DRAWING FROM THE DAY
  • ...a blog on art, creativity, and mindfulness

Bumper Philosophy.

12/24/2020

 
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I mean. 
Right?
I spotted this bumper sticker on the back of a car a couple of blocks away from my house as I was out on a walk this afternoon.  At first I walked past it, but I was laughing so loud I had to circle back to take the photograph.  There were a few other things on the car that suggested to me that the owner might be an amateur or even a pro astronomer.  Some type of scientist.

I want this on a t-shirt.  They do make them, of course.  I found them on amazon.

What a year.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown

12/13/2020

 
This was the scene as I took a walk this morning.  I do not live on a mountain, but this reminded me of one of my favorite instrumentals, Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
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Such a lovely morning, and then in the afternoon, there was the sun and relative warmth.

Meanwhile, a good friend send me a greeting card I well remember from buying some of these myself in the 1980s.  I haven't seen them in years and loved getting this.  There was a whole series of these cards, based on flowers and vegetables.  Here is the lovely Eggplant Deva, painted by Azra Simonetti circa 1986.
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Some days have their own sweetness.  This was one.
Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called "the present."
--Bil Keane

Surprise Gifts Are the Best

11/23/2020

 
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In my mail today was a small flat envelope with the return address of a place from which I could not remember having ordered a thing.  Huh??? 

I puzzled over it, put the mail down to do a few other things, and didn't open it until just now.

This cracked me up!  I had recently sent a donation to the Insight Meditation Society, or "IMS," in Barre, MA, and in response they sent a lovely thanks and included these three masks.  A total surprise!

IMS is renowned for their meditation instruction, and with good reason.  In times when Covid-19 isn't interfering, it's a tremendous place to go for a weekend program or on a meditation retreat.  As you might imagine, they are offering a full slate of programs online at the moment to keep people safe during the pandemic.  These messages of lovingkindness really made me smile.

Small Things

11/19/2020

 
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This was a tiny row of Celtic Knots I put on an envelope addressed to a friend who is experiencing a major loss. Micron 01, chalk pastel.
With a bit more time now, I'm back into mindful drawing techniques.  This is based on one of Sadelle Wiltshire's classes.  More of this to come.  Very easy, very mindful.  And very small, hence the title of today's post.
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My latest completed rug. This is one of only 4 rugs I've ever put up on a wall. For a closer look, see the October 1st post. Just to the left of it is the wonderful handmade mirror a dear friend created and gave me--I blogged about that on October 5. And on the side of the stairs you can just see my "Hooker" sign. Got that a few years ago and love seeing it every day.
I don't normally enjoy putting rugs on the wall--I prefer to walk on them.  But the colors in this one are so subtle I finally decided the wall would be safer.  It's all scrap wool that I had lying around.

I've also run out of room for rugs at the moment and may have to put a few more of my patiently-waiting rolled-up rugs on walls around the house.

Less than 3 minutes was all it took to hang this, once I had some assistance.  A very small amount of time (title of today's post), and something I've wanted to do for weeks.
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Preview of my current rug-in-progress. Just a small view (title of today's post)
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Today I made it (with mask on my face of course) to a new shop called Swanson's Fabrics in Western Massachusetts.  I'd heard about it but hadn't gone until today.  It was large enough to feel safe inside.  Part of the time it was just me and the owner, and there were never more than 2-3 others at any one time, all distanced.
But oh, the treasures!  Kathryn Swanson, the owner, has more than fabrics; she also has yarns, threads, sewing notions, and braiding equipment. 

NOTE:  All her fabrics are $4/yard.  No matter what they are made of.  Seriously!  Cottons, upholstery and lots of other fabrics, and even wool yardage (the wools go out the door nearly as soon as they arrive--I grabbed 1.5 yards of the light colored wool you see above on the right, for $6 total).

And I'm pretty certain she mail-orders, so feel free to contact her and ask.

All of her fabrics, yarns, and notions are rescued from people's basements or from fabric stores or yarn stores that have gone out of business.  You could go one day and find nothing, and go back the next day and find tons of wonderful new rescued goods.

When you click the link to her website above, be sure to go to her "About" tab and read her mission statement.  I'm in awe.

I also got seventeen 100-gram skeins of off-white, 100% wool yarns, very high quality if a bit grubby from being stored for quite a while.  I'm pretty sure they were originally from Sweden.  Some are worsted weight and some are DK.  I can overdye them all.  Very exciting.  I cleared her out of these, however, so you'll have to find your own treasures some other day.

