Inspiration

Maria asks:

What inspires you?

Look around.

Can you find inspiration from where you sit? Maybe it's a who who's inspiring!

The inspiration for my Zentangle tile du jour . . .

. . . is from my muses du jour: petermaxfieldparrish! ;-)

Rick adds:

Is inspiration an active or a passive event? I think the popular view is that it's passive: "That inspires me." 

However, one of the definitions of inspire is: "To draw in (air) by inhaling."

You don't need to passively wait for inspiration.  You can actively inhale it!

The origin of "inspire" is "to breathe into." Each breath is literally an inspiration!

Relax. Look around you. Find something to relish. Actively draw* it in. Inhale it, appreciate it, make it your own.

Then (if so inspired) express it . . . one stroke at a time.

* For more about "draw" see this blog post.

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Maria continues:

Carol's name was drawn in the random number pick from the previous blog's list of commentators. Since we do not have any other info on her, here is her comment:

carol said... Maybe when we learn small things, taught with great love - we can accomplish great things . . . thanks Maria & Rick for your inspirational teaching!

Carol, please contact me at zentangle (at) gmail (dot) com with your snail mail address.

Click image for a larger view. Breathe deeply!

Great Things

  (From a book in which Maria writes favorite quotes.)

Maria writes:

This perspective is something Rick and I had thought about when we designed the Zentangle Method.  

Being confronted with a large blank canvas or sheet of paper can be a bit intimidating.

But, a beautiful small square of paper, well . . . 

 . . . not so much. 

And each small stroke done with great love . . . 

. . . is precious.

We can accomplish something 

Start to finish.

Admire our completed work of art or,

Start over. 

In one sitting. 

Without taking a day off or 

Ignoring day to day happenings. 

Just draw 'til we are done . . . 

. . . one stroke at a time. 

Then move on to life as we know it . . . 

. . . one stroke at a time.

But with maybe a bit of a smile to make the day 

One we can work with. 

Anything is possible.

A few tiles to ponder. Comment if you will.

We will send one off to one of you lovely folks as a token of our gratitude. . . . because, well, it's all about gratitude, isn't it?? 


Rick adds:

And who's to say that . . . 

. . . small things . . .

. . . can't also be . . .

. . . great things?

Each stroke . . .

. . . great love.

Click small images for great views!


Debra Castaldi . . . a tile from our blog post "So Many Tanglers" is on its way to you. Congratulations!

.

Seminar XI

We recently held our eleventh seminar for Certified Zentangle Teachers (CZT). This newsletter [link to follow shortly] has a more complete description. This blog post is a companion to that newsletter so that we can show larger and more images and provide a place for your comments.

We are so thrilled to welcome and introduce to everyone the newly graduated and students and now CZTs of Seminar XI!

Here's the collaborative which everyone tangled:

Here is our first group mosaic:

. . . with a random close-up:

Each student tangled the back of their name tag. Here's a peek at a few of them:

We enjoyed a session about working on black tiles and tangling with black ink on top of white ink and white shading: (Speaking of black tiles, we also announced in this newsletter that we just released Black Zendala Sets.)

Lots of students brought work they created. Here's a very small sampling.

This next one is actually 3D:

Quilting (with detail):

Zentangle inspired acid etched jewelry:

Here are some examples of using tangles as textures and colors. Note how some tangles morph to suggest shading.

There was so much more to see and share. This is such a small sampling, but we trust it gives you an idea of how much fun we all have at our CZT seminars.

Please check this link to find a CZT near you.

Now that we are settling back down after seminar we will return to posting more frequent blogs.

As always, thank you for your comments!

Click these images for a larger view.

June 15, 2013 Newsletter Companion

We're posting this blog entry so that you can see larger versions of the images in this newsletter.

We invite you to offer your comments below and to read the complete descriptions on the newsletter.

Enjoy!

Click images for larger views.

So many tanglers . . .

. . . drawing so many tangles!

Have you noticed how magically this Zentangle Community is growing?

It is amazing to see how everyone intuitively embraces the concepts we had in mind when we started teaching the Zentangle Method.

Maria says:
I was sifting through emails, when I ended up on someone's Pinterest page. There was a uberbundance (I just made that up . . .) of tangles that were newly-designed, shared, acknowledged, stepped-out and strutted . . . for all to admire, try on for size, re-share, customize, perfect and go beyond.

This is way too cool! 

Rick adds:
It is so thrilling to see the open welcoming and heartfelt encouragement extended by individuals in this community to all who are beginning to share their Zentangle contributions.

As Maria said, it's even more exciting to realize that as each of you adds a new tangle, you contribute to the legacy of this art form as tanglers all over this world add your tangle to their palette . . . a new tangle that will ripple out as it inspires and informs new Zentangle creativity.

Thank you, all you wonderful tanglers, for all your support, for your spirit, and for all you contribute to the enjoyment and expansion of this artform. Have fun on this fascinating journey.

Here are a few recent tiles we've had some fun with. As always, we invite you to draw your own conclusions.

This series is essentially an exercise in the hollibaugh principle of "drawing behind."

At first I was going to call this "Bespoke" but I decided to call it "Unspoken."

Here I play with a new shape, repeatedly drawn behind.

There were figs on the kitchen table. 

There was also some strong coffee left in my cup! 

In this one, the hollibaugh bands fold back from wherever they touch their string boundary as they seem to form one long ribbon.

We look forward to reading your comments . . . and to selecting one to receive one of these tiles!


Congratulations to . . .

Maggie Smith who wins a tile from the "French Ivory Encore/ Here's to Bending the Rules" blog; and

TANGLENUT who wins on the "Grid (Un)Locked" blog.

Please send your snail-mail addresses to zentangle at gmail dot com.

Click images for larger views.

Grid (Un)Locked

Hi all,

This blog entry is a companion to this newsletter.

We're using this blog to display the images in a larger format and to enable you to join the conversation with your comments.

Enjoy!

Enjoy unlocking your grids!

As always, we will send one of these tiles to a randomly chosen commentator.


Click images for larger views.