Broadening my definition of creativity

What does "creativity" mean to you? Until this week, I suppose I would have limited the idea to my drawing and blogging. As I continue reading and working on the tasks in "The Artist's Way", by Julia Cameron, I'm broadening my definition. 

Cameron writes: "The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention." In Zentangle, I sometimes have a lot of "detailed work". Embellishments, line weight, texture, backgrounds usually involve small bits of pen strokes. When I walk in the forest, it's often the tiny details that bring me the most pleasure and awe. There's a supermarket commercial on TV with a blown up image of blueberries. I never get tired of seeing their little blossom ends, or "belly buttons", as I call them. That yellow-orange center inside the "petals" of the many-shades-of-blue blueberry always makes me laugh! It's this attention to little things that delights and inspires me.

While preparing for an out-of-town get-together with my cousins this week, I was planning and prepping the appetizers. There was nothing at all complex about it, just some crudites, crackers, dips, pickles. Thinking about the above quote, I decided to focus on the detail, and work as if I were tangling. In my garden, I wanted to prepare for being away by doing some much needed mowing, weeding and pruning. I tried to approach that task in the same way, with the Zentangle philosophy of slowing down to notice the little things, one stroke at a time. This small change in my perspective made me feel much more relaxed, calm, and creative, just like when I'm tangling. I quickly realized that the chores of prepping food and gardening had become creative acts. I was exercising my creativity in different ways!

With no pictures of my appetizers or garden, I offer you these few creative acts from the week:

Relaxing with my journal

Inspired by Project Pack 18, Day 5

A cover for my "Artist's Way" journal

Another journal entry inspired by Project Pack 18, Day 6

 Can you approach your chores with a creative lens this week?

How to make an easel for your tiles

Recently I saw a Pinterest post about making an easel with a clothespin. I tried it--super easy and inexpensive. However, it involved gluing artwork to the easel. Nono. 

My Zentangle "What if...?" wheels started turning. Using an Apprentice tile easel lesson that Molly Hollibaugh had shared, I went to work. I can't find the lesson, so I'll recap.

1. Using a 4.5 inch square piece of card stock, or an Apprentice tile, fold three corners so that they meet in the center of the back of the tile. Fold the fourth corner to the front. Open the folds SLIGHTLY. Turn your fold over, so that the front is showing and the fourth corner is now on the bottom. This will be the base of your easel, on which you place your art.

2. Glue the clothespin easel to the center of the back, so that it supports the paper easel. (Sorry for switching to a black tile here.)

Voila! No more slippy tippy tiles! This would make a nice gift to go with your artwork. And, if you like, you can tangle on the sides of the Apprentice tile to make it more decorative!

NB: This post will be permanently available on the home page under "Pages" for your convenience.

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!

 

My first gallery piece!

Carrboro , North Carolina, is one of a few places in our state to have a Little Free Art Gallery. Similar to the Little Free Library movement, you can place your art here (or not) and take up to two pieces. A local artist and activist curates the little gallery so that it's frequently refreshed. And this week, I left my first piece there! A few days later, I noticed that the piece had been taken. (You can follow the gallery on instagram @littlefreeartgallerycarrboro.) I'm so grateful for this local expression of community, and for all those who join me in appreciating it! If you're here in the Triangle area, I hope that you'll check out the gallery, and maybe leave a piece of YOUR art!

My Zendala is on the bottom left.

Among my other explorations this week, I tried another tan tile with Lindy's Magicals in "Umbrella Drink Pink". I used a pink Metallic Gelly Roll and a Silver Shadow Gelly Roll.

I also tried a new tangle from @tangledpursuits, or Debbie New, from 7F5R, called "Sing-fanie". It's basically a cursive "s" drawn in 4's or 5's around an orb. She's so clever!

And on Friday, I picked up my new "readers". I've had bifocals for years, and never managed to use the reading lenses to my satisfaction. To compensate, I bought readers from the dollar store. But because my vision is so different in my left and right eyes, I was twisting my head funny! (If you've ever taken a class with me, you've probably noticed!) So I finally decided that I was tired of the "thunk" sound in my neck, and got some single vision glasses for reading/drawing. I literally rushed to my drawing table when I came home to try them out. And everything felt so ... out of focus! Slowly, I'm getting used to them now. This was my first go at drawing with them:

ZTHQ has released Project Pack 18, which teaches us to use a translucent paper with different tools. I followed along with the free video for Day 1, and used the materials I had on hand. Because the paper is translucent, the design appears on both sides. The Silver Shadow pen, whose ink actually separates as it dries, looks silver on one side and purple on the other.

Wishing you exciting explorations this week!

Happy 300th!

300 posts since 2016! Whew! Thank you for all your encouragement and support over the years! I couldn't, wouldn't have come this far with you!

I'll jump right in with a relevant tile from this week, that was not originally intended as a subject for my blog. Serendipity strikes again!

Yes, "Remember how far you've come." This was a meditation one morning this week. I needed a "note to self" to help me to remember to remember. Even though some days require more energy and strength than others, it can help to put them in context with your entire journey. Think of all the rough patches you've been through, of how you've survived challenges and hardships that are just a part of life. Remind yourself of your strength, of what it felt like to move through them into calmer times. What did you do to get through them? Did you call on your friends, your family, your faith, your furry friends? Where did you find resilience? Did you go for walks, do meditation, write in a journal, draw, listen to music, workout? As you remember how far you've come, how can it help you continue your journey?

