PEOPLE POWER ALWAYS WINS

A New Era

Sustainability Star 

For several decades grassroots people around the globe have been engaged in protecting nature and fighting climate change. Two recent articles refer to the success of those efforts:

1. The globe has reached the tipping point where clean energy is now as cheap as or cheaper than energy from fossil fuels.

2. A planetary paradigm shift has occurred from mindless use of resources to a concerted effort to engage in sustainable development.

It is precisely because private citizens are succeeding in the fight to stop using fossil fuels for energy consumption that corporate America used hook and crook to gain access to the United States federal government. At the very moment that newly elected federal government officials will attempt to quash the environmental movement is exactly the time when each of us must accelerate our engagement in protecting the one planet that is known to support human life. Now is the time to maximize people power at the home, community, and state levels.

Early Adoptors

Twenty-five years ago my commitment to a reduced carbon imprint involved dedicating myself to demonstrating that an individual could live, work, and even prosper without owning a car. I live in a community that has an exemplary public transit system. That’s not to say that it can’t be improved, but to point out that my choice of residence was predicated on having access to public transportation. The money I saved from this one lifestyle choice enabled me to invest in a small condominium and save for my senior years.

Many of my friends also made carbon reduction lifestyle choices. Some committed to no longer flying in airplanes. Some were first to buy energy efficient cars. Some did home energy audits, changed all lighting to LED, made their homes and businesses more energy efficient, and became directly involved in the environmental movement. Some are actively engaged in divesting of fossil fuel stocks while others went to North Dakota to support Standing Rock in its fight to protect the priceless resource of clean water.

The Task Before Us Now

During a recent visit to my art gallery in Seattle, I met with a colleague who volunteers with the Sierra Club. I pressed him to tell me the most critical action I can now take to insure that climate change deniers do not stop the momentum of the environmental movement. He said that all the environmental and economic problems have to be addressed at once. When I asked for a summary of these problems, he agreed to send me a list compiled for the Sierra Club by Court Olsen in 2013.

When Olson’s list of twenty Available Major Public Policies That Would Help Curb Greenhouse Gases arrived, I summarized the list into the following five arenas of People Power Action to Renew the Earth. Then I created the above Sustainability Star. Everything below is summarized on the Sustainability Star. I created the star as a small poster to have in my kitchen as a daily reminder of actions I can take. Contact me for a printable version.

Protect Health, Land, Water, and Forests (think community jobs)

• Promote a vegetarian diet to free up grazing land and reduce methane emissions from cattle.
• Promote organic farming and fertilizers to enrich soil, incentivize a transition away from corporate farming and synthetic fertilizers. In the last decade the number of careful small-scale farms has increased.
• Subsidize organic farming labor wages and organic foods for low-income families through actions such as organizing local CROP HOPS where people go to an organic farm during high labor times and work for free. If you think of all the millions of dollars raised for not-for-profit organizations through running, walking, and biking marathons, you get an idea of how great the desire is to be out in nature doing something that will benefit others.
• Incentivize planting trees and forest preservation.
• Buy farmland and return it to managed forestland. 

Increase Energy Efficiency Training & Requirements (think community jobs)

• Set up free and widespread training and classes for adults and children regarding energy efficiency.
• Change to LED lighting everywhere.
• Require more energy efficient appliances and incentivize retirement of inefficient appliances.
• Promote automatic monitoring/shut off controls for lighting and appliances.
• Establish nationwide (think city and state-wide) high-energy efficiency requirements for all new buildings.
• Require minimum of 50% energy efficiency improvement of existing buildings by 2030. With proper tax-based or utility billing paybacks, this creates local jobs.

Maximize Clean Energy Production (think community jobs)

• Decentralize utility power generation by promoting local neighborhood energy production alliances.
• Start community solar/wind/hydro power projects.
• Increase utilities’ use of renewable energy generation sources: solar hot water/steam, photo voltaic solar, energy storage (salt tanks, pumped storage, etc), geothermal, wind, hydropower, bio-waste fuel burning, algae based oil). 