This was a Big Find, and therefore doesn't fit the title of today's post.  But I didn't think any of you would mind...

How It Was

11/13/2020

 




Here I am, circa some time in the summer of 1948.  That's a guess on my part, but I think it's accurate.

This is how it was. 

My how things do change.
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"We never really grow up.  We only learn how to act in public."
--Bryan White

Kind Friends and Bopping Around

11/7/2020

 
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Although it's too bad they are necessary (although they certainly are necessary!), a kind friend just sent me 3 masks that didn't fit her but will fit me.  Recognize the the fabrics?  Designer:  William Morris.  (A.K.A. "That wallpaper guy," as a good friend calls him, which cracks me up)  I adore Morris and will be so happy to wear these.
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As mentioned in yesterday's entry, I went to a meeting with CZT Tomomi Galeano where she had us practicing the tangle Waybop.  Many people find it hard to do.  I knew it would be a fun practice.  We all just used scrap paper, and I used cheapo printer paper--in fact, I did this on the back of a bill, or what I thought was a bill, that I was planning on recycling. 

Tomomi just did this as a free meeting for anyone who wanted to come.  Another kind friend.  I feel very fortunate with the number of kind people in my life.

Want to see the plain unvarnished first version?  It's in yesterday's post.

The misshapen exterior is caused by my just cutting out the paper around the tangle.  I did this exercise as pure practice and you can tell by the wobbly lines I was making decisions as I went along.  I didn't expect any result, but was sort of charmed by it when it was done.

I finished it with some shading and color this morning.  It turned out to be a good day for Waybop, or "bopping around."  Suits my mood.  Of course we still have turmoil ahead, but I believe we are up to the task.  And today's weather where I am:  absolutely exquisite.  Warm but not hot, unexpectedly. 

Similar to meditation, where some days are a slog, and others are just full of unexpected delights.  Today is one of the latter.

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Then, to my astonishment, when I finally flipped over the cheap paper, I realized I hadn't done it on a bill.  I'd done it on the back of an email a friend sent me with a list of Peace Songs we would be singing together (on Zoom, of course).  Interesting "coincidence" with the news today.  May we all find peace in the years ahead.

It's a day for relief, and delight.

Don't Know Mind

11/4/2020

 
"Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof."
- JK Galbraith
Ah, here it is.  The prime example of Don't-know Mind, that shocking moment of extreme uncertainty.  I write this the day after the election, during a time when we still don't know the results. 

Here we sit. 

It's not comfortable.  But that is the truth of this moment. 

Even once a decision is clear, we still will not know what happens next.  In fact, we never can know what happens next.  We are always in Don't-know Mind; it's simply more obvious today than usual.  Since we are wired to prefer certainty, it's so much more convenient to ignore the reality that Don't-know Mind is our continuous state. 
PictureTangles: Ixorus and Onamato. Black Micron 01, chalk pencils, Signo Uniball. On a previously-stained piece of watercolor paper.
Another thing I don't know :  who stained or painted the small square of watercolor paper I used to tangle on last night.  To whomever you are:  thank you.  The staining was faint but spread in lovely fashion across the paper and provided a wonderful smear-y background for linework and bits of color that I added.  I like the way the original background spreads out beyond the border here.

I rarely do either of these tangles, so every line on this square is a product of Don't-know Mind.

Thank goodness for Zentangle®, which is amazingly relaxing, even in the most uncertain times.

"So much of our difficulty with uncertainty is that we've evolved to survive by trying to predict the future. The seasons, the crops, where the animals will be, if we're hunting.

But if we can really take care of what's right here, this present moment, what else is the future made of, but this moment right here, right now? The future is just a continuation of this. So there's no point in worrying and being anxious about the future, if we take good care of this moment, breathing in, knowing our heart is still beating, and how miraculous that is.

Breathing out, and feeling the gift of our lungs. That's the present moment." 

- Kaira J. Lingo

I Did Not Make This

10/25/2020

 
And I don't know who did make it, but I love it.  Someone showed me this sign today.
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A sentence to live by, on so many levels.

