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Some insomnia going on here, so I am tangling to relax. I think it worked. Will post this and then head to bed. Sometimes we wear ourselves out so much we are too tired to sleep, yes? I am in that state.  Black Micron 01 on a white Strathmore tile. Although I like Strathmore drawing papers, I don't like their tiles; shading them is pretty difficult. Tangles: Zinja, and Mooka Easy. Plus some random linework just thrown in for fun and relaxation. And then I made a mosaic on my iPhone, just to see how that would work:  Kind of fun! And now: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...I hope.
 Black Micron 01 and graphite. The rosy glow is from a camera filter. See the bone-white version below (the original). A few years back, I was fortunate enough to get a copy of C.G. Jung's The Red Book. It is a gigantic, larger-than-coffee-table volume. I just acquired a music stand/lectern-type piece of cherry furniture on which I can finally display it and have begun looking through it. It is inspirational--just for the paintings, and I haven't even started to read yet. One of the paintings inspired me to do this sun-and-moon linework on a Zentangle® tile. It's my second entry this week for Diva's Challenge #368, in which she asked us to focus on straight lines (see yesterday's post for the first version). It is so relaxing.  This is the original tile, without the rosy-glow added by the filter. I like them both. The essence of drawing is the line exploring space. This is Sonya Yencer CZT's lovely tangle SOULSTAR. Sonya created it when one of our other CZTs lost a beloved husband and a home because of a senseless crime resulting in a housefire and his tragic death. They caught the person responsible, but that is cold comfort. A sad story mitigated just a bit by this thoughtful gift of Sonya's tangle. I've tried a variation of it here which is like SoulStar "extended." I have done this tangle before, but it was calling to me today for some reason.  Created with a Micron 01, graphite, General's White Chalk Pencil.  And here is the original linework, pre-shading. You can see I added some additional linework after the initial shading was done and then I shaded that. It is fun to see both the non-shaded work and then the end result. Sometimes I don't know which I like better.
I did this for Diva Challenge #368, in which Laura-the-Diva focused on drawing straight lines as one of the most meditative and soothing parts of Zentangle®. I totally agree with her on this and often remind myself that just doing plain linework is incredibly relaxing. Doing this tile certainly was. Thanks, Laura, for the reminder. And thanks to Sonya Yencer CZT for her inspirational tangle. Our thoughts of love and hope are still with Chris S-LT as she adjusts to her new circumstances. Determined not to be late again for this week's challenge, I decided to do a second tile and post twice in a day. The challenge was to use tangle 'Nzeppel and/or Crazy 'Nzeppel on a tile. I believe these are the "least 'Nzepp-ly" 'Nzeppels I have ever drawn, partly because I thought I'd try both types ('Nzeppel and Crazy 'NZeppel) within an orb. The orb softened the grids so much the tangles are less recognizable than normal.  'Nzeppel and Crazy 'Nzeppel each drawn in an orb with gold Gellyroll pen. Four Mookas are on the outside of the frame, and the Betweed tangles are done with Gold General's Chalk pencil, then smudged with a tortillion. (Yes, the gold chalk looks green on the black tile, but it is in fact, gold)  Here is the same tile set into a mosaic created with an iPhone app using the original photo above. Of course, this is only one possible way to rotate the tile. The Diva (Laura Harms, CZT) of the I Am the Diva blog took the summer off from issuing tangle art challenges and a global groan was heard--people really missed her. But everyone deserves time off. While I rarely get to participate, i wanted to participate in her "return challenge" to honor her and say thanks. (True to form, I'm very late and she's already issued #367. Arrgh!) Check out her challenge page here; scroll all the way down to the challenge (always at the bottom) and check out the wonderful tiles people produce and post. And if you read their comments to her, you'll see how loved she is. Here's my tile for #366, which was a "back to basics" challenge with dots, string, and basic tangles. After doing the dots and string I decided I wanted to put the tangles (mostly) OUTSIDE the string, not inside. So, I did.  Micron 01 black pen, graphite. Tangles include Hollibaugh/PeelED (a mish-mash), Printemps, Keeko, Footlites, and a variation of Florz called Trips. And below is a recently-finished Zentangle® journal cover. I've yet to seal it because my brand-new can of sealant isn't spraying right. Don't you hate when that happens...grrr.  I started this cover at Kripalu's most recent Zentangle workshop with Molly & Martha teaching. Too many tangles to name each one but you can see a ton of SandSwirl in there along with Bales, Hollibraid, Keeko, and others.   Indeed, she is much smaller. After I complained to my neighbors that the original had appeared and then disappeared without any of us knowing how or why, and expressed disappointment that we couldn't keep her on the mailbox, one of my neighbors bought us a new Hula Girl. And a 2nd neighbor contributed two rubber duckies. So last night I glued them all in place, in the hopes that they will stay awhile. A 3rd neighbor commented, "It's a good thing it doesn't take much to keep us amused." True. It's a VERY quiet neighborhood!
