Creativity and gratitude in all things

What is creativity to you? I wonder if you cooked for the holidays, and thought about what you were creating, not just what you were cooking. Or maybe you set a beautiful table. Or created a welcoming space. Or made a great playlist of holiday songs. I love how creativity and gratitude abound this time of year. What a gift they are, not just now, but, potentially in every day we live.

I thought about this while preparing for our Thanksgiving meal this week. I felt frustrated at first. Oh, no! I didn't do any art today! But quickly I saw that these days were packed with creative acts that empowered me as an artist. A pinch of this, a dash of that. This color next to that color. And I really didn't make anything fancy. But I was mindful about what I did make. That felt wonderful and transformed the work from a necessary chore to a creative joy which, as in our Zentangle practice, always began with gratitude for the ingredients and tools and people connected with them, and appreciation.

For this, I am grateful.

I did enjoy making these distress ink tiles at the beginning of the week.

I also completed another faux eco-dyed tile.

Yesterday, I relaxed with a YouTube video from lovelygiraffetangle, who calls this "Fragments Building".  I needed a long, high-focus lesson. It took me about 4 hours to finish it, but the repetitive and grid-like structure made for a lesson that was easy to follow. I may try to create a fragment building of my own!

How's your creativity doing?

The all important first step: Gratitude

Everything begins with gratitude and appreciation in the Zentangle Practice. Gratitude gives us a chance to focus on what we have, rather than what we don't have. Our breath, our paper, our hands, our supplies. This week, as we in the US prepare for Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a tile and a story about someone many of us are grateful for.

Crazy Alan's Emporium is the largest pen retailer in the US, and, lucky for me, located only a mile from my house. I am so grateful for this "artist's candy shop", and for its delightful proprietor, "Crazy" Alan. In his 27-year run, he has provided our community with an abundance of wonderful art and office supplies at a reasonable cost, and if you're a connoisseur of fine fountain pens, he can't be beat. But nothing blooms forever, and Alan has decided to close the store in August 2023. (I can hear former students collectively moaning, "Nooooooooooooo!")

Joni Mitchell warned us: "You don't know what you got till it's gone."

Just this morning, while journaling, my fountain pen ran dry. I got another cartridge, when it hit me. Where am I going to get Pilot cartridges? Sumo pencil lead in .9 mm? Individual colored pencils in the greatest colors? And where, most importantly, will I ever find someone who pulls up YouTube videos of "What's My Line?" or appreciates the old Perry Mason episodes? who doesn't just ring up customers, but has conversations with them? who ribs us and makes us laugh?

Crazy, this tile's for you:

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: 

It must be produced and discharged and used up 

in order 

to exist at all."  

~William Faulkner

Who are you grateful for?

I'm so excited!

Christmas came early this week! New techniques! New tangles! New explorations!

Zentangle HQ released 7 new tangles--and zen some!-- to celebrate the ZenAgain 2022 reunion for CZTs. Once the step-outs come out--probably in the Project Pack 19/12 Days of Zentangle release in a few weeks--everyone can enjoy them together! I'm still "unpacking" them, but will share some in a future blog post.

I took Eni Oken's "Eco-dyed Tangling" class online. (You can purchase it in her shop.) This was a totally new and exciting and messy experience, aka fun! The class addresses using eco-dyed papers, which have been prepared and dyed with flowers and leaves. However, Eni also teaches us how to make faux eco-dyed papers with distress inks and watercolors. Warning: I'm hooked! If you've followed my work for a while, you know how colored backgrounds are my favorites to work with--distress inks, watercolors, pigments. These faux eco-dyed papers go there, and beyond, as they use my other favorite element, leaves. Who could ask for more? Here are some pictures of my playtime:

Supplies. Notice paper towels, wipes, and hair dryer!

My first press with leaves and distress ink

The tan tiles on the right are the first press with leaves and distress inks.

The remaining tiles have some watercolor added.

The completed "eco-dye" effect

The next step almost lost me. Eni's tiles looked so different from mine. She started tangling. I thought, "This just doesn't work with what mine look like!" I tried to follow along, but decided to go with what felt right. I wanted the leaf shapes to stand out. Here's what happened:

My favorite. By now, I was gaining confidence.

This lesson put me in a beginner mode. Every morning, I try to remind myself of a favorite Meister Eckhart quote: "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning." Being a beginner can be messy and uncomfortable. My inner critic shook her head and muttered, "You should have watched the whole video before you started!" (Smacks her teeth!) But, if I had, I might not have discovered what was in ME. And I think that's what this art thing is all about.

Finally, I close with my finished Zenbirds for Ukraine piece, taken from a lesson by Lynn Mead.

Wishing you happy beginnings.

Inspired by Nature

Lar and I managed to get away to the beach for 4 days to celebrate our 25th anniversary.  I took some previously dyed tiles that seemed appropriate for the setting.

On our arrival, we took a relaxed stroll around the island of Wrightsville Beach after dinner. We discovered a public bench overlooking the Intercoastal Waterway. The words on the bench struck both of us as important to remember: Enjoy the rhythm of life. The dance of life has different movements, some slower, some faster. This reminder to pay attention to the rhythm allows us to slow down when it's time to, and speed up when the rhythm accelerates. When we do this, we organically find a balance, much like the balance of the seasons. Rest and activity. Night and day. Winter and spring/summer. Even though we may feel overwhelmed by particularly busy times (holidays, perhaps?), life always gives us an opportunity to slow down and rest. It's up to us to recognize it and seize it.

The following morning, I took another tile that I was really scared to start. I loved the color splashes so much, and didn't want to cover them up. As I listened to and watched the waves from our room, I knew I had to honor them through this piece. After taking a moment for gratitude and appreciation, I slowly started making wavy lines. Listening, I heard the familiar mantra for calming my breath. "Arise (on the inhale). Subside (on the exhale)." I listened to the swells build, or arise in the ocean, and crash, or subside on the beach. I started to synchronize my breathing to them. And then I let go of any tension that remained. The next day, I picked up the unfinished tile and heard the mantra again. I began filling the reticula with "arise" and "subside".  I moved slowly from one cell to the next. I finished it on the third day.

Back in Chapel Hill, I was glad to see the trees and fall foliage again. I'd been thinking about matching pigments to the colors I saw outside my window. I prepared this tile, but, again, started to freeze up at how I would tangle it! Here's what finally happened:

Not at all what I was expecting! But I like the white textures on top of the deep fall colors. I would like to try another one, with sepia ink.

Stay tuned for more art inspired by nature! What things in nature have inspired you to make art?

InkTober 22: Week 5

Ta-da!

The finished piece, 10.5 x 10.5 inches, with

Lindy's gang pigments, distress ink, watercolor 

pencils, white chalk, Microns and white GellyRoll

Here are last week's and this week's patterns:

Many thanks to Stephanie Jennifer at 7F5RStudio for her challenge and all the helpful links to step-outs.

I had lots of fun learning new-to-me tangles and look forward to using them again soon!