23 of 31

10/22/2020

 
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This is my "Inktober 2020" challenge page so far. 23 out of 31 days are on here (I'm one day ahead of the date today).
My goodness, isn't that a busy page!  Yikes.  But the Inktober challenge is meant to be an annual sampling of a wide variety of tangles, so unless I do each one on its own tile, it's always going to be an "eye-crossing" visual experience.  And this one is certainly no exception.

The process is really fun, though.  I get to sample things I might not have considered otherwise. 

A few of these have become new loves; a few really left me cold. 
A few that I've always had trouble drawing just smoothed right out and were easy. 
And a few that I know very well somehow turned into hot messes on the page as I ran into unexpected trouble with them!

Sort of like the experience of a daily meditation practice.  Or to quote Forrest Gump, "...you never know what you're going to get."

Meanwhile, our fall foliage season is rapidly winding down, but for some reason, this sugar maple didn't get that memo and is just getting started.  Sooooo pretty.
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Late-to-the-party sugar maple. So glad it took its own time.

Matisse erized

10/10/2020

 
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See description of this workshop below. This was the result for me; I ran my black & white photo of the cutouts I did during the workshop through the Painnt app on my phone, with this result. I used construction paper and then parked the cutouts in this arrangement on a sheet of white background. Painnt did the rest. I converted the photo to b&w in order to let Painnt do its job.
 
I am in love with the London Drawing Group, a trio of women dedicated to doing and teaching art.  When I saw this workshop on Matisse's cutouts--only £7 or about eleven bucks, and only 1 hour--I thought, what a great way to stimulate creativity.  So I signed up and had an absolute blast.  We made a number of cutouts in only 60 minutes, only a few of which I used for this photo.  Here's the black and white version from my phone before I ran it through the Painnt app posted above this paragraph:
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But I wasn't alone in attending.  There were people from all over the globe.  Two of them were good friends from my rug hooking groups--I had contacted them to tip them off in advance to the workshop and they both signed up.  We all knew it would have immediate uses for rug design.  And it certainly did.

Here is the work of one of my buddies, Kathleen K., who also attended.  Rather than cutting paper, she cut her shapes directly from wool fabric.  I love her results.  She gave me permission to post this:
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Cutouts of wool cloth, laid on a white wool cloth. One advantage to this technique is that these "templates" can be switched around into any type of display. Photo used by permission of Kathleen H. K.
And below is the contribution from Lynda F, another rug hooking buddy who also gave me permission to use her photo:
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Construction paper cutouts--they can be arranged in so many different ways. Thanks to Lynda F for allowing me to use her results and this photo! If you notice similarities between our cutouts in these photos, it's because we all worked from the same photo models during the workshop. Only our individual cutting techniques created differences. But the possibilities are truly endless.

"I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish."

-Henri Matisse

The Incredible Gift

10/5/2020

 
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Marquetry Mirror (with most of the image masked), copyright 2020 to Paula Garbarino, all rights reserved.
This lovely lovely mirror (with a portion of mirror part papered over to minimize distraction) was designed and made by a much-adored and longtime friend of mine, Paula Garbarino.  The inscription, "Il faut fertiliser notre jardin," can be translated to mean, "We must pollinate our garden."  Thus the honeybees, a favorite of mine. 

That sentiment can be taken on so many levels.  The garden of friendship.  The garden of kindness.  The garden of interconnectedness with each other.  The garden of the Earth itself.  We all need to pollinate, to tend, and to care for each other and for the Earth. 

We all know how hardworking a honeybee is.  Indeed it often takes a lot of work to tend and care for each other, especially at a troubled, stressful time like the time we are in now.

Normally Paula designs and makes fine-art furniture, and marquetry--a form of "painting with wood," is one of her specialties.  She has been at it for decades and I hope you'll take time to go to her website and browse her luscious designs in the photo gallery there.  Her work has been displayed in museums and is owned and collected by numerous people.

She does not normally make small pieces like this, though she has made a few.  This mirror, about 17x10", showed up unannounced in my mail as a gift about two weeks ago and it took me a while to determine a place in my home to hang it so that I could see it frequently every day. 

I am one very lucky friend indeed.  Much gratitude to Paula.  You are yourself quite like a honeybee--incredibly hardworking, kind, and of course, always building something oh-so-sweet.

Here It Comes.

9/11/2020

 
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Here it comes.  Right on schedule, too.  I saw a few of these beauties on the path of my morning walk.  All the trees are still looking green and lush, but this is evidence of what will be here soon enough.

