Zentangle Fever

Have you guys heard about Zentangle? It is a meditative drawing process which can be addicting. I recently sent some Zentangle books to my grandkids in Arkansas, they love it. In fact two of my granddaughters, Faith and Sarah have become very accomplished in this art. They have even begun to add their own tangles to their drawings. The friends and teachers they have introduced it to are fascinated as well. Recently they paid us a visit here in Texas and wanted to try some tangles on canvas. The results were fabulous!!

Both Faith and Sarah took them home to hang on their bedroom walls, they each have quite a collection of their own art pieces hanging in their rooms. I am so proud of everything they have created!

Faith was inspired by circle tangles she saw in the book 'Zentangle 2'

Kids love art materials. I always keep some inexpensive canvas in the studio for them to use. Children feel so much like an artist when they get to put their marks on a canvas. Next time the grandkids visit... surprise them... have their own canvas waiting for them to create art to hang in their rooms. You can always catch a sale on canvas of all sizes at your local craft store, Michaels, Joannes and Hobby Lobby often have 50% off.

Sarah was inspired by the use of color, she loves yellow.

If you haven't been introduced to Zentangle yet you can visit the official Zentangle site for more information. Amazon and Design Originals sell books on Zentangle, or just google Zentangle, there's lots of info on the web.

Opportunities

It has been a shameless amount of time since my last post, but I do have excuses (I always have excuses). I should probably go ahead and just call it like it is...procrastination. However, I really dislike calling it procrastination, it's not like I am not doing anything...I am usually doing too much (another problem I have).

My studio was in transition for a really long time, moved from a garage studio to one I had built behind my house...which is great. It just happened to be during the rainiest time ever here in Texas...so that took forever. Therefore, not much creating was going on.

I also decided last November to go back to work. Design Originals is a local book publisher based in Fort Worth, TX. They have been publishing fabulous art and craft books for over 25 years, I have collected many, many of them. So this was a dream job..surrounded by artists and crafters and the books they contribute to. Heaven!!

A few months ago an opportunity came up for me to do a book for Design Originals. My own art work concentrates mostly on recycled items. I also absolutely love wine and have collected a ton of wine bottles. I have used them as borders for my flower beds, made bottle trees and created mixed media pieces and jewelry from them. The book Design Originals was putting together just happened to be on Bottle Art...my thing. Suzanne McNeill, owner of Design Originals and a fabulous artist herself, asked me if I was interested in doing the book...and I said you betcha. It was a wonderful learning experience, I am thrilled to have had the chance to do my very own book. It is exciting to see it in print, on the Design Originals website and believe it or not on Amazon. I am an Amazon fanatic...now my book is on there, unbelievable. I sometimes just do a search on Amazon just to make sure it's real.

In the book I do photo holders out of wine bottles and was able to place pictures of the grandkids into the photo shoot. My rowdies have their pictures in my book, my ode to how much they mean to me. Faith and Sarah, my granddaughters from Arkansas spent some time with me last week. Of course we were in the studio all the time. They wanted to make some projects from the Bottle Art book. They did a great job and I wanted to share some of the pictures with you.

Decoupaged bottle and vase.

Sarah creating "Paula in a Bottle".

Since my studio is now pretty much in order, the grandkids and I are back to creating some wonderful things. As they have grown their abilities have also grown. I have always felt I learned a lot from them while we worked together in the studio, I feel that even more now that they are older. We brainstorm about some of my upcoming art pieces as well as how they want to work on their own piece of art. My goal when they were smaller was to acquaint them with the wonderful world of art materials. Now that they know more about the possibilities of these materials they are some of my most treasured critics.

Faith and Rylan.

My youngest grandson, Rylan, is soon to be 8 months old, it will be great to have a tiny little person in the studio with me again showing him all the wonders of art and craft. I have tried putting a crayon in his hand..but alas it still goes instantly to the mouth..so he is not yet ready..but I am...ready and waiting!