The 100 Day Project

Have you ever heard of the 100 Day Project?  It is a free global initiative begun in 2013 inviting folks to choose a creative project and do it for 100 days. It doesn't matter if your 100 days are consecutive; just do it for 100 days. This is a new endeavor for me, and, in my current "no expectations" mindset, I've embarked! My creative project is to complete 100 2-inch squares of art. (The 2-inch squares of paper in Zentangle are called "Bijou tiles".) 100 days of Bijou. I'm thinking that I will use limited tools for this as I re-explore simplicity and the elegance of limits. And how much can you put on a 2-inch square without it becoming totally overwhelmed?!?

I picked up some gray Bijou tiles for these, and a pink pen. (That was unintentional!) Here's what we have so far:

Drum roll, please.

Tangle (pattern): Appease, by Connie Green

"Kruller", by Jody Genovese

Drawn on the back of the previous tile

"Heart Blossom", by Beth Gaughan

"Waltzy", by Sue Schneider

5 down, 95 to go!

I hope that this inspires and motivates you to participate in this challenge. (Leave me a comment if you're ready to give it a go!) Don't overthink it. Your challenge can be brushing your teeth in 100 different ways! As always, just have fun!

"Space: the final (?) frontier"

My home studio gets southern exposure and cat TV, aka, a large window where the neighborhood cat and I can sit and watch the birds, the sky, the trees and our natural world. We have a single-sized futon that we share that takes up a good bit of the room, leaving just enough space for a small drawing table and a small desk. I try to keep an open space for yoga, not too big, like me.

Thursday morning, I got my coffee, and as I tried to squeeze into my desk chair, I spilled the hot liquid all over the table and floor. This was my green light to look for a better solution, to make space! After a half-day of decluttering and moving things around, I was particularly pleased that I hadn't responded to this need by buying more stuff! I could work here. I could reflect, too, on space in other areas of my life--my use of time and energy, my head space, to name just two. 

I continued exploring heart patterns in my work this week. Here's what happened:

My Valentine for Lar

L'Amour pattern

Inkless drawing, or tecnica seca

Embossed cotton fiber paper and graphite

L'Amour pattern

The bottom corner is folded back to make a stand

Patterns: HeartBlossom and Calliewags

Although not a huge fan of heart patterns, of which there are well over 100, I enjoyed drawing these with minimal tools and a small surface. I think this was all a part of my "space studies" this week!

Where do you need to make space? Happy explorations!

Happy Valentine's Day! (KISS!)

In my former life as a middle school French teacher, whenever I assigned the dreaded composition, I would say, "KISS! Keep it short and simple!" Somehow, that seemed to nip the write-and- Google translate problem in the bud! As February is the month of hearts and flowers and kisses, I've decided to use this advice in my blogs. I'll be focusing on heart patterns or tangles this month as well as what we call the "elegance of limits". Each week, I'll try to limit my tools to the traditional Zentangle white surface, black pen and gray graphite.

Here's what I have for this week:

"When two hearts meet, love blossoms."

Heart Linx pattern by Leslee Feiwus

Drawn on the back of the previous tile

Heart Linx pattern and ONS pattern by Curtis Wang

Heartsmeet pattern by Lynn Hensley

Gothic Tracery class by Eni Oken

This happened while I was on hold with customer service.

I left it aside to finish it, and started seeing some heart shapes this week.

Voila! (With an "accent grave" on that A!)

You are loved!

NB: Heads up: If you subscribe to this blog, THANK YOU! Next month, my subscription service is changing its policies. I see this as a time when we can all clean up those inboxes and declutter! Please let me know if you would like to continue, either in the comments or a quick email with "RENEW" in the subject line! If you would like to unsubscribe, no problem! Just reply with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.

So long, squiggle. (See it grow: finale)

Having known several writers over the years, I've often thought about editing a piece of writing and how we "edit" in Zentangle art. We don't use erasers, so we might take an "oops" moment and cover it with ink or graphite. We might morph the marks into another pattern. Or we might just leave them, like a loose thread on a Navajo blanket. There is almost always an addition to the mistake, although on rare occasions we might cut the mistake out!

Last week, in my post "Oh, noooooooo!!!!!" I described how I had inadvertently made a squiggle in the white space around the large project I was working on, and panicked for a moment before continuing to work on the rest of the piece. Not sure how I was going to finish it this week, I knew I had to do something. I would not just leave this to the side, unfinished, or throw it away, or cut it!

I took a few days to play with collage. No connection to my Zentangle work, just for relaxation and something different. Then I took a class on creating a gold look with colored pencils. I just needed to clear my mind before going back to the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge 2023 piece. I'm glad I did.

"A Fragment of My Imagination", 11x15 in.

I'm grateful to 7F5RStudio for the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge. Grateful to Lindy's Magicals (and the squiggle!) for inspiring me to leave the fragments and see the flowers. Grateful to the Zentangle crew for Project Pack 19 and the courage to think big. And grateful to Rick and Maria for giving me the desire and the means to get reacquainted with my inner artist.