Eliminate Fossil Fuels (think ending dangerous unhealthy jobs)

• Divest of fossil fuel stocks.
• Tax fossil fuel consumption.
• Restrict natural gas and oil fracking.
• Subsidize the phase out of coal power plants rapidly, oldest first.
• Protest federal anti-environmental actions.
• Prevent export of fossil fuels to foreign lands.
• Stop fossil fuels exploration subsidies.

 Accelerate Clean Transportation (think community jobs)

• Use, promote and incentivize mass transit.
• Transition mass vehicles to all electric power.
• Use federal (state) incentives to build national (state) high-speed transit network to eliminate short distance airplane flights.
• Accelerate increased fuel efficiency in new cars and trucks.
• Offer incentives to destroy low-mileage vehicles.

Happy New Year! 

In the past I have often felt overwhelmed by the wide breadth of issues related to climate change. But being able to summarize concrete actions into five specific arenas has given me a grip on what I can do to have an impact. If you email me I can send you a printable pdf of the Sustainability Star. In 2017 I hope you will join me in making the Sustainability Star shine brightly in local communities everywhere.

Winter Solstice Greetings

 My top painting, Chinese New Year, has sold! Yeah.

My art work is now being represented by Fountainhead Gallery on Queen Anne hill in Seattle. My introduction to the gallery was facilitated by Leah and Laura Early. Acceptance into the gallery has happily provided opportunities for more frequent visits with colleagues in the area. You can find a few of my paintings on the gallery's website. I will be adding more to their site in 2017.

My first big show at Fountainhead will be Pilgrimage in June 2017. Since Pilgrimage has traveled throughout Oregon, Idaho, and California I am now ready to sell the paintings. Women's advancement has been my lifelong passion. Thus a percentage of proceeds from the show will go to Central Asia Institute, an organization that for twenty years has been pioneering education for girls in this mountainous and once remote region. 

I recently had the opportunity to attend the opening of the gallery's holiday show in which I have two paintings.The show's title, The Poetic Heart, offered me an opportunity to write a poem for my two paintings: Chinese New Year and Sunshine and Shade. Because the poem reflects my feelings around Winter Solstice, I share it with you as my holiday greetings. 

Nature’s Eternal Rhythms

By LiDoña Wagner

Deep in damp winter earth,

Lies a seed of hope, dormant, resting …

Absorbing rain and snow,

Slowly gathering strength,

Patiently awaiting sun’s warmth,

Praying for miraculous rebirth.

When darkness reaches fullness,

Nature’s balanced rhythms shift.

Light’s return is announced with beating drums,

Bursting firecrackers, vigorous lion dances.

Enough, we shout. Enough of lethargy!

Get on with it!

Gentle golden rays return,

Pushing back cold and shade,

Gracing earth’s hidden treasures,

Sloughing off dead cells,

Nudging hope to spring forth.
Awake. Energized. Alive!

May your 2017 be filled with opportunities for personal growth, local activism, and compassion for our planet and her peoples.

Photo by Sheela Westre

Wake Up, America

Every young person seeing me wear this pin has enthusiastically liked it.

On November 8, 2016 many of the values upon which our union of fifty states were founded were trampled in an outrageous election that left most sane people gasping for air. Pundit after pundit will give their belated analysis of what caused the veil separating reality from media hype to bring an ignorant and racist sexual predator into the highest position in our federal government. Many will blame Hillary for not being ‘the right woman’or for failing to do thus and so.

Bullshit.

Hillary Clinton was the only woman with the elephant hide to withstand the withering criticism that standing at the top of the ballot requires. Having endured decades of hostile media labeling her ‘a bitch’ (translates ‘nasty woman’), at our moment in history she was the right woman to lead my generation’s charge against the highest glass ceiling of American society. Please read Hard Truths by Hillary Clinton for a compelling contemporary history of the world. Because of her willingness to take society’s stones and arrows, there now stands a phalanx of younger women who will take up the battle she waged.

Hillary at the top of the ticket helped 95 pro-choice Democratic women win election to the US Senate, US House of Representatives, state and local offices. For example, consider these four new female US senators.

