COLORS OF THE DAY

Pueblo
pen and ink, crayon
© Sue O'Kieffe 2008




I believe I channeled this rendering from the spirit of an ancient Mayan. Doodled before and after my art show, focused on colors and textures of the desert...hot dry gritty piercing visionary questing. These doodle structures have appeared before on my meanderings on paper. A river runs through it.

I really don't think new crayons are for children anymore. My box of colors has names like wild strawberry, mauvelous, hot magenta, purple pizzazz, shocking pink. Granny smith apple, inchworm, timberwolf, robin's egg blue, dandelion. Im so relieved they didn't rename periwinkle, my favorite color as a child, as some mean-spirited rumor I read somewhere had led me to believe. It's good to retain those sentimental favorites too. Oh, yes, and of course there is still red.

Do you have a favorite crayon color?


Sue O'Kieffe
Sacred Circle Mandalas
(for the Create Every Day 2008 Challenge)

MANDALA EYES SATURDAY BLOG AWARDS

Mandala Eyes
pen and ink, crayon
© Sue O'Kieffe 2008

Remember the old Beatles tune Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds? Well, that tune was on my mind when I doodled this, cuz sometimes I have those eyes too! I like to maintain a lighthearted attitude, because life is too short too take it too seriously, and angels can fly cuz they take themselves lightly.

Over the past few weeks I have been graced with blog awards from some thoughtful and fun folks who inhabit the blogosphere here. Thank you muchly, Sweet Irene, John Mora, and Diane Clancy for the recognition. I do enjoy the acknowledgment and enjoy watching my girl scout badge sash become more colorful with all these honors!




‘It’s a big kiss, of the chaste, platonic kind, from me to you with the underlying ‘thanks’ message implied. I really do appreciate your support and your friendship, and yes, your comments.’

I have decided to bestow these two particular blog awards to one particular Connie Rose, who has taken to blogging like a fish takes to water (and what else would you expect from a Pisces?)
Connie is in the Artists in Business group I have been participating in since sometime last spring. She and fellow artist Joan Gold and I are going to continue meeting after the business group ends in March. I look forward to continued interaction with these two other women who want to keep the business momentum alive. Enjoy your awards, Ms Rose. I look forward to many more months of learning about spinning and weaving and can hardly wait to see your fractals incorporated in your work. Go check her out!

DOODLES TWO

Rebirth
pen and ink, crayons
© Sue O'Kieffe 2008




A somewhat more personal take on the process of transformation, conceived on a cold January night where the only warm place I could find was my bed. I love winter dream time.

















Birdtree
pen and ink, crayon
© Sue O'Kieffe 2008



The boy robins have returned to scope out real estate for their ladies fair who shall come later, ready to nest. Come late January I hear the boys singing in the trees who welcome the guys with open branches. I love trees, have for as long as I can remember, and have doodled many. This is my latest.

Welcome Oh Such Sweetly Singing Harbingers of Spring!

RORSCHACH, ANYONE?

TATTOO
pen and ink, crayola and neocolor ii crayons
© Sue O'Kieffe 2008

I debated whether or not to post this doodle. It is a bit edgier than most; or maybe it is just it seems to be more of a reflection of my inner world than most. Long week, etc. I know that my mood will pass and that even the harder days need to be expressed now and then. It took me a week to finish this page. I will add it to my flickr set. I have other doodles there maybe you haven't seen yet.

For those of you who might be new to my blog and are wondering what in the world this woman is doing doodling outside the confines of the traditional mandala circle, back in November I began this activity during a challenge to be creative every day for that month. Leah has urged participants to go on and be creative every day in 2008. And so I am.

I will say I liked playing with the colors in my brand new box of 96 choices. The crayons seem to flow easier on the page and I love the names of some of their colors...wild strawberry, timberwolf, robin's egg blue. Playing with the shading and mixing of colors was quite satisfying

Tell me, if you would, what you see here and how you feel when looking at my colorful blot.
Oh, and yes, after having been a blogger for almost a year on this space, I just today registered myself with Technorati. Somehow I thought I had done that eons ago. If you feel inclined to add me to your favorites on that site, you can click on the widget at the bottom of the page. Thanks, John Mora, for remarking on your own similar action. Otherwise, I probably would have gone on figgering I was all good to go and had already staked my claim over there.