The weather has turned from horribly humid to dry and cool-ish, although that won't last.  Fine with me, as I prefer it.  I don't believe summer is quite done with us yet, however.

My latest meditation course (I'm teaching) appears to be off to a good start with absolutely wonderful students, all of them Certified Zentangle® Teachers (CZTs).  I am always reminded how CZTs are some of the kindest people anywhere.  It's a pleasure to get to know this group.

I'm also aware that today is the 19th anniversary of 9/11, a nightmarish day with a nightmarish aftereffect.  A good friend lost her brother on one of the hijacked planes that day.  His family will never be the same.  May all those connected with that event continue to heal as much as possible.

It's a bit early for the following poem, but I cannot resist.  I'm having autumn thoughts today.

Song for Autumn 
by Mary Oliver

Don’t you imagine the leaves dream now

how comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of the air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees, especially those with
mossy hollows, are beginning to look for

the fires that will come—six, a dozen—to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow?

The pond
stiffens and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its long blue shadows. The wind wags
its many tails. And in the evening
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.

Big and Small

9/4/2020

 
The big:  I spotted this amazing old stove for sale in the window of a business downtown today.  Imagine having to polish this!  Holy cow.  But it's such a great example of what the workmanship of every day objects used to be like.
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And the small:  I dyed ten grams of yarn this afternoon; that's hardly anything!  But I'm still working on binding my rug and don't want to end up with a large amount of yarn that I likely wouldn't use for other projects.

The thing I love about the Wooly Mason Jar Dyeing system is that it allows you to do this and reliably replicate a color.  No matter how large or small the amount.  The entire project today, start to finish, took me no more than 10 minutes, including heating in the microwave.  It's a Canadian small business and Lucy, who created and runs it, is a dyeing genius.  Thanks, Lucy!

Ooops, I forgot to include this great poetry I spotted on Facebook this morning.  I wish I could attribute this to the author but I don't know who wrote it. 
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Deerfield 6

8/23/2020

 
The final photos from Deerfield's (MA) Memorial Hall Museum.  Enjoy.  See the previous 5 posts for the rest. 

This post has some additional textiles and some non-textile surprises.
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Dragonflies. I loved this one but I don't have the title or year. Probably late 19th or early 20th c. In the permanent collection.
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Another very large and amazing embroidery. This one is on the cover of the book I showed in a previous post (day 5).
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Another set of fabulous embroideries from the permanent collection. For their true colors, see the photo in the larger picture above; I'm not sure why the colors are so altered here.
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Wonderful design and execution of embroidery from the permanent collection.
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So much amazing blue and white embroidery on display. The permanent collection.
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These embroideries are so lovely and so well designed. All of them. Permanent collection.
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And last but not last, some arts & crafts style furniture with a trompe l'oeil effect. Wonderful!
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The final quilt photo from the August exhibit and some Arts and Crafts style furniture.

Deerfield 5

8/23/2020

 
PictureThis is one of the publications I forced myself to resist buying while I was there ogling quilts, beadwork, blue and white embroidery work, furniture, and antique sewing machines. Even the sewing machines are individual works of art.





More photos from the recent show which included pieces from their permanent collection, at the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, MA.


See the previous four posts for more goodies.


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I'm pretty sure this was called "The Last Rose of Summer," and is in their permanent collection.  Embroidered.
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Embroidered Tree of Life, with appliqué
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Another exquisite embroidered Tree of Life from the permanent collection.
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Linen on linen blue & white embroidered drawstring bag, acanthus leaf, circa 1900. Part of permanent collection.
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Even the permanent collection of early sewing machines are works of art, and this isn't even a decorated one. I just liked the shape. Most have elaborate gold scrollwork painted on.

Deerfield 2

8/20/2020

 
More from the Memorial Museum's current exhibit in Deerfield MA.  For the start of this series, see the previous post.
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This may just look like a fussy quilt. But look closer. And look at the next 2 pictures (the white orbs are reflections of ceiling lights--the quilt is under glass). The closer you look, the more impressive it gets. Although I still wouldn't choose to own it, I can admire the EXTREME workmanship. See next photo.
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Yes, that is my index finger NEARLY but not quite touching the quilt. I would not touch a textile of this type and age at this point. The finger is there to show you the size of the pieces. Smaller than my much less than 1/2" wide fingernail. I mean, these pieces--all hand sewn together--are 1/4" or LESS in size. Now go back up to the first picture and have another look at how many pieces this quilt contains. Mind-boggling. Story of the quilt in the next photo.
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OMG. Enough said.