• Kamala Harris - an African American and Indian American from California
• Catherine Cortez Masto – winning Reid’s Nevada seat, our first Latina senator
• Tammy Duckworth – representing Illinois, first Thai-American senator
• Maggie Hassan – current New Hampshire Governor who defeated a rabid Republican

For the full list of 95 pro-choice Democratic women supported by Emily’s List, go to: 

www.emilyslist.org.

You can also find Emily's List on social media. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilyslist

Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilyslist

Instagram: http://instagram.com/emilys_list   

Emily’s List

For those of you who don’t know, Emily’s List is a 30-year-old organization that encourages women to run for public office, teaches them how to run campaigns and helps fund their campaigns. EMILY stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast (it makes the dough rise).

Thirty years ago a handful of Democratic women looked at the lack of female representation in US congress and began poking around to find out why this was the case. They learned that when women announced a desire to run for office, their party leaders said, “You can’t win so we’re not giving money to your campaign.” With no money to build a campaign, they did indeed lose their elections.

With nothing but a Rolodex of friendly contacts, these women began raising money to fund the early stages of women candidate campaigns. One woman at a time, they began helping elect women to US congress. Emily’s List has supported every Democratic woman in congress today.

Over time, Emily’s List discovered that they needed to seek out and encourage women to become political candidates. More recently they realized they needed a pipeline of women gaining exposure and experience at the local and state levels. Thus this year’s crop of 95 pro-choice Democratic women winners up and down the local, state, and national levels.

Emily’s List sends out information about the women they are supporting. As a potential funder, you give directly to the campaigns of those women you choose. I personally funded our four new senators, some returning female Democratic women senators, and some who ran great campaigns but did not defeat their Republican Koch-funded opponents; women such as Katy McGinty in Pennsylvania and Deborah Ross in North Carolina. Please note that these two women did better than two of the males picked by the Democratic Party: Evan Bayh and Russ Feingold.

This sign will remain on my lawn. I am proud of Hillary's campaign.

The People’s President

Hillary Clinton has won at least 1.5 million (the number keeps growing as votes continue to be counted) more votes in the general election than the Dumpster who won enough Electoral College votes to become President-elect. Hillary’s victory was won by those who represent the values for which she ran: inclusivity, higher wages, working together, fighting for clean energy to combat the growing disaster of climate change, love trumps hate, and more. Her victory represents a far larger margin than Al Gore won in 2000.

The racism, bigotry, and misogyny that characterized the campaign of The Dumpster are a direct result of decades of untruths propagated by the Fox Lie machine and major media all owned by wealthy conservatives. Fed a constant diet of entertaining falsehoods, people have lost the ability to discern fact from fiction. Many people found The Dumpster’s outrageous lies and Roger Ailes-fed slogans supported their predispositions, failing to subject these to a truth test. Is it even possible to ever again have a free press that informs rather than entertains?

Hillary Clinton is clearly The People’s President. Even with thousands of Democrats stricken from voter registers in Republican-held states, unabashed voter suppression through difficult poll locations and extreme ID requirements, vicious intimidation, and vote buying by the Koch Hispanic outreach program, a preponderance of individuals in these United States believe in the basic American values represented by Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine.

I stand with a proud line of Hillary supporters.
The Eugene GOTV run by young people succeeded
in electing a Democratic woman as my areas's state representative
despite gobs of outside money for the Republican. 

Grassroots Democracy

Our federal system of government is in tatters. Since the Supreme Court foisted Citizens United on our democracy, the financial powers that have always threatened our democracy have escalated. Republicans have hamstrung our legislative functions. With these ‘big business’ proponents now in control of the House, the Senate, the presidency, and soon the Supreme Court, all checks and balances are lost. Washington will be nothing but an on-going circus and entertainment machine. There will be no policies for the benefit of common ordinary citizens, only for the rich and powerful.

