To Not Fitting In

This week's Diva challenge by guest blogger, Elisa Murphy, CZT, really spoke to me.

She wrote about the worries and joys of not fitting in.  I had immediate flashbacks to my middle school and high school life when I, too, did not fit in.  I was voted "most unique" in my senior yearbook because I didn't buck the system; I went to another galaxy, found their system, and bucked that one too.  I was the crazy metal chick in a sea of preppies.  I took every '80s fad to the Nth degree.  When neon was in, the kids turned off the lights to see which parts of me would glow.  When spandex was in, I rocked it like a hurricane (please tell me my fellow glam rockers got the reference).  When it was time to feather my hair, I teased and waged war with my curls for hours until they succumbed to a swooshlike backwards wave.  I defended students' rights to wear ripped jeans to the Vice Principal.  I did all of these things simultaneously, ironically, and happily.  I loved my style at a cost.

I sought to be popular but just wasn't that kid.  I looked different and thought differently.  I embraced my uniqueness but struggled like most new-to-hormones pre-teens do.  It's hard to be one of the herd when you're the spandex-rocking, jelly-bracelet-covered, blazing neon sheep.  Even the coyotes are afraid of you.

Over time, I tamed my ways (damn boring '90s).  I settled into a great adult life with my family and friends.  I learned that I can be who I want, quirks and all.  I don't need anyone's approval; I can fit in with me!

'Nzeppel is a favorite tangle of mine.  Elisa picked it because it is a weird tangle that doesn't quite fit in.  Sometimes it's a grid, and sometimes it's random.  It can fit into any shape or flow on its own.  

For this challenge, I decided to try my hand at the new overlapping technique, Tranzending, on a Renaissance tile.  'Nzeppel and Flux can be misfits together.

Thanks for the trip down wacky memory lane, Elisa.  I laughed at the store the other night when I saw the '80s influences--ripped jeans, studs, and open shoulders.  I wasn't a misfit.  I was just ahead of my time.  Rock on, tanglers!

Tile by Emily Classon, CZT, MomZenArtist.

Up for the Challenge

With my crazy year, I realized that it's been ages since I've enjoyed a Diva Challenge and figured that I just have to jump back in.  Sometimes I panic when I've been away from something for too long and feel like I have to pick up where I left off.  Fortunately, tangling isn't like reading a book.  I can start in the middle without getting lost in the story.  The characters are tangles, and while new ones might be added to the mix, I can always find comfort in familiar friends.  The plot may thicken, round, highlight, or even get colored in, but it's still of the choose-your-own variety.  I can start on page one, the middle, or the end and still get wrapped up in a good tangle.

I dove in to Diva Challenge 296 using the tangle Moowa by CZT Anya Ipsen.  I had seen beautiful work created with this tangle but hadn't tried it.  I was surprised because I am a huge fan of Mooka, and this looked like a flowing, wave version of the tangle.  

I picked up my 2014 Tangle-A-Day Calendar (yes, you read that date correctly) and started to practice this new-to-me tangle.  I filled a week with different attempts until I felt like I had the flow.  Why 2014?  I have several uncompleted calendars and have decided that that's okay.  In an effort to Untangle My Life, when I want to play or experiment with tangles, I pick up a calendar and use the pages as an art journal.  I add the current date and have come to accept that it's fine that it wasn't completed in chronological order.  Like my book analogy above, it's freeing to be able to start anywhere.  In the past, I would get derailed by life and not be able to keep up with the calendar and found that frustrating.  Now, I'm jumping in and finding a random page to embrace like this one from 2014:

Next I took my tangling to a tile.  I just received my first box of the new 3Z tiles and thought that Moowa looked really cool done in a spiral.  I loved how this tile came out but thought it needed something in the middle.  

I love creating zen gems and thought an onyx would look great in the center to balance out the black Tipple segments.  If only I could figure out how to create onyx.  I create a lot of gems and figured I needed a lot of black colored pencil and some highlights and went to work.  Here was one of my practice gems I created in a sketchbook.  Then it was off to fill the center of my tile!

Here's my final Moowa challenge tile:

Valentangles

Valentine's Day came and went around here as my family was busy with some massive house projects.  We enjoyed making valentines and spending quality time together despite the craziness.

