Four Elements

Another ZIA for you (Amy, this is a recently-coined short form for Zentangle Inspired Art; I like it as it's so much faster to type!*G*).  After yesterday's post I was feeling really grounded and positive and happy with how things were going.  Then work happened. *sigh*  I needed to find my feet again and my play journal drawings seemed to help.  The early works seem so free when seen after a gap of some months.  I like the patterns and linework.  Even the lack of shading is somehow appealing to me.  Looking backward seems to be soothing.  Hmmmm.... every night I pray - not a traditional prayer, perhaps, but more of a thought conversation.  Invariably when I begin to "talk" about the present stresses, asking for guidance / tolerance / forgiveness, I find myself led by the hand, back to the things of real worth - family, friends, relationships, the absolute wealth of gifts we all overlook every day.  I've called this ZIA "Four Elements" as it seems to embody four precious gifts - Air, Fire, Earth, Water.  I've always been drawn to water and I'm never happier than when I'm near it.  The earth and its many forms is an ongoing fascination - clay, metal, stone... it's endless.  Fire is an atavistic connection to my very soul and I've felt the need to "touch" it as long as I've had a memory.  Air is not only essential, but invigorating or soothing, compelling or repelling and always, always changing.  With these gifts we are able to survive and thrive.  Without them we cannot continue.  And yet, these four elements have been present for aeons prior to us and will exist long after.  Maybe looking back is what provides the perspective to appreciate the now.  Maybe the real appeal of my early tangling efforts is the challenge they represented and how far I've travelled since beginning the struggle to master this new expression of my art.  Maybe it's knowing that the journey has begun and promises to last... I hope you like this drawing, and I hope you enjoy your own journey.

Happy Thursday!



Reaching Up

Today I've pulled a piece of ZIA out of my play journal to share.  As life has gathered its complications over the past few years, my stress level has risen and I began to lose close contact with my innate optimism.  This made me sad to think about; dear friends once christened me "Mistress of Rainbows" for my relentless optimism.  Sometimes life gets tough.  There is always someone who has it tougher.  Life can get complicated.  There is always someone whose life is infinitely more complex.  Life gets crazy.... you get the idea.  And yet, our own experiences are valid.  Their impact on us is real.  The emotional toll is authentic.  Even while acknowledging that "life could be worse", I think it's also important to realize that the smaller challenges we may be facing are equally deserving of notice, and overcoming them is equally reason for celebration.  Every small act of creation I commit (yes, these words are deliberately chosen) is a tiny symbol of my revolt against the ugly, the hard, the harmful, the unkind, the negative.  My placing pen to paper, bead to thread, metal to form, is my personal revolution, my declaration that life is meant to be good, that we have the power within ourselves to make it so.  The sketch I share today is an early work; unshaded, simple in design, limited in tangles, and yet it remains a piece of work that I am profoundly pleased with in some visceral way.  At first I though to call it "Reaching Out", but then I had another look and realized that what my hand is REALLY doing is reaching UP - up towards the Creator, up towards opportunity, up towards the sun....  Can you see this or does it show something else to you?  Is your response the same or different?

Happy Wednesday!

Double Strung - REDUX

Gee, I'm having a lot of fun revisiting previous challenges from the Diva (http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/).  Today I played with the double-string concept again.  I made this voluptuous, twisting string and got stuck.  I liked the string, but what to do with it?  Since my imagination tends to follow a bent (not TWISTED, just BENT! *G*) path, I decided to fill in the spaces with only grid-based patterns.  Then I took yet another bend in the path and decided that all the grid patterns also had to be CURVY (see what I mean? okay, maybe twisted is possible...).  Once I was happy with this, the "ribbons" formed by the string needed to be filled.  This time I decided that only lines could be used.  Not only that, but STRAIGHT lines to fill the CURVY ribbons (yes, twisted is showing real possibility here....).  When these were completed the overall design felt a bit like a roller coaster, but somehow lacked life.  Life?  Let there be life!  I "grew" some lovely vines from the indentations of the form and voila!  I finally liked it.  In fact, I liked it a lot - do you?

Happy Tuesday!