Circle of Influence

PvE Design – hand painted youth chair , inspired by the Mandala

Each of us have a circle of influence that we are connected to symbolically.  

In third grade, my teacher Carlton Ridge made a huge impression on me when she wore a Sari to class which she had purchased when she traveled to India.  

Carlton Ridge also designed amazing pieces of jewelry for Sutton Hoo -that were inspired from nature.  If you sported one of her designs, well, immediately you were in the “circle of Carlton.” 

 PvE Design – hand painted youth chair

Several years ago, a friend came to me with a special job to paint a chair for a teacher who was adopting a baby from India.  My friend was specific in her request that the chair should be painted with Jewel Tones and somehow have a design with an Indian influence.  At the time, I was not familiar with “Mandala” – a sanskrit word conveying to the wholeness of the universe.

Painting a design in a circle has a meditative quality which is therapeutic as well.  Often, I wonder how each of us are connected, standing in a circle, inspiring and influencing one another to see the Universe as a whole.  

I now think of this chair, and that child surely must be off to school and meeting new teachers and making friends and opening her life to a circle of influence reaching far and wide.