Thai Mandala with Four Living Creatures
Thai Mandala with Four Living Creatures, Watercolor and Pencil on Paper, 22X30. Private Collection. 2011
I have wanted to make a Thai style Mandala for some time now, and this commission gave me the chance to work on the idea. My goals were to stay true to the symbolic visual language of “Lai Thai” (Thai Design), but to make a Thai style pattern that was Christ centered. The challenge is how to make something Christ centered but not tacky or using an imported Western or culturally Christian symbol that jars the other motifs.
I practiced my Lai Thai for a few weeks to warm up to this piece. I am not sure the pencil shows up the design very well but pen seemed to flatten the drawing too much so I left it in the soft undulating pencil. The Mandala uses improvised Thai patterns, but I used traditional images for the four living creatures of Revelation (and Ezekiel). In illumined manuscripts and in many European Christian traditions these have been used to symbolize the four gospels (man-Mtt, ox- Lk, eagle- John, lion-Mark). The center circle is filled with scripture from Colossians 1 in both Thai and English. The very center of the circle depicts a subtle cross, both drawing the eye to the center and expanding out to the whole. The work hopes to bear witness to the supremacy of Christ who as the Lord of the Universe comes as the fulfillment of the desire of all nations and cultures and reconciles all to himself. It is also my attempt to express a Christian Thai visual iconography.