I was inspired by the season to create a series of rosy gems featuring the tangle Luv-a by CZT Sharon Caforio.  I love how delicately this tangle cushions the gems.  Whenever I use Luv-a, I smile a lot!  I think this tangle is one of the sweetest ones I've ever seen, and I love to use it in a variety of pieces.  It's one of those magical tangles that looks simple at first but blossoms into a real beauty with a few simple extra strokes.

I submit these Bijou tiles as my Valentangles for the Diva challenge 254.

Gone Crazy for Molygon

Are you loving the official new tangle, Molygon, as much as I am?

At first I wasn't sure when most of my shapes resembled banana bunches. If tangles make me hungry, it defeats the purpose of keeping me from snacking!

Then I tried Molygon as a bezel around my tangled gems and was hooked. I love how the "arms" look like robotic tentacle when done this way. Here are two Bijou tiles I made for a swap:

I've been playing with this look a lot lately. Here's a Molygon gem on an ATC for another swap:

I have been playing with some fills and expect I will decorate the bananas in my regular tangles. I just can't stop making them this way...yet!

Check out the Diva challenge this week for lots of amazing interpretations of the fun new tangle at http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2016/02/weekly-challenge-253.html.

Happy 200 to the Diva

Our beloved Diva reached a huge milestone this week--her 200th challenge!  We were invited to create a monotangle with one of our go-to tangles.

I immediately started adding Flux leaves in the center, randomly building outward. I used to not like Flux because I hadn't found my groove with it. Surprisingly, while teaching the pattern in a class, I admired how my friend and student interpreted the leafy shape. Ever since, I have created my Flux like she did--a looser, more leaf or teardrop shape than a comma shape. A new love was born. 

I especially love drawing Flux as a flower or in random spurts with a string. I enjoy letting the petals float, swim, or bloom in various directions. 

It only seemed fitting to think about inspiration for this challenge. I hope that I inspire others when I teach. I am always fascinated by how inspired I am with each of my students. 

Happy 200th, Laura!  Thank you for inspiring us all!

I couldn't stop myself after this one and created a couple of colorful Flux flower ATCs too.  I think I'll be sending these to some of my CZT friends.  

Muster Mixer

German CZT Anya Lothrop has created a new "Muster Mixer/Pattern Mixer" challenge inviting tanglers to mix two designated tangles into a piece of art.  The first assignment was to combine Rixty and Mooka in some way.

I knew I wanted to have tall, bulbous Mookas and figured the Rixty could go along for the ride on the stems.  This was a fun and simple piece to create.  I'm looking forward to future mixed up challenges.

Sand Dollars and Fireworks

Welcome back to the Diva!  It's wonderful to have Laura back blogging and inspiring us.  I wish her darling Artoo continued success in his recovery.  

The Diva has tasked us with playing with the latest Zentangle® pattern, Arukas.  I like the idea of this tangle but still haven't quite fallen in love with it yet.  I do tend to like patterns with very straight, repetitive lines, like IX, so I figured I would like this one quickly.  It is fun to create, but I think I need to explore it some more.  I haven't quite achieved the star look, but I think that many, like my Bijou tile, look like sand dollars.  

This is one of the first times I used Bronx Cheer to cover something that I deemed less than favorable.  One of the Arukas turned into a nice round shape resembling a sand dollar.  I liked it, but the other one had lines that went off the Bijou tile.  I decided that I liked the rounder look and plunked down some Bronx Cheer.  Ha!  Should I have revealed my secret, or would you have guessed anyway?  

Others remind me of fireworks or bugs or scorpions because at least one of the interior shapes always ends up looking puffy.  It's still cool because I never quite know how it's going to turn out.

I am enjoying filling in my initial spokes or rays to give a little contrast.  I like the look of that in this Bijou frame tile:

Have you been playing with Arukas?  What do you think of it so far?

All Dolled Up as the Guest Diva

The famous Diva asked a few CZTs to fill in and write guest posts while her darling son Artoo had eye surgery.  Fortunately he is doing well and recovering.  I know how terrified I was when my little one had surgery.  I am sending healing wishes to the whole family!

This week, I had the fortunate pleasure of writing one of the guest posts.  I hope you had fun playing along with my challenge.  You can read all about it at I am the Diva.  It was an honor to help Laura (the Diva) as well as to serve as an inspiration for tanglers around the world.  I am loving each and every piece created.  I am going through the 50 plus responses posted on the Diva's site.  It's so touching to think that my idea has inspired people around the world!

