I was born and raised in central Illinois, USA, and traveled a great deal as a child with my family to Colorado where I now reside.

I have always loved the mountains and Colorado offers huge geological diversity. I live in Grand Junction on the “Western Slope,” the other side of the rugged, snow-capped Rocky Mountains that form the Continental Divide. This area is rich in geology, Native American rock art and
petroglyphs, and the high-desert landscape is home to fine wineries, rich vegetable- and fruit-growing agriculture, dinosaur tracks and wind/water-carved sandstone monuments similar to the geology in Moab, Utah and Sedona, Arizona.

I spent my career in various management positions ranging from hospital laboratories, to public health, to environmental health and safety. I eventually shifted from those into ergonomics and occupational medicine, health and wellness working at a National Laboratory in New Mexico.

In 2007, I moved back to Colorado to my best and most-loved job with a risk management/software company based in London working with global customers to customize and implement software training programs.

I have always loved working with other people, problem-solving, and connecting with animals and nature, people, and growing into a higher level of spirituality. I am a classic tree-hugger, wildlife-protector, and celestial-observer who marks the seasons with sun, moon and stars.

All these have shaped my core values of kindness/compassion, giving/receiving, sharing/creating abundance and similar themes you’ve seen play out in the mandalas I’ve posted over the last several years while studying with Julie.

I’m single now by choice and my kids are grown and living their own rich lives. My goals, now that I’ve recently retired and have more “me time”, are to travel, do volunteer work with seniors in hospice care, develop confidence in my creative abilities, and expand my work with mandalas and sacred geometry as the vehicle for expressing my creativity and vision.

I was introduced to Julie and Mandala Magic by fellow Magician, Debby English, in 2021.

As a kid, I always loved geometry and playing with a compass and ruler. Circles and spirals were my primary form of doodling, and I was fascinated at how the geometry showed up in nature.

As a child, I had no idea the significance of math in the Fibonacci sequence spiral but I always was drawn to the shapes it expresses in nature… from pine cones to unfurling ferns, to dandelions and sunflowers, seashells, etc.

The math and sacred geometry contained in nature has been a huge inspiration and influenced both my spiritual journey and my sense of place and purpose in the world.

I have been drawing and coloring for-relaxation mandalas created by others for years. I was intrigued to find Julie who could teach me more about the ways to use the form for self-expression.

Having studied Carl Jung and psychoanalysis in university, I had not delved deeply enough to know that Mandalas as an expressive art form basically came from him and his teachings, nor what they could teach us about ourselves and our own psyche.

I’ve always been drawn to lunar and solar eclipses, meteor showers and marking the seasons by the sun. I was so grateful to find Julie and her approach to marking the 8-fold year with art.

I felt I’d finally found an “artistic home” where I could study, learn, and grow in safety with others similarly inspired.

I love working with compasses and rulers and have gotten braver about free-hand
drawing and releasing myself from the expectation of “perfection,” instilled in me quite young, in executing forms and shapes.

It’s been liberating to find I actually like most of what I’ve created, having been told by a 4th grade teacher that “you can’t draw” and spent my life hiding it or not even trying.

I’m branching out to using some stencils, tracing paper for repetitive forms once I’ve drawn something I like that I want to use throughout a piece and hand-made templates.

I work with all kinds of media including watercolor pencils and markers, a variety of watercolor and gouache pigments. I’m also loving painting with metallics for celestial themes, and various brushes and pens.

I usually meditate to get grounded and centred before sitting down in front of my sketchbook/journal. I let ideas bounce around in my mind, maybe doodle a bit to see if I think I can draw something with what I’ve seen inside, and then move to gathering the specific materials I think I’ll need to get started.

I usually have a cup of tea handy, with various crystals, a candle, and sometimes incense on my art table. I live in an urban area so gathering flowers or greenery seasonally and nearby isn’t as available to me as what I see Julie doing in Scotland. I wish it was!

If the art session focuses on seasons, as in Alignment, my reflections will be about what the season meant to ancient peoples and how those themes still shape important, if less obvious, paths unfolding in modern life.

I like to bring a sense of balance, harmony, and purpose to daily life using the seasonal cycles. I am more calm and peaceful and can totally get “in the flow” now when planning, drawing or painting.

This is all quite new to me, as before I would be worried that what I drew or painted would be judged inadequate by teachers or peers, or myself.

The entire Codex course, which I completed with my final Ensign mandala today, has been life-altering and transformative! I was surprised, and in retrospect should not have been, that the images I collected and grouped and the words I used to describe those archetypes and influences have absolutely been present in my life AND my art all along.

Even more profound was that the shapes I am drawn to and use express who I really am as a human being in a much larger way than just as expressed in mandala art.

I will continue to work in and fill this new Codex journal and am truly excited at what this journey may continue to reveal about me!

Julie’s Magic Circles have kept me engaged with my practice and her community is an inspiration. I really need the structure and guidance of, “here’s what we’re going to work with this season or session,” and other prompts Julie provides get me thinking about what I could work on next.

Honestly, without knowing live events are upcoming, I seem to get busy and “forget” that drawing and painting is soothing and expresses my feelings in ways that I otherwise wouldn’t do. I’m not, and never have been, a comfortable journaler. But writing about what I’ve drawn or why it is meaningful to me has given me a sense of ease in writing down my feelings.

Sometimes rather than actually sit in meditation, I get out my daily mandala journal and put shapes and color on paper.

The journal is small, the work is quick to execute, and it gives me a space to sit and reflect and quiet my mind. It’s like a mini-vacation when I’m otherwise too busy to get away.

The programs are complementary and synergistic, a beautiful blending of teaching and expression with Julie’s gentle style of teaching with story-telling and wisdom underlaying it all!

My advice to anyone new is to jump in and do it without judging you’re not artistic enough or as good as others in the community. Be willing to have some failures on a path to whatever “mastery” looks and feels like to you.

I’m so grateful for the Community Julie has created and finally feel safe to show my work. I’ve learned so much from other participants, not only in materials used (especially true of good-quality paper and pigments), techniques in execution, but also the thought processes that go into the individual and beautiful creations shared in Magic Circles.

The live Circle events are, for me, the crowning touch. Participation expands my sense of belonging and permission to try new things without fear.

I will continue to explore and grow with Julie’s various modules as I haven’t yet really explored the depths of what is on offer.