Squam-ed!

I'm home! I am so glad to be back in a warm, comfy bed, but I am already so home-sick for Squam.
I have never been to an art retreat that was so exhausting (and cold!), but so mind altering. If you get the chance to attend, please go. I met so many new friends - I wish I could have brought a few home to play with.

Rustic. Just assume that it will be freezing cold and your room will only have open screens on the windows... and you will be fine. Yes, sleeping in a hat and scarf does help.

Oh what a view! (from our cabin's screen porch.)

Squam Lake has lots of little inlets - the camp sprawls around a bunch of them.

"Sticks & Stones" Class - we had a half hour to integrate some clay into the environment.

"Sticks & Stones" - mud creatures.

"Sticks & Stones" - next we had to create something out of sticks. I made a temple for a horned stick god I found in the woods. The pathway is made from chips of mica. It looked much more impressive in real life.

"Sticks & Stones"- close-up of the horned stick god.

"Sticks & Stones" - my big installation was an archway with a pinecone carpet. It seemed like a good idea at the time... but I couldn't feel my fingertips for 2 days after bending down the saplings and tying all those knots.

This is Brandi - she does amazing pet portraits (www.paintedrabbit.com)

"Painting in a Day"- I re-interpreted my mud creatures onto canvas with acrylics and torn paper. Now they are roguish slugbabies.

And one more time. The slugbabies have gone cute. Well, cuter.

The last class was "Three Tools"- I learned to use a jigsaw, a drill and a tape measure (and a hammer!) I decided to make a dining table for my ... ah, my daughter's dolls. I learned to woodburn too!

I brought the table back to the cabin and sat in the sunshine painting it until it was too dark to see anymore. Aah life is good.

Sat. night was the Squam Art Fair. Large blocks of glowing ice lined the walkways.

Jonatha Brooke was selling her albums (and dressed in bottle caps). She is so amazing. She sang us a bunch of songs she wrote with Woody Guthrie. :-)  If you aren't hip to music, ask your kids, she even has a track on "Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure" - oooh!

The Square Peg Breakfast Club. Funny how the introverts tend to eat near the edges of the dining room. Caryn, Shelly, Carrie, Me, Retta. There were a few others who were fun dining companions, but they didn't survive til Sunday morning.

A Squidoo Lens of My Book!

Ragged Edge has done a really nice "Lens" with a review of my book, Totally Tangled!
How exciting! And now you are mostly wondering, "What the heck is a lens?" That is best answered by exploring the site. Go look!

Meanwhile... Back at the Master Class...

Yes, it's a little late, but I finally took some quick pics of what I created at the Zentangle Master Class in Newport, RI in August. I really loved working on the illuminated letter. I did a "Bee" for Bartholomew and, of course, for "Beez Ink Studio".  It took FOREVER to fill in all the sections two days, plus I stayed up until 2am the last night) - this piece is about 13" wide and twice that tall. We were to color in our central letter section with tasteful, muted shades of watercolors... I'm not very good at "tasteful." I like bright and juicy, so I used my Inktense pencils and I really love the way it turned out.
The second piece was even larger, but our tangles were drawn bigger too. I love doing highlights and shadows, so this was a blast. Though I didn't actually... like... my piece until I added the little pile of Jetties at the bottom and the few slipping out of the main design. I think it is my illustrator's nature to need some kind of a "story." Speaking of stories, if you ever get a chance to talk with Rick or Maria, be sure to ask them where the name "Jetties" comes from! You will be very amused.

Yes, it does rather look like a shopping cart! (Unintentional).

Close up detail of Jetties pile

If you are sorry that you couldn't be at the workshop, you are in luck! Suzanne McNeil (from Design Originals) made an incredible video (actually 2 parts) that she posted on YouTube. I'm interviewed in Part A. Most of us spent a few hours being terrified to appear on camera for a few minutes. :-) Yes, I am camera shy. Oh and be sure to watch Part B too as there are lots of actual demos on how to draw some new Tangles, done by the CZTs. If you watch the videos in a hot, humid room, it will feel like you were actually there with us! But seriously, if they offer this Master Class next year, SIGN up ASAP! (Unless you are a "traditionalist" Zentangle fanatic. In which case you would hate it. Tee hee).

Zentangles of Healing

Hey all, I got permission from Mary Ann to reprint her email letter here on my blog. I love the idea of creating Zentangles to help others heal. And I believe that it really does help... and it certainly doesn't HURT! So if you have a moment tomorrow, send healing, protective thoughts to Mary Ann, and if you have two moments ;-D create a tangle for her too. And by the way, Mary Ann is a "Totally Tangled" artist, a really cool lady, and one of my role models. So let's take care of her with our thoughts and prayers. Cheers!

"It's MaryAnn here, from CZT class #1.  I recently found out that I have a couple of nodes growing in 2 sections of my lungs that shouldn’t be there.  It’s been decided that they have to be removed and the date set for that is Sept. 7^th.   Since I've had a bit of time to prepare for it, I’ve been using a program called Prepare for Surgery and Heal Faster by Peggy Huddleston (google her name if you want to know more about it, it's excellent for anyone having surgery, big or small).  It endeavors to bring focus on the positive aspects of what’s happening and so I’m trying to come up with some creative approaches to this. 

One of the exercises is to picture yourself first as you are healing and then again already healed, doing something you love to do.  Well, that’s an easy image…. making and teaching Zentangle!  I’m hoping some of you can help me with this.  If you would, pick a date between Sept. 7^th and October 7^th and on that day send me one of your tangled tiles.  Each day, I plan on feeling better and better, stronger and stronger until I am healed and whole again (this could take a couple of months but I’m being optimistic!  LOL)  And, as each Zentangle arrives, with its love and healing energy stored up in the Tangles, I will be building a mosaic of strength and support from my Zentangle friends and colleagues.  (mailing address is below)

I plan on journaling my journey down this road and hope to use my recovery time to continue to grow personally and professionally.  Maybe by using Zentangle as part of my recovery “tools”, I’ll be able to learn to help others use it too and I’ll share that with y’all.

