Coronam Magnam (The Great Crown Mandala) 

(The Mandala Series)

2020

oil on linen

60 x 60 inches

Coronam is Latin for crown. I made this bullet mandala painting at the beginning of the pandemic. Throughout my art practice I attempt to marry disparate influences to explore universal longings, questions and conditions. I often meld and pit binaries against one another (light/dark, bullets/mandala, etc.) to create content that transcends the signification of the subject matter. In my Mandala Series I combine Western symbolism with Eastern mediation practice to create transformative portraits of the human interior. The bullets and barbed wire symbolize violence, dominance, control, but are used to create mandalas – Eastern objects for transformation – that also reference the crown of thorns, halos, light rays, the crown of 12 stars, a spiked coronavirus, labyrinths, etc., transforming with divisive into a powerful object of contemplation.