Artist: Jackie Fuller

Location: South Australia

Found on pages: 42-43, 135

Title of Art: Multi Mandala Journal Page

Materials: ink and markers in journal

How has your mandala practice helped you to embrace imperfection?

My general art practice leans towards detail and realism with a search for perfection. Whilst a natural tendency and reflective of my personality, it is a goal often resulting in frustration. Mandala making in my journals is helping me to rethink my idea of perfection – I create in my journal purely for me and find a level of meditative reflection I can’t normally achieve. These mandalas are becoming more organic in nature, constructed with line and are an emptying of my mental chatter onto paper. Often I fill the paper with parts of mandalas rather than the whole, none of it planned or measured. The results are teaching me to let go of expectations of perfection and I am learning to value the process rather than the result. Some parts work really well, some parts don’t. It feels like a metaphor for my life!

I returned to drawing as a young mother when I was looking for an outlet to express myself and find relaxation. I have occasionally exhibited work and accepted commissions. It has sometimes been agony and ecstasy, but creating art is my saving grace and I can’t imagine life without it. Jackie lives in South Australia. Find Jackie online at www.spareroomstudio.org

“The Mandala Guidebook: How to Draw, Paint, and Color Expressive Mandala Art” by Kathryn Costa is available from North Light Books.

Meet the other contributors at the online Book Launch Party.