Sometimes my 60+ year brain does not quickly conjure up and sift through the 1100+ mandala and nature panel images I have created over the past 10 years until I ruminate on the topic I seek and search external hard drives. Ah-Ha—there you ARE!
This mandala was to accompany my explanation of the scientific classification system of organisms for what I had hoped would be a third coffee table book in my “Wonders” mandala series with Schiffer Publishing. As you can see I have included a broad spectrum of plants and animals inspired by my love for the iconic scratchboard work of Elizabeth Buchsbaum as related in a previous post. Inquisitive raccoons, dot patterned frogs, Inuit inspired puffins and others “mosaically” mingle with raspberries, rose of sharon, thistle, and corn.
With a world filled with beautiful and fascinating forms representing biodiversity, methods of identification have to be devised to describe how each form is different from the other. These methods for identification must be categorically inclusive to tie each form with its existent similar form, to show how it is distinctively different from its neighbors, and to tie each to possible ancestral forms (which may turn out in the end to be the same). How can we keep track of the billions of different life forms that fly, swim, crawl, walk, lurk, leap, wiggle, jiggle, hide, flower, and reproduce everywhere? We classify them.
I continue to be inspired by all in my field of vision and when that is not enough I search for more! Please continue to visit phelpsmandala.com for my view of the natural world as I celebrate biodiversity and embrace conservancy and return often for new creatively crafted images and stories.