In about another month or so this guy is gonna be an Uncle! Obviously I'm super excited and I knew that I would have to do something special for my little niece or nephew. Luckily, my sister asked for some help with a project of her own that she was working on and it gave me the inspiration for this mandala. Katie asked if I could do an elephant outline for the pattern of a cute little wall hanging. I finished the initial elephant outline pretty quickly, but didn't get started on the rest of the mandala for a week or two (I was still finishing up my last one at the time). Once I got started though it went really smoothly. I really wanted to keep the feeling of this one nice and calm so I really didn't go too overboard with any of the design and I'm really pleased with the results. And, now that the original has made it safely to Katie and Sam's, I thought it would be safe to share. 

     I dedicate this piece to the brave men and women on the front lines fighting against the systematic prejudices that pervade many of our nation's institutions. As I drew, I meditated on blessings and protection for these heroes. "No weapon formed against me shall prosper..." a bible verse paraphrased by Chance the Rapper in a beautiful freestyle kept running through my mind over in over while I worked as well. I also took time to deeply examine and analyze many of my own attitudes and beliefs. 
      So much of what we allow to divide us as a species stems from one of the only things I've found that we all have in common. I have yet to meet the person who was given the opportunity to choose the color of their skin, the country they were born in, the religion their parents choose to practice, or if they'd like their cells to come with 2 'X's or the 1 'X' - 1 'Y' swirl variety prior to their birth. In the same fashion, we each spend the first portion of our lives completely helpless to the events and actions around us. Decisions are made for us. Beliefs, values, and ways of thinking are demonstrated by those around us and absorbed into our subconscious forming the mold for what we can potentially grow into. 
      It's astounding to me how much credit people give themselves for things that they haven't earned, worked for, and often have no control of whatsoever before turning around and with the same breath belittling another for not having the same.
     I am very blessed to have had a number of personal triumphs and successes throughout my life. Is it possible that I could have achieved the same things if the circumstances of my birth were different? I'd like to think so, but honestly...probably not. I can't say that I have not had to work or had struggles. What I definitely can say though, is that growing up as a white, christian, male in the United States shielded me nearly to the point of blindness from the many prejudices and struggles that many of my neighbors have had to and continue to be expected to live with.
     If you think that the act of a person insisting that their life has inherent value somehow diminishes the value of your own, I ask simply that you take a few moments to think about how you really came to be here on this Earth and how much value you really place on the concept of 'life'.

Every day I look outside there's just more and more color and I couldn't be happier about it. In addition to getting the yard cleaned up a bit, I was able to draw up this beauty. I've done a few time-lapses over the years (with varying results), but I really like how this one turned out. I think I'm going devise a little dedicated time-lapse setup in the office somewhere to really get a good one on my next go. ​

Spring may be here but it sure doesn't feel like it. It's been predominantly cloudy and rainy up here this past week or so, but we've had a few bright spots thankfully. We were lucky to get enough sun last weekend to get outside and get some yardwork done which, honestly, felt great. As we sat out enjoying the last few rays of the afternoon I started up this mandala. I really liked my results with sticking with a dedicated theme last week, and the sun seemed like a perfect concept to build a mandala around so here we are.
My massage program also just got it's online accreditation in order and we started back up with classes on Monday which has been a huge bright spot for me this week. Hopefully we've got some more sunshine on the horizon. 


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I wanted to do a more cohesive theme after the hodge-podge of a mandala I wound up with last week and I am very pleased to have ended up with this lovely man-baa-la. Sarah gave me the idea for the shears when all I had was the 'V's for the blades which was a nice additional 'sheep' element. It's funny, but I didn't think about drawing the little sheep face in the middle until about maybe 2/3 of the way through. It really made the whole thing a little more dreamlike and ethereal, which I really like a lot.
One of my drill instructors always tried to do a marching cadence to the song "Don't let the green grass fool you" that half my platoon could never follow because they had no rhythm, and it (along with this gem) kept running through my head while I was working on this piece. The cadence is one of those things that's really stuck with me over the years. The grass may seem greener on one side or another but it would all be pretty much the same if it wasn't for the fence.