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!

GRATITUDE

Gratitude Mandala - (Healing in Circles series) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2007

Everything is made of light; everything is alive. The Great Mystery of life has little to do with intelligence. The universe is not an intellectual process. The intellect is helpful; but our hearts are the wiser part of ourselves.

~ Mellen-Thomas Benedict

I chased this mandala around Photoshop yesterday afternoon and this morning. Usually when I put more than a couple of hours into an image and it just isn't coming together for me, I hit the delete key and move on. But I wanted to get to a place with this mandala where I could at least feel satisfaction. I do like how the peachy tan ties all the different colors in this image together.

I have been experimenting using different colored backgrounds with my mandalas. This is all for the time, of course, when the struggle I have been experiencing with printing practices comes together and I am able to live with an answer that satisfies me. Currently I am researching different inkjet printer possibilities; I suppose I will also contact local printers for price quotes, just so I know.

Mostly what I wanted to talk about in this post, though, was to express my gratitude to Neda Doany and Diane Clancy for bestowing upon me the Thoughful and Inspirational Blogger awards. I have chosen to wait until later to bestow these awards to other bloggers out there, so you just never know when the fairy blogmother might shower you with her goodies.