My 3-day Getaway

I turned 63 earlier this week and celebrated by going to a fairly remote and rustic cabin in the mountains with Lar. Not a lot of art happened, but we did s l o w   d o w n. I especially enjoyed being on the crest of the Blue Ridge, where we had unobstructed views of the valleys, sunsets and sunrises and the darkest night sky I've seen in years. I felt spoiled.

When we returned,lots of "stuff" needed our attention, and I started to get anxious about whether or not I would get things done and see any resolution in ongoing tasks. That feeling of "hitting the ground running" prevailed. I won't lie and say that I finally beat it, but I did manage to take some deep breaths and let go of things I can't control. At least, momentarily! This quote stroke home!

"Imperfect, limited, and vulnerable as I am,

the sun still shines upon me, things do

work out, food appears, rain falls, wonderful 

conversations take place, and the grass

grows without any help from me."

--Dharmavidya David Brazier

And so I made some art.

I hope you can slow down, too, this week, and make some art. It doesn't have to be perfect. Neither do you. 

Right side up?

Zentangle teaches us that there is no up or down, no right side up. We turn our tiles as we work, and after we finish, to see them from different perspectives. This week, I heard a wonderful Rumi quote: "Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead, let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turned upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?" In the same vein, I saw a Meister Eckhart quote that resonated with me: "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning."

I had a fruitful week.

Some tiles featured Lindy's Magicals and distress inks:

Some, including the above tile, responded to an Inchie Challenge from Mindful Art Studio:

And some, on the new translucen-Z tiles, were lessons from Project Pack 18:

Somehow, being willing to be a beginner, to question which side is up (especially on the translucent paper, where we draw on both sides), was powerfully liberating--although I did fall asleep at 8:30 every night!

Is there anything you can question this week? Do you begin every day in the newness that it offers?

PS: I also set up MailChimp to manage subscriptions to this blog. (You may have noticed the clunky gadget on the right!) If you notice any glitches or have any questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to respond.

Collaborating with Nature

August and September find me spending more time in the garden, cutting back spent cone flowers and black-eyed susans, breaking up the parched soil before watering, raking leaves, pulling weeds and trying to get a handle on it all before the last hurrah of Sheffield mums is heard. I gave some poke weed plants space to flourish this year, and they needed a little pruning. After that task was completed, I noticed that my gardening hat was stained from the berry juice. A collaborative art project was born.

I picked up a Permapen and added some Pokeroot. Then Pokeleaf, and as I worked around the hatband, I envisioned my garden so that more patterns could be added to represent it.

The poke weed juice is on the far right

The co-artist and the collaboration product

I finished the Romantic Rosettes lesson from 7F5RStudio this week.

Then, I finished my journal by tangling the inside covers.

The inside was from the ZTHQ Well-being, Part 1, video

Gardening on the brain

Working with Lindy's Magicals and Zendalas is always a special treat for me. (Like a colorful cookie?)

Nouvelle

Wishing you a safe and fun Labor Day!

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!