Botanical Mandala Cyanotypes
I began printing mandala cyanotypes during a painful turning point in my personal life. I realized this process wasn’t just creative — it was sacred. Each piece became a marker of healing. Not the kind you perform, but the kind you earn. This body of work traces my personal healing journey through light, time, and nature. Each mandala was created with plants collected during a year of deep transformation. Together, they form a map of stillness, clarity, and quiet renewal.
1. 🔴 Vast Illusion - Formed from delicate, star-like botanicals of Queen Anne’s lace that echo galaxies. Vast Illusion reminds me of my smallness within the infinite. It offers a shift in perspective — that life’s problems are fleeting compared to the vastness of the universe — a truth that brings both humility and peace.
2. 🔴 Breath In - Bougainvillea petals spiral like tiny mouths — a reminder of the breaths that carried me through heaviness. Arranged in a circle of twelve, they echo quiet balance — the steady rhythm of inhale and exhale, of time unfolding gently. Breath In holds that stillness — where peace begins to bloom.
3. 🔴 Clarity - Created with ginkgo leaves — their sharp, defined edges like moments of sudden understanding — Clarity holds the stillness that comes after the storm. Negative emotions pass like clouds, but the wide-open sky remains.
4. 🔴 Endless Possibilities - Composed of hydrangea petals in varying sizes — each unique and luminous. Endless Possibilities celebrates change and diversity, reminding me that every difference carries its own kind of beauty, and each moment is a new chance to grow.
5. 🔴 It's About Time - Created with California lupines that bloom only for a fleeting season, It’s About Time reflects the quiet wisdom of healing. Twelve leaves form an inner clock — a reminder that we can’t rush what needs time to unfold. As Haemin Sunim writes in The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down, “Don’t struggle to heal your wounds. Just pour time into your heart and wait. When your wounds are ready, they will heal on their own.”
6. 🔴 Moving Forward - Formed with heavenly bamboo leaves arranged into a circle of twelve, Moving Forward marks the moment I began to feel content — when I could finally release the past, both the good and the bad. It’s a reflection on balance, a quiet acceptance that nothing is ever purely one or the other — good or bad, joy or loss — only part of a larger whole. This piece is a step toward peace.
7. 🔴 The Void - Long pine needles draw the eye into the center, then carry it outward in a clockwise spiral. The Void holds the quiet possibility of a new beginning.
8. 🔴 Chaos - Pine needles scatter across the circle, yet the center draws the eye in and gives it a place to rest. Chaos is about finding a moment of calm in the middle of it all.
9. 🔴 Belonging - Created with redwood sprigs, Belonging is a reflection on what it means to take root. It holds the quiet feeling of being somewhere I can grow as I am.
10. Grounding - Five fern sprouts at the center echo the five elements in Chinese culture, while rings of twelve fronds follow the rhythm of my daily breathing practice. Grounding holds the stillness I found when I slowed down enough to feel rooted where I was.
11. Eternal Flow - Eucalyptus leaves spiral as if they could keep moving beyond the edges of the piece. Eternal Flow reflects the rhythm I’ve found in daily meditation, returning to my breath and learning to stay present through uncertainty.