Happy Saturday, everyone, and please stay warm and dry out there (those of you in the northern hemisphere at least. )

MEANDERINGS

Orange Ade
pen and ink, crayons
© Sue O'Kieffe 2008



Anyone visiting my blog for the first time might well wonder what this meandering doodle has to do with mandala making.
Every Saturday I take a break from my regularly scheduled programming and offer up my version of sacred silliness. I began these doodles in November to ward off some boredom I'd been feeling and to get a break from the computer. For the past two months I've tried to doodle every night before I go to sleep. Sometimes these scribbles are done rather quickly and others take longer to complete. This meandering was a week long project.

Orange is such a delicious color. I want to squeeze and savor it and wipe the juice right off my chin. One time, visiting Florida, I ate tangerines as big as grapefruits and a million times as sweet. Twenty five years later, the memory of such succulence remains vivid and delectable.

Are there colors you just can't get enough of? Are they related to events in your life? Do you think that color heals?

All of the doodles I post in 2008 are going to the Creative Every Day group folder as well as to sue's doodles, both on flickr. Fun stuff. I am honored to be playing with and contributing to this amazing group of artists. C'mon by.

CREATING IN 2008

wonderment2
pen and ink, neocolor2 and crayola crayons
© Sue O'Kieffe 2008



It is your responsibility to share your gifts with the world. Creativity is holy. ~Matthew Fox

Say hello to my first doodle and first creation of 2008 on this, the first Sacred Silly Saturday of the year. I ushered in the New Year with one humdinger of a cold, which left me feeling anything but creative, yet filled with lots of wonder. I think that's a good sign.

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.~ Rainer Maria Rilke

When the New Year comes around I prefer to think more in terms of intent than I do in resolve. At the end of 2006 I stated my intention as being open to what it took to become a self-sustaining artist. At the end of 2007, I find myself back in the work force full time. Not exactly what I expected a year ago, but it is a decision that feels right and good to me. I've never been a big fan of the concept of the starving artist. The question it raises for me, though, as Im sure it must for lots of other artists, is how does this fit in with those dreams of mine, of being an Artist in Business for Herself? How do I manage my time effectively and still have fun?

And right now I just don't know. I do suspect,though, that like much of life, it won't end up looking like what I thought ... or hoped .... it would.

Would any of you care to share your experience or insights with me?

ETC.

Window Dressing
pen and ink, crayola 'silver swirl' crayons
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007



Fellow Minnesotan Deb Kirkeeide (whose last name is almost as challenging to spell as mine!) of Painting du Jour has tagged me. Here are the 'rules'

THE RULES:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Some fun facts about me:

• When I was in junior high school, I drew flowers on my legs and then went shopping for shoes at Southdale (the first covered mall in the United States) with my best friend Sandy. I'm a doodler from way back!
• I grew up in Minnesota, moved to Iowa when I was twenty three, and have lived on the North Coast of California since 1985. I can't imagine a more beautiful place to live. This is home.
• In July 2001, right before my 50th birthday, I had my aura read and was told in five years I wouldn't even recognize my life. In July 2006 I was beginning to affirm my new life as an artist and waiting to undergo life- transforming surgery. What a difference five years makes!
• My favorite vegetables are the three A's - asparagus, artichokes, and avocados
• Before I became a digital artist, I loved beadwork, collage, embroidery and mosaic making. And doodling!

I am tagging:
Kris Cahill
Susan Elkin
Sweet Irene
John
Bobbie

---------------------
I know I have a lot brewing just below the surface, but thoughts aren't coming easily for me. I am putting myself in a position of being an introspective observer as I contemplate the beginning of a new year.

How do you approach the end of one year and the beginning of another?

Oh, and before I forget, I have been gleaning Solstice and other winter traditions from the book The Winter Solstice, The Sacred Traditions of Christmas, by John Matthews. I purchased this book a few years back from One Spirit book club, but this is the first year I have really looked at it.

DOODLING FOR PEACE

First I started with a doodle.
























































Well, ok, usually I create my mandalas from images from nature; but I got to thinking this morning about Tibetan peace flags and how much I love them, and then I got to thinking about this day being World Peace Day, at least decreed by this man here. And then I wondered what mandalas created from one of my doodles might look like, so I created these six images which I think would make great flags.

Tomorrow I will be back to deconstruct one of these images and show you another Photoshop technique as my holiday gift to you all.

