OBSERVE THE WONDERS

1000 Days of Sun - (Mandalas for Peace Project) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2009
source image - dead hydrangeas

Observe the wonders that are all around us ~ Rumi

I have been waiting for a day of no rain and hopefully even a little sunshine. I like to create mandalas from recently taken photographs, while the energy of the photoshoot is still fresh in my psyche. It was pretty cold here last night and frosty this morning, but all that white coating had melted by the time I got out with my camera. The sun never really did come out. Delicately-veined dead hydrangeas did, however, catch my eye.

Over at my doodle blog, I have been playing with mehndi-inspired mandalas. The mandala brushes I used in the background of this image were created from those hand-drawn mandalas. I've been looking for different ways to integrate my digital and non-digital mandala worlds and this is just the beginning.

This mandala makes me feel happy. I'm not sure what the significance of the title is, but when I asked for a name this is what came back to me. I think the image has a Mid-Eastern energy, and so it seemed natural to include one of Rumi's quotes in this post. I love Rumi.

This is my 237th post. Look for something exciting when I get to 250! Details to follow.

~Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas

OPENINGS

Openings 1 through 3 -(Circles of Succulence)- © Sue O'Kieffe 2008
source image - echevaria


Open to me, so that I may open.
Provide me your inspiration
So that I might see mine.
~Mevlana Rumi

Real love hurts; real love makes you totally vulnerable and open; real love will take you far beyond yourself; and therefore real love will devastate you. I kept thinking, if love does not shatter you, you do not know love...
~Ken Wilber

One can not love without opening oneself, and opening oneself, that's taking the risk of suffering. One does not have control.
~Isabelle Adjani









many thanks again to Thalia for her new mandala tutorial posted today...

MANDALAS REVISITED

Heaven's Embrace - (Healing in Circles) - © Sue O'Kieffe 2006
source image: echavaria

Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of love ~ Rumi

Andrea asked me if I had ever posted my earlier work on this blog. Most of these images were created in 2006 and were used on a calendar I had published at lulu.com for 2007. The image above was on the cover and is one of my favorites. I also use it on one of my greeting cards with the above quote by Rumi. The card sells well, and I believe this is one of my strongest images.

Here and here are links to my greeting card galleries and all of mandala images, if you want to take a peek at my full body of work.

An audience or "viewer" is necessary to create a mandala.Where there is no you, there is no mandala. (from: You Are the Eyes of the World, by Longchenpa, translated by Lipman and Peterson).
~www.mandalaproject.org/What/Index.html