After a
month without challenges I felt like participating with the "Shadow Work October
Challenge" by Mnomquah on Instagram. She has come up with a question or assignment
for each day of October, related to working with shadow parts of ourselves. We
start with checking in with ourselves by making a mandala: “who Am I” at October
1th and evaluating the challenge by making
another mandala “Who have I become”. At the end of the month.
 |
| Who am I |
Making the first mandala felt so great. It has been a
long time since I have created something with my watercolors.
Of
course everyone can do this challenge for himself and you don’t need to be on
IG to participate. Mnomquah even insisted
on the following:
“If you
feel like any of the questions/tasks are pretentious, triggering in an
unbearably negative way or too personal -- feel free to stop at any time into
the process; share publically as little/much as you feel comfortable with.”
Reading this made me feel very comfortable to join in. I feels less obligated to
finish this challenge or to post a picture each day on IG. I am planning on posting
parts of this challenge on my blog and if you want to see more of it please
check my Instagram widget in the right upper corner
I love your mandala! It's a beautiful image. Great work!
ReplyDeleteI don't get along well with watercolors. ha ha ha. Love watercolor art and the potential it has, but every time I try using it myself it only results in disaster. *laughs*
Good luck with the challenge!
Thank you so much! is took me long time to produce anything "worthwhile" too. Sometimes the click just isn't there and then it is better to move on to different art supplies
DeleteMy gosh woman, this is simply beautiful! In this painting I sense those parts of you that are kept hidden from the public eye, yet there are also parts that seem to be hidden even to yourself. Wonderful and gently powerful.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bev!!! (big smile)
DeleteThere are a lot of shadow aspects to be explored ore perhaps only slighty and carefully touched :D
beautiful image, we are mostly 1/2 hidden, not only to others but to ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sharyn Maybe if I dare to dive a bit deeper and can uncover some of those hidden parts at least identify them and give them a face
DeleteThis is really cool! Your mandala is beautiful, and I love it when you share your artwork. I think a "shadow challenge" is a great idea. It can be difficult or scary to delve into our shadow selves, but doing it as part of an open project with other people might make it less intimidating for some. I think I will participate to some degree, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you Olivia! It does feel like a safe way to touch on some shadowy aspect of myself. Maybe you can share some of you experiences too?
DeleteI definitely will share some! I don't know yet if I'll follow along by day, or pick and choose as I go, but I like having this sort of focus :) oh PS: I just ordered the Tarot of the Vampyres!!
Deletethat's great! I will be looking forward to your experiences with this deck . It took me some time to connect with it but now I love its messages.!
DeleteThis is lovely, Ellen. Beautifully evocative. I'm struck by how your voice is submerged and yet below there is so much undifferentiated activity. Here's to your song emerging!
ReplyDeleteThank you Rose, I am quite pleased with it myself too.
DeleteI see now that I did have silenced myself in this mandala. When I was drawing this I thought, well at least I can keep breathing and wasn't aware of submerging my voice
That is some shadow work in itself already Thanks for pointing this out to me
Oh, your mandala is amazing, Ellen! I like the way it looks like you're just daring to peek out a bit :) This challenge sounds interesting, and I agree, it's good from the outset to have "permission" to share as much or as little as feels right to you...
ReplyDeleteThank you Chloe!! It does feels more like a journey than a challenge. If I like to take another route it is oke too :)
DeleteLovin' your mandala Ellen. Just beautiful! You're so talented, much more so than you give yourself credit for!
ReplyDeleteYour exercise sounds very insightful!
That is so kind of you to say Catherine! As you know I am not that confident.(always comparing myself with better artists) who knows I can pick up some confidence while doing this challenge :)
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