THE GALLERY
Mandalas of Virginia DuPre
Atlanta, Georgia
(exhibited by permission)
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Mandalas 1 - 4
Mandalas 1 through 4 were created within a 10-week period. The mandalas represent the inner struggle I experienced as I went through the process of deciding to leave a traditional form of ministry. I had been the pastor of a church. I chose to become a non-traditional type of spiritual leader: an art therapist who views artmaking as a form of listening to the Divine. The first mandala has hints of the Target, Stage Five of the Great Round of Mandalas. The Target reflects an ability and willingness to follow the rules. As I struggled to make a decision to leave a traditional form of ministry, I was definitely struggling with internalized familial and societal expectations and rules. The lines in the Target, perhaps representing those rules and expectations, are beginning to be blurred in the first mandala but become even more blurred in the second mandala as the rules began to loosen their hold on my own hopes and expectations for myself.
Mandala 3
The arrow in the third mandala appears to be carving a new path for itself as it travels down the pink path which is not wide enough. As I made plans to inform my congregation of my intent to pursue a career that combines creativity and spirituality, I was creating a new path for myself.
Mandala 4
I created the fourth mandala immediately after publicly announcing my intent to take a leave of absence from pastoring in order to pursue a Master of Art Therapy degree. The mandala reflects the fact that this action was one that broke the boundaries that had contained my work and my life. The mandala goes beyond its boundary. With this mandala, my mandalas shifted from being abstract designs to having hints of identifiable objects as it contains a snake wrapped around a fetus. This movement away from abstract toward identifiable images reflected the fact that my true self was beginning to come into focus. As I painted the pink and yellow shapes, the thought of a butterfly bursting out of its cocoon came to mind. The snake, the butterfly, and the fetus seemed to reflect the transformation and birth that was taking place through my career decision. In hindsight, these mandalas were not only about the movement toward a new and transformed ministry. I now see them as images that reflect the birthing of my true self.
Mandala 5
Mandala five was created with my art therapist in what was intended to be our final session together. It was created five months after the first four mandalas were made. The mandala is a celebration of our therapy relationship. It reflects the many experiences I processed in art therapy. It also contains mystery. The egg with the black, red, and white boiling around it seemed to hint that something was cooking. Things were indeed cooking! In the four years following the creation of this mandala, I became clearer about the power and importance of that therapeutic relationship and I became clearer on who I was.
Mandala six was created three years after mandala five (though there were many mandalas created in between these two). It has hints of the Dragon Fight, Stage Six on the Great Round of Mandala. The colors and images are earthy. Continuing in the process of letting my true self take form, the earthiness of the image reflected my internal feelings. The more I stayed on the path of letting myself unfold and develop, the more real and down to earth I felt. The mandala also has hints of mystery and shadow in it. At the time this mandala was created, I was becoming more familiar with my shadow and learning to live mystery and the unknown.