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Tibetan monk creating sand mandala at the SF Asian Art Museum.
A word of Sanskrit origins, mandala means “essence” and “having” or “containing.” It also translates to “circle-circumference” or “completion,” both derived from the Tibetan term dkyil khor. A mandala is best known as a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism.
A variation of the mandala, sand mandalas, was recently featured at The San Francisco Asian Art Museum. A sand mandala is a traditional mandala except made in colored sand. Interesting enough, especially to watch a Tibetan monk create one.
Mandala made of recycled trash by Virginia Fleck
However, Sephari found a variation of mandala that is perhaps even cooler than that. Mandalas made of recycled trash. We discovered these artistic masterpieces from Virginia Fleck, an American visual artist whose current residence is in Cuba. Her work combines popular pop art sayings from trash bags, paper, and the like, with the traditional symmetrical rules of the mandala. You can see her portfolio here.
