Information:

Painted in 2024, later assigned Design index number 028 for the studio records, titled the Mystic Jewel Mandala.

Photoshop and Wacom Cintiq/Stylus

Artist Statement

The Mystic Jewel Mandala is a direct record of physical and neurological reconstruction following a stroke. Created during the initial months of recovery when fine motor function in my dominant left hand was severely compromised, the digital canvas served as the testing ground to regain mark-making and line control.

The composition applies the Japanese philosophy of kintsugi, treating personal fracture not as a defect to conceal, but as the foundational structure of an even stronger work. The crystalline facets and geometric jewel planes do not function as ornamental flourishes; they are the visual joints of convalescent reassembly.

Rooted in Western esoteric traditional color schema within the focus of a magical circle, the palette maps the ritual colors of the eight cardinal directions around a luminous core. The piece stands as a functional instrument of restoration, holding both the trauma of fracture and the deliberate labor of rebuilding into an enduring, integrated whole. The Hidden Light it captures is nothing less than the persistence of Life within an otherwise dark cosmos.

Studio Notes for the Catalog

There is a stark difference between theoretical healing and the physical reality of putting a compromised hand back to work.

In the immediate wake of my stroke, traditional drafting tools failed me completely. My dominant left hand could no longer control the friction and tooth of pen or graphite on paper. The resistance was too high, the tremors too pronounced, the numbness too pervasive. What saved my practice was the slick glass surface of a Cintiq tablet monitor and the frictionless glide of a spandex drawing glove. That smooth surface allowed me to guide my hand into deliberate motion long before I could write a legible sentence on paper.

I began by casting a circle, setting a strict, manageable boundary within which to rebuild my motor pathways line by line. The Mystic Jewel emerged directly out of that rehabilitation.

I leaned into the philosophy of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramic ware with lacquer dusted in powdered gold. The core insight of kintsugi is that the fault lines should not be hidden; they become the most honest, compelling feature of the object. As I drafted the crystalline shards of the mandala, I treated each faceted angle as an edge being joined back into integrity.

To anchor the geometry, I reached into esoteric color cosmology, mapping the traditional tonal correspondences of the eight cardinal directions along the compass points of the jewel. The resulting image moves from deep grounding fields into high-register prismatic flashes. It does not conceal the shock of what was broken. Instead, it serves as a permanent, tactile artifact of what it takes to gather the fragments and forge them into a stronger whole.