HOLIDAY MANDALA 10

New Year's Eve Mandala - (Seasonal Circle series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2007
source image - fiddlehead fern

Debi Cates' love of grasses inspired this particular mandala, taken from a photograph of an unfolding fiddlehead fern. I love spirals and fibonacci numbers and finding them appear in nature. I've talked about feeling contemplative and introspective the past few days. I've not only wanted to gather before me what I accomplished this past year, but feel into my intent for the coming year. I've had lots of different adjectives come up for me to describe my desire for 2008, but nothing really felt "right" to me, until I read Christine Kane's blog on the Resolution Revolution. If you do not already read Christine Kane's blog, I would heartily recommend adding her humor and wisdom to your blog reading list.

So below is my resume, if you will, of my life in 2007. I would love it if you would share some of your own highlights here, or on your own blog, or both!

2007 was a year of HEALING from the past and AFFIRMING the new
Recovered from major surgery
Launched a greeting card business
Participated in an Artists in Business focus group (ongoing thru March 2008)
Developed an art blog and a community of readers
Started posting Photoshop tutorials on my blog on a semi-regular basis
Was featured in four local art shows
Submitted a mandala to an art show for digital artists in Fresno, CA that had an international call for submissions and guaranteed acceptance
Established three local wholesale accounts for my greeting cards
Sold my holiday greeting cards to a highly desirable local retail gift shop (my big goal fulfilled for the year)
Gained greater confidence in my art's desirability
Began conversation with a manufacturer of home furnishings about licensing my art to her
Returned to the work force after a five year period of reinvention and transformation

WHEW!

Tomorrow I will post my intents for 2008. I will tell you right now it begins with having F U N!

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!