The Liberation Engine

Psychedelic Self Taught Mandala

Self-taught visionary mandala-cosmology in the unschooled-psychedelic register of basement-visionary 1970s outsider work.

Self-taught visionary mandala-cosmology in the unschooled-psychedelic register of basement-visionary 1970s outsider work.
A render from this style prompt. Street, Protest & Underground

The prompt

Render in the medium and register of self-taught psychedelic visionary mandala work (think basement-visionary 1970s, untrained makers reporting back from altered states): India ink and colored pencil and fluorescent marker on Bristol board, palette of vibrating chakra-color complements (magenta against acid-green, cobalt against orange-yellow, deep purple against turmeric-gold) at maximum saturation with no gradient (flat fields of pure hue), strict radial symmetry organizing the composition (six-fold, eight-fold, or twelve-fold radial division), concentric rings of repeated motifs (eyes within rings within lotus petals within stars within rays), the central figure or subject sitting at the bullseye of the radial pattern, fine pen-and-ink linework defining every petal and ray contour, dense detail at the outer rings, the visual register of a maker with no academic art training reporting a private cosmology as faithfully as possible, sacred-geometry feeling without quoting any specific religious tradition, hand-drawn imperfection in the radial symmetry (slight wobble in the petals, ray lengths not quite uniform), the basement-conviction quality of being made for the maker alone with no buyer in mind. Do not render legible on-canvas text, logos, watermarks, named hate-symbols, or any real person depicted defamatorily. Preserve the subject, pose, and composition of the source image exactly, change only the medium and rendering.

What it is doing

The basement-visionary psychedelic mandala maker had no curator, no dealer, no MFA. The work survives because the cosmology was felt to be real by the maker. The professional sacred-geometry merchant on Etsy makes prettier work and weaker work because the prettier work is for sale and the weaker work was for the buyer. Credentials sand off the cosmology. The uncredentialed maker keeps the cosmology because they have no incentive to round it off.

Tuning knobs

Style lineage

Learn the visual culture this draws from: Nashville Scene.

Related prompts

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See all 8 prompts in the Outsider-Art grammar · Open in the gallery

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