These latest ones are from the Region of Southern Baja California, Mexico; one of the many places she has lived and worked. Within the center lays the “Flower of Life”. This symbol is especially precious as it represents all that life is. The homes she works in take on the blessing of the symbols she recreates. By working from a place of joy, this vibration also permeates into her work to fill your home with a bounty of love and gratitude.
ECO-BASED PIGMENTS
As an artist and expert in mixing color as well as understanding the vibration, tone and hue it holds, she is an alchemist. Through this fascination Charmaine has developed eco-based paints made from vegitation indigenous to the Baja area. She continues to develop these techniques and feels that by bringing natural colors and pigments into your home it will be that much more connected to the earth it inhabits. “By living in peace and harmony with the earth and all it contains we will continued to be blessed by it’s beauty and abundance. ” Charmaine Husum
THE HISTORY OF THE SACRED MANDALA
The mandala is as old as history itself.. In the earliest knowledge of India and its literature, mandala is the term for a collection of mantras or hymns chanted in Vedic ceremonies. The universe was believed to originate from these hymns, whose sacred sounds contained the genetic patterns of all beings and things. This sets up the idea that the mandala is, in its own way a model of the world.
The word mandala itself is derived from the root manda, which means essence. The suffix la means “container.” So, a mandala is a “container of essence” or sometimes referred to as the “circle of completion”. In many cultures throughout the world, such circular artwork is meant to represent a connection between the mundane and the divine, or, the manifestation of God into the world.
Both Tibetans and Navajo Peoples make elaborate sand mandalas, sweeping away their creations after completion, in order to show the impermanence of creation. Huichol Indian designs in Guadalajara and later Navajo and Hopi designs in the Southwestern United States are made from sticks and yarn. These circular works of art are called Ojo de Dios or Eye of God. Other Native American mandalas include dream catchers, prayer wheels of stone alignments, and petroglyphs of ancient origin. Paintings on drums and the sides of Tee-pees also are often circular in design, and likely representing a story of creation, or man’s relationship with the unseen.