I've been tangling quite a few paper dolls to adorn a Christmas tree at the Andover Historical Society for their annual event.  Each tree is decorated to accompany an inspiration piece from the collection.  My inspiration this year was paper dolls.  I created a paper doll dress template and tangled each using different patterns.  I had a wonderful time completing these and thinking about how the patterns could mimic folds of fabric.

Here is an assortment of my tangled dresses up close as well as the finished tree.

I love the Flux skirt on this one:

 Of course I had to use my pattern YAH in one of the dresses.

 I love the feel of the Printemps-stuffed Hollibaugh in this one:

Here's the finished tree.  I wish that my top hat tree topper idea had worked.  The hat was so large that it overpowered the rest of the tree so I had to scrap it.  Then I wondered if I should have added more color to the tree through balls or ribbons.  I wanted the tree to reflect the beauty and simplicity of the Zentangle® method without being too busy.  I wanted my hand-tangled dresses to speak for themselves.  I hope I made the right choice by keeping it simple.

Here's my Renaissance doll too.  She was a lot of fun to create!

Thanks for tangling with me this week!  If you haven't shared your creation on the Diva's site, I hope you'll share it with me on Facebook, by email, or in a comment here.  I'd love to see your work.

The Thing with Ing

I always love it when a new pattern emerges from the creative minds at Zentangle®.  Of course people create patterns all the time as we are all inspired by shapes around us, but there's a special energy that develops when a pattern emerges from Rick, Maria, and Molly, the heart of Zentangle.

This week's Diva challenge invited us to play with the new pattern Ing.   I've had a few opportunities to play with this pattern, and I like how flexible it can be for filling options.  The simple external line structure is wonderful to fill with a variety of shapes or other tangles.

My first tile created for the SquareOne: Purely Zentangle® Facebook group features a central Ing surrounded by some Static.  I love the simplicity of the pattern and wanted to aura the external shape of Ing.

The next tile also features a central Ing.  I think I really enjoy mimicking the outer shape.  This time I used my aura to create Tripoli on each side with different fillers.  This is quite the triangular tile.  I love how filling Ing with Paradox makes it tricky to see the initial structure.  A chameleon pattern.

Stripes: Staying Inside the Lines

For this week's Diva challenge, we were asked to play with stripes.  I worked on a 2" Bijou tile from Zentangle®.  I love these little guys!  This one was part of a Bijou swap with fellow CZTs.

I drew my pencil string as diagonal lines across the tile.  This tile features tangles starting with O including Onomato, Ojo, Oke, Orbs-la-Dee, Opus, and Organza.  It was the first time I had played with many of these patterns.

When drawing stripes or lines, it's fun to think about how to fill the areas.  Do you fill between two lines as in Onomato (the tangle with the large circles)?  Do you follow a single line as in the fluttery Organza (the one that looks a bit like fans) and fill around it?  Either way, you can't go wrong as long as you're enjoying the process.

Square One: Verdigogh

This week's Square One: Purely Zentangle® group focus was to use the official Zentangle pattern Verdigogh. This is one of my favorite patterns to do.  I love the botanical feel of this pattern combined with the repetitive line work involved in its creation.

I often create this pattern as a curved stem with branches filling a tile.  For this piece, I thought it would be fun to explore Verdigogh as a border.  I drew the rectangular "stem" and built my needles in different directions.  I added a few on each side and turned my tile repeatedly to allow the needles to cross sides in various places.

I thought the piece was complete after adding the little berries and almost stopped there.  I couldn't decide how I wanted to shade the piece since it was already fairly busy, but I just kept picturing tiny orbs in the center.  I created an inner aura around the needles and immediately thought I took it one step too far.  Before I had a chance to second guess myself or to let the outcome dictate my artistic process, I filled the center with orbs.  I had been so relaxed creating all of my fine needles that I didn't want to stop tangling.  I didn't want this journey to end.  

Circle.

Circle.

Circle.

Sometimes the very simple repetition of one basic shape can be entirely relaxing.  I write about this often, and it certainly applies to the whole of the Zentangle® method.  It's true that tangle patterns repeat and can create a relaxing experience while creating them, but I find that some patterns are more relaxing to create than others.  When a pattern has fewer steps, as in the case of these tiny orbs, they can be especially calming to create.

