CZT - VIII

Please join us in welcoming another group of amazing individuals to our growing family of Certified Zentangle Teachers:

We will be posting some more pictures of this recent CZT conference very soon.

Over the next few days these folks will begin appearing on our CZT page.

More soon!


Click image to see some wonderful, passionate and creative individuals!

2 4 Today

We're running around getting ready for seminar. We still find time to tangle.

Here are two that Maria just did . . . no words necessary!

Enjoy!

Much more soon.


Click images for larger views.

Breakfast at Valentine's

Maria got up early this morning. When I got up, this was on our kitchen table:

We also traded limericks. Hers is much better (and more shareable :-).

From a small part of this planet, home to the first Valentine's Day Card, the Smiley Face, Zentangle and many other notable events . . .

Happy Valentine's Day to all!





Click images for larger view.

Nature Tangles

Yesterday, Nick and I (Rick) were trying out a new handsaw for cutting firewood. Work progressed slowly because every time we cut a log, I would stop and admire grain patterns.

I knew what our next blog would be as soon as I saw(ed) this one:

When you look closer you see a delicate five petal flower image tangled in oak with resonant auras, just like a Zentangle enhancement*.

As you look even closer, you realize those rings that look like lines are actually dots of tiny little holes . . . imagine miniature drinking straws:

Our world is so exquisitely patterned . . . Such beauty and inspiration!

It is exciting to become aware of patterns we never noticed before. We see familiar objects with new vision. All of a sudden, our kitchen table is new, familiar buildings where we live are new, patterns on our clothes are new, the horizon is new . . . our world is new.

*See Zentangle Glossary for explanation of terms.


Click for larger view and lots of wonderful detail.

Sanibelle Challenge

Weekly Challenge #57 over at Laura Harms' blog is to explore Tricia Faraone's tangle sanibelle. (See challenge for sanibelle directions.)

We love this tangle!

• It is made up of only a few basic components . . . in this case just two.
• It isn't immediately obvious how to draw it.
• It is quite simple, even though its result appears complex
• It is fun to shade
• It can fill all types of spaces
• It is beautiful
• It is fun

And, I must add that Maria really enjoys this one because

• It's "curvy"

One of our Zentangle themes is that there is no up or down to a Zentangle. When I took a picture of Maria's tile for this challenge, I noticed it exhibited different "flavors" in different orientations.

Enjoy!

As I was sizing this last image in PhotoShop, I pressed the "wrong" combination of keys and this appeared:

I loved the woodcut trailing bubbles through water "mistake." A good example of another Zentangle theme, "There are no mistakes in Zentangle."

This is why we deliberately don't include an eraser in our Zentangle Kit and why our custom pencils have a gold cap instead of an eraser:

Thank you, Tricia!

Enjoy sanibelle, everyone!

Click images for larger view.

Diva Love

Congratulations to Laura Harms, CZT, and her always appreciated, and now award-winning blog.

IamtheDivaCZT was just acknowledged as the "Most Fascinating Teaching Blog of 2011."

This acknowledgement underscores what we all know and appreciate about Laura and her blog. She has inspired, supported and challenged people to do new things and do things they didn't think they could do. She opened the virtual doors onto her world and hosts a wonderful community to explore Zentangle (and life) possibilities.

This award was sponsored by online-phd-degree. (And in a moment of delicious synchronicity, within minutes of learning that Laura won an award from "online-phd," we received an email telling us that MENSA is recommending Zentangle!)

Thank you to all who voted and . . .

Congratulations, Laura!



Click images for larger views.

Maria's Dream

When Maria was a little girl, she frequently dreamed she discovered a new color . . . and the effects of that discovery on the world.

In our Zentangle method, we think of tangles (patterns that can be drawn with simple strokes in a predefined way) as basic colors like you might find in a tube of paint.

You can mix tangles and create new ones (we call those "tangleations"), just as you can mix two colors to get a third. And just like colors, you can apply tangles to many surfaces with many tools in many ways.

Sally Houghton, CZT, recently emailed:

Ever since the seminar in October 2011, I have been thinking about the day Maria told us about the dream she had over and over again as a child (about discovering a new color). I just loved that story and have retold it to the kids I teach often.

I also remember Rick saying, "Imagine cadent coming out of a tube like paint!" Well, that put an image in my head that has never left.

It's been a blessing to me when talking to the kids. The first time I retold it, a fourth grade boy had just said, "Well, why do we all have to do the same thing? Can't we do something original?"

So, I said, "Well, think about when you open a box of crayons or paints. You have all the same colors to use as everyone else does, right?" He agreed with that, so I continued, "Everyone uses the same colors, but they put them in different places on their paper and color in different shapes with them. When they are done with their picture, do you think it always comes out the same?"

He knew what I was saying, but I kept going, "Where you put your patterns and what shape you fill in with them makes a different image each time. And, just like crayons or paint, you may mix a couple different colors together to make a new color, or shade a bit with them, and those are other ways you make them your own original work."

Anyway, I've told that story and carried it around in my head for so long that when I got my sketchbook in the mail from the project being run by the Art House Co-op, I immediately turned to the center of the sketchbook to relieve the image from my mind. I told [my friend] about it on our ride to the CZT gathering in Longmeadow last Saturday and she asked me to send her a picture. She really liked it and said I should share it with you. So, here it is. I hope it does Maria's dream some justice.

Thank you so much for sending that, Sally. It's beautiful and conveys the idea elegantly!


Click image for larger view of dream.