Pacio, Adam - Emerald Arrows Mandala - Woven Blanket

The Kind of Thing You Keep

This is a woven blanket, not a printed one — the image lives in the structure of the fabric itself, the way it has in handmade textiles for centuries. Cotton, edge-to-edge color, fringe that extends the design past the border. Drape it over the back of a chair, fold it at the foot of the bed, pull it onto the couch on a slow afternoon. Three sizes. Note: mockups do not fully represent the finished product because of the interpretive nature inherent in the making.

Care Instructions

Machine wash cold (max 30°C / 90°F) on a gentle cycle with mild detergent. Non-chlorine bleach only if needed. Tumble dry on low heat.

Emerald Arrows Mandala

After a long time away, art has called me back again. For a time I played with abstract digital painting processes, and for a time I allowed myself the privilege of just being lost. But it is the Mandala form that I had developed the most interesting dialogue with in terms of Art and expression, and so I now renew my exploration of mandalas artistically once more.

The Emerald Arrows Mandala is a celebration of my return to the path -- a giddy return to the continuing exploration of light across various color stories. Instead of diving immediatley into deeper complexities of form, or a composition which breaks both symmetry and center, I chose to return to a warm embrace and almost curative engagement with the rainbow once again.

The play of the otter in the mouth of the river, as opposed to plunging into the murky depths of artistic abyssal meditations directly. Wonder exists in the sun-drenched shallows and color halo of rainbows just as much as in the alien world of the ocean trenches far below.

Sometimes, with art, it’s enough that it makes me happy. And this one makes me happy. Not always a deep statement on the order of the multiverse, sometimes paintings are allowed to be a dance of hue and light.

And yet even amid frolic, this piece still pulls me onward in the dialogue. Note how I've begun to abandon flat color washes and illustrative approaches to begin to return to my painterly, smudgy hard pastels and conte crayon original media roots. So the work does indeed go on, even while we play.

So play.

Emerald Arrows Mandala is a welcoming sort of place, and the scenery is dazzling. Wonder for wonder’s sake is a fine thing to try and capture.And the best way to connect with it is by taking the time to just play.