 3.5" Renaissance (tan) tile with black Micron 01, General's Chalk Pencils, white gellyroll, graphite. What I've noticed: The later in the day I tangle and the more exhausted I am, the better. Or so it seems as I observe over time. That critical inner voice, sometimes quite loud during the day, apparently develops laryngitis by late at night when I'm tired. And so I frequently love not only the process, but also the results. I like this one, done at midnight last night. “The good news is that opportunities for love enter our lives unpredictably, whether or not we’ve perfected self-compassion or befriended our inner critic.”
--Sharon Salzburg Before I retired, I often wore pins as a decoration when I went to my office. But now that I spend my time in jeans and t-shirts, the pins are languishing. Here is a pin I never wore, a cameo. I love it (and used to have a much larger one which was far more lovely, but it was stolen during a break-in at my former residence) but I never wore it. Not once. I simply had it because it reminded me of some positive things from my childhood. Since it was just languishing away, I re-purposed it onto a card with some tangling. I may put it into a shadow-box frame.  This may or may not be a genuine cameo (there are plenty of plastic fakes out there) but it doesn't matter to me. It has sentimental value.
In these troubled and challenging times, it's my deepest hope that all of us are supported by a network of unconditionally loving people in our lives. I'm defining these "beloveds" as very dear friends, mentors, and special family. Unfortunately, we are not all lucky enough to be born into families with members who end up becoming beloved. But in my family there were three people who fit this category. Today I took some time to re-frame the first of them, my beloved maternal grandmother, or Nana as I called her. She died over 50 years ago, but I think of her and send her my love and thanks to her every single day. She is never far from my mind. Oh, how I loved that woman. She taught me every good thing I have become, or hope to become. Here she is.  Tangles: Knightsbridge, Hollibaugh with Bales and Orbs. Brown Micron 01 and graphite. The photo was taken in 1937 when she was about 60. I have only two photographs of her because she absolutely hated having her picture taken. As a young adult I was shocked to discover that she'd gone through our family photographs and cut her own face out of every one of them. I never had the chance to ask her why she did this, and it puzzles me to this day. My understanding is that she was forced to quit school around age 12 in order to go to work, and later on she raised a large family single-handedly after her husband became extremely ill and was hospitalized for decades. She had a lot of shame about her lack of formal schooling. And yet, she was the kindest, funniest, most loving and smartest person in my childhood, and created a strong family foundation for me. She lived with us until her death when I was about 16. Lucky me! I got to spend every day with her for sixteen years. I never stop asking myself how I was fortunate enough to have her in my life. Rest well, Nana. And thank you. Trees are in bud, the buds looking bigger each passing day. There is a small maple on my front lawn with large tight red buds. I worry about this tree as it was mistreated in the past, but despite all that, it's resilient and looking pretty darned good. I'm guessing I'll see leaves within a week or so. I think of this tree as courageous and persistent. May it have a peaceful and ease-filled summer growth season this year. A few days ago I begin work on this tile below. Because I'm so busy it took days to finish, even though it's a very small piece. It's clearly Spring-inspired.  Tangles are Blixty and Catkin. Micron 01, Prismacolor pencil and General's White Chalk Pencil, graphite. This morning I snuck in one more tile when I should have been working on something else. I am a world-class procrastinator, especially when whatever I am supposed to be doing is preventing me from making art.  A "cartouche"-based tangled piece using Doodah on a black post-card-sized paper. Maria Thomas did the calligraphy of the word Gratitude; it was enclosed on a business card inside one of my orders, and I loved it. I pasted it onto the black page, along with the Zentangle® chop (the red square at the bottom right, which I embellished) and used white gellyroll, gold gellyroll, and red General's chalk pencil, gold metallic Prismacolor. And now, back to the big projects. Sigh.
I'm working on two mammoth projects, neither of which is related to textiles or drawing. Alas. So not much artwork can be done for awhile. But I am sneaking in occasional minutes to do a little of each on the sly, and here is the progress of my textile work, a punch needle embroidery I've been working on.  Punch needle embroidery, wool threads on weaver's cloth. This is a partial photo as only half of the center is done. I am truly missing my art work but I know I need to put my nose to the grindstone (where DID that expression come from?) and work at the other projects until they are done. Although I suspect I'll have the occasional jailbreak along the way, in rebellion.
 Tangles: Skye by Margaret Bremner, and an as-yet-un-named tangle by ZenLinea. On a white Zendala tile with Micron 01, graphite, and General's watercolor and chalk pencils. This somewhat overworked tile (I must admit I like it anyway) is the product of tangling over 3 days. I started it during another night of insomnia and finished this afternoon when I absolutely should have been doing something else, not this. But I couldn't help it. Below are some of the earlier versions leading up to this finish. ZenLinea posted a wonderful video on Instagram on how to draw this knot, so two nights ago I decided to try it at about 2 a.m. when sleep was eluding me.  This was my first effort and I'd like to play with it a lot more, if I can ever find the time. I started off thinking it would be black and gray on the white tile, but somehow I began adding other lines and colors to the outside of the knot (the gold gellyroll, the yellow Prismacolor) and then the colors also crept slightly inside the knot as well. I think I finished around 3 or 3.30 a.m. and was able to go right to sleep afterwards. Of course this afternoon I was looking at it again and wondered what it would look like if I ran it thru an iPhone app, so I gave that a try using the same photo:  Rather reptilian, don't you think? And soooooo different. But interesting for sure. I have managed to grab a few minutes here and there for some creative work, which feels wonderful. Not enough, however! Here are some of the things that have been accumulating.  This is the result of a short voice-guided meditation class with Molly Hollibaugh of Zentangle®. She took us through three voice-guided tiles last Saturday in a two-hour workshop. This tile was the first one that we did. All of us heard the exact same verbal instructions, yet look at the mosaic below--it's always so interesting to see how people interpret things on their own.  ...and this is only part of the total mosaic. You can see my tile in the 2nd row from the bottom. But again, we all were paying close attention to her voice-guided instructions, and look at the differences. So very interesting!  Same class, second voice-guided tile. We were encouraged to use a colored pen and a black pen for this one. It was fun to hear how Molly guided us to create this design using only her voice, no visuals. The resulting mosaic is below.  ...once again proving how different we all are. I think this is utterly fascinating. Drawing really is like handwriting. There will always be differences, and vive la difference!  On a totally other track, I am doing some punch needle embroidery and here is the progress on the piece so far. The entire piece is about 9"x9" and you can see the start of it in my previous post. It is very different than the one I did exactly a year ago (same piece, different colors and I did it in cotton last time; this is wool). It feels so good to sneak in some creative work. Makes all the difference to me... |
ABOUT ME I'm a textile artist (traditional rug hooking, punch needle rug hooking, and other textile arts), a long-time meditator, a certified meditation teacher and coach, and focused on learning about the interplay of art, creativity, and mindfulness every day. 
Certified, 2021
Certified Unified Mindfulness Coach
Certified Zentangle® Teacher, 2013
Certified by AmyOxford.com at The Oxford Rug Hooking School, 2016
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Insight Meditation Society Oxford Rug Hooking School Zentangle: The Official Site Green Mountain Rug Hooking Massachusetts Tarot Society 
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