Diva #200

Congratulations Laura Harms on your 200th challenge. What a feat... and I know you have lots more coming. You are an inspiration to all.

I must admit though; you said to do a monotangle. I kinda failed. :-}  I turn to swirls, like mooka when I need calming. Of course, I don't usually do just mooka. It gets filled in with all sorts of organic patterns. So it is what it is.

As you can see, organic tangles are my thing. Below is Week 2 of the Our Tangled Lives art journal. The aim was to incorporate a mission statement or quote that resonates with you. I developed my word of the year, "Embody" into an acrostic poem.  And then the frame is leafy things.

I am developing my art journalling. Generally, I just create art. I start colouring, and let a thought and colour take me. I don't plan much. Art is a process to me. It is not always about the end product. It is about what I feel and think while I am doing art.

This 3rd weeks art journal prompt is to create a snowflake from our initials, and use it as a string. The theme is "we are all unique". I agree, we are unique; although I find that we are more similar than unique, and this is what binds us together. In our minor differences, we find gifts and interests in knowing each other. These are the gems of life. However overall, we are similar, and knowing this helps us from becoming isolated.

Tangle On! deb

Diva 199 & Winter walks

The winter sun
breaks into the skeleton of trees
brightness shining among the dreary landscape
a warm pancake spreading over
the white and grey
hoping for the syrupy warmth
to fall on our shoulders
mhm.
The sweetness of the sun only known within
the bitterness of the cold.

Everyday I walk among the barren winter landscape with Sadie, but this week I have an additional dog, my daughter's red doberman Arya. Walking two dogs is vastly different than one. Walking in the winter, despite its dreariness, and even without the glorious sun, there is a dreamlike, surreal quality that endears me  to it.

The cold makes the moments of the sun and the moments inside more enjoyable. I spent time early in the week competing Diva's Challenge from HeidiSue at TangleOoh!. A new tangle to try!

I made a mistake the first time I did the pattern. Can you find it? I love how mistakes can be turned into new variations. There is always possibility.

I am back to class and starting a placement. New challenges. And new possibilities. and new growth.
I hope you experience something new too.
deb

Happy 2015!

Hello all,
It is the start of a new year. A new Intention. A new semester. New beginnings. It is refreshment in the midst of a grey winter month.

I started off this new year, right, I taught Zentangle 101 on Saturday, and it went very well. It was so much fun, and as always energizing to have others enjoy Zentangle and art. Welcome to the Zentangle world. Each person who comes to take a class with me, teaches me in a unique way. It is because of my students that I am pushed a little more to becoming a better teacher, to sharing myself a little more with others. My world grows, and I hope your world does too.

One of my past attendees asked me to purchase some Opus tiles. She saw them online and was very excited about them. I ordered some for her, and have a few more - they are 10" x 10" in the same Zentangle paper. It will be a joy to construct a large Zentangle Inspired Art. At the same time I ordered some "Bijou". At first when Bijou came out, I thought, "What's all the excitement?!" And even when I saw how small they were (2" x 2") I thought, "How can I draw on something so small?!" Well change of tune! I started drawing on a few and I love them! They feel so petite and compact, and yet jewel-like (how did the border customs know they were jewels - they charged me duty like they were!). Beautiful. They take a lot less time to complete than a regular tile, and I can only do 1 or two tangles on them. But they are so neat! the work is more compact, and cute. Here are my first results. Remember they are only 2 inch x 2 inch.

I have joined an art journal group through the CZT group. This is my first page for week one. We were to choose a word of intention for the year. I chose "embody".  While I journal regularly, I have never done a specific art journal. Which is interesting, as I have an assignment to keep an art journal for class as well. I started off thinking my word would be "Do" and for my personal year "Worthy"; but rethought having two words, and came up with "Embody" which is really what I hope to achieve by doing and believing in myself as I do. I made my own journal using printmaking paper sewn together (7 x 5.5"), and then Duct tape to bind the 5 signatures. Then I found, while cleaning out my sewing room, some fabric I Zentangled on, and covered the outside with this (to be shown later). The first page included painting with watercolour; Sharpie letters, and micron 3 tangled. I let the colour dictate some of the shapes. 

Onward... bring on the New Year! lets see what we can make of it, and how it shapes us. Stay warm and dry so that you can be creative.
Deb