Zenuari in February

Sometimes sadness is just a daily companion.

I am home at last, after weeks away, and beginning to settle in.  My friend is back in her home after her long healthcare treatment.  She did well, and I expect all will be well.  Unfortunately, while dealing with her own recovery she now has a beloved family member's unexpected serious health problem to deal with.   The news was sudden and came as a shock.

We are all reeling.  My heart goes out to her and her family.

In the last weeks as she and I were away from our homes while she was getting medical treatment, we did a lot of tangling to stay calm and in a good place.  These are some of the last tiles I did before we returned.  I still have more to do to finish the Zenuari2019 project, and that's just fine.  Tangling is therapeutic.

These pieces tell the tale of those last days of her treatments as we did our best to get through it all.

Done for day 21 of Zenuari2019, "3Z," meaning, use a 3Z Zentangle tile (triangular). Tangles are Doodah and Sandswirl. Just micron 01 and graphite.

Day 22, "Optical Illusion." Honestly, I have never cared for optical illusions of any kind, with the possible exception of MC Escher's work. So I have to say this is the first tile I have NOT enjoyed working on in a very very long time, nor do I like the result. I've nicknamed it "The Bridge to Nowhere," and that is reflective of how I was feeling at the time I did it as well. Feh.

Day 23. Literally just playing around with fragments. I was feeling quite fragmented myself when I did this.

Day 24, "Border with border." Very busy tile, which was exactly how I was feeling when I did it. So much to do (and to get through) before we could go home.

Yes, you have seen this before; in the previous post, but in a different form. I did more work on it to emphasize the paths, and then I took it to have it laminated. Now it can be used as a finger labyrinth (you can "walk it" with your finger and it's just as calming as actually walking with your feet) and I am very pleased with the result. As I mentioned in the previous post, this was made for day 20 of the Zenuari2019 project.

I may just wear off the lamination from running my finger through this labyrinth before all this is over.  "Art is a guarantee to sanity," said Louise Bourgeois, and here is a terrific short article on ART AND MEDITATION from the Washington Post.  Highly recommended.