I thoroughly enjoyed filling all of the small negative spaces with mini auras and circles.  I added a little shading at the end and am quite pleased with the result.

This tile was a perfect example of how this process should go.  Sometimes I get caught up in my head even though I know I should trust the process.  I've been feeling stressed lately, and I really needed to rediscover my sense of relaxed focus.  I sat down with this tile tonight, tangled, and didn't look up from my tile until it was complete.  I needed that!

A couple of my Verdigogh examples are in the fantastic new book, Pattern Play: A Zentangle® Creativity Booster by Cris Letourneau, CZT and Sonya Yencer, CZT.  Here are some of the ways I like to play with this pattern: 

Square One: Twing

This week's Square One: Purely Zentangle® group focus was to use the official Zentangle pattern Twing.  I have played with this pattern a few times before, but it clearly hasn't stuck with me as a regular or favorite pattern.

After refreshing my memory about the pattern, I immediately thought of Auraknot.  I drew some Twing-like points to mimic the shape.  Next I added several rays of Twing coming from behind the Auraknot star.  They came out fairly small so I played with different fills.  I liked the extra white space but thought the tile needed one more expression of Twing.  I drew exaggerated points almost creating an aura around the center star.  I then continued the steps to make this shape into a wide Twing.  

I am wondering, however, what I'm dreaming about these days because many of my tiles seem to have tentacles.  I haven't been sleeping well, and I may be getting to the root (or tentacle) of the problem!  I think the solution is more tangling.

Square One: Twing (and Auraknot) by MomZenArtist

Good Things Come in Small Packages

I am loving the new addition to the Zentangle® family--Bijou!  In addition to his lovely story, he offers a fun tin of tiny tiles.  They are 2 inch squares of the same paper as the larger tiles, and they are so fun to play with!  They're great for monotangles, creating a smaller reproduction of a larger tile, letters, and more.

I especially love Bijou's reminders to slow down, breathe, and relax.  I've been feeling a little stressed this week, and I really need a kind little snail on my shoulder to remind me about these simple things I can do to improve my life and my art.

For this week's Diva challenge, I created a mini mosaic Zendala with four Bijou tiles.  I lined them up and then loosely drew a Zendala design.  I didn't grab a ruler or stencils.  I breathed and let the shapes form.  It's okay that they don't all line up perfectly.  It was quite freeing to just guess where a line might go and to let it evolve as it did.  I pictured Bijou gliding across my tiles, changing his mind slightly, then wiggling back on his original course when my pen skipped a bit.  Pens, like snails, don't always follow a straight path, right?

I enjoyed filling in my shapes with different tangles and adding some shading.  The process was relaxing and inspiring.  I realized that I never color the tadpole-like blobs in Ennies and thought I'd see how they came out.  I really like the contrast of the bold shapes against the gentle orbs in the center.

Thanks, Bijou, for reminding me to take a little break for myself.  I needed it.

Square One: Cadent

If you're looking to get back to basics, there's a fun, new group on Facebook called Square One: Purely Zentangle®.  The group was created by CZTs Jenny Perruzzi and Chris Titus.  It's open to CZTs and tanglers of all skill levels.  The goal is to have participants post only 3.5" tiles tangled with pen and pencil in black and white.  There are a lot of great groups for color, templates, and other ideas, so it is refreshing to get back to Square One.

Chris and Jenny have started adding challenges for us to play with while we tangle.  This week they asked us to play with a favorite pattern, Cadent.

I was inspired by a stunning piece created by Maria Perez, which included an excellent use of the dewdrop technique.  I play with that one from time to time but have yet to feel like I've mastered it.  So this looked like a good time to try it!

I started with my dewdrop of enlarged Cadent and was pleased with how it came out especially after I shaded it.  Then my tile got a little wonky.

I'm not sure if I put too much pressure on myself or tried to make my tile too complicated.  As much as I know better, I, too, can forget to just trust the process and let the art flow.  I thought too much about playing with Cadent variations rather than just letting my dear friend Cadent evolve on the tile.

I built outward from the dewdrop adding a frilly layer, then some tendrils, and finally the outer band.

I'm not in love with this piece, but I am pleased with my dewdrop attempt.  I think this tile will serve as a reminder to me to just let it happen.  When I try to do something specific with my tangling, I get frustrated and lose the wonderful meditative focus that I achieve from my regular tangling.

