So foggy out today, and that's also how I'm feeling on next-to-no-sleep.  The Tangle here is called "Beelight" and it's one I've never really gotten the hang of.  This is probably the best result I've ever had from it.  I've notice that I don't do well with "grid tangles" and prefer the more organic shapes.  Which is funny, since when I'm hooking a rug I often prefer geometric patterns based on grids with strong graphical elements.  I may never figure that one out!

This is the same tile before I tangled it.  Obviously this was taken in different light.  I've tried to adjust it as much as possible without hopelessly overexposing it.

Here's another photo from the junk journal.  I have a lot of blank pages left in this journal so won't be posting any more of it until I work in them.  In retrospect, while I totally enjoyed this day and experimenting was fun, I doubt I'll continue along in this vein as I'm more interested in drawing than I am in collaging or constructing a book.

‘When you’re experimenting you have to try so many things before you choose what you want, and you may go days getting nothing but exhaustion.’  --Fred Astaire

Whoops, a little side-step (away from showing the junk-journal-related work I did last Saturday) into the wonderful world of maptangling.  I got distracted by hearing about a new method of preparing the tiles for this, much easier and faster than my old methods, so took time out to do this one.

You can see the original tile after I prepped it but before I drew on it, below.

Every year I try to enroll in the online course called Sketchbook Revival.  So this year it's called Sketchbook Revival 2024.  It's run by Karen Abend and is lots of fun--unless you stress yourself out trying to keep up.  This year I noticed that an amazing Zentangle® teacher named Anica Gabrovec, a CZT from Croatia who goes by the name of ZenLinea online, was teaching.  The moment I saw her name I looked up her class and it was on one of my favorite drawing techniques, Maptangling.  She had a much faster technique than I've seen before for creating the map, and that's what I'll be using from now on.

Here's another page from the junk journal from last Saturday:

Honestly, this page doesn't do much for me.  It's just not that interesting. 

You can see some tissue-paper dyeing at the top edge and peeking out from the bottom; some of it is covered by torn wrapping paper I glued down in the center (and tangled on a bit), and the tangle around the edges is called Scrolz.  My response to this page is "meh." 

And yet, anything that gets me drawing and/or creating is bound to result in some form of serious contentment, even if the result is mediocre.  I'm always amazed at the way time spent on art improves my mood.

A new one on me:  the tangle "Curvy Baton," from Cheryl Cianci, CZT.  Carol Ohl, another CZT, created the tangle "Baton" years ago and Cheryl used that as a base but curved all the lines.  Wow is this ever fun to draw.  This is my first try from yesterday--I learned it from Cheryl at an annual Zentangle Retreat in Connecticut where I had an incredibly fun day of drawing and reconnecting with old friends.

I was tempted to title this, "This is what happens when you haven't picked up a pen in FOUR-plus months."  It's true, it's been that long for me.  I did some work with knots back in March (not much) but basically I haven't had any time for tangling since 2023 and wow am I rusty.   Combine that with poor lighting and you have a relatively hot mess but I know it will improve.

This is a new tangle introduced today for the International Day of Zentangle® (so the name of the tangle is "Idoz"  Pronounced eye'-dozz).  Rick and Maria, the founders of Zentangle, introduced it this morning in a webinar attended by several hundred tanglers from around the world.  Today is the day they are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Zentangle's start.

It was the perfect tangle for me to begin with after such a long layoff.  Can't wait to experiment and get back to all this.

Oh hey, it's the Ides of March. That just dawned on me.  Below is a knot I did last week and I hesitate to call it tangled.  It's more that I filled it with a couple of Zentangle® "fragments."

I am looking forward to finishing the course I'm taking.  It's great but it leaves me with nearly no drawing time, and I miss drawing.  My latest hooked rug is coming along slowly, but at least I'm making small progress on that and will show it when done.  Life requires patience.  Endless patience.

“These fragments, these shivers of my heart
Are mere lifetimes enclosed in a minute”
― Zubair Ahsan, Of Endeavours Blue

My second try at Waybop, having practiced it quite a bit. 

Something about this looks quite Tibetan to me.

Graphite & Micron 01 on a Zendala tile.  Tangles are:  Waybop, Crazy Betweed, Beadlines, Pokeroot, Moonpie.  This was major fun to draw.

Well of course there are mistakes.  We all make mistakes. 

I made some major mistakes in drawing this tangle, Waybop.  I've drawn it before but not for a couple of years.  I really screwed up the linework on this tile.

But here's the thing:  "There are no mistakes in Zentangle®."  That's one of our axioms.  Because just like in life, we have to deal with whatever's right in front of us and work with it, mistakes or not.

So I didn't tear up this tile.  I kept it overnight and decided to try coloring it.  Here below is the result. 