SACRED SILLINESS SUNDAY

Doodley-doo
pen and ink, crayon, caran d'ache
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007



Well, Sacred Silliness Saturday came and went, and now it's SS Sunday. Better late than never, I always say. Yesterday found me in bed most of the day, too tired to spend much time in front of the computer. Instead, I colored and napped. I was trying to finish what I was doing, but my body's need for sleep won out. Art is supposed to be fun and I refused to pressure myself into some kind of self-imposed deadline.

So this is what I chose to show here for this week's doodle. I colored this image intuitively. What I mean is that I chose colors randomly by pulling my crayons out of a bag without looking at what I chose. It was a fun experiment.

I have posted another of my doodles on my other blog at xanga. I love this daily colorful meditation and look forward to it before falling asleep. I enjoy that I have remained true to my intent of doodling once a day every day, which I made after Leah's November challenge to be creative every day. You can see my other doodles here, at flickr.

LATE BREAKING NEWS!

















Kokopeli Drops His Pipe
pen and ink, caran d'ache, crayon
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007

I finally finished this doodle and just couldn't wait until next week to post it!

I have indulged myself in the laziest of days, today. It's been a while since I've gone through the whole day in my jammies. The rain has been coming down steadily; after dinner I am looking forward to cozying up to my art pad and ink pen again. Doodlemania! Woohoo!

SACRED SILLINESS SATURDAY

Going Down in Flames
pen and ink, crayon, caran d'arch
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007


I've loved loved LOVED everyone's enthusiastic response to my crazy doodles and even considered starting another blog dedicated to 'em, but somebody already had my name of choice (doodleblog). So I am going to dedicate Saturday to SacredSilliness, post my doodle of the week, and point you to my doodles which I am posting at flickr.com I have wanted to investigate this community for a while anyway, and thought this would be less pressure than starting up a whole other blog. I mean, how many do I need, anyway? You can view my other doodles here.

And now I am going to make a confession. There are so many of you out there blogging your heARTs out who I admire and want to support with my time and commentary, but I am momentarily overtaken by life. It is not the holidays, because I barely celebrate. I am not at all a frivolous woman and I would rather comment with heart or not at all. It must be dilemma many of us face. And so I comment when I am moved to instead of out of obligation. Know that I look at all of you often, either via email or RSS feed reader. I feel honored and privileged to be part of this ever growing community of online artists and I wish you all continued creative growth and abundant joy.

Have fun and keep breathing!

DOODLE BUGS

Passion
pen and ink, caran d'arch
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007

Never Give Up
pen and ink
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007

Phoenix Rising
pen and ink, crayon, caran d'arch
© Sue O'Kieffe 2007

Well, Leah's challenge to do art every day in November has officially ended, but it certainly hasn't ended in my heart or mind. And the good news is that she is extending this low pressure challenge in 2008 to be creative every day. Read more about it here!

These are the doodles I doodled during the past week. My hands touched the paper every day. Sometimes fatigue inhibited me from doing much more than touching the paper. The second image isn't done yet; I thought briefly about trying to do what I wanted with it before posting, but truthfully I don't know exactly what I want and so it will wait. I drew the third image for a friend of mine who is experiencing some medical challenges. It is my imagining of what healing energy for him would look like.

This week I also saw myself being more concerned with the product rather than the process. I do find that manipulating imagery is easier for me digitally, but that has come with lots of practice. Im sure that if I were to continue drawing, doodling, playing in this manner that what I wanted to achieve would come easier for me over time.

But mostly I am very grateful to all of you who enjoyed my dribbles. It made me really happy.

Thanks for the encouragement. They were moments of bliss during a week that has been quite stressful. I think the collective is restless.

DOODLING

inspiration
ink, crayon
© sue o'kieffe 2007
















hair brained ideas
ink, caran d'arch
© sue o'kieffe 2007
















all along the watchtower
ink, caran d'arch
© sue o'kieffe 2007















the effects of watching
'ghost whisperer'
pen and ink
© sue o'kieffe 2007


On her blog Creative Every Day, Leah suggests doodling and sketching first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I look forward to my night time drawls. I've been having so much fun with this process that I even purchased some new pens. I know that eventually I will want to incorporate these doodles with Photoshop, but right now Im grateful for some time away from the computer. Yea. As if that could happen for too very long.

Thank you, Leah, for encouraging this playtime for us all.