New Class, New Friends!

So, last Saturday I taught a Terrific class to a group of Zentangle enthusiasts in Greenwood,SC.

It was a large class, with terrific energy. It included folks of all ages and genders, and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did! I'm hearing interest in future classes, and hope we can arrange this soon.

Mosaic of our First Tile

The Second Mosaic

Focused!

Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!
maggie

Where Have I Been?

This is maggie, trying to blow the cobwebs off this blog. At some point, my header has gone awry. I'll have to work on that.
I can't exactly tell you where I've been for the last year. Sometime in October I just slipped away: from Zentangle, and from many other aspects of my life. 

I'm sure many people have wondered at my failure to respond, and I apologize.

I kept thinking I'd get back to it. After the Sun turned back toward the North in December. After the  Holiday Chaos was over. After Spring finally arrived in earnest. After, After AFTER.

My loved ones have been very patient. Probably more patient and less judgmental than I've been with myself. I was away so long, that I began to be very anxious when I thought of returning to the Blog. or anything else. 

Recently, just as I made the difficult decision to close my studio space, a new opportunity arose. A chance to participate in a show of Zentangle-inspired Art, and to offer a class to a new group of people. This opportunity came "out of the blue" so to speak, through my oldest and dearest friend, who is also a Zentangle student.

Last Friday we hung a display of work by three of my students, as well as myself (they seriously outnumber me in volume of work displayed). Martha Moore and Lee Robirds of Greenwood, SC and Savannah Willingham of Asheville, NC (as photographed by Sandra Miller).

3 by 3
Martha, Maggie, Lee

The show is at Howard's on Main Delicatessen in Greenwood, SC,and will hang through the month of October, so if you're nearby drop in!

Savannah: Tangled

Many thanks to Dohnna Boyajian, herself a Greenwood artist, who coordinated the show and the class.
And to Howard Corley (of Howard's on Main) for his support, for offering a wonderful space for display, and for his Fine Food!

For some reason, I'm having a dreadful time getting my photos "right-side-up."

I'm going to quit fighting it, and post this as is.

More tomorrow.

Blessed be, and Joyous Tangling!

A Party, and a little Hope.

I was away from home this past weekend. I dutifully printed out the sunflower template and took it with me.
But my pen wanted to do something else:

It was a terrific gathering: all 4 children, 2 of their spouses, 5 of 8 grandchildren, plus my son's fiancee & daughter, and 3 of 3 great-grandchildren!

Dad appeared quite happy with the whole thing, and it was great to have time to visit with family: we're so scattered that we never get enough!

I also had the opportunity to share some Zentangle !

Hope

I did actually complete a tile for the Hope Challenge last week. And I found loads of awesome, inspiring quotations on Hope. I'm not going to include them all here today, but I'll probably use them again sometime.
Of course I worked two 12-hour shifts last weekend, so never got this posted.

Of course, my thoughts began with Emily Dickinson's lovely verse:
         

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune-- without the words,

And never stops at all,

So my tile was very "feathery,"  and of course full of growing things, as well. I used Carole Ohl's "Featherfall,"  Sandra Strait's "Jay" and "Heron,"

and Zentangle's Pendrils, as well my usual Flux variation, and a heart-shaped tangleation of "Pepper"

I want to add a quotation from Robert Kennedy which I thought was quite meaningful for us as artists, bloggers  and Zentangle enthusiasts. 

Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

We need to remember the power we have, and send it out into the world respectfully and responsibly. Hope, Love, Beauty, Peace. . .  so many ideals that we can influence and give our energy to, quietly but powerfully!

Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!

Late Again!!

. . . for the Diva's 41st Weekly Challenge! I actually completed 2 tiles while at my son's house last night, but by the time we got home I was too tired to post them.

I just spent a couple of lovely hours looking through this week's entries. It's always fun to see all the different interpretations of the theme. This week the Challenge is a "DuoTangle:" create a tile (or ZIA) using only 2 tangles: thee official Zentangle tangles Jonqal & Opus.

Laura once again managed to come up with two tangles that I generally don't use, so there was a "learning curve." I still want to play around some more with Opus. It does have that luscious curviness, and plenty of ways to vary it.

At any rate: here are my attempts at "Duotangle v II"

"Opus 1"

I feel of like I don't quite have the necessary "looseness" and  flow of Opus yet.

But it's about the PROCESS, right? and my process will involve further practice with this one!!


Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!

"Opus 2"

Pinwheels for Peace

I missed last week's Challenge from the Diva . It took me Forever to come up with Inspiration for the "Love is all you need" challenge, and then I had to work all weekend. So that piece is still a "work in progress.

That Challenge invited us to express the Love that can change the world, and Laura related that to America's great tragedy of 9/11/2001.
And springing from that, this week's Challenge:Pinwheels for Peace . You can read more about the Pinwheels for Peace project here. It's a worldwide visual celebration of the International Day of Peace (September 21). AND it uses the terrific slogan "Imagine . . . whirled peace!"

So Laura challenged us to draw and tangle, or otherwise create pinwheels. Because Saturday sneaked up on me again, I elected the "flat version," but maybe next year I can get myself, my resources, my friends and family together ahead of time!

I did do three tiles, and then to emulate a cluster of pinwheels in the wind, I put them all on the scanner together.

 In "real life" I really don't like the first one I did, which is in the center above, but the contrast between the patterns shows much better in the scanned version! Sometimes I love my scanner -- and sometimes I don't  ;  ).

For now,
Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!

More soon!