If you could bottle homesickness up and pour it out into an art piece- This is what you would come up with. I created my Prince Edward Island mandala in 2015, after about 8 months of living in Vung Tau, Vietnam.
I was there. I was homesick, I was seeing all the posts by friends back home about Springtime and everything opening up again- And this is what came of it.
It began with black and white designs, lots of repetition, and trying to keep a good balance of all the items hidden inside. The image is almost mirrored, so if you rotate it 180° either way, you’ll still have the same layout of the items, though they are all drawn individually. I included many of the provincial symbols- The old english lions from the flag, our flower the lady’s slipper. It was tough to narrow down the list, but I got there.
In the end I included these items within:
Bluejays
Jellyfish
Lupins
Starfish
Lighthouses
Chickadees
Maple Leaves
English Lions
Red Oak Trees
Small Oak Saplings
Lady’s Slippers
Fishing Boats
Atlantic Lobster
Red Fox
The mandala stayed as a black and white piece for quite awhile! It was perhaps a year after completing the original that I decided to add a pop of colour. It had actually been purchased by a wonderful supporting Islander, and I asked if she had any preference. I had always wanted to see it coloured, and seemed like it was very “now or never” before I shipped it off.
I think the colours really helped to showcase all the items hidden within the piece. I kept them very true and bold primary and secondary colours.
From both the black and white version and the coloured version, I created prints which I sell locally at markers and through some of my stockists. The original piece is 11” x 14”, so I’m able to offer it in this size and the 8” x 10”.
Finally, in 2018, I began to do a round mandala beach blanket with this design as well! I sold many of them through 2018 and 2019, but have discontinued. I still have about 15 in stock, and they can be found on my Etsy page.
There is a great debate as to whether the blanket is better for the beach of as a table cloth! It began with the Cardigan Market using it as a table cloth, and I continued to get requests for it as “that table cloth I saw!”. I’ve even had a few people tell me they’ve coloured it with fabric markets. I love seeing the diverse way people use this fabric!
