New Beginnings and Opportunities for Growth

This summer has been a roller coaster of emotions, struggles and growth. Between changes with my thesis, numerous submission for employment, supporting my children through individuation, weddings, and monumental birthdays there has been endless room for learning and growing - as long as I accept the task. It has not been easy. Sometimes our dreams get lost in the everyday demands and our responses to 'survival' require alternative focuses that distract us.

As I begin the new stage in my career, and my role in my family, I see opportunities for my own blossoming, and that of my family. I see it as my role to let go of my desire to 'be everything' for my family. This enables both of us to grow. Family is this binding and loosening of our connections. I see, that in the loosening of my everyday involvement, there will be a rubber band effect. They will both stretch and grow, and yet come back when needed. This is what I want for them. This is what I want for myself.

And so, I expand too; as I become more confident in this internal ability and strengths that can only be expressed. So be it. I am ready to let these abilities out. And it is exciting.

Summer Time

Summer Time is here. How do I know? Because I must use my summer quilt!

Yes, I still quilt - piece, quilt on my long-arm - create: both artistic and practical quilts. As you can see, I love colour. Colour makes my heart sing. And this time of year the world is full of colour. Flowers, trees, people's clothes and the gay pride rainbow.

This week has been difficult for the LGBTQIIA+ community. The catastrophe in Orlando highlights how discrimination and hating create pain in all of us. This is not just a 'them' problem, we must all love and accept one another despite differences and disagreements. We are all responsible and part of a society which allows it to be okay to hate and cause pain. So, instead of alienation, let us ask, 'How can I help, and How can I understand you?' Love one another.

These two tiles were created in combination with the Kumomi painting and Zentangle. I enjoy the colour, and then finding ways to integrate Zentangle patterns among the random colours. I worked on these while I was in the waiting room at the doctor's office. Zentangling while waiting reduces my anxiety about the often very long waiting times. In the end, I feel productive about my artwork, and I also enjoy the beauty that I have created. 

Try it! Zentangling is a great way to reduce anxiety and depression because it follows the simple idea of taking action. Taking action while in the midst of anxiety and depression changes the direction of the brain patterns from the downward spiral to the upward spiral. The act of starting a pattern with placing line on paper creates new brain patterns that develop positive and healthy neuronal networks. 

Try it. Move on the upward way with activation. Do something. Anything. Just change the direction in a positive way and your brain will develop the new positive "using the positive" to move forward rather than remaining stagnant and not going anywhere.

And if you want to learn a simple way to be creative, to develop a meditation using art Join me for my Zentangle 101 class on Sat. June 25, 10:00-12 noon. deb@kopeschny.ca.

One Person's Junk is another person's treasure. 

On my daily walk, I came across a pile of Forget-me-nots on a pile of garden compost. Someone did not think they were worthy of garden space. And yet, in my own garden, I was carefully digging around the forget-me-nots to keep them blooming until their season ended. Garbage. One person thinks it is done - not of use: Another can imagine what more can be done with it. What additional pleasures can be derived from it. Likewise, we have the dreaded dandelion. Throughout my neighbourhood  people are piling up dandelions pulled from their roots in an effort to vanquish them from our yards. What purpose do these items have? Well, each has a purpose in Creator God's kingdom. We may not know the full purpose, we may not recognize the beauty or intent. But it is there. Dandelions, I know are very important first flowers that the honey bees drink nectar from. So while we strive to delete them from our yards - there is a purpose there. A very important one.

What else in our lives seemingly has little purpose? What else do we struggle with and want removed? Yet all living creatures have a purpose in God's Eyes, in God's Kingdom.

With patience let us wait for the purpose.  And hence - Forget-me-nots, always a purpose.

I am planning for this Saturday's Zentangle workshops. Please join me for the Zentangle 101 at 1:00 p.m. or the Zendala (if you have taken Zentangle 101)  at 10:00 a.m.

Mini Zentangle garden- some 101 patterns

Please contact me to attend - I still have 2 spots in each class.

Upcoming Classes

I have two classes coming up on Sat. May 28. The first class is Zendalas - the fantastic circular combination of Mandalas and Zentangle. This unique experience incorporates more difficult patterns in a repetitive and centering experience. Join me at 10:00 a.m. for Coffee, treats and Zendala!

 The second class I have on Sat. May 28 is the Zentangle 101 class. You will learn the meditative art form of drawing simple, repetitive patterns into a unique abstract and beautiful piece. Come enjoy art-making in a relaxed open environment. This is a great hobby to take with you anywhere - great for vacations, airports, doctor's offices. Great for any age - if you can put a mark on a page, I can teach you how to draw a Zentangle.