My week continued with a lovely treat from Lar, through a gift card to Lindy's Gang. New toys, new colors! I've been working on making swatch charts for all the colors I have. (I have way too much fun making these!) To add to my nerdy fun, I bought these little palettes from the Dollar Tree to have the colors at the ready! I'm using my 1-inch hole punch to make the swatches, which I glue onto my spreadsheet. (I'm laughing as I type this!)

I started trying the Lindy's Magicals on Renaissance tiles this week. I had seen examples of this on the 7F5R Studio website, and would never have imagined that they could be so beautiful. The color sinks into that buttery soft tan paper, while the glitter seems to glaze the surface. I'm learning how to work with them. Here is my first go:

I wish you could see the shimmer better. My photo doesn't do it justice.

Here are two white tiles with the Magicals. I used a glaze pen in the first to create a little 3D effect.

Finally, a traditional black and white tile from my journal.

I invite you to remember how far you've come, if you face any difficulties this week. And please remember how much I am thankful your support.

With gratitude and appreciation.

It's finally over!

This probably doesn't matter to you, but today I finished watching 29 days of cycling in France. It all began with the men's Tour de France, from July 1st to the 24th, followed by the women's Tour de France, from July 24th to the 31st. (This was a new women's tour, after some 30 years without.) I watched approximately 4000 kilometers, broken into 27 segments of roughly 140-180 km a day, or 2 1/2 hours a day of televised coverage. (I never got to see the beginning of the segments, just the second half, but that's probably a good thing!!!) When I told Lar it was "finally" over, he reminded me that I would be delighted to see its return next year!

I hope to make good use of my newly retrieved afternoons! Tangling sounds great ;)

Even with all that TV time, I did manage to do some tangling. The Tangle of the Week is Noodle , by Angie Gittles, CZT. I re-discovered this one while looking for ideas for the Meals on Wheels cards. It was so comfortable for my hand, I stayed with it all week. In the following two tiles, I also pulled out some Glaze pens for a little shine and 3D effect.

One of the cards for our Meals on Wheels friends

In my journal

Apart from Noodle, I enjoyed working with two tiles precolored with Lindy's Magicals. The first was after a study of one of Debbie New's tiles. The second was pure relaxation after finishing all my cards.

Have a lovely week!

Easter eggs in July?

It rained this week! In the midst of seemingly unending heat advisories and high humidity, the sky burst

open. On my walk in the cool forest the next day, new mushrooms surprised me at every bend!

Don't these look like Easter eggs?

Pink and orange and yellow beauty

As is often the case, my forest forays inspired my tangling. I made some backgrounds for my Meals on Wheels cards using Lindy's Gang magicals in pinks and yellow-oranges. I tangled these cards with a Sharpie, some Koi watercolor brush pens and an orange / silver Gelly Roll Shadow pen. Browsing through tanglepatterns.com, I tried to choose patterns that felt good to my hand and had a certain flow. I rediscovered some oldies but goodies, and discovered some new ones. I've finished about half of them so far. Going through the patterns in alphabetical order (with the 2021 e-book guide) was relaxing and fun. I rarely take time to do that. But there were so many tangles! It felt like wandering in the forest among all the new mushrooms! Surprises everywhere!

In my journal, I kept it pretty classic in black and white.

Patterns: Saturday and Hirari. 

I love the ruffled feel of these two together. 

They remind me of my Rose of Sharon bushes in bloom.

Pattern: The top was an attempt at ING with leaves.

It came together at the bottom, after I looked at the

step-out!

My pink and orange tiled were originally intended to

be seashell-like. But that changed when I tried it on the

2-inch square.

My string was drawn from the Art Raffle rap. 

What hidden surprises have you found on your path this week?

So are you!

When I sat down to write my blog post this morning, I still didn't really have a theme in mind. Usually, when I look at my art for the week, there's something. Maybe the overriding theme could be this: Even when we don't see it, there is creativity in each and every one of us. Drawing, painting, coloring, cooking, writing, supporting friends and family, music, humor, organizing, gardening, dance, and more! Whatever it is, it is a powerful force, and a wonderful gift.

From an Eni Oken Art Raffle draw

 If you're not familiar with this app,

it can give you a path to follow

 when you're not sure about what to tangle.

And it's free!

Summer oblige, flowers, blooms, and leaves seem to be everywhere in my pens! And they love to be gathered into bouquets, no strings necessary!

I-Wings and Apacore patterns, and a quilting pattern

Spud, Ditto and Printemps patterns in a "Whats-Itz" composition from 7F5R Studio

Oleasligero and Fall Dance patterns and more!

My new journal cover, with Really? , a new pattern

Another Art Raffle draw

This week's Meals on Wheels cards, with Partay! pattern

Remember: You are a powerful creator. So do something AWESOME today!

Due to increased call volume...

Do you enjoy talking on the phone? Have you ever thought of making it a career?

For 12 years, I taught English as a foreign language over the telephone. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my students, who were all adults with interesting jobs and lives. Their training with me was through their company, and those ran the gamut from agriculture to zoological research!

Once I moved back to the States and ended my work on the phone, I developed an aversion to talking on the phone, unless it was with family and friends. My ear said, "Enough!"

This week, I had to spend hours on the phone with customer service reps, or with their lovely recordings.

If you're like me, once you hear ,"Due to increased call volume..." you feel your shoulders tense, your blood pressure increase, and your body begin to go into fight mode! I decided I was going to find some joy in my wait time. I picked up a tile and started to draw. And by the time my service rep picked up the phone, I was relaxed and pleased with my use of the time. (So grateful for that speaker button!)

In my meditation this morning, the question asked, "Faced with a dreaded task, how can I create a space for some joy while I complete it?" Can you use the time for tangling?

Here are my tiles:

Wishing you joy while you wait for those customer service reps!

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!)