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Monday, April 11, 2011

Opening with Love


Opening with Love (Circle of Love series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image  - currently unidentified

After a  lovely Facebook convo with the very wise Julie Bernstein Englemann, who suggested I ask the spirit of Mandala how it would like to be created, I tuned in and did just that. The response I felt was that she would like to be created with the more traditional four-points. I realized, once I began creating again,  that I have been craving the expansiveness of this configuration. I love the harkening to the four directions and the four guardians who sit at the corners of the central diamond. I see angels. I feel the burst of spring.  As of this writing, I do not know the name of the plant used for the source image, but I am sure it is related to Queen Anne's lace and cow parsnip. If anyone out there can identify it, I would be grateful to know.

The thing is, I have been feeling stuck, unworthy, constricted. I haven't felt like this for a long time, but I recognized the feeling. This was the feeling of giving up, and it scared me. A lot.

I have decided to share my heartspace with you all here, because I know we all have those feelings from time to time. But they sure aren't a stopping point. I wanted to work myself out of this funk I would much rather live in a place of excitement and joy. Joy trumps funk any old day. And as the entity known as Abraham points out  The best thing you could do for anyone that you love, is be happy! I'm pretty sure that translates to our art as well.

So  I have decided  to create a series of these four pointed mandalas, and then morph them into new iterations using the mehdi Photoshop plug-in as I described on this blog posting.

Opening with Love 5x5 (5x5 series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image - Opening with Love Mandala, Circle of Love series

The creation of art is a reflection of our inner landscape. My inner landscape was feeling a little ouchy and needed to be treated with kindness and love. I hope this is reflected in these mandalas as well.

I'm looking forward to this meditation on Love and the Four Directions.

Bright blessings!
~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Monday, April 04, 2011

5x5 Mandalas

All is Well © Sue O'Kieffe 2011


Fairy Ring © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

Revelry © Sue O'Kieffe 2011

Recently I began experimenting with other approaches to mandala making using a kaleidoscope filter plug-in from Mehdi. I call them 5x5's because that's the size of the file.
This filter works with Photoshop, ( I am unclear if it works with Photoshop Elements) Jasc PaintShopPro and Corel Photo Paint, and is  only compatible with Windows O/S. This is another easy way to create mandalas ( and I will attest that it's fun and a bit addictive.)

I'm not sure yet what how I might use these images, but for now I'm just having fun with them. I debuted one  first  on Saturday's post (Karutetto - scroll to the bottom), and I'm sure I will be adding more in the future.

If you decide to add the filter to your image software program, I hope you have lots of fun.
~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

Saturday, April 02, 2011

We Are Opening/Karutetto

We Are Opening (Circle of Healing 2011) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image: plum blossoms

I felt the call of creation  while listening to this chant:



We are opening up in sweet surrender
To the luminous lovelight of the One.
We are opening up in sweet surrender
To the luminous lovelight of the One.

We are opening
We are opening
We are opening
We are opening
Then, as I have been doing lately, I took the mandala through a second iteration.

Karutetto (5x5 series) © Sue O'Kieffe 2011
source image: We Are Opening Mandala

I felt an immediate connection to Japan when this image appeared before my eyes and titled it Karutetto (which Google Translate tells me means 'Quartet' in Japanese.)

It is another way to send light and love out to that part of the world and to honor their evolution at this challenging time.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas