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I am a very fortunate person. Very. Yesterday, a weekend day, I had to call for help twice: My air conditioning broke in this very hot weather (mice in the compressor chewed thru the wires and blew a fuse) and later I had to call a plumber because of a leak in my kitchen faucet spewing water everywhere. Why is that lucky? Because when I called, both of them came within 60-90 minutes even though it was a weekend, both were wonderful and both problems got resolved completely. I'm also very lucky because I have water. And because I even have air conditioning. But especially because I have water, when so many in the world do not have safe drinking water for miles, let alone in their homes. I know how lucky I am. Below are two pieces: the first is my attempt to draw a tangle called Drawings (pronounced "Draw-Wings"). I've never been all that good at this tangle but I love the way others do it. Yesterday I was determined to improve so I drew it on a post-it note and gave myself permission to mess up bigtime if that's what happened. So of course it came out pretty well.  Tangle: Drawings. On a post-it note (yes, the note is purple). Micron 01 and General's Chalk White Pencil. I was really interested to see how well it came out when I deliberately reminded myself that the outcome did not matter. Just the practice. After doing the post-it, I looked over at a tile I'd been stuck on for several days. I mean, I was REALLY stuck. I was planning to discard it. It was not symmetrical. The center sphere wasn't really a sphere. I had no idea what to do next and most of it was blank. I'd done the two tangles Snelly (as the "string" or container) and inserted the tangle Aleuba--this is a tile for Hanny Nura's Full Moon Mosaic on FB where each month she suggests a string and one or two tangles, always involving the moon somehow, and then everyone does what they like with them. Including adding other tangles. So I'd created the string and inserted the second tangle she suggested but the tile looked awful. What the hell, I thought, I'll throw in some Drawings tangles in those big empty spaces. Just for practice--this can't get any worse. And then I'll add a bit of color. What came out was this, which I quite like even though it's still asymmetrical.  Tangles: Snelly (as the string), Aleuba, and Drawings. Micron 01 and Generals Chalk Pencils. Well of course the big lessons are: Unless it's a life or death issue (just about never), give myself permission to screw up and see what happens. And the typical, constant lesson from Zentangle® is: don't give up on something. Keep working. If it fails, so what? It's just a fifty-cent tile. It's just practice. I feel like I got lucky again. Seems to me that all of life is just practice. Right? The more I practice, the luckier I get.  On a white Zentangle® tile with Microns 01 and 05, graphite, and General's chalk pencils. Tangles are Hollibaugh, Soluna, Diva Dance, Waves, Pokeroot, Florez, Nehphi. Where the heck did that come from? Sometimes one cannot control what falls out of the pen. This is the result of going to Amy Kam CZT's free, ongoing Sunday evening gatherings called Tangle Time, which I've mentioned in my previous post and several others. Somehow I can never stick to the script and this oddity is the result of last Sunday's work.
I'm trying to get another rug underway and running into some design issues, so that explains the recent lack of tangling. I'm missing it, have lots of things to explore and hope to get back on track this coming week. More Sunday night Tangle Time with Amy Kam (see previous Sunday posts) of The Peaceful Pen. This was great fun. Below are the original black and white tile, then the shaded version, then the third one is actually a print-out on my computer (which is why the entire tile looks darker) and with added color.  Linework only, before I even added shading. The overall pattern is the tangle Morrisseau; filler tangles are Printemps, Diva Dance, Caviar, Shattuck, and Cruffle. On a square white tile with Micron 01 and 05 in black.  The same tile as above but photographed in different light, and with graphite shading.  This is a printout of the tile above. I didn't know if I wanted to add color or not, so in order not to ruin the original tile (in case I didn't like the color), I printed out the photo on crappy printer paper. And added the color to the printout as a test. Arteza Watercolor Brush Pens in three shades of blue and a gray were used here, in addition to adding a little more graphite. This was such a fun experiment! I ended up liking all three--the plain unvarnished first one, the shaded version, and then to my surprise I liked the color as well. Art, like life, should be free, since they are both experimental. --George Santayana Yes, spring definitely continues. I can tell by my constantly running nose. It's totally worth a runny nose to have such a gorgeous spring. Today I did this in celebration.  On a gray zendala tile. Tangles are H20 Lily, Mooka, Orbs, and a weird tangleation of Spoken and Arukas. Watercolor pencils, Koi Brush Pen, white chalk pencil. Before I added and activated the watercolor pencils--which I am quite enjoying--the linework looked more or less like what is below. I must have prepped that Zendala with watercolor years ago because it's just barely visible there.  "Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment."
--Ellis Peters |
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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