Quotations and art - Circles

For many years my focus in art was mandalas, and - consequently - circles. I love that they are a symbol for so many things I hold important: unity, eternity, safety, wholeness, oneness. At that time I collected a lot of quotations about the circle and its symbolism.

I still create mandalas, and sometimes they show up unannounced. 

"Until we extend the circle of our compassion

to all living things, we will not, ourselves, find peace."

Albert Schweitzer

"Les Quartiers de la Ville"
Commission for individual
2007, 24" square, acrylic; ©2017 Margaret Bremner

"Everything the Power of the World does, is done in a circle. 

The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests where the Great Spirit meant for us 

to hatch our children."

Black Elk, medicine man and visionary of the Oglala Sioux

"Expecting Triplets"
7"x8" mixed media, ©2017, Margaret Bremner, available

"Let your vision be world-embracing,

rather than confined to your own self."

Baha'u'llah

"Playful Planet"
10.5"x10.5" mixed media, ©2016, Margaret Bremner, sold

"A wheel was shown to me, wonderful to behold...Divinity...is like a wheel, a circle, a whole, that can neither be understood, nor divided, nor begun nor ended...no one has the power to divide this circle, to surpass it, or to limit it.” 

Hildegard of Bingen

"Wheelies"
3.5" square, mixed media, ©2016, Margaret Bremner, sold

Want more? See A few favorite quotations... (and art) here.
And Quotations and art - Ways of seeing here.

Have you noticed hubcaps?

I was out walking the other day and noticed an interesting hubcap. Then I noticed other hubcaps. What wonderful inspiration for mandala designs! Simply plug "hubcap photos" into an image search engine and you'll find lots of inspiration! Here are five, along with the hubcap that inspired them.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Doodah, Fife, Hibred,
Prestwood, Skyesil, Zewm

Tangles: Dewd, Icantoo, Mazorito, Snail

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Fohbraid, Gewgle,
Tipple, Zewm

Tangles: Apacore, Cubine, and elements of
Moonwaves and Tripoli, and more.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Prestwood, Slowpoke, and more

Strircles, and then some

Today let's take a trip down another tangle rabbit hole. This time it's Zentangle's tangle Strircles, a combination of stripes and circles.

I tend to think of the circles as relatively evenly spaced, but why not cluster them in one area and draw them sparsely in another? The tile below was stained with a hibiscus teabag first. I wanted white stripes at the outer edges to enhance the fade-out look, and I added Beadlines to the outer lines for a little interest.

Or, how about double circles? A Cheerios version. 😁

Of course, scale always makes a difference. Try drawing Strircles much larger, then add interest to the dark half-circles or stripes, or both.

But what about Oopses?!? I find it remarkably easy to accidentally fill the 'wrong' space. Opportunity knocks! I often opt for a gray tone of thin pen lines. As with any Oops, do it again a few times and it looks intentional. 😉

Tangles: Ayame, Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Pearlz, Strircles

I had done a blind contour drawing of my glasses sitting on my desk, and that's what I used for this next tile. Lots of oops possibilities here because the lines and circles did not meet in a regular fashion.

We had bought some brie cheese and I noticed that the bottom of the container was made of very thin wood. Respecting some stripes in the wood, I drew several lines with a clear Glaze pen, stained parts of it with diluted ink, then tangled on it. I used Sakura's Moonlight pens as they are nicely opaque, although I had to do two or three layers because the wood is quite porous.

Have fun exploring Strircles!

Creating asymmetrical mandalas

There are those who are not fans of the geometry and regularity of a classic mandala. One blog follower commented:

“I am not enamored of round Zentangles … I think it is purely that I cannot bear to do the repetition involved as well as not enjoying having to get things to work out so precisely… Too much like geometry? Too mathematical.” 

Compositional art theory knows that some repetition contributes to the unity of the whole. It could be repetition of pattern, but also color, shape, texture, technique, etc.. When I was doing larger mandalas in acrylic paint, some of that repetition became rather not fun, but for the result to be what I wanted, the repetition was necessary. Here's one of those paintings.

"Bindu Lotus" 16" diameter, acrylic paint

The repeat aspect of structured patterns is part of the zen of Zentangle, but I understand that repeating that same tangle pattern six or eight or twelve times around can become dull!

For those interested in circular work, but who balk at the repetition, I have a few ideas.

NO STRING

Choose a tangle with circular possibilities, perhaps Fengle, Auraknot, Aquafleur or LinQ. Depending on the tangle, you may choose to begin at the center or the perimeter. The tile below uses LinQ towards the periphery. You can see that the sections are uneven, and they are detailed in a variety of ways.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Bunzo, Flux, Krli-qs, LinQ, Pearlz

LOOPED STRING

Start with an irregular, looped string. Below, while I didn't use the same tangle in all the 'petals', there is some repetition. I also used two variations of Tripoli outside the white 'petals'. Ixorus provides the many thin, white stripes.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Ixorus, Pearlz, Tripoli,
and some things I just felt like doing at the time.

OFF-CENTER CIRCLES
Draw pencil circles as the string but do them deliberately off-center from each other. You might want to collect a few lids of different sizes for this, or draw them freehand for more irregular 'circles'. You can fill each ring with a different 'border' tangle, or whatever you feel like.

