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As one person, I cannot bring peace to Ukraine. I cannot restore what they have lost: lives, livelihoods, homes, family, and peace of mind. No one person can do this alone. But I can join with others to protest, to support. And I can take the time to sit quietly and calm myself, so that I make wiser decisions when I protest or when I support. Drawing and meditation both do that for me. So does drawing AS meditation. The more peace and compassion I can develop within myself, the more peace and compassion I can bring into the world. Perhaps only in small ways, but if each of us were able to do this, it would be powerful. So I have taken the time to draw this afternoon, breathing deeply and working line by line, one line at a time. It is calming. It gives me courage to watch the news tonight. Again. To witness the inhumanity. Again. It gives me courage to keep protesting, to keep supporting, to keep loving, despite it all.  From a class with Shie Naritomi, CZT. Micron 01 brown and black on a tan Phi tile with watercolor, prismacolor, and graphite, white gellyroll and white chalk pencil.  Nope, I haven't abandoned the blog, even though it must look like it. It's a temporary lapse caused by necessary work on an external project, as well as the fact that I've been working hard on a hand-hooked rug. Then add in a dash of generalized holiday madness. Even though I don't celebrate the holidays, everyone around me does and it certainly causes madness! Result: I haven't put my pen on paper to draw in a month. And wow, have I missed it. So here you have me starting over. This is a piece-in-progress, one that I began last night. It's not even half-done yet. We'll see where it goes.  I treated myself to a new t-shirt and I love it.  Last, here is a sneak preview of an upcoming rug I'm working on. This is what has really been taking up most of my time. This and doing a lot of reading (see the t-shirt above), along with some teaching. All in all a very busy end to this year. Wonderful. And now, I hope to get back to drawing in 2022.  Tangles: Belle, Ratoon, Verve, Flux, Orbs, and a ZenGem. On a Renaissance (Tan) tile. Micron PN in black, Tombow Black Brushpen, General's Watercolor Pencils, White Gellyroll, White Prismacolor, White Signo Uniball. It never stops, the learning. Here I'm trying to learn a Zentangle® technique called TranZending--a form of layering one pattern over another. I've never really gotten the hang of this before, but am happy with how it turned out. I watched one of ZenLinea's videos and followed along. What I learned: for one thing, even tho she suggests some very very faint white colored pencil guidelines to start, and I did make them faint, the wax in the colored pencil still acts as a "resist" and doesn't really get colored over later on. Which is fine -- even promising -- if it's a design element. But here it wasn't meant to be a design element. Now I know. I may try this one again. Lots to learn, and I'd like to try the guidelines in graphite and see what happens. Once I figure this out, I can apply to my own future tangle designs. Here are the beginning and mid-stages of this piece:
I'm always open for people saying I'm wrong because most of the time I am. I was able to spend more time practicing yesterday and working out the rust and kinks from not having tangled much in the past months.  This is a tangle called Palrevo, which I did in a wonky fashion after watching a Mary Rose Feldman lesson (the tangle itself was created by Karry Heun). Micron PN, 01, and Flair Feltip Pen on a tan/Renaissance tile, with graphite and white chalk pencil. And here on the right is my pre-practice Palrevo "Mini-Me" with instructions and information noted on it:  On the right is the Bijou tile (2"x2") that I did first, for practice and to make notes on. The grid is far less wonky. All the same pens and pencils were used as in the final regular-sized tile on the left. Palrevo is definitely a high focus tangle, but very rewarding. I completely enjoyed myself. I warmed up by doing the tangles I posted yesterday. It is totally wonderful to be tangling again, now that I have a bit more time. Every day I make time for meditation practice. I realize I need to make time every day to draw. It's not called "practice" for nothing. It makes all the difference in meditation, and in everything else. Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice reduces the imperfection.