Glad I held onto it and decided to keep working on it.  I've ended up really liking it a lot.  I chose colors to match the oriental rugs in a friend's  home.

This entire  process was an experiment.
Could I produce this tangle from memory?  No, I couldn't and the original linework was terrible.  But...I could continue to work with it and end up with a good result.

It required only patience and determination.  Lesson learned.

Two more "enhancing" techniques taught over the last 2 days of the weekend:

And here are the class mosaics, or as many as my camera could catch:

All based on the same directions.  A careful look will show how each is so different from any other.
Drawing is like handwriting--very individualized.

The next day started off with this tile.

Here's the thing--Molly had pre-drawn a very odd string (string = an optional guideline done in pencil) on every student's tile.  Very odd. 

We were asked to tangle within the string, not outside of it.  OKaaaaaaaay...

Off we went. 

Once we were done, mine looked like this.

Very strange.

Lots of fun and very calming.

But still, weird.

I think we were all scratching our heads a bit, despite enjoying ourselves.

But then, we did the mosaic of tiles.  AHA!  Now it all made so much sense:

Hearts with a trick!  I love it.

The workshop with Molly & Martha was designed to emphasize what's known as tangle "enhancers."  This first one was the Tucker technique, where something appears to be almost hidden, tucked away under the paper.  I was familiar with it but hadn't tried it much.  If ever.  This was fun to do.  I think the grey pen section qualifies as another technique called "ghost tangles."

Below you can see the class "mosaic" of tiles.  Isn't it interesting how everyone draws their tangles differently, even with the same directions?  Drawing is a lot like handwriting--the same, but very different.  One of life's paradoxes.

Next we did a mandala of border tangles using both brown and black Microns, graphite, and white and pink General's chalk pencils.

We used ModPodge on top of the tile once it was done to seal it, but not over each of the borders, just some.

Tangles included a portion of Marasu, Jonqal, Shattuck (with sparkles), Bales with enthatching), Well (with weighted lines), and weighted Printemps (there's a narrow beaded border thrown in there twice, plus dots).  Lots of enhancers here!

Again, here is the mosaic of tiles for the border mandala.  So many differences, yet so much similarity.

Two more pieces from last weekend's Zentangle® workshop with Martha Huggins and Molly Hollibaugh.  And I still have others to post over the next few days.

We also did some tangling on wood, which turned out to be surprisingly easy.  We then painted Mod Podge (glossy) on top as a seal. 

Tangles here are Pokeroot, Fescue, Tipple, a variation of Florz, and Rick's version of Flux.  I used a Black and a Brown Micron 01, as well as graphite.

At some point I'll flip it over and do the other side as well.

In this incredibly troubled world, I was lucky enough to be able to take three days for travel and drawing. 

Nearly every second of that time, I was acutely aware of the many tragedies currently unfolding on our fragile blue planet, and acutely aware of the great privilege to be able to have the peace that drawing can provide.  Over all three days, I carried both worlds with me simultaneously.  I think we all did.  There were about 40 of us in attendance, with Martha Huggins and Molly Hollibaugh from Zentangle® as our teachers.  I'll post a few of the results over the next couple of days.

A "warm-up tile" from the first evening.

It can be nearly impossible to find a way to cope with life at times like this.  So many people I know are exhausted, angry, disillusioned, terrified, and feeling helpless.  I cannot and do not ignore that nor any of the existential threats we face at the moment.  Yet who can function with any measure of wisdom or compassion in such a state?  We must all try to take a moment whenever we can to recognize both the possibilities AND the limitations we face.  And then find a scrap of inner peace and sit with that until we can un-clench.

Any healthy thing that can give us that moment is precious.  Drawing is one thing that does it for me.  Music as well.  Speaking with friends.  Helping someone who needs help. 

In order to be functional, I need to do this in small moments throughout the day so that I won't get lost in discouragement.  We all need some way of doing this--desperately.  I am fortunate enough to be able to occasionally stop and just draw for a while.  I know that others on the planet who are being bombed or shot at do not have that luxury right now. 

I do it both for myself and for the people who don't have that option, in the hope that calming myself will enable me to think and act more clearly to support them in their time of need.

Kaira Jewel Lingo has just written a book called We Were Made for These Times, about how to survive and cope with the turmoil currently gripping the world.  You can listen to her by clicking on the link below, as she's interviewed by former ABC News Anchor Dan Harris.

May we all find shelter and safety
May we all find peace within and without
May we all be kind to ourselves and each other
May we all become whole.

Isn't it odd how we don't get the roses without also getting the thorns.  Just like life. 

As the saying goes, "it's been a week."