I’m also having a prayer circle begin praying for me ½ hour before my surgery time.  If you wish to participate, please begin 8am Sept. 7^th and while you are praying or just sending postive energy (in whatever fashion you are comfortable with) please imagine that you are wrapping me in a beautiful Southwestern Indian blanket of love.  The actual visualization of that image will help you to focus the energy.  That’s it.  Thank you so much.

As soon as possible after the surgery, I'll send out an email update.

"WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS, MAKE LEMONADE!"  (or Zentangles!)

With greatfulness and affection

MaryAnn, CZT (Class #1)"

MaryAnn Scheblein-Dawson
Origami Specialist and Certified Zentangle Teacher

217 Hoffman Street

Franklin Square, NY  11010

Good Times in the Graveyard

Pardon my recent obsession with graves... but here's another update.
Yesterday was my grandmother's birthday. And although I love Harry Potter as much as the next 40 year old with the reading level of a 12 year-old, I did not celebrate Gram's "Death Day" with a party this past spring. In my mind, she is still the funny, silly, brave, ALIVE woman whom I admire and miss so much. Not the freaky-screaming-shell who vaguely resembled my Grandma on a really bad day. So which one would I rather celebrate?

Since she has a new stone, and it was her birthday, I coaxed my kids, my mom, and my mother-in-law out to the graveyard for a little picnic. My son and I had made a chocolate cake (Gramma loved chocolate) and we all ate until we were sugar crazed. Lilah took off running around the cemetery like a banshee and Ellie trailed after her. I had been disappointed that Gramma was buried in this new cemetery - no old interesting stones, no trees, just lots and lots of empty grass and an occasional altar with beer bottles or flowers... but now I realized this was the perfect spot. I didn't have to say"be careful, don't step on...." because it was mostly empty. So go ahead and run, burn that sugar rush! Meanwhile, Alex and I built a marshmallow "cake" into the shape of a heart and I wrote on it with frosting. The ants thought they had died and gone to heaven! Maybe Waterloo Cemetery is actually the Valhalla for ants? Well, it was yesterday. And after a week of steady, dreary rain, Gramma had somehow managed to conjure up an absolutely perfect sunny, cool day.

It really was one of the nicest parties I have been to in a long time! And I was imagining that, after the sun set, a small brown bear would wander out of the trees and gobble down the remaining marshmallows. Then she'd sit herself down against the bench, with her picture on it, and have a little snooze. She'd dream about a lady with lovely smooth, pink skin, mischievous blue eyes surrounded by laugh lines, and the heart of a bear. And for that minute, the bear would wonder 'Am I a woman dreaming of being a bear, or a bear dreaming that I am a woman?' And my Grandmother would look down from where she is watching and have a good laugh.

Tangle on... and on... and on...

Wowza! Sandra Strait has published a list of all the Tangle names she could find from the web, the books and the official Zentangle site and kits... take a look at her blog! It's a great way to see if a name has already been used when you are designing your own Tangles. And Sandra, I'm assuming you do not have any small children still at home, right. Otherwise, you have WAY too much free time on your hands! (yep, I'm jealous - but I love lists!)

A Grave Situation

 It's been over a year since my grandmother died (read the post about her here). Her grave finally has a gravestone! It seemed a bit... well, I'm not sure what the word would be. I mean, she was buried in a tote bag for goodness sakes. I kept bugging my mother about getting a nice stone, but it wasn't until this spring that inspiration struck.

We stopped over in Paris on the way to our Holy Lands Adventure. The plan had been to visit the Catacombs, but when we arrived, there was a line all the way around the block. And visitors only enter in groups of 11 or so. I figured we would be standing in line all day before we even made it to the gate. Ugh. So we wandered over to the nearest, free, macabre attraction - the Montparnasse Cemetery. We roamed for hours. I have never been in a more fascinating graveyard. This was more like a little city and filled with famous scientists', authors' and artists' "homes". There was so much variety - from the Egyptian themed grave in the Jewish sector to an ultra-modern stack of granite sticks.

As we were leaving, we realized we had to make use of our inspiration to finally get a stone for Gramma Magda! And certainly not a boring gray slab.

I would have loved to have a bear shaped sculpture as her marker, but that was a bit... expensive. My mother ordered this unusual black granite bench with an engraved bear. A good compromise. The stone looks rather lonely and bare  (and a bit dirty!) without foliage and flowers. I thought it might be nice to make some cement stepping stones with the kids' handprints too. In our graveyards we often put vases of flowers. But in Paris, they have whole shrines erected. There was a grave for a 12 year-old Chinese boy  :-(  that had food in Tupperware containers, soda cans, little toys, photos, and letters. It was so sad. For the famous graves, visitors left their subway ticket stubs held down by pebbles. And on others, there were small piles of rocks. I suppose it is a way of saying, "I was here and I miss you."

A prince and a princess who died on the same day. So many stories buried here!

Guy de Maupassant (and Alex)

A very original grave!

My favorite shot. this was such a beautiful cemetery.

A stack of books!

I have always thought that you rest beneath your stone forever in peace. RIP and all that. But real estate is real estate. And if you don't keep paying the rent, well, someone else will take your spot. how creepy is that?

My grandmother shares her headstone with her mother-in-law, Jenni, her husband, Johannes, and her baby daughter, Merike. Jenni and John are actually buried somewhere on Long Island and Merike had been in a mass grave in Germany. But she was... "removed" when a large highway was built. It's nice to have them all together again in Warner, even if it is only in name.