--Toba Beta  I've been so busy teaching mindfulness meditation that I haven't had time to tangle (except for that last post) in weeks. Oh boy, do I miss it. Today I took a class called Renaissance Gold with Stefanie van Leeuwen in Holland. (I love Zoom! It has opened up a globe-full of teachers.) This was the tile I produced in class. She's a gifted teacher. You can find her by clicking on her name above. This has been a wildly popular class for her and you can see why. The class was packed with Certified Zentangle Teachers (CZTs), always a good sign--sort of like going to dine in a new-to-you ethnic restaurant and noticing that many of the patrons are of that particular ethnicity: You immediately know you are in good hands and that your meal will be the Real Deal. We all had a relaxing time. Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their hearts as well as their eyes. --Nikki Giovanni  The same image run through an iPhone app. Let's hear it for screwing up, flubbing it, being imperfect. Much of my drawing is like this, and yet, somehow I like it anyway. I will never be perfect. But I'll be "good enough" for me and will have fun along the way. Below is a practice tile (a Bijou tile, only 2"x2") for a new-to-me tangle called Kaas. I had a rough time with this one and ended up adding a lot of rounding (rounding is a Zentangle® technique which does what it sounds like--you "round" sharp corners) which can hide a plethora of errors.  My far-from-perfect first try at Kaas. On a Renaissance Bijou tile with Micron 01, graphite, white chalk pencil. Convinced I'd do a better job on my second try, I used a regular (3.5"x3.5") white tile for my entry in the Full Moon Mosaic Project for this month. Nope, just as imperfect, and even more flubbed-up in some ways. Again, I used lots of rounding.  Tangles: Kaas, Rixty, Tipple. Micron 01 in black, graphite, white chalk pencil. I had fun, however, and I like it anyway. If you have read this far, you probably can relate to what I'm saying.
"My mistakes are my life." --Samuel Beckett  Painted this full moon with Silver FineTec paint; the blue crescent is General's Chalk Pencil. I also used White Chalk Pencil and White Gellyroll on this Renaissance (= tan) Zendala. The primary tangle I used here was Hollis. Next Sunday afternoon is the full moon, in the corner of the universe where I live. It's supposed to be unusually large. And orange. I chose to ignore the orange for this Zendala tile, which I did for Hanny Nura's monthly celebratory Full Moon Mosaic. If you google "Full Moon Mosaic" on Facebook or Instagram you'll see some amazing entries.  Meanwhile, I've been asked to do a Zentangle® demo at a local organization and in thinking about which tangle to ask participants to do, I'm going to use this one, Fassett by Lynne Meade. Which means I need to practice it myself, having only ever done it once or twice--and of course I'm falling in love with it. This was my first try at it, done on a Renaissance Bijou tile (2" square).
 Tangle: Trinity by CZT Stephanie Kiefhaber. Drawn on a Renaissance (tan) tile with General's Chalk Pencils. Still in love with and working on learning to draw this tangle, which isn't coming easy for me. Today, though, I think I got it. Finally. There are a million ways to draw a Triquetra Celtic Knot, but I've been wanting to learn it via the easy steps of Zentangle®. Which turned out not to be so easy for me. But in fact, with a bit of practice, it is both easy and obvious. Other people got this one immediately, but I needed to ponder it a while. Some things are like that. Being overambitious and then frustrated when I couldn't get the painting to work taught me persistence.
(Marion Boddy-Evans) The ever-turning Wheel of the Year has moved again here in the Northern Hemisphere; we're now at Lammastide, the part of the old agricultural cycle when the corn is ripe for harvesting along with so many other plantings. In the area where I live, corn is standing tall in the fields, and ears of corn are beginning to be sold in the various roadside stands, along with cucumbers, tomatoes...so much to harvest and too long to list. My wish is for everyone on the planet to have enough to eat. I know it is not so now, but may it be so in the future.  Here's a tile with all new (to me) tangles, done on the last page of one of my handmade books. Tangles are Kauri Kunda, Scape, and Sikito. On a Renaissance tile with black Micron 01, graphite, and chalk pencil.
 This one is my first try at the tangle called Windmill, by CZT Hiroko Matsuo. That's where the "Testing Testing" title of today's post comes from. Done on a Renaissance (tan) tile with Micron 01 in black, graphite, and some light chalk pencil. This one has so many possibilities. I did it in one of my Bitty BookZ™ I'd made last month--this book is nearly full now. I ran the same photograph thru an iPhone app, Painnt, and got this.  Maybe my creative mojo is starting to sneak back? I would love to get some textile projects going, especially a rug.
