I recently attended an amazing art retreat at Big Bear City in Southern California. The organizers of the retreat, Sharla Hicks and Beckah Karula sure know how to grow a budding artis't’s skills! I learned about new tools and techniques, was challenged to “push the darks farther”, and hung out with amazing friends for ten days high in the Southern California deset. What an amazing experience!
Its interesting how there can be an amazing global art event and somehow only a small portion of the population hears about it. At the end of March, I saw a post on Instagram from someone saying they were going to take part in the #the100dayproject. I checked the link she posted to learn that it is an effort at global art and creative encouragement.
We can all use a little encouragement, right? I dug a little deeper and found one of the groups I follow on Facebook @ZentangleAllAround run by Alice Dean Hendon. was also supporting the 100 day project. Yay!
I just experienced a wonderful Zentangle related Valentines season through the Valentangle 2018 challenge sponsored by Marguerite Samama, CZT 16. Her mission was "to take two weeks to discover how we can put hearts into our tangles and let the tangles flow back into our hearts. We do this by appreciating making a small work of art, nourishing creativity and connecting to each other."
Before I became interested in drawing and found the Zentangle method I loved making cards and scrapbooks. Well actually, I still do, but my emphasis these days is on enjoying and teaching the Zentangle drawing method
I couldn’t resist sharing with you my newest favourite card design that I tangled to cheer up a friend. This card has an amazing surprise inside and is sure to please everyone.
Exploring new tangles is a great adventure. You never quite know where you will end up and the journey is tremendously enjoyable.
Over the last month or so I have been exploring the tangle Showgirl by Vicky Bassett. It is a wonderful loopy, flowery tangle that can fill any space or shape of your string. It happily takes on the shape of its limitation. Limitations is a fun concept to explore in the Zentangle method.
The very best way to take advantage of the meditative effects of Zentangle is to follow the standard 8 steps suggested by Rick and Maria. These simple steps allow the drawing to take shape without pre-planning the outcome. Relaxation is quickly achieved and the outcome brings a wonderful sense of satisfaction.
One of the keys to this process is the String. During CZT training, Rick Roberts referred to the string through a story of making rock candy with his grandmother. The string, dangled above the table and gently released creates a layered shape of many sections delicately encased by the string.
We can use the string concept with simple pencil marks on a tile or in a more formal manner by using a predefined template. It is fun to use many different types of strings, and when we control the outcome or plan the tangles we will use, it is called Zentangle Inspired Art.
Zentangle headquarters ran a special Christmas challenge this month counting down the days til Christmas and introducing their new 3Z tiles.
The challenge consisted of creating a tile, paper or journal page with the tangle of the day. People from all over the world participated in the challenge and at the end Rick and Maria gave away packages of 3z tiles randomly drawn from all the posted artwork.