A death in the family stirred things up for me and for everyone who knew and loved the person.  In times like this, I am grateful for my meditation practice.  I was able to sit with the feelings, seeing them for what they are, and not run away from either the pain or the blessings.  Those thorns were sharp and surprised me repeatedly.  But the roses, in the form of kind and funny memories, have been worth it and will continue to be so.

And given what has been happening in the world right now, (tragedies too numerous to name), I know I am not alone in feeling that this week has been a tough one. 

May we all seek and find our inner peace.

Ok, so maybe it IS odd.  I had a lot of fun doing this.  One thing about these knots--no matter how attractive or unattractive the result--they totally focus the mind while drawing.  So much so that no other thinking happens.  Or if it does, it is completely ignored in favor of focusing on the drawing.

I find this fascinating and reminiscent of certain meditative states.  Quiet mind.  Ahhhhhh...a treasure in today's world.


"We learn the rope of life by untying its knots."  --Jean Toomer

"Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other."  --Sojourner Truth

Great Jumpin' Jehosophat, would you believe it took me no less than SIX tries to get this knot done correctly?  (I used a different, non-publishable word while catching all my errors and trying to figure it out, not the initial three words at the start of this paragraph.  Use your imagination.)  The tangle around the outside of the knot is called A'dalfa.  It was new to me and I had fun with it.  But the knot!  OMG.  I'm knot sure why it was so hard for me.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Um, Eleanor, I think I have news for you.

I like this version better.  A friend prefers the version below.  The mystery of how we see color and our differing color preferences is always intriguing.

For this version, I took what I had below and used my Prismacolor pencils to enliven the colors.  And also got a bit dotty.  And added some graphite shading.  And layered in more colored pencil.  And, and, and...

This is the version my friend prefers, and it's the the original.  It's all done in watercolor.  I like it.  I just like the one above better.

Microns 08 and 01 in black, watercolor pencils, graphite.  Tangle around the edge is Foundabout, and I've used the Micron 01 to do some hatching as well.

Let me just add that it took me SIX TRIES to get this knot right.  Talk about brain exercise.

Continuing the series here.  Tangles are Debbie New's Imaritas and Imarisen, based on the painted pottery she saw at a museum.
And here was the sketch before I added the color:

The knots are like wonderful puzzles--it's nearly impossible to think other thoughts while figuring them out.  Very relaxing, as long as one adopts what the is often called  "don't-know-mind" in Zen and other meditative traditions.

Another mix-and-match of the same knot from a day or so ago and the first two days of Inktober tangles.  Hugely fun.

A totally lazy day, good for reading and then drawing a knot and adding a few tangles.  Just playing around.  Every time I do one of these I learn a lot.  Heavy rain outdoors, perfect for quiet meditative work.

No symptoms and 2 negative Covid tests, 48 hours apart, after an exposure last Saturday.  A perfect example of an occasion when negative - good news.  (As it often does with medical data)  Hurrah!

I celebrated by combining a Celtic Knot with Zentangle® again:

Just for now, I'm enjoying combining tangling with knots so you may be seeing a lot of these.

Or maybe this should be titled just plain, "Mixed Up."  ??  Hah.

I had fun combining a knot with a bunch of tangles and random line-work.

A couple of years ago I really got into drawing Celtic knots because drawing them has such meditative properties.  I discovered it's nearly impossible to think while drawing them (not thinking is inevitably very relaxing).  Eventually I forgot about about doing this and time passed.

There's now some type of challenge going 'round on the internet related to drawing them.  I saw a couple of "prompts"--suggestions for how to start, but I couldn't understand them.  So I tracked down their author and ended up taking a short e-course with her.  So glad I did!  This is my first attempt at what was a very different approach to drawing the knots than I'd ever heard before. 

Just as meditative, but entirely different.  I am very interested in learning more.  She uses a stencil to create a grid, but I didn't have that so I just free-handed the grid and set about sketching.  In the top part of the picture you can see my initial attempt, which didn't work.  I set out to begin again (same language as meditation:  "begin again"), and ended up producing what's on the bottom of the photo.  While hardly a masterpiece, I am happy with it and plan to do more practice.  Sure enough, it was equally impossible to think while doing this, and incredibly satisfying.  If you want to try it yourself, go HERE and check out her courses.

Let's see:  D for the Dharma, for daylight, for delight, for deliberate.  Also for do-over, for doubt, for demand, for "duh...", for ditto...I could go on, but won't.  This is another illustrated letter using sketchbook paper (5x7"), black Micron 01, watercolor and colored pencil, plus a bit of graphite and white gellyroll.  Great fun to do. Tangles are:  Rixty, Tipple, Mooka, Printemps, Flux, Moonpie, I Can This, Zinger.