 The tangle is Travistar by Jenny Peruzzi CZT. This was my first try at this tangle. I did it on a Renaissance (tan) tile with brown and black Micron 01s and plenty of chalk pencil. I used the tangle itself as a string and put some other tangles (such a Betweed) inside. I've lost all my mojo! All my creative mojo, that is. No textile work of any kind is underway. I've barely been able to tangle at all. I am uninspired. This has been going on all month. Mercury Retrograde? The sticky weather? A less-than-pleasant though not at all serious recent medical adventure? All of those things? I dunno. But I sure hope I can find some mojo soon. At least I managed to get this done today. Some knots can only be resolved and undone with relaxation and patience. (Sridhar Ramasami) The great advantage of being in a rut is that when one is in a rut, one knows exactly where one is. (Arnold Bennett)  The same photograph of my tile, run through my iPhone app.  Tangles: Well Well, Scena, Diva Dance, Crescent Moon, Bronx Cheer, and a variation of Fanning. Shaded with grey and white chalk pencil only. Brown and Black Micron 01s on a tan zendala. Compare this one to the previous post where I worked that previous tile just as Maria did (basically copying her to learn from her). Last night and today I re-did it more in my own style, as a mandala. I added a few random things and a variation of the tangle Fanning (which I had never done before) around the edge, then shaded with a grey chalk pencil and highlighted with white. I'm liking the result, and feel like I've explored this "theme" created by Maria as much as I wish to right now. I'm done with it for for the moment.
Weather here is fiercely hot and humid. Not that far (20 miles) from me the heat index today was 115 degrees F, resulting from a high temperature and a dew point of 79. I had no idea dew points could even go that high. When I ventured outdoors to get the mail this evening it felt as though I was walking thru a vat of hot soup, wearing a sweater. It's been years since the weather has been this bad. Tomorrow will be the same; they are promising relief by Monday night. Let's hope so!  Some days are better than others. I just don't have it today. (Whatever "it" is.) Instead I have a very mild toothache, which I'll deal with in the morning. Staring at this blank page in a Bitty Book™ I made a few weeks ago, all I could imagine doing was drawing some random lines. Thank goodness for chalk pencils.
Time to go read a trashy novel, methinks!  Tangle is Ellish. Black Micron01, graphite, white chalk pencil. On a 3.5" white tile colored by drops from two small pieces of wet art tissue paper. As far as I can remember, I have only ever done this tangle once, and that was years ago. So I wasn't sure if this would end up becoming "Hellish" or "Ellish." I do like the way it turned out and I need to practice more to allow myself to relax right from the start. Speaking of hellish, the outdoor temperature is warming up and humidity is just beginning to slide in this direction; my all-time least favorite weather. I can tolerate cold far better than heat. Ok, enough of that! Yesterday I broke out my gellyroll pens, which I haven't used since I can't remember when, and played with another grid-based tangle, this one a fragment from the Zentangle® book, Reticula and Fragments. (A "reiticula" is just another name for "grid.")  Fragment in a grid, turned in different directions. Green and purple gellyrolls, gold gellyroll, brown Micron 01, graphite, white chalk pencil. The slight bend in the "frame" is because this tile is folded into one of my BittyBookZ™. In love with this weather? I'm happy for you! (You've certainly waited long enough for it after the long cold rainy spring.). "Hellish" or Coolish, we all welcome summer. There is so much to enjoy. May yours be a wonderful one. "The difficult part of the process is the long exploration and discovery of your own soul and living with the results."
