Corodala

Dur­ing the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic lock­down, life al­most seems to stand still: work, leisure ac­tiv­i­ties, so­cial con­tacts are all on hold. Sud­den­ly, one has lots of time on one's hands. But al­so lots of stress. Col­or­ing man­dalas is wide­ly rec­og­nized as a good way to re­lax and re­duce stress.

In this se­ries, I com­bine these two sources of in­spi­ra­tion: cre­at­ing Coro­dala (Corona Mandala) draw­in­gs is both time-con­sum­ing and re­lax­ing.  I start with ex­tracts of man­dalas tak­en from col­or­ing books,  I merge them in­to a large sur­face, and then I col­or them.  To cre­ate a sharp con­trast with the ri­ot of man­dala col­ors and shapes, I add an area with qui­et and repet­i­tive lines, rem­i­nis­cent of my for­mer se­ries “Rhythms” and thus evok­ing the pre-pan­dem­ic past.  This vi­su­al break is al­so a sym­bol for the rup­tur­ing of our lives by the virus: there was a time be­fore the pan­dem­ic, there will be a time af­ter it.