The next time I go back to basics, I need to remember the real basics--love what I'm doing, breathe, take it one line at a time, and don't think about the outcome.

That said, I do kind of think this piece reminds me of a Quidditch snitch bursting across the tile.

Initially Tangled

Last week's Diva challenge was to use the initials in our name to pick the tangles for our artwork.  I took the opportunity to find patterns on TanglePatterns.com that I had never used.

To go along with my EC, I chose Escalator by CZT and author, Suzanne McNeill and CO2 by Antonine Megger.  I opted to use my middle initial, but since it is also E, I just added more Escalator.

I love how this tile ended up reminiscent of Escher's impossible stairs in Relativity.  I was always a big Escher fan, and I know that part of my love of Zentangle® art is related to this stunning example of lifework and shading.

I filled the tile with Escalator going in different directions.  I found it easier to do if I completed one set of stairs before moving on to another one.  I added an inner aura in the three negative spaces then put some cute CO2 bubbles around the outside so they could float behind the stairs.

I had a lot of fun with this one!

Mammo Crux

This week's Diva challenge invited us to play with Crux by Henrike Bratz.  At first, my hand immediately tried to create Bales.  I had to consciously and deliberately think about each line or each stroke as I worked on the diagonals.  This pattern was an interesting reminder about taking a pattern one line at a time.  I found this pattern quite interesting to put together and to watch it work in the end.  Fun!  I will have to play with this one some more soon.

My piece was created in my 2014 Tangle-A-Day Calendar by Carole Ohl, CZT.  I love working in the book, but I can rarely get it to scan well enough.  I think too much light gets in when I scan it.  When I try to edit, the shading gets too washed out.  Oh well, it's a sunnier version than in person.  That can't be a bad thing, right?

I created this piece in the imaging waiting room before having my first routine mammogram.  Joy.  I felt inspired by breasts (gee, I wonder why).  I pencilled a breast-inspired string similar to this:

The string is basically three concentric circles.  Keep in mind they don't have to be perfectly straight or central!  No two breasts are alike or perfectly round, right?  The string I created in the calendar reminded me of a fried egg, to be perfectly honest.  

I love how strings, like our tangles, don't have to be perfect.  They don't even have to be used at all.  Strings can help guide us along our tangling way or merely give us a starting off point.  We can follow the lines, carefully staying with, or we can venture out on a tangling adventure.  

If I were drawing my string after the exam, I think the circles would all be flattened.  Ouch!  

Weaving Tangles

"O, what a tangled web we weave ..."

I love tangle patterns that look woven!  They look so difficult to construct and usually only have a simple line or two like Auraknot.  

For this week's Diva challenge, a duotangle, we were tasked with using the patterns Auraknot and Mooka.  I like both patterns because they can be so stunning when they come together.  

The same day I went to start my tile, I received my new pack of Sakura Moonlight Gelly Roll fine point pens.  Of course I had to try them!  They were awesome to use on the black Zendala tiles.  I love how shimmery they look and appreciated the finer line I could achieve.  I ended up using four colors to create this piece.  This was a fun way to play!

Boogie Woogie Bugles

I love the UMT (Use My Tangle) challenges when the Diva poses them.  It's fun to play with new patterns created by fellow tanglers.  This week, we are asked to test out bugles by Joyce Evans.  It's a pattern that goes together fairly easily and looks like it has a lot of possibilities for tangleations.  You could made the initial bean shapes small or large, this altering the size of your bugle cones.  Then there are all the filler options for the cone and/or the negative spaces in between.

I grabbed a Renaissance Zentangle® tile and started with a wide border.  I wanted to try Bugles as a border.  I didn't worry about where they would meet in the corner and just worked on one side at a time.  I visualized the pattern a little and chose to do one central stack of Bugles.  I left the pattern unfilled while I worked on the rest of the tile because I wanted to see if an idea spoke to me.  

Next I worked inward.  I created a bit of a crescent moon border that immediately made me want to use Tripoli.  That's a big deal for me!  Tripoli is one of those patterns that often makes me cringe.  Patterns that I think look better with a little more precision sometimes stress me out a bit.  If a pattern causes me stress, I immediately avoid it in favor of anything that helps to promote and continue my relaxing artistic journey.

