Yesterday I spent most of my day building a mandala from flower petals on my light box. I used petals from alstroemeria, chrysanthemum, gerbera, some lobelia from the garden, and a few ilex berries.

Putting together a composition like this requires an almost Zen level of concentration, not to mention holding one’s breath and nimble fingers. As opposed to my method in some previous compositions, I used “just-in-time” petal plucking rather than first creating a library of plucked petals.

Here’s my Mandala as photographed on my light box.

As those of you have followed my LAB color techniques know, it is simple to invert the L-channel in LAB color to present a white composition on black, as you can see below.

It was good for me to spend a day essentially in quiet contemplation of flower petals, as opposed to travel coordination, emails, printmaking, and all the other myriad details that often consume my life. I am thankful for so many things—family and friends are high on that list—and also for the inclination, time, passion, and skill to spend my time making beautiful things.