If you can’t make the Saturday reception, join us Sunday, Aug. 7, right after the service to meet artist Denise Whitlow and learn more about her work inspired by meditation mandalas, which has been on display in the WUUC Art Gallery since June 30, .

Denise Whitlow is a single mother of two daughters and works as a preschool teacher. She graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. in 1998, then moved to the USA in 1999. She has shown works in group shows in Canada and the USA and had a solo show at a Seattle gallery when she was 9 months pregnant with her second child! After that child was born she took a hiatus from art making to raise her children, but as they got older she was able to find more time for art. Now that her children are in junior high and high school, she makes art continuously.

Mandalas have been used for centuries as tools to focus the mind during meditation. Denise started this work by doing small drawings in her journal as therapy, then moved on to creating paintings as a way to calm and focus her mind. She says that while she is painting, she is able to shut out the stresses and anxieties of her daily life as a person suffering from chronic illness. The joy that comes from art making helps ease her physical and emotional pain. It has also brought her joy that people have been enjoying the works.