Holiday Blessings from Sacred Circle Mandalas

HOLIDAY MANDALA 1

HOLIDAY HEART - (Seasonal Circle series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2007

I am giving myself a challenge of posting twelve seasonal images by the end of December.

Im not sure what kind of flower I used for the source image for this mandala. Photographed on a summer's day in my friend's garden,it called to me this winter to be transformed for the holidays. Any one have an idea what it might be?

I do love the colors of this image....pink for the heart, red for passion, green for growth. When I first created the mandala I was thinking of the expression "cross my heart" when I saw how the center emerged.

Wrap yourself and others in love this season and remember those who matter most.

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

Festival of Light Holiday Card
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007

I spent most of last week in a card making frenzy. It's part of why I haven't been commenting much on other blogs. Im sure some of you must know how that is.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what the holidays mean, not wanting to focus on any one particular tradition but wanting to capture the essence of the season. I polled people on my other blog and wrote to the only two non-European women (Neda and Rima) I know for their take on the winter holidays; what I heard mentioned over and over were the themes of love, family, light, and closeness

I am happy, though, with the six cards I have created. I am still evaluating my finished product and hope to take them to the major retail gift shop soon that I have been drooling to have my work in for the last year.

If you want to see the other five cards you can see them on my other blog here (they are also linked to the right under My Greeting Cards.

I would love to read your comments. Your feedback and encouragement means alot to me.

HO HO HO

Festivity Mandala - (Winter Circle series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2007


Yesterday I created this mandala just in time for the holidays. I know, it seems kind of funny to be thinking about that now, but I have been thinking about making a calendar (or 2) for the upcoming season.

Recently I began reading Christine Kane's blog. She is an indie musician and self-proclaimed sensitive person (aren't all of us creative types?), who writes about business, creativity and the Law of Attraction. She doesn't know it yet, but she is also one of my cyber mentors. I highly recommend any artist considering the business side of the equation to read her great post, Business Advice for Artists and Sensitive People. Neda Doany of Papiers Colles asked me to write about the emotional side of business, but I don't have any good advice or experience for that yet. This woman does.

So, back to the calendars. I had a fun first experience with calendar making last year; it was also my first experience working with a print on demand company. The calendars turned out well, they were well received, people were happy, my sensitive artist self felt like Sally Fields (oooh you really do like me after all). But there were problems. The biggest one was I didn't make any money... the print on demand company did. What's wrong with this picture, anyway? In order to make a profit, I would need to price this product way above normal retail price for similar items. Which gets me back to a bigger desire of finding a publisher. But more on that subject at a later time.

This mandala will also make a great greeting card, and the printing issues I've been having are close to being resolved. So all is not lost.

Oh. And yes. You can expect more Photoshop Tips each Sunday in your inbox or the RSS feed reader of your choice!