Explorations and Artist's Dates

Are you familiar with Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way? It was published 30 years ago, and, luckily, I recently discovered it through a morning meditation two weeks ago. "Mystery, not Mastery" was the phrase that intrigued me that morning, so last week, I started the book and its twelve-week program. At this point, I'm quite happy with it. One of the two actions that you commit to in the program is weekly artist's dates, where you make a weekly date with yourself to explore art / beauty  in whatever form you choose--a trip to the dollar store to buy some new "stuff" to explore, a walk outside, a meet-up, a trip to a museum, etc. My artist's dates this week included some YouTube lessons and a meet-up with my Meals on Wheels card makers, or, as I now call us, the "Sisters of the Travelling Cards".

As part of some self-care that I needed, I purchased a lesson from 7F5RStudio called "Romantic Rosettes". Here's the first tile:

I enjoyed this so much I did another version in my journal:

I did two of the Zentangle Project Pack 18 videos, too, in my journal: 

 

Day 2

Day 3

Maria did an amazing version of her tangle "Verdigogh" in this video. 

Just watching her draw is awesome.

I had these scraps from making my swatch sheet. 

I mounted them on colored card stock and then tangled inside the holes. 

Swiss Swatch!

Lar worked 4 days with a broken toe,

 so he got a little lunchbox tangle, with Gribbits and Cabbits, by Debbie New.

Just for me--and you!

Wishing you wonderful artist's dates!

 

The heat goes on....

In previous posts, I've mentioned using Zentangle to remember a favorite place or experience. During the summer of 2020, I chose patterns that reminded me of the beach, or the ocean, or seashells to take me away from the monotony of the pandemic. And it worked beautifully!

This week, with the continuing heat, I chose cool blues and greens for my cards for our friends at Meals on Wheels. I tried tangling with watercolor brush pens, then repeating the lines with a fine-tipped Sharpie. I really enjoyed the blurry, underwater look that it created. So much so that I made 55 of them!

In my journal, I continued this color scheme.

This distress ink background became more gray than green, so I added pink and purple :)

Have a great week! (And a Happy 4th to those who celebrate it!)

Happy Summer!

No doubt. Summer's here. Rain is not. I began my watering tasks this week, for the flowers, birds and other critters. I am very frugal with water. You won't find a sprinkler in my yard, although I would like to run through one!

With my time in the garden increasing, my time inside is down, and with it, tangling time. I still tangle every day, after realizing how important it is for my mental wellness. I've almost filled my journal that I made for June travels.

Featuring a variation of the Bekk tangle

The colors of morning on the porch

Featuring the new tangle Haeckel, kind of

I made some new background paper with distress inks in cool colors for my Meals on Wheels cards. I hated to waste the tiny scraps, so I put them to good use in journal.

With LaMar tangle

Pia

Scarabou

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.

After I made my cards, I had a little time for some random tangling.

Rozhki, with watercolor

Gray distress ink with blue Microns

If you're in the Triangle area and would like to join our team, email me!