As you can see from my previous post (the link is at the top of this one), the mysterious appearance of Hula Girl in the first place (a genuine Whodunnit) was only rivaled by her equally mysterious disappearance several days later. When she came back--much smaller, it must be said (she must have been on a diet)--she arrived with a post-it note that said, "I've just gotten back from Hawaii." That would be Hawaii-via-Hollywood, as the previous post details. Yep, doesn't take much to amuse us here in the boonies. We are a quiet bunch. But as I said previously, I do love my neighborhood.  Tangles: Ocsidot, Peeld. Black Micron 01, gold Gellyroll, blue colored pencil, graphite, white General's chalk pencil.
 Black Zentangle® tile with Gold Jellyroll pen and Gold General's Chalk Pencil (found at a fabric store). Tangles: Sandswirl, Icantoo, and Therefore. I wanted to try out my new Gold (or yellow) General's Chalk Pencil to see what it could do. Very pleased with it. Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to take the original photo above and run it through some iPhone apps to see what would happen. The two resulting versions are below. I love them but I also just like the original tangle above.  The same photo as above but run through an iPhone app. Reminds me of something celestial (but then so does the original, come to think of it).  Same photo as the original but run thru 2 iPhone photo apps. So interesting to see what using apps can do. And finally, at a meeting I went to last night there was a wonderful celebration of a special member, a woman who died last week. I had only met her once, but the other group members have all known her for years and just treasured her. Because I didn't know her, I couldn't contribute but the group told wonderful stories about her talents, loving kindness, generosity, and eccentricities. I think everyone had a terrific and healing time. In her honor, someone had brought the floral arrangements (gathered from everyone's backyard gardens--she adored flowers) which had decorated her funeral service, and flowers were set around the room, including in the chair that she usually occupied. At the end of the meeting, the flowers were offered to all of us and we were encouraged to take some home in her memory. I chose these beauties below, and felt lucky to have met this woman even once. This is just a tiny sample of all the floral bounty, one last gift from a woman who apparently never stopped giving to others.  In this era of fake news (do NOT get me started on which sources are real and which are fake...all I can say is, we each need to be responsible for fact checking and being honest with ourselves about our biases...I feel a rant coming on so I will stop there), I thought I'd post a partially-fake tangle or two. Huh? See below. It began as a real tangle but then I manipulated the image on my iPhone with 2 different apps. Hence, a "partially fake" tangle.  Tangles: indy-Rella, Sandswirl, Beadlines, Betweed. Micron 01, graphite General's white charcoal pencil, + manipulation with two different iPhone apps. Then there is this version, using 3 different iPhone apps.  File this under "What I Do When I Should Actually Be Doing Other Things."
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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 Level I, 2024
Certified Zentangle® Teacher, 2013
Certified by AmyOxford.com at The Oxford Rug Hooking School, 2016
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