I make Critters Mandalas, and the whole thing began with the deeply suspicious decision to turn structure into a playground. I start with mandalas — orderly little circles of sacred geometry, all neat and balanced and pretending to have their lives together — and then I invite chaos in through the side door. Not mild chaos. Full goblin chaos. The kind that arrives with glitter on its boots, strange little creatures in its pockets, and no intention whatsoever of behaving.

After cataract surgery, I found myself at a strange crossroads: I could either sit still and recover like a sensible person, or I could learn how to make elaborate digital mandalas on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil and accidentally build a whole universe. Naturally, I chose the second option, because if life hands you a weird new perspective, you may as well use it to create decorative creatures with opinions. I use Amaziograph to build the structure, then Pigment to breathe color into the thing until it starts looking less like a design and more like a magical incident.

At first, I was just drawing patterns. Then the patterns started feeling lonely, so I let in a face. Then another. Then a cat. Then an owl. Then a dog. Then maybe an elephant. Then something that may have been a goblin, or a cloud, and just might have been a spiritually confused raccoon. And that was that. The work stopped being about just symmetry and became about discovery — about watching weird little beings emerge from the geometry like they’d been waiting there all along, just under the surface, tapping on the walls of the circle and asking to be let out.

That’s what I love most about making these pieces: they begin with order, but they never stay polite. They become crowded with mischief, curiosity, and little moments of surprise. I’m not trying to make art that sits quietly in the corner. I’m making art that looks back at you. Art that says hello. Art that maybe judges you a little, but lovingly. Art that wants to make you laugh, lean in closer, and realize that the universe is probably held together by pattern, play, and the occasional extremely strange creature.

I come from an artistic family, so maybe the impulse to make beauty was always in me. But Critters Mandalas are where that impulse finally got weird enough to become itself. They are what happens when discipline and nonsense become friends. They are my way of turning ordinary looking moments into little worlds full of energy, charm, and delightful confusion. They are, frankly, proof that if you stare into a mandala long enough, it starts staring back — and if you’re lucky, it brings friends.

‘Critters’ is an art form featuring weird and wonderful creatures that mostly form intricate mandalas.  Others feature Critters inside a Geometric design.

Designed in Amaziograph and then colored in Pigment, these expressive creatures will have you smiling.