The Quiet Side

Exploring the unseen benefits of creative focus.

Reflect :  to think quietly and calmly

With all the busyness in our lives, it can be scary to stop and reflect on what we are doing and how our days are spent. But it is so important to a refreshed mind.  I don’t really do well with just meditation. I have tried – but found that I am much better when I have a repeatable, repetitive activity to help give my hands something to do while my mind takes stock.

Whether you sit quietly with a cup of tea in the afternoon, take a walk in your neighborhood or spend time on creativity, allowing yourself the time to reflect each day can help you keep ahead of feeling overwhelmed.

I use a regular practice with Zentangle as a way to reflect.  I also may find the same benefit from other repetitive tasks like ironing, taking a walk or swimming.  Anything where I have something “to do” and need to focus on the task at hand can be a reflection tool for me.

I have written about this in previous posts, and I am a big believer that with the right frame of mind the most mundane task can become an awesome place of focus, relaxation and reflection instead of a chore.

Try This

Think about carving out some time to give yourself permission to reflect.  If you can set aside the time for a focused creative past time like Zentangle, that is wonderful. If your day won’t allow it – look for that opportunity in something you are doing anyway – where you can let your mind relax a bit as your hands or feet do their thing.

deliberate – still – appreciate – quiet – focus – trust – deconstruct – beautiful – reflect – relax – discover – create – comfort – shade – breathe – inspire – be bold – embellish – savor – slow – calm – admire

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The Quiet Side

Exploring the unseen benefits of creative focus.

Beautiful and Beyond:  in addition

The nonrepresentational nature of Zentangle makes each tile, or page in your journal delightful each time you look at it anew, each time you look at it from a different angle. Holding your tile near or far, you see something different.

Putting my tile away and looking at it again a few days, weeks or months later I always find something new to appreciate about the design, strokes and shading.   But beyond how the tile looks – l love to make a note on the back of the tile, or along the side of my journal page – what was going on that day, where was I working on the tile, what sorts of decisions were weighing down my brain.

Often what is most beautiful about some of my tiles are what is beyond the visual. The moments I was able to give over to relaxation in a busy time. Or a solution to a problem that came to me while I focused on each stroke of a tile, helping me to clear my head in order to find the answer. Writing notes to myself, sort of a journal of tangling on the backs of the tiles helps me remember what I enjoy most about Zentangle. The simple process allows me to clear my head, relax the running thoughts in my brain and refresh myself to see what is Beautiful and Beyond.

Did you know?

Bijou is a little mascot of Zentangle and has lots of little inspirational phrases about Zentangle, like Beautiful and Beyond. Read more about Bijou here.

deliberate – still – appreciate – quiet – focus – trust – deconstruct – beautiful – reflect – relax – discover – create – comfort – shade – breathe – inspire – be bold – embellish – savor – slow – calm – admire

Sign up for my blog to allow yourself to get inspiration and some fun tangling exercises right to your inbox.

The Quiet Side

Exploring the unseen benefits of creative focus.

Deconstruct  :  to take apart or examine in order to reveal the basis or composition of often with the intention of exposing biases, flaws, or inconsistencies

In last week’s Quiet Side post, I talked about deconstruction and the patterns all around you. Here are some more that I have found along the way.  I’m going to start with my most exciting find!

One of my favorite go to tangles is ‘NZeppel – shown here on a black tile with white gel pen. I love doing it in squares or random. It doesn’t seem like a “pattern” necessarily but then I found the photo below on an old Overlanding Journal magazine, it is cracked ice that the photographer is standing on. Isn’t that awesome?

Next – this basket and piece of wood remind me a lot of Marasu, which is also a favorite.  I was playing around with a dremel to carve out the wood between the rings, and might have to try a different shading technique to see if I can do something similar on the tangle.

This clutch totally reminded me of Diva Dance, and is the perfect size to hold a tangling kit. You just never know what treasure you will find in a thrift store!

