From composed chaos to dynamic order of mandala

'Caos Ordinato' by Emma Salvati

Looking with a shallow eye, material art and mandalas could seem two opposite expressive languages. But the common field is research: a research that originates from a deep introspection looking for a way to materialize subtle inner movements in matter.

The large canvases and the wide and deep movements of the material art express a very present and cumbersome emotional level.

Material art is a cathartic work and emotional flows autonomously rush out.

While painting, I enter in a sort of state of meditation, meditation intended as a deep exercise of attention about an object.

I always start with an idea in my head, but the innate and ignored wisdom of my hands leads me to a final result very different from the initial idea.

And then, by looking at what I produced, as if I were an external observer, I learn to know myself, I discover pieces of my deeper subconscious which, contrary to popular belief, is extremely accessible and eager to communicate and to be known.

Every artistic path, viewed from the outside, could make one think of mere whim and inconstancy, of confused ideas and lack of identity.

But, this is what art criticism has been teaching us for years.The need for the artist to always be identical to himself is exclusively dictated by economic laws and, really, it has very little to do with art. Because art is research and vision... it is a deep desire to create that image reflecting and communicating to many others what has been seen by only one, through his own subtle senses.

It is to reproduce all the movements of subtle energies in matter and colours.

And, as a matter of fact, observing the two art works I proposed here, it is easy and intuitive to follow my inner path.

Both my picture "Composed Chaos" and the sacred spiral reproduced on my “meditation stone” have a powerful point of contact: the search for dynamic balance expressed mainly through colour and the movement imposed on the eyes by the composition of the elements. All completed with beauty and harmony.

If you look at the spirals of both works, starting from the center, you can recognize a compact and organized structure, which, by moving outwards, disintegrates itself until it loses its shape and its recognizable geometric identity. Starting from the outside, you can see free elements, inevitably attracted to a center made of emptiness. Elements that gradually conquer form, order and identity.

Why is this symbol so powerful? Why does it attract us like a magnet?

I think one of the main reasons is that it reconnects us to a conscious ancestral memory, which is deeply in touch with the fact that we really are dynamic and mobile entities, with qualities that constantly change and adjust, in a perpetual search for balance between the deepest center of our being and the outer world.

So, how does the choice of a different expressive language change the final impact? 

The proposed subject and the chosen colors are very similar, but the final impact is very different.

In "Ordered Chaos"  magmatic emotions are perceived. On the other hand, the spiral painted on the stone communicates a sense of peace, balance and harmony, flowing out from a very deep center.

In "Ordered Chaos" there are fire and lava. In the stone, there are ancient knowledge, centering and truth. These elements are recognised by our soul, they are perceived as ambrosia, as spring water, as a return “home”. The chosen technique is connected to the type of energy that needs to be expressed. The technique, in fact, helps us to express our deepest self; where the movements of the body harmonize themselves with the most secret inner movements. The broad brush stroke is physically created by an energy very different from the composed and almost hieratic energy of dot painting.

So don't be afraid to change direction and identity whenever you want. Leave the idea of yourself as you think you are. That idea is not you. You are the empty center within the spiral. That immutable empty center that exists whatever is the way you are going to represent it.

'Spirale Azzurra' by MandalaShaula