From A Poet Weatherman

6/19/2020

 
A haiku from Dave Hayes the Weather Nut that is perfect for tonight, across our troubled continent:
Fireflies light up;
The Milky Way Galaxy
appears in the fields.

--Dave Hayes
Dave writes haikus frequently and posts them to his Facebook Page; they are always wonderful.  Today is Juneteenth; a good time to contemplate this poem.  Perhaps the fireflies and the Milky Way will light our way through all this darkness.

Erm's Lilacs

5/18/2020

 
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I am heartbroken over losing a good friend to COVID 19.  She had a long, gruesome struggle and it's finally over.  At some point about two weeks ago it became obvious that she was too damaged to come back to us, but the struggle went on.  And on.  And on.  Horrible.   She finally died last week and I have to say I was relieved on her behalf.  Now the grief sets in. 

But, there are still plenty of other wonderful people in the world.  One in particular--my 97 year old next door neighbor--called me last evening and told me she wanted me to come over to her property and cut myself a bouquet of her lilacs, "Since you don't have any on your land."  I went over this morning and did just that.  She even loaned me her garden shears.  I adore her, and she has absolutely no idea that I just lost a friend.  But somehow, she reached out anyway.  It just made my entire day.

You can imagine--I hope--the fabulous scent spreading through my home from her marvelous lilacs.  Thank you, Erm!  Kindness makes all the difference.
I've learned that people will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.
--Maya Angelou

A Silent Spring

4/24/2020

 
This is indeed a silent spring, though not entirely in the way Rachel Carson envisioned in her book.  I mean the term literally:  traffic is down, people are staying in their homes, all due to Covid 19.  It's very quiet out there.  For all the suffering and misery it is causing, and the fear, the few benefits from this pandemic experience are mighty:  the lowering of air pollution, the increased awareness of our interconnection with others.  New appreciation for nature as many people are getting out on walks, not to mention sleeping longer, spending more time with kids and pets.

In honor of that I include two photos friends have sent me, of two marvelous harbingers of spring.
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Bloodroot, an early Spring flower in New England. Photo taken by Joanie B. Native Americans sometimes used this for medicinal purposes but it has a toxicity level too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanguinaria
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The name of this one, Dutchman's Breeches, always makes me smile. Photo taken by Nancy B. Another flower used medicinally by Native Americans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanguinaria

I always enjoy these wonderful reminders of Spring when I see them in the woods.  This year for a number of reasons I won't be in the woods, so it was lovely to get the photographs.

Yesterday I got a small package with something I had ordered from Etsy.  Inside were the things I had ordered, along with a slip of paper I found utterly charming:
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What a fun message.  And I'm sure it's true. 

If you, like me, are "Staying Home to Save Lives" during this pandemic, and if you're ordering things online I hope you'll consider buying from a small business when that is possible.  You know they need the help.

(And no, I do not sell online.  But I do like to buy from small businesses when I can.)

Oddities

3/25/2020

 
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This strange little tile was the result of my listening to a "voice-guided" meditation posted by the Zentangle® folks on YouTube. The primary tangles used were Hollibaugh and Tipple, plus a bit of linework. Black Micron 01 and graphite. Looks like some type of weird sea-creature.
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This is a photo of a line of people about 40 long, each practicing social distancing, outside a grocery store at 8.15 this morning as I was waiting to get in to buy food. We almost never see this sort of thing in the USA. Strange times for all of us the world over. At the same time, I was grateful that food was available and I had the money to buy it. Not everyone does.

Fassett

1/8/2020

 
With apologies for the bad photography, I wanted to experiment with Lynn Meade's tangle Fassett for an upcoming class.  Fassett is based on triangles.  Here is Fassett done on four Bijou tiles (2x2"), each tile with an increasing number of triangles.  (The class will only be doing the very first one on the far left)
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4 triangles, 8 triangles, 16 triangles, then I tried it in the round with an inside circle and an outside circle, with a total of 32 triangles. If I've counted right.
And here below are the four strings that I used to create the four tiles.  You can see the number of triangles increasing in each.
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Fun to experiment like this.

Sunday Morning at Church

9/29/2019

 
My form of church, that is. 