Join me!  email deb@kopeschny.ca

A New Season

I have just completed a major task in my life, with the completion and submission of my thesis on Zentangle. Now I wait to for reviews and recommended changes on the thesis. It's a waiting game.

In the meantime, well, catch up. I am working on the completion of final paperwork and one final paper. There are many thoughts and anxieties going through my head. I am looking for a job, and with all my schooling and yet not graduated, I am unsure where to orient myself in the working world.

And then I continue to work on my own business, to enjoy teaching Zentangle, to quilt for others, and also help my daughter with wedding preparation. So despite the reduction in stress on my thesis completion, there are many other tasks I have to work on. Life continues, and I like it that way.
Really, I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have. I have a supportive family, I have all my basic needs met, and I can be creative. I am thankful.

Recently I completed several sessions with a seniors group in Scarborough. I really enjoy working with many different people. The participation of the seniors, whether they come eagerly or with hesitation, are all welcome, and I learn and enjoy their presence. This was the final project we did - my examples (I will not post any participants art without their explicit written permission). I will be holding this class in the next month. Come and join me creating the Triskele Globe in Zentangle.

Tangle On!

Valentangle!

Good morning. I have been prepping for a class with some seniors. And so have some heart-favoured tangles. I went to check out the Diva's challenge, just wondering what others might be posting for this month. There is inspiration there! So here are a few of my tries.

Enjoy.

Art is

Art is the act of continually recreating
              sloughing off
              expanding
              building
              creating ourselves
Art as part of spirituality
which is to develop a belief and attitude and approach to life that seeks to help us reach our fullest potential.

Art as recreating - as we are being changed, moved; going through struggle; pain, which only - like a Diamond- hardens and forms a new gem.

It is not that we are working towards what we ought to be... what we want to be... because that defines us with limits.
But
Rather as potential

We are becoming - a reaching forward
etched out
shaped by life situations
but all assisting and moving us in reaching our
potential

In art we work actively at this process of becoming.
of recreating.
making Visual these changes.
processing the acts of being.

Art as a spiritual act
of Being more
with the creator source spirit guiding us.
January 13, 2016

In the Loop & Challenge #250

I feel like I need to stay in the loop. What does that mean? I am an introvert. I will just put it out there. I find being with larger groups of people very tiring. I tend to desire my alone time; drawing, reading, sewing, walking. Those are my refuel times.

But I want to know what everyone is doing. I want to stay current in the latest techniques, and to know what the 'buzz' is about. I just don't need to be the best or do the latest hype - for instance the Zengems. But I've tried them; I just prefer to draw at my own pace, and with the simplest tools. That is why Diva's challenge this week - was - not a challenge? And that was COOL! I read Madam Diva's blog, and thought, Yea, I have lots of tiles that I've been working on lately. But, for the sake of the challenge I created a new one.

And as an art therapist, I felt this tile - even in its small form, shows the loop, and movement of forward and back. Generally, I don't analyse my tiles, but this was pretty straightforward in expressing how I've been feeling. The flow of moving forward at a gentle pace, and yet staying with what I am comfortable with. I want to know about staying current with trends in Zentangle and art therapy. I like to know what the latest is, I just don't need to do the latest. I will just stay in the loop.

So thanks everyone for sharing your Zengems and art. I enjoy your inspiration.

New Year & Diva Challenge 249

Happy New Year!
Toronto had our first cold snap - just a snap. We barely noticed it. Glad we got that over with. The anticipation of extreme circumstances can be difficult to bare. When will it happen? What will happen? How severe will it be? Is it going to happen? Toronto has had such unbelieveably warm temperatures and yet it was inevitable that the cold would come.

Life is like that. Things are going along smooth, and we have no idea when some unknown and difficult event will hit us. We may believe we are doing everything right, and that nothing harsh will come along. And then when it does, we are not sure ... did we cause it? did we deserve it? what could we have done to avoid it?

It is a test and expression of our character of how we handle difficult circumstances. Do we go with the flow? or do we fight against its consequences? Do we make the most of what has happened, and learn some lessons that shape who we are as people?

Winter and cold weather may be a rather mundane example of extreme circumstances eventually affecting us; but it is an example and test to who we are and how we deal with it.

Zentangle has provided a way for many of us to learn to deal with the unexpected. Zentangle creates beauty from the unknown. The abstract and unknown way of shaping the piece of art allows us to be open to newness, change, new possibilities. It removes limits by seeing these unknown  deviations as opportunities and not challenges. The metaphors for life that come from Zentangle reach our subconscious and affect our attitudes and ways of being in the world. Zentangle provides rich experiences which touch us through repetition and beauty. May we watch and wait, so that the next challenge can shape us and let us be reshaped.

Tangle On!