(Mike Svob)  Tangle is Cirque, but doubled, and I added a few more things to it, like some Mooka and a spinoff of Crescent Moon. Used black & brown micron 01s, graphite, white gellyroll, general's chalk pencil, and a very small amount of Prismacolor. This tile is inside one of my first BittyBookZ™. See posts in June for info about those. Gawd, what a week. I needed something round and sunny today so I made the above tangle on some pages in one of my recent handmade books. Today is the first day I feel like myself in over a week. I had a medical test that went wrong. Nothing dangerous, but it's quite impressive how bad one can feel when something is seriously "off" but not dangerous. I have had zero, and I do mean zero, motivation to do anything for days and days. Hurrah for feeling better! Last week in the middle of my woes I had a bout of insomnia, and that's when I did the tile just beneath this. I was still trying to work on grid-based tangles, which are not my preference. The combo of "not my preference" and "feeling really crappy" added up to what you see below. [Late last week] Oh, how my mood is matching the feeling of being "gridlocked," like the tangles I have been working on. I've been pretty sick this week, unexpectedly. Nothing that won't improve, but the improvement is slow. I've discovered--no surprise--that I suck as an invalid. I'm not good at sitting around. There are things I want to be doing that are physical, and I'm just not up to doing them yet. Frustrating. Insomnia last night led to another grid-based tangle, C-Stem by Agneta Landeson. I've never tried it before:  Tangle: C-Stem by Agneta Landeson. Tan 3.5" tile with Black Micron PN, graphite, white charcoal. I'm not crazy about how it came out but at least the process did enable me to go to sleep.
Grid-based tangles are not always my favorite type to draw, so I want to practice them more to see what I think and explore that resistance. The tangle below is called "Krokus" but I added so much to it that it's almost hard to recognize. I'm not sure but I don't think I've drawn it before.  Tangle is Krokus, with a few orbs and some 'Nzeppel and random lines. Black PN pen, graphite, General's Chalk pencil. And now the same tangle, but presented differently below. The grid isn't so obvious in this one. You can see the pencil lines (the "string") if you look, however.  Tangle is still Krokus. On a tan tile, and this tile is actually inside one of my Bitty BookZ™ (see last week's posts if you don't recognize that term). Brown Micron PN and 01, White & blue General's Chalk Pencils, Prismacolor pencils in several colors. I was so pleased at how easy it was to tangle with the tile actually part of a book. While I've been making books at the rate that some of us eat potato chips (you can't stop at just one), I hadn't tangled in any of them yet.
 Tangles: Fleavy, Antique, Peeps, a hint of Doodah, and other added lines. Done on a used coffee filter using General's Charcoal Pencils, graphite, brown and blue Micron 01s, a dash of white gellyroll, and some Prismacolor pencil. This mandala started 8 months ago. I did the outer border (you can see that HERE) last October and was flummoxed about what to do next. You know how these things sometimes have to marinate. I've had the filter itself (yes, a used coffee filter from the amazing Cheryl Cianci CZT, who drinks lots of coffee) since 2014. So this one marinated a very long time as a total blank, then again as a partially done piece, and finally it's finished. "Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper, sprinkle cool patience."
(William Shakespeare) "If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life." (Oscar Wilde)  Tangling on a tan coffee filter with a blue watercolor wash (prepped by Cheryl Cianci, CZT, after she first used the filter to make her coffee, rinsed it, and put the wash on it; then dried it--Thanks for doing all that prep work Cheryl!). Tangles are Mooka, and a variation of Flux, as well as the embedded letters technique without any letters. PN Blue Micron, General's Pastel Pencils, White Gellyroll, Prismacolor Pencils. I managed to avoid all the other things I was supposed to be doing today when I heard that my friend Cheryl Cianci, CZT, was offering her coffee-filter class again. I only discovered this at the very last minute and raced out the door hoping to make it on time. I had taken the class about 4-5 years ago but my experience of Cheryl is that there's always something new and it was utterly relaxing as usual. She is the soul of kindness, and hugely talented.
Much gratitude to all who teach. If you read the previous post, you'll know that I accidentally left one of these triangular tiles behind (so only had five of them as of yesterday) after a wonderful weekend of tangling. I re-drew it today and put together this pizza-like mosaic. It's the bottom one with the pinky-lavender color. Pizza-pizza! Speaking of which, I think I'll go have some (non-pizza) dinner.   Curses...I just got back from a long-awaited weekend of tangling, only to realize that because of a miscommunication I left this tile behind by accident. I may or may not get it back, so I'll have to wait and see if it turns up in my mailbox soon. If not, I am hoping I can re-draw it. It was one of my favorites. Thank goodness I took a photo of it before it got lost in the shuffle.
