Never, ever, ever give up

I have begun following Mindful Art Studio's Friday Art Parties, on Facebook. Amy, the instructor, is an art therapist and her free hour-long classes with lots of breathing exercises and mindful stroke-making are always a delightful way to end the week. She has us come to class with small rectangles of watercolor paper, sometimes only 2 inches wide, and we may use several of these during the hour. "When you're done, put it aside and start another one." No looking back. Always moving forward and making more marks. For those who hear the inner critic saying, "That's ugly", she says, "Are you doing this to sell it to a museum or to make some art and have fun?" One day she quipped, "You gotta make a lot of junk before you start making something pleasing."

That message kept coming back to me this week. My staycation has my mind wandering to the beaches of my life, and I've been trying to re-create them in my tangles. I want to draw shells, seaweed, waves, sea oats, sail boats, regattas, beach umbrellas, starfish, sooooo badly! (I've often tangled in my travel notes over the years, with visual souvenirs of where I've been. Nothing museum worthy, of course! Just fun, inside jokes and reminders that only I understand.) All week, I kept struggling, looking through hundreds of tangles, trying to find a composition, until finally I realized that I wasn't practicing the Zentangle Method. I was trying to represent my visual memories. And I was making a lot of junk!!!

I picked up a watercolor wash that I had done after one of the Art Parties. Once I started stroking the ink on the page, things changed. My inner critic shut up. I started to see beauty and get excited about where my pen was taking me! And before I knew it, it had taken me to the beach! The next morning, I picked up my pen, too sleepy to have a "plan" for it, and off we went! As I drew, a story developed about a day at the beach...

Featuring Konk, Funf and Trigue

Featuring Konk, 'Brella, Clamz, Funf and Surf'sUp

Don't be afraid to make junk. But don't be afraid to let your pen lead the way. And "Bon voyage".