Oh Happy Day!

One of the thousand things I love about my Zentangle® journey is the wonderful community of artists I have joined.  I enjoy connecting with my talented peers online and at workshops.  It is inspiring and fun to share our art, stories, and passion for this art form with each other.

I spent a little time with my new friend CZT Karen Izzi at Tangle U this weekend.  Karen has a wonderful spirit and sense of humor... even if she does like snakes.  :-)  Today is her birthday so I wanted to tangle up a colorful bouquet for her inspired by Marie Browning's class.

"Oh Happy Day... Enjoy It In Every Way...."   Happy birthday, Karen!

This ZIA is tangled with 01 and 08 black Microns and colored in with Tombow markers and a water pen.  Such fun to create!  I think I'm in love with drawing dragonflies.  I really can't believe I did lettering that I actually like.

My Tangled Garden

Speaking of finding my groove, I am in love love love with creating these tangled gardens thanks to an amazing lesson by Meredith Yuhas at Tangle U.

I see many gardens in my future....

This piece is considered a ZIA, or Zentangle®-Inspired Art, because it is not done in the traditional black on white on the 3.5" square Zentangle tile.  I love working with the tiles and expanding into new directions with my art.

This piece is created with the standard Micron pen on Toned tan paper.  Shading is with a darker pencil along with highlights with a white pencil.  I added some metallic colored pencils in the little critters too. The critters and a few pieces were inspired by Marie Browning's class also at Tangle U.

At first I thought my Mooka/Flux morph in the middle was too big, but after filling with some Bunzo and shading, I am more at peace with it.  It's an overgrown garden, but I can't imagine what I'd weed!  I just hope there aren't any invasive species in there.  The pollinators seem to like it.

MonoMooka

I'm so glad I have found my Mooka groove since the Diva has given us a monotangle (one pattern!) challenge for this week's challenge.

I bought some lovely metallic pens and pencils this weekend at Tangle U that look stunning on the black Zentangle® tiles.  The pens are Pentel Slicci, and the pencils are from Caran d'Ache.

I love Mooka now.  I couldn't say that a few months ago or even a few weeks ago!  I think my experience is a good example on why we shouldn't give up on a pattern or on ourselves.  We all have something with which we might struggle a bit.  Does that mean we throw in the towel and give up, or do we just try a little harder?  Creating Zentangle art, or doing anything else you love, requires practice. Practice is not perfect, and I don't believe that practice makes perfect.  I believe that practice leads us to be more comfortable with our efforts and to feel confident in our abilities.  There's always room to learn and to grow, so if we were perfect, where would we set our sights?

I, too, struggle with some of the patterns, but I don't give up on them.  I may focus on patterns that I prefer or want to learn, but I always go back to the tricky ones.  I practice, I get inspired by others' artwork, and I play until I find the right groove.  Thanks to CZT Kelley Kelly, I found my groove with Mooka, and I officially love this pattern now.  I just needed to make it work for me, and I needed to get over my issue with it.

Here is this week's Diva challenge, my MonoMooka:

100th Post: Thanks for reading!

While uploading my Tangle U photos, I saw that I had hit my 100th post on this blog!  I figured I should do something to commemorate the milestone.  Where better to have this happen than at a creative, stimulating, and fun weekend away!

I am so thankful to my wonderful family for freeing me up so I could attend this weekend.

I appreciate all of the hard work that the planners, teachers, and vendors put into making this event such a success.

I am impressed and inspired by my fellow CZTs.  People are doing creative things with their Zentangle practice and with their classes.  It is an honor to be among this talented group.

Lastly, I want to thank you for reading this blog.  The Internet has made it so easy for anyone to say anything online.  One never knows if the words will be read or merely added to the virtual scrap heap of bits and bytes.  As much as I think my blog is for me to chronicle my artistic journey, I've been touched by the people who have commented about my posts.  It means so much to know that my words and artwork have meant something to others.  A few people at Tangle U said they enjoy reading my blog (and even asked if I'd be blogging this weekend).

When you fall in love with something like Zentangle art, you are welcomed into an amazing community of artists.  I am humbled and inspired to be part of this esteemed creative circle.

Thank you all!

I can't wait for tomorrow's classes and even more creativity to share.

Here's to the next 100 posts!

My Tangled Garden: New Class Coming Soon

After lunch, we created an organic garden wih Meredith Yuhas.  I am beyond in love with this technique.  

Who wants to sign up for my first class teaching this?  Date TBA but not TBM (to be missed)!

Flowers, vines, leaves, and a variety of sprigs.  To use a favorite family word, this piece is spilling all over!  I love the use of botanical patterns combined with the shading and light/dark contrasts.  Love love love love love this.  

Do you think I had fun?  :)

Creativity Unleashed

I'm enjoying a wonderful weekend in Northampton for a CZT retreat/training, Tangle U.

First, I'm in love with this town!  I have enjoyed every store and restaurant I've been to so far in the limited free time we have had.

Getting together with fellow tanglers is inspirational.  It's wonderful to share ideas, network, and gab.  We're all in the mood to get our tangle on, so it's a vibrant and buzzing environment.  It's nice to talk our tangle lingo and be understood.  We're a funny little creative Borg.

We didn't have any classes the first night, so we hung out and checked out the town.  I found an eclectic little shop that sold some pretty cool wooden spoons.  Yes, I had to tangle one!

Bright and early today we were up for a colorful journey with Marie Browning, my hero in the tangling with color world.  We created Dr. Seuss gardens with flowers, leaves, and very bright colors.  Trust me the the lighting in this photo doesn't do the colors justice!  It was really fun to add little critters like the dragonfly, ladybugs, and caterpillar.  I think my piece is a bit busy, but it was so fun to experiment with designs and color combinations.  I love my popped up dragonfly!  I bet my daughter would love this page.  

Get Rid of the Box

This week's Diva challenge posed an interesting idea.  Instead of thinking inside or outside the box, what if we got rid of the box completely?  

When I tangle, sometimes I use the border and string, and sometimes I just start with the blank piece.  Laura asked us to try something completely different this week and to do something that we wouldn't usually do.

That's where I had a little trouble.  I couldn't come up with something immediately.  I tangle in black and white or color.  I play with tangling on different surfaces.  I always try new patterns and strings.  I love experimenting and trying a variety of things.  So what would I do this week?

My daughter (almost 2.5) and I love to do crafts.  One of her favorites is her "dot dot art" with dauber markers.  When I'm tangling, she knows what I'm doing, and she identifies my work as "mommy's tangles."  I asked if she wanted to do a tangle with me, and an idea was born!

My daughter did her dot dot art on a piece of watercolor paper.  After letting it dry, I tangled it.  It was fun to use her colors and pattern as inspiration.  Here are the before and after pictures:

I think we make a pretty great mom-daughter team!  This was fun, and I'll definitely be doing this again.  Thanks, Laura, for making me think way beyond the box!