Happy New Year - Challenge 53

New Year - new beginnings.  I don't believe in making resolutions.  I try to avoid setting myself up for failure whenever possible.  However, as some of you know, I am working on my dissertation towards completion of a doctoral degree in psychology.  So - my resolve is to get past the blocks I've encountered up until this point and make significant progress in the coming weeks and months.  Zentangle is and will be a very large part of this process!  Here is my homage to Diva's "Undine" - SO glad to be back!

Merry Christmas!

I love Diva's challenge - number 52 - wow... it's hard to believe we've been at this a year (although I joined the party kind of late).  Anyway - the challenge is to "give" Zentangle this year and I've already done that.  Unfortunately - I rarely remember to take pictures of what I give to others.  So I will just report out.

First of all, I  introduced a young friend to Zentangle the other night.  She, her mother, and I sat around their dining table and drew tangles for a couple of hours.  She loves to draw and was trying to convince her mother to run to the local hobby store as I left.

A very dear friend of mine has been incredibly hurt by someone she trusted.  It ended up costing her job and her self-esteem.  As I was sitting and holding her in my thoughts, I meditated with my tile and pen.  The result was her initial embellished with my favorite, comforting tangles.  I sent it to her with a card that was able to capture what I was feeling for her.

A few months ago I found a "slate" board - white board covered with black.  Using an etching tool, I created a Z I A which I then gave to a friend as a housewarming gift.  I had already given him my very first tile - done when he was going through a very tough time and another one when his little niece was born 3 months prematurely.  He's going to frame them as a grouping which makes me feel very happy.

I've posted in the past about the larger pieces I've done - the tree of life for my heart sister, Kat and the spiral for my son. It seems that I am most inspired by the transitions of life.  I am most grateful for this forum to share these various inspirations and transitions with a fantastic group of artists.

I wish you all peace in this world of uncertainty.  May your holidays - whatever and however you celebrate - be blessed.

See you in the new year!
Namaste and happy tangling!

#49 Red Thread Challenge

Happy Thanksgiving and Advent (starting tomorrow, of course) to all.

This week's challenge was so much fun.  I loved creating a tile using a red string.  The challenge comes from Cris Letournea.  More info about the "red thread promise" project can be found on her blog Tangled Up in Art.  I hope to send my tile and I can't wait to see the poster!  

My family (sans son who was working at his new job and was sorely missed!) had a great time together over the past 3 days.  Truly, we have so much for which to be thankful.  I would share more but I am exhausted after traveling and babysitting so I'll just leave it for now.  I hope to post some Advent musings in a few days.  For now, I hope you can find ways to give charitably this Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice/Yule season.  I would venture to guess that most of us could forego the malls and stores altogether this year (shop small and buy locally) giving thoughtful, heartfelt tokens of love and remembrance instead.  I hope you find ways to make this season meaningful for you and your loved ones no matter how or what you celebrate.  And, as always,

Happy Tangling!

I'm back! Challenge 48

After a few weeks' hiatus, I finally completed one of Diva's challenges to post!  Yea.  Actually, I did two.  Last Monday I was waiting for my friend while she completed some routine health exams.  I had drawn the tri-shapes string but had no resources with me to try out tangle patterns I'd never used.  So... the first one uses patterns I seem to use all of the time - Flux, Florz, Knightsbridge, Cadent, Purk, etc.

I came back home after a long weekend with my friends and helping my daughter's family move and
decided I would try the string again following Diva's challenge - use tangles I have not used before.  That was a pretty difficult task.  Even though I don't use a lot of them all of the time I have played with most that I have found in my books and on Linda Farmer's Tangle Patterns site.  I used a few that I will probably use more often and some - well - maybe I just need to practice a bit more!

In case you're interested - the tangles I used are: BB, Bilt, Bitten, Bumps, Demi, Florez, Gothic, Hepmee, Japonica, Popsicles, Punch, Unyuns, and Wisket.

Indulgence and Challenge #45

This week's challenge is to use a new tangle pattern by Rick and Maria - Chainging/Punzel - I may work on a tile later that center's on this pattern but for now I have placed it in a large piece I've been working on all week for my son.  I like the tangle - it has so many possibilities.

T

So that was the challenge part... now for the indulgence.  I have been working on how to express my thoughts and feeling to my son all week - and I suppose this is a pretty public forum in which to do it.  So if you have other things to do, you can stop reading now.  However, you are welcome to stay - I'd be honored to tell you about my son and how very proud of him I am...

He's my first born. He's an artist, a poet, a musician, and a dreamer. He's an old soul.- perceptive, compassionate, and not afraid to be vulnerable.  A rare thing in someone so young - a pretty rare thing in our typical macho culture.  Recently, my son shared with me that he was longing to do something different with his life. He was looking for a career move - work that would feed his soul as well as his wallet.  He loves where he has been living - the city of his birth.  A move he made a year ago with a lot of hopes and expectations.  Not all of them worked out as he hoped, but I think he's enjoyed his life there.  He found time to play, to create, to relate, and to grow up a bit.  But it seemed life was calling him to leave the safety of "home" - to leave the familiarity of the coffee shop, his family of choice, and the protection of the mountains.  So he applied for a job a few months ago which recently came to fruition.  He starts on Tuesday.  New month - new opportunities.  New challenges, friends... all mixed with a healthy dose of anxiety and anticipation.  

