This week I discovered @jenicekhh on FaceBook through her delightful and satisfying "Summer Fraganic" prompts. In these prompts, she suggests a fragment and an organic tangle. We figure out the rest. This has always been one of my favorite combos, since it repeats a frequent pattern in structured gardens: a plant and some sort of support or patterned pathway. These prompts give me the feeling of working in the garden. I'm enjoying them so much, and since they come out every other day, I don't feel pressured or overwhelmed. She even posts her lessons for them on her YouTube channel. I strongly encourage you to try one! Here's what I've done so far. Please note that the fragments aren't identified, just the patterns. You will see the fragments on the list of prompts.
zenspar
A journey in joy
Zentangle is...
The Zentangle® Method, created by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, is an easy to learn, fun and relaxing way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns.
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Summer Fraganic Prompts
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Hodgepodge of Happiness
This week's art focused on pleasure! What would feel good right now? Here's the resulting hodgepodge of happiness.
Earth Day 2022
With gratitude to and appreciation for our extraordinary Mother, Earth.
More Mesmerizing Magicals
Sunday, April 24, 2022
In Memory
One week ago, on Easter Sunday, my dear beloved brother, Jim, passed away. I can never say it enough, "He was the best big brother a girl could have." His smile and sense of humor, which he used deftly to put people at ease and make them feel good, will always be remembered. Only a few hours before he passed away, he had his picture taken with the Easter Bunny who was visiting the care facility where he lived. He made sure to make the most joyful face possible, and you can practically hear him squealing: "Oh, my gosh! It's the EASTER BUNNY!!!!!" He was an 80-year old kid. A lawyer, he had a true sense of justice for ALL, especially children. He taught dance in his younger years, and always told my sister and me: "Whatever you do, keep moving!" When he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, he told us that the body that had served him so well and given him so much joy had proved to be "fickle". But rather than giving in to despair, his motto was "You just gotta laugh!" "Alexa, play John Phillip Sousa!" and he would march around the room in perfect time. He took up African drumming and worked on retrieving his skills on the piano. (He was an amazing pianist who never had a lesson.) He learned Dutch when he was 6, and Russian when he joined the Air Force. I could go on and on about his gifts to the world.
He has been freed from his fickle body, and his memory will always bring joy to our hearts.
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Mesmerizing Magicals workshop with 7F5R Studio
After finishing my third kaleidoscope from Zentangle's Project Pack 17, I treated myself to a workshop on my favorite coloring medium: Lindy's Gang Magicals. These are pigment powders that offer brilliant, vibrant colors that shimmer, thanks to their mica. I've admired the tinted tiles that 7F5R produce, and often wondered about their technique. This workshop has empowered me to explore using them in different ways for different effects.
First, my kaleidoscope:
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Life is like a kaleidoscope
"Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. A slight change, and all patterns alter."
-Sharon Salzberg
It's been two weeks since my last post, and the kaleidoscope of my life has gone through major, major changes. But, thankfully, I've had this quote that opened the Zentangle Project Pack 17, to consider.
This Project Pack includes 24 triangular (3Z) tiles. Each kaleidoscope consists of 6 tiles that all use the same string and 4 tangles. When I started working on it, I was minimally motivated. "What am I going to do with all these tiles?" I had a LOT of trouble focusing and had to begin over several times. I was not enjoying the experience at all. It became another piece in the increasing frustration and failure that I was already feeling.
Another project, doing an interview for a documentary about Zentangle, came to the rescue. Although preparing for this project initially felt like another "thing on my plate", I realized that I was reviewing the basics of Zentangle that are so important when we practice the method. Everything begins and ends with gratitude and appreciation. Life doesn't give us an eraser. Make every stroke as beautiful and deliberate as possible, and if it comes out different from what you intended, work through it, work around it, work over it, but keep going. Silence the inner critic so that the inner creator can move the pen. Anything is possible, one stroke at a time. Breathe. Be patient.
Repeating these mantras has brought me through these 2 weeks. Although I still have 2 more kaleidoscopes to complete for the Project Pack, I share with you what I have so far. Each piece measures 7 inches across.
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Potpourri Week
With gratitude and appreciation for another week, I present you with its fruits. No theme emerges. This week I drew for the sake of drawing.
Sunday, March 6, 2022
Outside the box?
The 3.5 inch Zentangle square that we all know and love was designed to simplify our compositions, much like the use of one black pen and graphite. It works, and for years, I have felt little if any need to venture "outside the box".
This week, finding less time for tangling, I picked up a 2-inch square, a Bijou tile, in black to play with an idea I had seen on instagram. I was pleased to create something in a short amount of time. The next 3 days, I continued with my exploration. Finally, I mounted the 4 tiles together on gray card stock.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
With a little help from my friends
With immense gratitude for friends, I'll do a short post today to share how I got through this week. Many of these tiles were inspired by friends and members of our wonderful Zentangle community.
Please take a moment to be grateful for your friends. Where would we be without each other?
Sunday, February 20, 2022
All is Well
Happy belated Valentine's/Palentine's/Galentine's Day! I hope that you found yourself surrounded with love and appreciation!
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Meals on Wheels
"What do we do with all these tiles we make?" My Zentangle students frequently asked for ideas. I usually pointed out that they stood alone without frames, could be tucked by the corner behind light switches, made into cards or gifts, hung from ribbons, placed in albums, only to receive blank stares. And I understood! I, too, was starting to have tiles pile up.
One day, my friend and fellow tangler Melissa offered a new idea. What if we used them for cards and gave them to our local Meals on Wheels clients? Melissa offered to set it all up, and a community service was born. Since October 2020, we have made cards every week. Sometimes, we use Zentangle artwork, sometimes stencils or freehand drawing. Each card has a personal note. There are currently 4 of us in this group, and a few others contribute as well. Every so often, we get positive feedback from some of the 165 or so clients. These always make our day! And getting together with my friends, Melissa, Pamela and Becky, to share our results, has lightened the monotony of the pandemic! We gather every two weeks, usually in one of our driveways, and catch up for an hour or so. A breath of fresh air!
This week, I decided to raid my "tile drawer" to make 41 cards. I added some digital paper words from Pink Monarch on etsy.