This being the case, I have come to the conclusion that it is up to grassroots activists working at community and state levels to forge a new style of ‘Stronger Together’ government. California Governor Jerry Brown gave the battle cry by proclaiming that his diverse and populous state will not be bludgeoned into accepting the draconian, hate-filled, and outdated ideas spouted by The Dumpster and his loyal followers. In two years Jerry Brown transformed a state bankrupted by Republican Arnold Swartzenegger into a healthy economy. Thousands of people in major cities across the nation heard Brown’s clarion call and have stood up to support a new form of grassroots democracy.

Concerned citizens can create sanctuary cities to protect our most vulnerable residents, raise the minimum wage to rebuild a middle class, continue to build and escalate clean energy businesses and jobs to fight carbon-induced climate change, and engage young people in a new style of community and nation-building (thank you Bernie Sanders). Such efforts could provide a beginning point for all those states that want to participate in a new form of government for and by the people.

Perhaps it is illusory to postulate that modeling a new future might attract the interest of open-minded citizens in Republican-controlled states and counties. However, if it is true that some people in this occupied territory voted for The Dumpster not out of the racism and bigotry represented by gun-toting white supremacy believing men but because they truly want change and are willing to work for it, then perhaps it is possible to hope for a national awakening of civic engagement.

As a human community, America elected a dedicated and compassionate woman to lead the country. As a corrupted political system, America gave power to an unworthy man. John Kerry, a respected world statesman, was swift-boat advertised out of the presidency. Al Gore, a Nobel-prize winning environmental activist, was hanging chadded out of the presidency. It’s time for grassroots democracy to create new political systems.

Wake up, America.

Beginner's Mind

Three sketchbooks:  (L) Eve's Imprint series evolution, (R) Africa and My
Ancestral Journey, and (B) one for Ancient Near East begun in 2013.

When I completed my Pilgrimage series of paintings in 2009, I felt ready to do a series about something that had long been on my mind - Our One Black Mother. I started by doing my own DNA test with National Geographic's Genographic Project to discover my maternal ancestral journey out of East Africa. I asked a brother to do a DNA test so I could get my paternal ancestral journey. 

Over the past seven years, I have created two dimensional and three dimensional pieces for four of the twelve sections I have envisioned for Eve's Imprint: African Origins, Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and My Ancestral Journey. The further I go, the more the parameters for Eve's Imprint evolve. This month I embraced my procrastination and began to work on the Ancient Near East, the last of our maiden migrations out of Africa. 

As I return to yet another beginning, I find myself having to embrace both having a history and the need for a beginner's mind. I am going to attempt to share something I have never attempted before - my process of conceptualization. 

(L) Binder of research articles and images, (R) Global Atlas, (BR) book on our human
journey, (BC) catalogue from a show of artifacts from the Ancient Near East,
and (BL) blown up map of the region.

I have binders of research materials for all twelve of the projected sections of Eve's Imprint. I had actually begun to work on this region back in 2013, but found it too overwhelming so turned instead to Southwest Asia because I had lived in India for two years and had a feel for the region. It was helpful to rehearse what I set out as guidelines at the start of this journey: use maps in unusual ways, use earth tones and texture for environmental effects, and have three dimensional elements.

Initial sketch for a 3D piece for Ancient Near East.

In reviewing my earlier Near East work, I realized that I had wanted to somehow use a wheel for this region since it was the birthplace of the wheel, the potters' wheel, the archimedes (water) wheel, as well as the chariot. I did an initial sketch for this section based somewhat on the wheel idea. In my Eve's Imprint series evolution sketchbook, I found an image I had cut out of a three dimensional spoke-like sculpture. I am now beginning to figure out how I might make this piece. 

I blew up a section of a map 16 times to reach the size I wanted.

In each of the completed sections, I have used maps in a different way. This time I decided to give each large contemporary country its own board and to put the smaller nations that compose what was once known as The Levant on one board. But I also decided that only the northern sections of Egypt and the Arabian peninsula would be on those boards since only those sections were part of the migration 50,000 years ago from East Africa into the Ancient Near East.

Upon reflection, I changed the size and depth of some of my boards and then
 prepped them for painting with coats of gesso.

