five-footed flower mandala

five-footed flower mandala
Originally uploaded by calypso Dragon 13.

This was an experiment in defining a "petal" from a photo of a nude woman lying in a bed with sheets draped around her. Her foot formed the center of the flower.

I then (clumsily) transfomed the petals around the center of the flower mandala and played with filters and gradients and layers.

Here's the result. If you look closely, you can indeed see the five feet of the center of the flower mandala.

[Note to myself: next time, when making the initial cut, be more careful about creating sharp corners. These petals lack soft, organic-looking curves.]

Cat's head, whiskers & all (mandala 8-2-2)

mandala 8-2-2
Originally uploaded by calypso Dragon 13.

This is a three-axis mandala.

I have distorted it with a filter in Photoshop. S says it looks like a cat's head, whiskers and all.

I like the sense of movement in the middle of the mandala.

I was also pleased with the end results of the background color.

Here is how it started out. I think it looks rather like a Ouija-board pointer or some type of game puck.

Ojo de Dios (mandala 7-3)

mandala 7-3
Originally uploaded by calypso Dragon 13.


I always have mixed feelings about the composition of this mandala. In some ways, I like its simplicity. In other ways, it feels overly simplistic.

I can tell you it evokes a southwestern Native American feel for me. The four directions of the wind, the four points of a compass ... I see those in this mandala. In my flickr account, I mentioned an Ojo de Dios, an "eye of God." It's a creation many of us made when we were kids at summer camp. You take two sticks, cross them and begin weaving yarn around their intersection. That's what I remember of an Ojo de Dios.


Like this one from an artist named Jay Mohler. See his website here.

Colored Glass

Aren't these thumbnails, as a collection, gorgeous?

This is a compilation of colored glass shots taken by a photographer I know only as Tejana. Tejana posts on flickr. I have modified it slightly, cutting and pasting here and there.