More to come once I have a chance to take pictures of the other work we did.  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  Done for Zenuari2019 day 11, "Use an unusual string." So I traced around my pencil sharpener to create the string. Tangle on the lower left and upper right is Demi. The central tangle is just made randomly. Brown Micron 01, General's green and white chalk pencils. On a Renaissance tile. The day is bright, sunny, and chllly but I am sleepy anyway. I'm away from home helping a friend who truly doesn't need much help We've been having fun tangling. I did the tile above earlier while she was working on something much larger. Lovely to have a companion in art. When I find myself fading, I close my eyes and realize my friends are my energy. --Anonymous
Little darling, the smile's returning to the faces Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here Here comes the sun Here comes the sun, and I say It's all right Sun, sun, sun, here it comes Sun, sun, sun, here it comes Sun, sun, sun, here it comes Sun, sun, sun, here it comes Sun, sun,… (the Beatles) There are so many things to be thankful for today, but let me begin with seeing the sun. Where I live we haven't had a sunny day in a long time, and although it's extremely cold out, I notice how much the sunshine has lifted my mood. I can't be the only one feeling this way. I've a long list of things to be grateful for, including the fact that I was able to do some Zentangle® last night and today, a process that is so meditative and so centering that I feel extremely lucky to have stumbled on it years ago. Here's last night's tangle:  Thanksgiving tangle for the Gratitangles2018 project. Tangles are Indyrella (day 15) and Zinger (day 22), plus a little Samson thrown in (not a tangle selected for the project). I used an 005 Micron, black, graphite, and General's Chalk Pencils for color on a white tile. Next, I did a tangle for Diva Challenge #377. This piece definitely has a "What the hell happened here???!!!" feel to it, as it ended up in such an unexpected result, with colors I rarely use. But that's ok--I like it. Later today I'll treat myself to going to the Diva's page (see link above) and see how everyone else handled this "duotangle" (combining 2 tangles). I expect I'll be astounded and intrigued by all the different approaches, as always. Here it is:  On a Renaissance (tan) tile, with a black Micron 01 pen, some General's Chalk pencils, some white gellyroll, and some Prismacolor pencils. Oh, and graphite. No idea how this tile happened, but it happened! This is Diva Challenge #377, a duotangle with Fengle and Pokeroot. I also had time to find a place for the lovely little Buddha my good friend P brought back from her month-long trip to Asia. There is now another tiny altar in my house:  Gratitude today, in no particular order, for:
After all, Mother Earth is the ONLY planet with coffee. And chocolate.
ERNST HAECKEL was the inspiration for this:  At ZenAgain this week we experimented with tangling that was inspired by other people's work. This sea creature above is inspired by the work of Ernst Haeckel, and was it ever fun to draw. Below is a mosaic of the class's work with this assignment. We were each given some General's Chalk Pencils to use--we each received different colors and were required to work with whatever colors we got. Once again, you can see that all of them were similar, and yet, each is distinctly different. This was only one small portion of a much larger table with these tiles displayed.  Maria Thomas, one of the founders of Zentangle®, has a remarkable poster with her own version of Haeckel's sea creature on a portion of it. See her poster below. I believe this is for sale but am not certain. (UPDATE: Yup, it's for sale at the Zentangle® website.)  This is only a small portion of Maria Thomas's larger work. With apologies for capturing the chandelier light reflection on the glass...no matter how I tried, I couldn't avoid it. And finally, below, is a photo of a book about Haeckel's beautiful work (the master himself). There are many books available about him.  "Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone." (Wendell Berry)  Drawn on a 10"x10" Renaissance (tan) Opus tile, with black Micron 01, graphite, General's chalk pencils (purple, two colors of yellow, white). E Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to spend four days in the company of over 200 artists, drawing. Meaning, doing Zentangle®. I really cannot describe the experience other than to say it was sheer heaven. Also exhausting. One thing I can say for sure is that I was scheduled to go with a good friend who was unable to come at the last minute due to illness. I really missed her.
This particular tile measures ten inches by ten inches and was one long moving meditation. |
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 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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