SACRED LIFE SUNDAY: MAKE ME A HOLLOW REED

Bamboo stalk

Hollow Reed Mandala -(Autumn Circle series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image: bamboo stalks and leaves

When the interior of a reed is empty and free from all matter, it will produce beautiful melodies; and as the sound and melodies do not come from the reed, but from the flute player who blows upon it, so the sanctified heart of that blessed Being is free and emptied from all save God, pure and exempt from the attachments of all human conditions, and is the companion of the Divine Spirit. Whatever He utters is not from Himself, but from the real flute player, and it is a divine inspiration ~ Abdu'l Baha

Every day I walk past a patch of bamboo. The color of the leaves and the stalks is now a sort of antiqued bronze. Last week I noticed lady bugs on many leaves, and I wondered what was on the bamboo that the lady bugs were loving. Recently whoever takes care of the bamboo trees trimmed off the branches overhanging the driveway, revealing many hollow reeds. This time of year I am noticing more of the patterns of nature -- stems and leaves -- now that they aren't competing with show-offy flowers for recognition.

While creating this mandala today I thought about the joy I feel when I am able to step aside and make room for the Creator's energy to flow through me. I love it when art seems to make itself...no angst, no struggle, just ease...

Oh, God, make me a hollow reed, from which the pith of self hath been blown so that I may become as a clear channel through which Thy Love may flow to others....




Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

AUTUMN INSPIRATIONALS

Many people have never learned to see the beauty of flowers, especially those that grow unnoticed. For instance, when you walk outside and look down at your feet, you may see tiny flowers nestled in the moss and clover hiding under a curled fern. Most people just step on them. I paint them. ~Erica Just

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding. ~ Marc Chagall

I am following Nature without being able to grasp her . . . . I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. ~ Claude Monet

END OF SUMMER

I have begun experimenting with other forms of digital art-making recently through my involvement in the Coach Creative Space. It's been fun to play around using different approaches to making art. I used the photos above to create the image below.



Curves and Splatters - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008

Many thanks to Kim of Laketrees for honoring me and so many other fine creatives on the web with her very thoughtful award.





It's gratifying to be recognized during a time when I am searching ever deeper for inspiration in my art. More about that at another time.

Summer is winding down. On the North Coast of California, autumn is our best time anyway. The light turns golden, the harvest is readied, it actually turns warm and windless. Just a few more weeks. Huzzah!

Many blessings to all of you who come to read, feel inspired, seek to find comfort and healing in your lives, reach for ease and joy and contentment.

May we all be blessed.


Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY - FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH

On Sundays, I like sharing the beauty I have witnessed over the past week with all of you. I am grateful for the opportunities I have to see such a variety of shapes and colors, especially now, after having focused so intensely on the meaning of different shapes in art for the past week on my postings here.

I'm not sure what kind of plant those mandala-like green leaves are. Maybe later, when the blooms appear, I will be able to tell.

(For those of you who view my blog in a reader, you will need to come to my site in order to see the slide show and hear the music I try to tie in to all of my posts.)

Have a joyous Sunday, everyone.


Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY - A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE

Recently I discovered this beautiful sonnet by Rainier Marie Rilke:

Rose, you majesty-once, to the ancients, you were
just a calyx with the simplest of rims.
But for us, you are the full, the numberless flower,
the inexhaustible countenance.
In your wealth you seem to be wearing gown upon gown
upon a body of nothing but light;
yet each separate petal is at the same time the negation
of all clothing and the refusal of it.
Your fragrance has been calling its sweetest names
in our direction, for hundreds of years;
suddenly it hangs in the air like fame.
Even so, we have never known what to call it; we guess...
And memory is filled with it unawares
which we prayed for from hours that belong to us.
~Rainer Marie Rilke The Sonnets of Orpheus, Book 2:VI


I was especially drawn to this line ... In your wealth you seem to be wearing gown upon gown upon a body of nothing but light...

Isn't that just yum?

No matter how many different flowers I photograph for my art, I don't think I will ever tire of shooting different portraits of the rose in her many guises; and for this, on Sacred Life Sunday, I am most grateful.

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY - PERSONAL STRENGTH

Strength in the Light Mandala - (Circle of Light series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - euphorbia cactus

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face... The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it... You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."~Eleanor Roosevelt

"We can't give what we don't have.
Find your center of strength and love and give it away." ~ Author Unknown

"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone; but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure." ~ Rabindranath Tagore

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY - BALANCE

In Balance Mandala - (Watercolor Series) - © Sue O'Kieffe
source image - white rhododendron

Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

We can want peace, but unless we are spiritually at peace ourselves, we dont mean it.
It is our thoughts which keep that part of the universe where each of us stand out of or in balance. ~ Little Crow

There are no choices that are really a detour that will take you far from where you're wanting to be -- because your Inner Being is always guiding you to the next, and the next, and the next. So don't be concerned that you may make a fatal choice, because there aren't any of those. You are always finding your balance. It's a never ending process. ~ Abraham Hicks

Now I walk in beauty,
Beauty stands before me
Beauty stands behind me
Above and below me.
~Navajo prayer


I am continuing to play with different approaches to the backgrounds on my artwork. This time I experimented with *grunge brushes* that I downloaded from this site, applying different colors on different layers and then playing with blending modes to get to the desired effect.

