{"id":2446497,"date":"2019-07-18T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309638"},"modified":"2019-07-18T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T22:00:00","slug":"artist-gemma-danielle-infuses-reiki-energy-into-mandala-drawings-at-skye-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/artist-gemma-danielle-infuses-reiki-energy-into-mandala-drawings-at-skye-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Gemma Danielle infuses reiki energy into mandala drawings at Skye Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gemma Danielle’s exhibition \u201cThis Is Beautiful Because You Are Beautiful\u201d will open Saturday at the Skye Gallery.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Gemma Danielle\u2019s<\/a> mandala art is an extension of her reiki practice, but you don\u2019t have to be steeped in spiritual beliefs to receive the beneficial energy she\u2019s transmitting through her artwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an unconscious transmission that sparks something within someone who sees the work,\u201d said the self-taught artist and master instructor of reiki, a form of energy healing.<\/p>\n

Danielle\u2019s solo exhibition of 11 mandala drawings opens Saturday at the Skye Gallery in Aspen. Throughout the show, which runs through Sept. 15, she plans to offer events to further the connection between her art and her practice \u2014 such as a mandala workshop and a sonic reiki journey.<\/p>\n

A graphic designer by training, which gave her a strong foundation in proportion and ratio, Danielle started drawing to relieve her own stress after long days at work at a Denver firm. She had been taught reiki, a practice that immediately and deeply resonated, and her first mandala \u201ccame out\u201d after receiving a reiki healing.<\/p>\n

Over time, explained Danielle, her drawings began to impact others. She sold out her first solo show in 2012, and then a second.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was practicing reiki more and more, the work was becoming more and more profound, and I started to understand that my real art is the experience of the work, not the work itself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Danielle eventually left her graphic design job, and after years of sitting at a computer all day, she wanted to prove the power of human hands \u2014 that there\u2019s real magic in them when one uses focused intention to create.<\/p>\n

Beginning with a circle drawn with a compass she builds herself, Danielle uses a ruler only for the underlying grid of the mandala, then free-draws the rest. With her art acting as a medium for the reiki energy, the lines she draws \u2014 and the spaces between them \u2014 are manifestations of her thoughts, prayers, and mantras. And if they waver (as they all do if one looks closely) that\u2019s the essence of being human, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach mandala is completely unique,\u201d said Danielle. \u201cIt\u2019s based on a geometry that\u2019s unique, and that reflects all of us: We\u2019re based on the same proportions, the same ratios, but every human is completely unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what it is about symmetry and geometry that can be soothing or therapeutic, Danielle replied that it reflects the language of nature. Patterns, symmetry, and geometric shapes are ubiquitous in nature \u2014 think about the veins of leaves, many types of flowers, hexagonal honeycombs, and the swirl of a snail\u2019s shell. But it\u2019s more than just a shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling of peace and calm and energy that we feel when we\u2019re looking at geometry is the same energy that nature gives us, when we\u2019re standing barefoot on the earth or smelling a rose or witnessing the miracle of birth,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m learning mandala by mandala to speak this language.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pieces on display at the Skye Gallery, entitled \u201cThis Is Beautiful Because You Are Beautiful,\u201d are works that Danielle created to be mirrors of self-love and self-empowerment, she said \u2014 tools that help us choose those values, which in turn can benefit those around us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we all truly loved being human on this planet and found the true essence of joy every day, this world would be such a beautiful place,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Danielle is not finished learning some of these things herself. The mother of a toddler, she\u2019s still on a learning curve when it comes to balancing her \u201ctwo loves,\u201d she said. The Skye exhibition is her first in five years, and the ideal place for it, she said, because her dear friend and gallery owner Skye Weinglass has done a lot for women in the arts. The gallery, in the 13 months it\u2019s been open, has provided a forum for prominent Aspen-based artists like Ajax Axe and Jody Guralnick, as well as national figures like Ashley Longshore, Mister Michelle and curator Danielle Krysa.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s next? A student of cultures around the world, Danielle is working on performance pieces that reference indigenous tribe practices and are coupled with sonic experiences: \u201cI want to do my work on a larger scale with just as much refinement.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gemma Danielle’s exhibition \u201cThis Is Beautiful Because You Are Beautiful\u201d will open Saturday at the Skye Gallery.Courtesy photo Gemma Danielle\u2019s mandala art is an extension of her reiki practice, but you don\u2019t have to be steeped in spiritual beliefs to receive the beneficial energy she\u2019s transmitting through her artwork. \u201cThere\u2019s an unconscious transmission that sparks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 13:32:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}