Because clay bricks, pottery, and cuneiform tablets were created in this region, I have decided that I will use Paper Clay on all of the boards. I may use it differently on each board, I'm still trying to figure that out. Once I had my sizes set and my maps ready to trace onto the boards, I began to meditate on what images each board will have. I went after more reference materials.

Books from my personal library and the Eugene Public Library.

In Ancient Egypt I found a fabulous image of the Nile Delta that will be the primary image for the Egypt board and will be made in Paper Clay. The Prehistoric Art book is rich with images for several of my Eve sections and yielded a fabulous image of shell beads found in Turkey. I returned to a book in my library, After the Ice, which has the best descriptions of what life was like for hunter gathering peoples. 

My ideas begin to take form and I begin making preliminary sketches.

After I had a sense for the Egypt board, I moved on to Mesopotamia (Iraq) and The Levant (Jordan, Syria, Israel, Palestine) Here the prehistoric (and pre-agriculture) material is vast and it is difficult to choose images. I did decide to use a stone female figurine for The Levant because so few people actually realize that female deity figures preceded male gods. Somewhere on the Iraq board will be cuneiform writing in clay since it is important to remember that Western history began there. I will use a stone etching of nested arcs to join the Levant and Iraq boards since there was so much interaction between these ancient places.

Many of my images are still gestating as I continue to read resource material.

As I read, I make notes of things that impact me. I usually make these on scraps of paper that I then insert in my sketchbooks with Hold It so I can move them around. Even though I already had pages of notes and images in my Ancient Near East sketchbook, I decided to set up a separate section for each of the six boards for the Ancient Near East alcove. 

First page in the Turkey section of my Ancient Near East sketchbook. 

I'm at the stage of trying to figure out Turkey (Anatolia). I know I want to use the bull from a cave painting as it symbolizes the transition from female to male deities. But I have not decided if the bull will be under the map, on top of the map, or inside the map.

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out Iran and Arabia because I included them in Southwest Asia since their southern regions were involved in the first coastal migration out of Africa 75,000 years ago. I may repeat something from the other panels to show the geographic connections. Because I am not very familiar with working in Paper Clay, I feel that I need to have some baseline images for all of the boards before I actually begin the work.

Perhaps A Singing Bird Will Come

 Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.  Kahlil Gibran

This White Flowering Dogwood began
life as a seedling mailed to me ten years ago.

Last winter I sent $10 to the Arbor Day Foundation, just as I had ten years earlier. In late March I received ten flowering tree and two Crapemyrtle seedlings along with directions for how to successfully grow them. I live in a condo complex with limited yard and clay soil, so assumed that I would give most of the seedlings away, just as I did ten years earlier. When I had no early takers, I created a temporary tree nursery in one of my longer pots, hoping people would want my trees when they were large enough to put in the ground. 

I simulated the trough recommended for seedlings that would
not be planted in the ground immediately.

One impetus for this renewed greening effort was the loss of my Weeping Cherry Tree last fall when it succumbed to disease. I let the Cherry Tree's large patio pot stand empty for several months in honor of all the joy that tree had brought to me. What should go into this pot? I contemplated this question until I received my tree seedlings: 3 American Redbud, 2 Sargent Crabapple, 2 Washington Hawthorn, 3 White Flowering Dogwood, and 2 Crapemyrtle.

After reading about my future trees, I decided that one of the Crapemyrtles would be appropriate for the large pot on my patio. While most of the other seedlings went into the tree nursery the two Crapemyrtle received pots of their own. When one Crapemyrtle took off quickly, I transferred it to the large patio pot.

The Crapemyrtle bush is flourishing, encouraged by
other surrounding plants until it is well established.

The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Before long I had a taker for one of the Dogwoods, yeah! The two Crabapples got powdery mildew fairly quickly so I threw them away. Besides, who wants to clean up all of the crabapples when they land in the yard during autumn?

I am very excited about the way
my Washington Hawthorns are growing.

As the seedlings began to leaf out, I gave each of them its own pot. One of the Hawthorns did not leaf when other seedlings did but since it had a tiny root, I gave it a pot of its own and changed its location. Now it's doing fine! One of the Redbuds did not leaf and with no sign of its original roots, sadly, I let it go.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.   Greek Proverb

The American Redbuds are progressing slowly.
They may need something I am not supplying.

When I was living in Singapore in the mid-seventies, it was cement city. Today Singapore is one of the greenest cities on the planet. In the 1980s Singapore's government began planting trees and lowered the city's temperature almost immediately. They continued to not only plant trees but to build green buildings, not just LEED standard, but covered in greenery.

This healthy Dogwood is ready for a home.
Dogwoods have lovely white blossoms in spring and bright red seeds in fall.

I call my small tree nursery Petite Greening. It is nothing compared to the millions of trees planted in Singapore or several months ago in the Punjab - a state in India. I hope some local readers will come by and take home one of these darling trees to help re-green the Willamette Valley.

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.  Chinese proverb

The Washington Hawthorn has white flowers in June,
red-purple leaves that turn dark green and then orange or scarlet in fall,
and small, glossy-red fruits that are a favorite of songbirds.

Innately Human

Flames of Hope - Earth Air Fire Water cut-paper mandala - LiDoña Wagner

Accessing the Unconscious

Dreaming is an innately human experience. We do not know if other animals dream but every human culture places significance on dreaming. Dreams are the royal road to one’s unconscious. As such they can give us invaluable information about issues needing to be resolved. Dreaming not only puts us in touch with our own unconscious, it also allows us to access the collective unconscious. Tapping into this deep wellspring helps us envision a new and different future.

Whenever a person devotes attention to her or his dreams, life is enhanced and given meaning. With a little guidance, persons who think they cannot remember their dreams can learn to do so. And they can learn to work with the symbolic language embedded in their dreams.

Dream Mandala Collage

Unlock the meaning of a personal dream and create a powerful symbol to inspire your future. Bring a dream you would like to understand. With guidance from artist and dream mentor LiDoña, you will access your dream’s significance through playful processes of collage and interior dialogue. Using magazine images, you will explore where the dream takes you. In addition to dream-work approaches, you will learn a centering mandala technique and basic compositional principles. After a day of fun you take home a beautiful mandala that mirrors your dream’s message.

Next Stage of Life - Dream Mandala collage - LiDoña Wagner

Everyone has had the experience of being moved by images – in films, magazines, on line, etc. And most people have had the experience of taking a photograph of something personally meaningful. Though they may not have made collages yet, almost everyone is familiar with the idea of multiple images being used to compose a larger composite image. All that is required to create a successful dream mandala collage is bringing a recent or recurrent dream that intrigues you.

People frequently say, “I’m not creative.” Or “I could never paint.” This is not true. Every person has a medium through which to express creativity. It may be cooking, gardening, designing interior space, developing relationships, writing free form poetry, telling jokes, or maybe oral storytelling.

Seed of Life - Earth Air Fire Water cut-paper mandala - LiDoña Wagner

Our Human Connection to Nature

Homo Sapiens are part of nature. It’s a fact. And that connection is a source of meaning for a lot of people: runners, hikers, bikers, outdoor sport athletes, farmers, gardeners, fisher-folk, landscape designers, picnic enthusiasts, backyard barbeque fanatics, and on and on. Knowing the power of our human connection to nature, last spring I launched a Nature Mandala class in Eugene.  

Gaia’s Gift – Your Uniquely Meaningful Nature Mandala

Painting a nature mandala is fun, creative, and mindful. Working with circular forms found in nature gives the brain a chance to heal and find wholeness. In this class you will create a symbol of your unique connection to nature using gouache, an ancient Asian medium. Gouache is a luscious water-based paint that is similar to oil paint in viscosity, rich color, and opacity but easier to use. You will learn Eastern and Western principles of art making, practice mindfulness, experience the joy of creativity, and create a mandala based on personally meaningful aspects of nature. The beauty of your completed mandala will inspire you and serve as an aid to meditation.

Nurturing Dogwood - Gaia's Gift nature mandala - LiDoña Wagner

For this first nature mandala class, I was blessed with one student. We each developed a design for some aspect of nature that is particularly meaningful to us. Mine is on the Dogwood trees I grew from seedlings, planted in my yard, and nurtured after my daughter died. My student’s is on the delicate balance between Monarch butterflies and milkweed plants, about which her father-in-law had written numerous poems.

We discovered that four 2.5-hour sessions is insufficient for designing and completing a personally meaningful nature mandala in gouache. After the official class ended, we continued to work on our mandalas. Pat is nearly there. She will add white filaments to the Milkweed seeds, write one of her father-in-law's poem's in the light space, and refine her central Milkweed blossom with high and low lights.

Interdependence of Monarch Butterfly & Milkweed Plant -
Gaia's Gift nature mandala - Pat Rounds - in process

From this first class I learned that Gaia’s Gift – a nature mandala painted in gouache – is another long-form mandala class. Though not as complex as my dream mandala journey class based on a Tibetan Buddhist structure, it takes longer than I’d originally planned. This winter I will offer it again but in four full days spread out over a month or more.

My one nature mandala student suggested that I create a different short-form nature mandala workshop based on a template. To ensure a depth of meaning while using a template, I decided to base the structure on key elements of nature: earth, air, fire, and water. Since painting is often intimidating for newbies, I determined to make it with cut papers. Perhaps you remember cutting paper dolls as a kid? 

Initial template for Earth Air Fire Water cut-paper mandala - LiDoña Wagner

So I created a template for a cut-paper mandala based on earth, air, fire, and water. I gathered art papers from various stores and my own reserves and set to work creating not one but three cut-paper mandalas. I tried to gage how much time each one took. 

Template pieces for cutting art papers for Earth Air Fire Water
cut-paper mandala - LiDoña Wagner

After completing these I determined that given the backing with a drawn form and a set of template pieces, people would be able to complete this mandala in a one-day workshop. The hardest part would be selecting their papers, most of which I would supply.

Earth Air Fire Water

Who has not been mesmerized by a blazing fire or the subtle light of a sunrise? Likewise, are we not captivated by the beauty of a flower growing up from the ground? Every runner, hiker, or gardener understands that water and air are key to all life forms, including our own. Like it or not, our existence depends on the basic elements of our planet: earth, air, fire, and water. If you made it through kindergarten, you know how to use scissors and paste. Now as a grown-up you can have fun cutting art papers to make stunning mandalas that reflect your deep connection to nature. With guidance relative to effective composition and color usage, you can make a beautiful Earth Air Fire Water cut-paper mandala.

Dragon Breath - Earth Air Fire Water cut-paper mandala - LiDoña Wagner 

I have been making mandalas based on a Tibetan Buddhist structure for over twenty years. I have been teaching dream mandala journey classes for nearly that long. Creating such a mandala can be a transformative experience. I have had students with no previous art experience and others who are proficient artists. Whether newbie or experienced, the sacred container established for each group of students allows persons to take the unique journey for which each is ready.

Flight of the Eagle - Dream Mandala Journey 2015-16 - LiDoña Wagner

While many people may be intrigued by the idea of taking a dream mandala journey, often the courage to do so requires having a chance to dip a toe into this deep water first. That is the reason I designed these introductory one-day and short-form workshops. If you are one of those who are uncertain of your ability to be creative, hopefully one of these classes will unblock that doubt.

Energy Glyphs in Ink and Gouache 

Anyone can paint from the heart. This is a class for the fearful, those who hesitate to pick up a paintbrush or who say, “I can’t draw a straight line.” As if that were a requirement for expressing oneself in a medium that by its very nature abhors straight lines! With prompts from LiDoña, you’ll express your individual life force in ink and gouache. From spontaneous and playful mark making you will find yourself making original cards and personal logos. Don't sell yourself short. If you feel, you can paint. Trust me on that. My own journey as an artist began with energy glyphs in ink and gouache.

Dance - Energy glyph - LiDoña Wagner