Balance...integration...release...transformation...growth...during these challenging times when life calls us to be present, what are we willing to receive? I like the quote from Abraham Hicks above...our soul knows what we want, and like some kind of internal GPS, it will keep us on track.

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY - MYSTERY

Mystery - (Meditation Cards) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008

This is my body, this is my blood - Mark 16:22-24 (paraphrased)

...the beauty of the bird, the symbol of the snake, the courage of the pilot, and the wonder of human love will always be touched with mystery ~F. Forrester Church

Love enigmas more than certainties ~ Rob Brezsny
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I am back from my trip and am still processing photographs (I took around 300!). Re-entry was a little bumpy and I'm still processing the emotional content of the journey as well. But ohhhh, it was so good to get away, with incredible beauty surrounding me for three days in Southern Oregon.

I am walking a line between wanting to go deep with my art and living on the surface in the material world. Mostly I think this dichotomy....one or the other.... is an illusion. Choose my time wisely.

Tick-tock.
The time is now.


Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

SACRED LIFE SUNDAY - LET IT BE

Our task must be to free ourselves . . .
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures
and the whole of nature and its beauty.

~Albert Einstein

Today I am grateful for the time I spent yesterday renewing friendship with my friend Lorlyn. She and I are techno-geek grrrl friends, Photoshop mavens, and spiritual allies. I couldn't be happier or feel more blessed that she and I continue to nurture our friendship and be able to pick up where we left off from the last time we saw each other (right before Thanksgiving), even though she has moved away from the North Coast of California. After celebrating her birthday and our friendship with a delicious crepe breakfast in Arcata, we mosied up to Trinidad for a walk-around-the-town photo shoot.

How can anyone not be inspired when surrounded by beauty like this?

SACRED ART SUNDAY

Illuminata Mandala - (Meditation Card series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - daffodil
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I woke up in a very dark tunnel. I couldn't see anything. I was scared and wasn't sure exactly what to do. The voice of my Wiser Self reminded me.

Shine your Light.
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It's hard to believe I haven't posted in over a week. There has been much activity going on in the background though, playing in Photoshop with these more water-colory mandala forms. During this time of increased creative activity, my mind has been looking for my Spirit's understanding of what it is I do. I have been Searching for Meaning, and shining my Light into some darkish corners. The above story about waking up in the tunnel was part of a dream I had last week. Last week I spent a great deal of time thinking abut and writing about my identity as a digital artist in an ongoing discussion with other artists I know.

I create Sacred Art.

I have not been wanting to say that out loud here, on my blog, like ... forever. I have not wanted to be categorized. I have been afraid, I guess, of being judged. I have wanted to let people draw their own conclusions about how my art touches them, but please leave the artist out of the equation. How crazy is that, anyway? Don't define me as New Age, or Old Age, or what have you. I just do what I feel called to do. But at the same time I have wanted to be part of the feeling I am trying to create in my art, knowing that we are all connected.

Somehow I had created a disconnect between myself and my creativity.

I have been surfing the web for inspiration and understanding. I had seen the Sacred Life Sunday button before in my wanderings, which I have now posted on my sidebar. Yesterday I knew the time had come to make posting about the sacredness I see in everyday life part of my spiritual practice and to not be afraid to say so.

In my link jumping I also discovered Milliande and her Visionary Art Bus. Her definition of Psychic Art really resonates with my intent when I create my mandalas:

What is Psychic Art ?

Psychic or Shamanic Art is an umbrella that covers different forms of artistic expression that are powerful representation of energy. Most often by creating simply through intention and without a logical plan. It is guided primarily by the subtle psychic sense.

By exploring where the inner world and outer world meet, we can create beyond previous limitation and learn how to step over the line; allowing creativity and inspiration to flow effortlessly from the 'zone'. Even if at first ,we don't even know what we have achieved!

Forms of this Art include Visionary Art, Pre-Cognitive Art, Energy Art, Aura Graphs, Mandala's, Icons, Mask Making, Inspirational Writing, Automatic Writing and Spirit Portraiture

Psychic and Shamanic Art portrays the energy of the subject as well as how it appears physically; the unseen energy around us has so much more potential that anything that can be seen.

I create Sacred Art.
The universe and the light of the stars come through me. ~ Rumi




How do you define yourself as an artist/creative?


Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas