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!

 

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

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.

With gratitude and appreciation, I wish you a week of wonder and new understanding.

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.

I found this in my stash of watercolor tiles that I  prepared after scratching my cornea. I enjoyed just dropping paint and gold pigment. 

Even though my watercolor stash is healthy, I couldn't resist creating another background. The Signo gold pen is so comforting in my hand. I added shading with more watercolor. This tangle, by Daniel Lamothe CZT, is called Autumnal.

This week's Meals on Wheels cards.

Bales as a reticula

#tanglingforUkraine

Day 1 of Project Pack 17. We will be making a kaleidoscope with 6 3Z tiles.The quote introducing this project was compelling to me:

"Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. A slight change, and all patterns alter."--Sharon Salzberg

I look forward to sharing more of this experience with you next week.

Waiting

Waiting takes up a lot of time, doesn't it? I know this year we are all waiting to see when the pandemic will end. We're waiting for things to get back to "normal". We're waiting for the year to be over. (Remember how we all wanted 2020 to be over?)

I've been waiting to get over a virus this week, and waiting to be tested tomorrow, to be sure it's not COVID-19. Then, there will be some more waiting for the results. I'm not anxious, thankfully. And I've used this waiting time to do some tangling.

After our Christmas gathering on Sunday,I revisited the 12 Days of Zentangle. I did these in my journal, and wished I had done them on tiles! (I don't enjoy drawing in my journal and find it awkward.) 

Day 1

Day 2

I decided to get some color and large nibs back onto my drawing table! I watched a fun lesson from 7F5R Studio on youtube using the Flameflower tangle, by Debbie Bowyer. I enjoyed it so much that I did two tiles.

After seeing a post on the Zentangle Mosaic app today, I tried a lesson from the #toyoutangle classes on June 19, 2021, called "Nature's Light". This was very relaxing, too!

I like the stained glass look.

Wishing you patience in your time spent waiting....

Time to Slow Down

In this morning's meditation, I read a blog post from The Tapping Solution: 10 Mantras to Bring Intention and Positive Purpose to Your Day. I chose to focus on "I have time to slow down." 

Sometimes I forget that I'm retired. I chose to retire early in 2015 so that I could have time to be. To read, study, write, draw, serve, and generally take time to create the life that I felt was meaningful for me. In that mix, the latter sometimes gets pushed to the side, so I was glad to see this reminder.  I have time to slow down. That can seem like a luxury in our hurried world, but I believe that you don't have to be retired to slow down. Being mindful, of our breathing, of our food, our coffee (see last post!), of those around us, of the sky--involves  s l o w i n g     d o w n.  In the Zentangle Method, we slow down to practice gratitude and appreciation in step 1. 

Here's my "slow down" tile from this morning:

The tangles are Patakon and Bluster.

And an act of relaxation last night:

Dirdam was so relaxing to draw.

How do you take time to slow down?