He will moving to Florida to work with kids who have blown their chances in the traditional world - kids who have made poor choices; kids who have been abused, forgotten, neglected - some who have never been able to learn how to deal with life.  He will be living in a wilderness setting with these kids - 24/7 - for 5 days per week... living in a communal setting when off duty and trying to find a little space in his down time to explore his new surroundings and himself. 

There are times when a mom has no words to express the depth and breadth of her feelings for her children.  One such time was a year and a half ago as I stood by my daughter's side as she gave birth to her son - my first grandchild.  Watching her grown into motherhood has been so amazing.  Now, my son is carving his path in this world.  I love them both so much.  I am so very proud.  

The ZIA piece I have created incorporates several blessings by Father John O'Donahue, an Irish Priest who sadly passed away a few years ago.  I just discovered his writings this year and I feel so blessed every time I read his words.  His book, "To Bless the Space Between Us" is a wonderful collection of blessings and musings on life - all aspects of life.  Check it out sometime... I can't recommend it highly enough.  Anyway -

I used the November 2011 calendar page created  by Carole Ohl for my background/canvas. The spiral blessing represents the paths we walk in life - leading us, if we pay attention, into the core of our soul.  The tangles were chosen randomly, attempting balance between curvy and straight, soft and hard edges - I think, life.  

If you've read this far, I thank you for sharing this moment with me.  I am going to miss my son so much but, as I keep reminding myself, he's not going into the depths of the Congo.  He's going to Florida!  And he will have access to the internet on his days off. I've grown accustomed to his being only 2 hours away.  Yet - I am so proud of him.  I am so honored to know him.  I am working on being open and allowing all of the good the universe has for him!  

I leave you with this blessing from Fra. O'Donahue:

For the Artist at the Start of the Day:

May morning be astir with the harvest of night;

Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,

Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse

That cut right through the surface to a source.

May this be a morning of innocent beginning,

When the gift within you slips clear

Of the sticky web of the personal

With its hurt and its hauntings,

And fixed fortress corners.

A morning when you become a pure vessel

for what wants to ascend from silence,

May your imagination know

The grace of perfect danger,

To reach beyond imitation,

And the wheel of repetition,

Deep into the call of all

The unfinished and unsolved

Until the veil of the unknown yields

And something original begins

To stir toward your senses

And grow stronger in your heart

In order to come to the birth

In a clean line of form,

That claims from time

A rhythm not yet heard,

That call space to

A different shape.

May it be its own force field

And dwell uniquely

Between the heart and the light

To surprise the hungry eye

By how deftly it fits

About its secret loss.

From To Bless the Space Between Us, (c) 2008

Happy Tangling!

All Tangled Up Inside (Challenge 44)

I missed last posting last week's challenge. I did it... it just took me a week.  I loved the concept of the sunflower, though, and I love this week's challenge to put a tangle inside a tangle.  For my "string-tangle" I chose Flux.  I seem to put this tangle in nearly every tile I draw so it's fitting, I think, to use it as my string.

The tangles inside the "petals" are: Betweed, Meer, Pepper w/ Mumsy, Florz w/ Squid, and Cadent.  This is the first time I've used Meer and Pepper.  Between the petals are Oof, Keenies, Limpitz, and Printemps topped off with Pendrils and Pokeroot.

Now - off for my weekend with my dear Maggiekat and precious Noah (and of course his mommy and uncle!) Maybe between challenges I'll blog about some of the changes happening in our family but for now -

Happy Tangling!

Hope

This week's challenge is in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness - the theme is hope.

Most of the time the challenge is finding the time to tangle or learning a new pattern.  The challenge for me this week was how to depict something as elusive as the concept of hope.  So many tangible and concrete things represent hope to me: a baby, the first daffodils peeking through snow, a cocoon, a job application, a lottery ticket.  I had a very hard time finding the one thing that inspires me to hope. I started by drawing a double-string of the word "hope." And then it dawned on me - rainbows.  I love color and light.  In lighting, white light is the presence of all color. Rainbows visually represent the entire refracted spectrum.  When  combined, the result is pure white light.  Healing light.  Hopeful light.  So... here are my interpretations.

A full spectrum of hope

The names bordering the ribbon are special people in my life - family and friends - who have been touched by cancer.  Both my mother, Louise, and sister, Judy, survived cancer.  My mother succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease July 2010.

“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.”  Emily Dickinson

Without hope dreams are meaningless.  Without hope we wouldn't put one foot in front of the other or dare to believe that a cure for cancer can be found in our lifetime. So, I wish you hope. And light.

Namaste - and happy tangling!