KAREN DEGUIRE'S Large Kaleidoscope Mandala 17

My designs are rooted in sacred geometry, nature, architecture, and my imagination. I design my pieces using CorelDraw and emulate each physical layer in the program as a virtual layer that I can manipulate and colorize to decide on my paint scheme. Once my color palette is decided upon, I hand paint each 1/8" sheet of Baltic birch with water based wood dyes and acrylic paints. Once the panels are painted, I cut each layer out using a 60watt CO2 laser. I then assemble the art by gluing each layer down one at a time using a jig I designed and built. I use dental tools to get the glue out from where it doesn't belong. I finally finish each piece with polyurethane. Every piece is unique and can take 20-30 hours to assemble.