Story of a Design Project |
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Designing the Maarnada Mandela,One day visiting Maarnada, while seated at the lands edge overlooking the sea beyond, having coffee with Maarten and Nadina Schaddelee I was asked to make a design. I have been blessed by having heard that question before, having made many designs for the Schaddelees in the past. This was a very special project however; the elements of this design would be a deeply spiritual collection of art that Maarten had created. This design was to display the "Doorways of Spiritual Peace" a group of sixteen carved door-sized pieces. Maarten had said, "I had awakened in the night, not from a dream but with a vision of a circle of doors, each depicting a doorway to spirit carved and painted. These carved doors were facing outward and hinged on the side, like actual doors, each one supporting another.... The shape of the carved doors on display creates a large circle and to see the doors viewers need to walk around the outside. You can only see a few doors at one time; these are large, like real doors. Maarten and Nadina wanted a way to see them all at once. "Viewers are invited to walk around the structure, which cannot be physically entered. "The only way to pass through a door is spiritually, regardless of which door or doors you choose to 'go through,' the space in the centre is the 'Great Mystery', says Maarten Schaddelee." The design I had been asked to create had been ongoing for some time, although the doors were complete, this design would incorporate all the doors at once. Maarten has a shirt with a printed Mayan calendar he had gotten while on vacation on the Mayan Rivera many years before. The shirt's Mayan circle calendar was similar to what Maarten and Nadina had conceived as a way to display the doors as a single image. As I approached this design, I looked at the other attempts to bring the doorways together, what I saw was that I needed to think about what was the meaning, the point of the doorways, how these spiritual things fit into the universe. This design needed to become a symbol. After some thought, all I saw was an empty space around me, a blank screen. This is very different than I normally feel when putting designs together; in general, I have a feeling of which path to follow as I discuss the work with clients, an almost immediate sense of the end design. I needed to allow and accept that ideas do come to me and be patient while my mind shows me the answer. This task felt different from the other projects I had worked on. After having the project on my mind for a few days, I was starting to think that perhaps I was not the right designer to help the Schaddelees this time. I had the design started on my screen a couple of times but the results were very much like the other attempts they had shown me. Then as if in a waking dream, I felt one of those fleeting moments of clarity, something that would be lost if I awoke, but I was not sleeping. At that moment, the whole of the design became clear. The group of sixteen doors in a circle like the Mayan Calendar. Not just one or two circles, but seven circles for the Doorways Mandela design. As I pushed the buttons of my computer keyboard, sliding my mouse, I began filling in the space of my empty palette that became very full of doorways. Seven circles for the Maarnada Mandela I made, seven circles, one for each day of the week. Connections to old, long forgotten knowledge filled me with the inspiration to complete the design. Between the doors are connecting spaces or paths to travel to other doors on the inner circles and back again. Like the labyrinth with a clear path of discovery and reflection, the Doorways Mandela can allow a clear path to the door of, or doors of your choice. The doorways are for all the people, all the spirits, all the feelings that flow through the universe. The Maarnada Mandela is just an image, a symbol perhaps of harmony, a path to follow, a path that could lead us spiritually, and a path so we all can live together in peace. The more I looked at the number seven the more I see that this was the perfect number for the spiritual wheel that will carry the doors to all that can see. All through the religions of the world seven is a number that repeats as no other, so many significant thoughts and feelings revolve around seven. So around the circle will go the doors, doors at its centre and all of the doors are open to the spirits that would travel through them. As Maarten said of the doors "These doors must stand together, or they fall down; the most important message is respect of each other." This is the most important of thoughts as the world continues to race through each day of the week faster and faster. The people must live together, we must work together, and we must grow together, as we move together through time as individuals with the freedom to feel or think as each person wishes. To worship as each wishes. As a people, we need to accept the ideals of other's and allow each person to follow their own path. I hope that the "Doorways of Spiritual Peace" can be a symbol for all of us, an example of peace and harmony in togetherness. Love the universe - Love yourself, Thank You for Reading Please send your thoughts or comments on this story to me. Doorways of Spiritual Peace Photo CreditsMaarten and Nadina Schaddelee, Maarnada Studios Gallery & Sculpture Garden has graciously provided the Doorways of Spiritual Peace photos for use in this story of a design project. Visit the Maarnada Studios Gallery & Sculpture Garden website to see these and other fine pieces of original art created by Maarten. Visit The Maarnada Gallery website - Contact information For more information on the Doorways from Maarnada see....
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