The Chakra Series grew out of my yoga practice. The more I practiced the more I became aware of the importance of this subtle energy system.

According to Hindu philosophy, there are seven major chakras and each one is related to the glands of the endocrine system, our emotions, and to our overall physical health and mental clarity. They also have an associated color which coincidentally corresponds to the colors of the rainbow.

One day after yoga class and settled in my studio, I began to create collages that were my representations of the chakra systems. I had been using wine bottle top foils in my other series and now I used these wine foils to represent the individual chakras and vintage threads were used to represent the Kundalini energy. Kundalini means “coiled-up one” and it lies coiled up at the base of the spine. One of the goals of yoga is to awaken this coiled-up serpent of energy from its resting place at the base of the spine, and encourage it to travel up to the top of the head so that our whole being is balanced and energized. Soon, I was adding papers that corresponded to the color traditionally associated with each chakra. The more playful I got, the more varied the individual pieces became; square, rectangular or circular textured white paper became the foundation of these collages and, in addition to the wine foils and threads, I also filled the space with pins, threads, and torn, treated and cut papers .

As I went along, I continued reading and researching the chakra system. My meditation began to include reciting or singing the Bija mantras which are one-syllable chants that correspond to each of the chakras and assist in activating energy to bring balance to the body and mind.

It continues to be an on-going meditation.

Sheila McInerney

Sheila McInerney