Project Packs

Today I felt like being guided along in my art work. Some type of project or lesson that tells me what to do next. This is something I turn to on days when opening up to "whatever happens" is hard. Which it just is, sometimes. It's a paradox because I enjoy art work tremendously. I believe in it as a wonder of continuous, lifetime discovery, and I love sharing it with people. Nonetheless. There is a part of me that wants to just get away and not explore the unknown. Let's cook or do some cleaning. Don't arouse any demons that might be lurking in the whatever happens.

This makes me wonder if my childhood had been more fortunate, perhaps that feeling wouldn't be there. Oh well, I got the life I got and I am not complaining. Bad childhood, great life! I will always be grateful to the therapists that helped me sort it out. I've always felt like I paid my dues before I was 10 years old. From then on, things just improved. Slowly, little by little, I came out of the snow storm.

So by now you are gathering that today was a "JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" day. I had gotten the new Zentangle Project Pack 01 in the mail. I didn't order it, and I don't know how it got to me. But there it was, full of the new purportedly fabulously improved Sakura Gelly Roll pens and black tiles of every shape and size. So I tried it out. The projects are a series of videos with step by step instructions you can tangle along with.. ZT Daughters Molly Hollibaugh and Martha Huggins are the excellent guides. You don't need the kit to tangle along, and you don't have to do them with black tiles, they would be very successful with white tiles.  The instructions are in Rick and Maria's Zentangle Newsletter, here. 

My friend Patty says we should call that tangle pattern up above HollyBales. It's a variation on Bales with diamonds instead of rice shapes. What I love about Bales is how the places where many lines meet, soon begin to glow. Of course, we know a good thing, so we shade those places and make them even more glowing.

I really like HollyBales. We did Bales at the recent Intro to Zentangle class in Reno this week. I love how beautiful the work is from that day. Here's our mosaic, below. Class participants were many good friends and a new friend, too: Christy Tews, Patty Charles, Lynn Newhall, Debby Enos, Gayle Robinson, Kathy Schwerin, and Ron Sutton. Seven tiles, seven different takes on Bales and the other patterns. 

I love that about Zentangle; the patterns are pre-structured, but each person's creativity transforms the simple steps into something unique. And this refers back to the discussion above. Even when people have step by step instructions, the way they follow them is all their own. So it's still whatever happens. It's always whatever happens. Here's to the WHATEVER HAPPENS!!