 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
The Artist
Some of the original painting are still available for sale, and nearly all of the mandalas are available as hand retouched Giclee prints. There is also the possibility of having a custom mandala painted with your uniqueness in mind! Inquire at sales@mandalaartplates.com, or by phone at (619)867-1225. Jo also teaches wonderful, small, 4 week classes in painting your own Mandala. examples of museum quality 20x20 Giclee on canvas, 1 1/2" gallery wrap $225, available with any mandala. Call or email to order.
JO THOMAS BLAINE was born in 1961 in State College, Pennsylvania. In 1982, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design and Cognitive Psychology from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
The Berkshire foothills of Western Massachusetts were her home for sixteen years, where she worked as a kaleidoscope maker for Artist Stephen Auger, and later as a jewelry designer with her own company, The Riddle Works. During the same period, Jo also performed her original “Jazzy Folk Rock with a Mystical Flair” in clubs and coffeehouses throughout the Northeast. Go to CD Baby to hear and purchase her 2006 recording, "Gift of Shining".
In 1996, Jo and her husband Craig Blaine moved to San Diego, where she attended the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, receiving a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine in 2001, and License to practice Acupuncture in 2002. Son Maxwell Paradise Blaine joined the family in January of 2000, with daughter Bridget Deva following in September of 2005.
Jo has been painting Mandalas throughout her adult life. An intense love of color, a lifelong fascination with the patterns found in nature, an ongoing quest to connect with the spiritual essence of the Self and the World, and her work as a kaleidoscope maker all influenced and nurtured Jo’s love of the Mandala: symmetry radiating from a single point.
The word “Mandala” is from the Sanskrit, meaning “circle”. Mandalas have traditionally been graphic, mystic symbols of the universe, typically in the form of a circle enclosing a square, and often bearing symmetrically arranged representations of deities. Mandalas of all sorts have been used by many different cultures to cultivate power or healing energy, to protect, to inspire, and to call upon the divine. Look to the snowflake in its infinite variety for evidence that the form of the mandala is deeply a part of our nature.
Jo’s Mandalas hope to bring the inner and outer worlds together in a collapsing and expanding of patterns. They can be a point of focus, a porthole to dreams, a prayer for healing, or simply a beautiful decoration.
