Made by You: Mindful Mandala

Made by you: Mindful Mandala is a guided introduction to drawing mandalas from scratch, led by artist and designer Saudamini Madra. In this workshop, you'll practice a mindfulness and quality of attention that makes work feel steady rather than hurried. You'll learn about the geometry of the Mandala art form, and using a radial grid to develop patterned sequences from the center out, ring by ring.

The pace of this workshop is deliberate. You'll have time to notice what you are making as you make it. By drawing outward from a single point and repeating a mark until it becomes familiar, you'll carry with you a greater sense of quiet the rest of the day. At some point in the session, the marks stop requiring the same effort they did at the start. The hand finds the next arc before the mind asks for it. You finish with a piece on paper and the particular stillness that comes from having been fully occupied.

About the Mandala Art Form: The structure is not new. The underlying grid is sacred geometry in its simplest form: a circle divided into equal arcs, each ring spaced outward from the same fixed point. That same symmetry, alongside floral motifs, has been carved into Hindu temple walls and Mughal architecture across India for centuries, and Saudamini grew up surrounded by those forms. Her own mandalas draw on that same vocabulary, weaving botanical and landscape motifs into the geometric structure of each piece.

What began as a daily drawing practice in 2017 became Saudamini's full-time studio work in 2020. She describes the transition not as a departure but as a return, to slowness, to pattern, and to work that asks for full presence.

This workshop is suitable for complete beginners and returning artists alike. Each participant leaves with a hand-drawn mandala on paper. All materials are provided.

Need to Know:

• This workshop will take place indoors at MAA Nixie inside their clubroom
• This workshop is best suited for young adults to older adults, ages 14 and up. Basic use and control over a ruler and protractor is required.