical elements: water, fire, earth and air as a starting point for wishing and praying actions. It is the form and conceptual structure of these actions, unique to each place, that have a significant relationship to contemporary performance and interactive art. These actions reveal our deep interconnection to each other and nature by cutting through the barriers of language.