If you look closely – on this chair fabric the ovals are anchored by dots – this would be a great variation of a grid pattern that starts with dots similar to how Cadent or Huggins are built.

When I look at the patterns around me – there are so many to inspire me to pick up my pen!!

Happy Tangling,

Kellie

deliberate – still – appreciate – quiet – focus – trust – deconstruct – beautiful – reflect – relax – discover – create – comfort – shade – breathe – inspire – be bold – embellish – savor – slow – calm – admire

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The Quiet Side

Exploring the unseen benefits of creative focus.

Deconstruct  :  to take apart or examine in order to reveal the basis or composition of often with the intention of exposing biases, flaws, or inconsistencies

After I started practicing Zentangle, I noticed patterns everywhere. Carpets, upholstery, clothing and nature.  Patterns are everywhere, and it is always so fascinating and so much fun when I see a new one that intrigues me.  One of my website pages is devoted to found patterns and other forms I use for tangling.

When I see a pattern, I love to think about if there is an existing tangle that recreates the pattern I have found, and if not, how can I use existing tangles to find it.  An example of this is a carpet, with a floral center that is very close to huggins.

Hotel Carpet

huggins and flux found in a carpet pattern

What are the elemental strokes in each pattern? What makes it relaxing to draw, where are the lines, dots and curves of its shape?

Staring at the woven pattern of my scarf, or the repeating pattern on a blanket, I wonder about the artist who came up with the repeating design and what their inspiration was. Do they draw it the same way I would? Probably not – as I have learned meeting many other artists we all do things a little differently, we all see different elements in patterns, even if we eventually draw something similar.

Try This

Over the course of the next week, I challenge you to notice the patterns around you, and see if the shapes are familiar enough to break down into elemental strokes.  I’ll post some more next week, and if you find any you would like to share, send them my way! 

deliberate – still – appreciate – quiet – focus – trust – deconstruct – beautiful – reflect – relax – discover – create – comfort – shade – breathe – inspire – be bold – embellish – savor – slow – calm – admire

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The Quiet Side

Exploring the unseen benefits of creative focus.

Trust :  one in which confidence is placed

Every time I teach a class, I am asking students to trust me to teach them something new. More importantly I am asking them to trust themselves, and their ability to focus and relax.

Seeing completed Zentangle artwork can be intimidating. All the beautiful patterns and compositions appear complicated.  Through the first tile of every class I teach, students hold their breath, tense their grip and fight with their own bodies to get ink onto their tile. They tell me they can’t draw or they aren’t creative.

As children we know we can do anything! We will grow up to rule the world and be the best at everything.  When we are young, we have not had years’ of negative talk telling ourselves, or someone else telling us, that we aren’t good at something, we aren’t artists, we shouldn’t take the time to be creative.

For adults, having a creative outlet where practice is a key part in the activity – where you regularly participate in the art or craft – can help you break those negative voices. Regularly spending time on an activity and learning something new each time you do so can little by little help your confidence come to the surface.

Recently I tried the following variation of a tangling exercise when I was having a busy time in life, and lots of trouble focusing day after day.  I felt like I could not draw a straight line. For days I was frustrated with my ability and taking it back to the basics allowed me to enjoy this creative journey again.

If you regularly tangle, sketch or draw, and find yourself in a rut, or if you haven’t picked up a pen in a while, try this exercise.  It takes us back to childhood a little bit, we did this a lot as kids using crayons, and it definitely shares some characteristics with Zentangle.

Try This

On a clean piece of paper, draw a curvy squiggly line that overlaps and intersects.  Within those spaces rather than coloring within the lines, as you may have when a child, fill the space with straight parallel lines.  Rotate the paper as you want, to change the direction of the lines, but keep drawing the lines in the same repetitive pattern, the same directional motion each time. Keeping the same motion is key to helping you relax into a pattern.

deliberate – still – appreciate – quiet – focus – trust – deconstruct – beautiful – reflect – relax – discover – create – comfort – shade – breathe – inspire – be bold – embellish – savor – slow – calm – admire

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