I left very early today to meet a friend and fellow textile artist on a rural road 45 minutes from my home.  Each with rugs in tow.  Our goal was to drape the rugs we brought over the stone wall that looks over a meadow and then down, down, down into a huge reservoir (part of which is just barely visible over the tops of the trees and under the surrounding hills) and get a decent photo.  I ran the resulting picture thru an iPhone app and got this.  I'm pleased.  It's a mix of a few of my rugs and a few of her rugs. 
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This picture describes my spiritual life--the natural world plus a meditative form of craft such as traditional rug hooking.  

The light, the earth, the stones, the colors, the sun, the clouds, the wind, the water, the trees, the hills. 

I can't think of a better place to be on a Sunday morning in the autumn.

“The sun shines not on us but in us.”
― John Muir

Plethora and Clethra

8/11/2019

 
Yesterday I asked my neighbor if she knew what the flowering, beautifully scented bush was in our front yard (we didn't plant it) and she said yes:  Clethra.  I thought she said "plethora" and assumed she was referring to the high number of fabulous blossoms.  But no, she was naming Clethra alnifolia, also known as the sweet pepperbush or "summersweet."  I love that last name.

Summersweet is incredibly seductive to honeybees and butterflies, both of which I've seen--a "plethora" of them--since it began to bloom a few weeks ago.  And the scent...oh, the scent is so lovely.  I feel honored to be in the presence of this plant.  I remember it bloomed the first summer I moved here, but not last year.  What a treat to have it make such a big comeback this year.  Here's a blossom from our front yard.
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Clethra alnifolia, aka summersweet or sweet pepper
There were so many honeybees and other cuties drinking from the flowers that I'm surprised I didn't have to beat any of them back to get this photo but this one stem was not being worked just as I snapped the shutter.  Lots of Monarch butterflies and other butterflies around it also this year.  It's a good year for the Monarchs around here--god knows they need a good year.  And the bees as well.
Advice from a Honeybee

Create a buzz.
Sip life's sweet moments.
Mind your own beeswax.
Work together.
Always find your way home.
Stick close to your honey.
Always bee yourself.

--Ilan Shamir
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Inside the front cover of my Zentangle® Project Pack 06 book, which I've been working on in the last few days. The theme of the Project Pack is the Zentangle slogan, "No Mistakes." Black Micron 01, gold gellyroll, white gellyroll.
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From my Zentangle Project Pack 06 book, Day Three.
I hasten to say here that I am simply following along with the Project Pack videos as I draw, so these compositions are copies of what is on the videos, not my original compositions.  99% of what I post here is original to me, but sometimes, when I don't have the mojo--which has been happening lately for unknown reasons--it's just so relaxing to follow along and copy-to-learn-from someone else's work.  I always attribute the work to the originator, as I've done here and for my last several posts.

Recycling

4/23/2019

 
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.
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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.

What I Didn't Listen To.

1/21/2019

 
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tWhat is the use of seeking advice if one doesn't listen?  This was my card for Monday (I love these cards, more info below).  But did I listen?  No.  Instead of cocooning after a tiring week away, I spent the day in 5 degree Farenheit weather running around from event to event.  Now, all the events were good ones.  I'm just lucky, though, that my good friends were able to put up with my grumpy self. 

Because trust me, I was grumpy.  Overtired, overscheduled, and grumpy.  Very bad planning on my part.  Good thing I have long-suffering friends.

The cards (these are not tarot cards, just wonderful little cardboard coaches):
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In case you'd like to get yourself some.
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    ABOUT ME

     I'm a textile artist (traditional rug hooking, punch needle rug hooking, and other textile arts), long-time meditator, meditation teacher and coach, focused on learning about the interplay of art, creativity, and mindfulness every day. 

    I am also a Certified Zentangle® Teacher (CZT 11) and a student of drawing and of the tarot.

      If you enjoy reading this blog, input your email address here to get an every-other-month notice about checking for new posts.

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    Categories

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    NEXT INTRO TO ZENTANGLE CLASS:
    My next Beginning Zentangle® class is not yet scheduled--stay tuned.

    I am always happy to teach 1-1 and/or in a small group in your home.)


    Come and amaze yourself!

    SITES TO WATCH:

    Insight Meditation Society

    Oxford Rug Hooking School


    Zentangle:  The Official Site

    Green Mountain Rug Hooking

    Massachusetts Tarot Society


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  • ...a blog on art, creativity, and mindfulness