Off-center circles by Jean Chamberlain Therkauf.

Tangles: Coaster, Fohbraid, Lamar, Marasu, Paisley Boa, Wud

GROW A MANDALA

Using an organic drawing process will give you some imprecise elements. Go to this blog post, watch the video, and give it a try.

https://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-grow-mandala.html

BLIND, OR NON-DOMINANT HAND

Find a simple mandala design you like and draw it with your non-dominant hand, or draw it blind if you feel more adventurous! Here's a little African bowl and the drawing I did with my left hand. Below it is the tangled zendala tile.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Doodah, variations of Sez, Zewm, Zonked

Zentangle's Project Pack #08

There's always something new coming out of ZTHQ! I quite enjoy these project packs and I always learn something (usually several somethings). This particular pack introduces five of Sakura's new Moonlight pens, with lovely opaque ink.

DAY ONE
On a black Apprentice tile, Munchin with orbs.

DAY TWO
A black Apprentice tile and a white 3Z tile, with a little trick!

Tangles: Hollibaugh, Tripoli, Well, plus dots

DAY THREE
On a white 3Z tile, we made little "jellyfish" starting with Tripoli's triangles, then shaded.

DAY FOUR
On a white, pre-strung zendala tile, we filled the spaces with three tangles.

Tangles: Bunzo, Printemps, and Knightsbridge

DAY FIVE
On a black, pre-strung zendala tile, we filled the spaces randomly with six particular tangles, then added graphite shading and white chalk highlights.

DAY SIX
We divided a white, pre-strung zendala tile in half using Mi2, then filled one half in black and white, the other half in  color.

Tnangles: Knightsbridge, Mi3, Shattuck

 DAY SEVEN
On a black Apprentice tile we created some large-petaled flowers and filled the petals many different ways, then added leaves and more.

DAY EIGHT
These are my first two of six Renaissance 3Z tiles which will all have similar tangling.

Tangles: Well, and lots of Auras

9th anniversary give-away!

As promised yesterday, for the 9th anniversary of my blog I'm having

An anniversary give-away!!!

1

"Revealed"

This is drawn on a blank zendala tile 

and includes a tiny sparkly gem at the center.

2

"24 Carat Mandala"
Created on one of Zentangle's pre-strung zendalas 

at the first zenAgain gathering, in 2016.

It's real 24-carat gold leaf!

3

"Moon Mandala"

Created on a pre-strung, 9-pointed, zendala tile.
At the center is a pencil drawing of a full moon.
The Glaze ink masks it somewhat in the photo.

4

"Tropical Mandala"

Created on a pre-strung, 9-pointed, zendala tile.
It includes a bit of collage and scalloped edges.
The central 'petals' are clear Stardust (sparkle) ink.

5

"Paradox Mandala"

Created on a pre-strung, 9-pointed, zendala tile.
Paradox is one of many favorite tangles.

6

"Triad Star"

Created on a pre-strung, 9-pointed, zendala tile.
A slightly angled photo to show the
white-on-white Printemps on the white points.

7

"Sunflower Mandala"

Created on a pre-strung, 9-pointed, zendala tile. 

8

"Rainbow Passage"
Lots of color!
A zenbutton in rainbow colors on a pre-strung, 9-pointed, zendala tile.
The center is black glazed and there are 27 tiny gems.

9
"Femininity Star"
Created on a pre-strung, 9-pointed, zendala tile.

A triangle with the point at the bottom
is sometimes a symbol of the feminine.

THE DETAILS

• This give-away will run for nine days, from right now until midnight (end of day) October 26. 
• You can only win one piece of art. Nothing is framed or mounted; that's up to you.
• If you win, I'll e-mail you for your postal address and pop it in the mail to you.

How can you enter the giveaway? Simple! Rafflecopter will assist.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!

About as Crazy as It Gets

This is especially for all you Crazy Huggins fans out there!

I had a piece of eco-dyed paper with 'spots' from eucalyptus leaves:

Here it has a few of the 'spots' outlined in brown ink.

I couldn't see any trees or houses or flowers in the marks. Lots of moons, maybe. I didn't have a clue what to do with it for a loooong time. Suddenly it struck me that Huggins has a lot of circles! No, wait. CRAZY Huggins!!!

I outlined most of the circles, deciding to sacrifice a few. These circles would need to be darker than the connecting curved bands. I thought about what tangles could be dark and would fit in a small circle, and which tangles would work in a long space.

I decided to include a gem for some 'pop'. I eliminated the pink at the top left. I made two screws á la Maria. In the end, there IS one moon! After a lot of shading, here is the finished work.

All the tangles:
Appease, Beadlines, Bilt, Bosch, Crescent Moon, Cubine, Drobbles, Emingle,
Fohbraid, Gewgle, Gneiss, Icantoo, Jonqal, Knightsbridge, Koril, Kuke,
Paradox, Pearlz, Snag, Tamisolo, Tipple, Zewm, Ziabolic, Zonked
Plus: Auras, triquetras, a Chinese coin, and striping with a twist

Here's a detail of one section.

And that, I think, is "About as Crazy as It Gets". :)