I have to say I'm pleased with how Tripoli came out.  After a training by Zentangle's Molly Hollibaugh, I am no longer afraid of Tripoli.  Her suggestion of creating a triangle, then adding an aura of one line really worked for me.  I just built one triangle at a time not worrying about if they stayed the same size or got a bit wonky at times.  Collectively, I knew that all of the triangles would pull together as a great team.

I decided to finish up with an inner aura in the negative spaces of Bugles to carry the Tripoli feel a bit further.  I love how even a new pattern can call to mind other patterns.  It's like books and movies--there are no new plots.  Everything is just an exciting new reinterpretation of another creation.  I love how patterns evolve and morph enough to become something new while being reminiscent of something else.  It shows how universal patterns are and how we all have similar yet different views of the world.  I find it rather comforting to think of everyone having a similar exposure to shapes and patterns.  We may speak different languages, but we all have fundamental exposure and experience with shapes.  

I ended with some shading to recess the Tripoli area and to highlight the central border.  I used an Irojiten colored pencil that closely matched the brown Micron pen.  I love playing with blacks and browns (and often whites) on these tiles.

Cinderella Swirls

My daughter has been bitten by the princess bug and has started her journey into the world of Disney. After falling in love with Frozen and The Little Mermaid, she wanted to try watching Cinderella. I had not seen the movie in a decade or two and was surprised by some of he animation. Sure, it wasn't nearly as impressive as Frozen in storytelling, animation, visual effects, or music, but I enjoyed it in different ways.

It is hard to be impressed with older animation when faced with the computer-animated beauty of a movie like Frozen, but older films remind us of earlier advances. Each movie, Disney or otherwise was remarkable in its day.

Movies make us nostalgic. They can also make us see new sources of beauty--like tangles.

While watching Cinderella, I couldn't help notice all of the swirled patterns used throughout the story. The railings in all of the staircases had a serpentine structure. Cinderella's pumpkin coach blossoms with swirls and curls as vines transform into wheels in an elegant and flowing fashion. And of course, Cinderella mops the massive tile floor covered in the epitome of tile patterns, Florz. You can catch a glimpse of some of the images on the Cinderella photo gallery page.

When I saw this week's Diva challenge was to play with circles, I immediately had to tangle Cinderella's carriage. I drew three circles for the carriage and two wheels. I tangled in white and filled with colored pencils. Crescent Moon seemed fitting in a circle-inspired piece.

I love how tangling can be random and evolving or can be inspired by something specific.

I am drawing my magic want for some tangling magic for you... Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!

And the Rain, Rain, Rain Fell Down, Down, Down.

Since my life is a Disney movie, I must quote a favorite song from Winnie the Pooh in my title.

This week's Diva challenge was an easy one for me--playing with the official Zentangle® pattern Rain.  I like this pattern and think it can be a good one for tangleations or variations.  The construction is fairly easy, and it's a wonderful way to relax with some very simple auras and lines.

I picked up my tile and immediately pictured a Rain-styled border.  I drew the structure but didn't fill in the triangular shapes until I saw how the rest of my tile developed.  I then knew I had to draw one of my favorite patterns, which starts out with a mini Rain, Cat-Kin by Mimi Lempart, CZT.  Next I filled in some big pearls in my border and loved how those came out!

I think I should have stopped there.  I'm not always good at knowing when a piece is done.  I know it doesn't matter as long as I am having fun and enjoying my sense of relaxed focus and creativity.  I think I got hung up on the fact that I was using a Renaissance Zentangle® tile and thought I should manage to fit some brown in too.  There are no rules, Emily!  After drawing my first brown background line, I knew I'd taken it one line too far for my taste.  I was having fun exploring, so I kept going (that's a good thing!).  I added more skinny Rain and filled the centers with tiny lines.  Still not knowing when enough was enough, I thought it needed more contrast and added some white Rain bolts without the aura since the white pen was thick enough.

I think the piece is interesting, but I still wish I had trusted my instinct to stick to the border and Cat-Kin.  Maybe I could have created an inner border with Rain in the brown pen to satisfy my idea that the Renaissance tile had to have brown.  To quote my daughter, I was just being silly.

I sometimes have to remind myself to let the rain wash over my preconceived notions sometimes and just let the tile take me where it wants to go.  Or when I do let it take me, like in this tile, I hope I can  remember to enjoy the journey even if my ideas get a little wet along the way.