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.

Leaky pen borders

Stop! Don't throw out that leaky pen!

You can use it to make interesting borders...

Below is the first tile I ever did with a leaky pen border.

And here's one with twisted Striping and Knightsbridge.

It's a simple matter of rolling the leaky end around over the edge of the tile. You need to be a little cautious so you don't get ink all over your fingers! Here is my first video (!!!) to show you how I go about it. (I couldn't see the camera, and the sound was on, so you can hear my husband giving me instructions!)

Below are a couple of photos showing the border in process, and what it looked like when finished. This is on eco-dyed paper.

Here is the result of the tile in the video.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Doodah, Knase,
Knightsbridge, Snail 

"Window on the Woods"
(c)2015 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Pearlz, Seljuk, Wud

I really like using Seljuk as a border with the leaky pen.
It nicely accommodates some of the blotches and irregularity. 

"The Door's Always Open"
(c)2017 Margaret Bremner
Tangles: Crezn't, Floo, Paradox, Pearlz,
Sanibelle, Seljuk, Tagh

Joy and Delight

A home bursting through the roof with happiness, surrounded by gleeful vegetation, and a big sun in a gold sky. Oddly, the metal leaf sky is not quite so over-powering in real life!

"Joy and Delight"
8.5" x 5.5"
Pen and ink on eco-dyed paper, with colored pencil, tiny gems, and metal leaf.

The sky is all metal leaf, which is awkward for photos as it shines so much. I also used metallic inks and sparkle inks. The windows are clear glazed. (I just can't rein myself in sometimes!)
Here are some detail images.

The front door and the windchime/mobile:

The text:

The whole quotation is what's known to Baha'is as a "Pilgrim's note". 

It's attributed to one of the main people but cannot be authenticated
and is therefore not considered sacred text.

"My home is a home of peace.
My home is a home of joy and delight.
My home is a home of laughter and exultation.
Whoso enters through the portals of this home
must go out with gladsome heart."

The happiness explosion:

You can see a few of the small gems I included.

The sun:

Not a journal or sketchbook

In a previous post I shared the beginnings of a book I had begun working in. I don't do journaling and I don't keep a sketchbook, but I had a lovely book waiting patiently on the shelf! Here's what's happened in it since that beginning.

At the beginning of the book I'd replaced a page with pale green vellum. On the next page I drew some tangled houses and they can be seen through the vellum.

I had done a string pull which left me with two pages to embellish. Here's the second. There's metal leaf in the partial circle at the left edge but it doesn't show very well.

The paint from the string pulling deposited a bit of paint on the edges of the next few pages. I cut the paint off by scalloping the edges with some fancy-cutting scissors and added some embellishment with metallic and sparkle pens.

I've been interested in tessellations lately and wanted to try something with trees. Unfortunately, my first effort looked more like a simple repeating pattern, but it was in the book so I just kept going. I'm not unhappy with the result, but it's not really a tessellation. I cut out a piece of hand-marbled paper for the tree on the right and added dots of metallic ink.

I had to try another tessellation on another page and decided to use a shape I've really enjoyed using in a few other projects. As you can see, this is on one of the scalloped edge pages.)

This book seems to be becoming a project unto itself. I've already begun a few other pages. More later.

ZIA Ideas: Roofs

"Early August" detail, (c)2015 Margaret Bremner
Tangles on the roofs: Crezn't, Flukes, Tagh

Shelter from weather. Star-gazing platforms.

Here are some tangles that may give you thoughts of

 ROOFS 

CREZN'T (from Margaret Bremner)
Shown on the left roof above, and in this detail from "Cloud Cover". Find step-outs at this link.

FLUKES (from Zentangle)
Shown in the middle roof of the top image, and in "No. 6 Fairy Lane" below. Find step-outs at this link.

PALREVO (from Karry Heun)
Shown below in a detail from "Cloud Cover". Find step-outs at this link.

SHING (from Margaret Bremner)
Shown below in a detail from "A Little House on the Prairie". Find step-outs at this link.

SHINGLE (from CZT Maria Copetas)
Find step-outs at this link.

TAGH (from Zentangle)
Shown on the right roof of the top image, and on the right edge below. Find step-outs at this link.

UP AND ACROSS (from CZT Suzanne McNeill)
Find step-outs in Suzanne's book Zentangle 2 - Ideas for Scrapbooks and Journals.
See an example on the right in the image below. This picture is the cover image of the 2019 Tangle-a-Day calendar, available here!

"Be Home for Supper" (c)2015 Margaret Bremner
Tangles on the roofs, left to right: Palrevo, Knightsbridge, Tagh, Shing, Zewm, Up and Across

Many square-grid tangles, if you done on an angle and in the right context, could look like a roof. Try Emingle, Tortuca, Warble, and Beelight.
You can also use many tangles designed as borders, but do several layers instead of just one.

Have fun!

Notan - houses

At the end of this post last week, I promised to show some notan-style pieces depicting houses and buildings, favorite subject matter of mine. Here they are.

I did two on classic black and white paper.

Then I tried one with white and tan paper. I think this is my least favorite. Perhaps not enough darks.

I was very happy with this black and tan one and hope to do more with these colors.

Finally, I tried a larger one, 6"x 9".

More zen-ful houses

I quite enjoyed CZT Eni Oken's lesson on zen-ful houses and have done a few more, this time stretching the boundaries somewhat!

A castle...

A night scene...

With a border of Seljuk...

Sort of Greek...

 An elaborate turret...

Books and scrolls. Where did that come from?

View the initial post here.

Zen-ful houses

As you probably know I'm quite partial to houses and other buildings as subject matter. When I saw Eni Oken's "Zenful houses" I was charmed and wanted to know more. I received her video lesson and accompanying notes and just had to try.

Here's one I tried before I had Eni's instructions, just looking at some of her examples. There are things I like, but I felt it wasn't quite 'right'.

Eni uses 4" tiles and I had some Bristol vellum paper that size so I used those. These are my next two efforts, having watched her video class. I'm happier with these.

Parts of this technique are rather graphic-design-y. Not that I mind; I tend to lean in that direction but have never had any training in that area. I learned a few things!

I also did a page in my Tangle-a-Day calendar.

If you're interested in investigating this yourself, Eni's lesson is available here.

A few more Tangle-a-Day calendar pages

I'm having fun working in the Tangle-a-Day calendar. Sometimes it gets ahead of me and I'll admit that the February 25-27 page remains blank. Now, when I'm in the swing of it, I'll work ahead a bit. It's my book and I'll do what I want. :)

Here are some of the pages I've done thus far that are perhaps a little unusual.

February 1-3 - I love Paradox, and all the wonderful variations!

February 7-9 - Houses with funky chimneys. :)

February 16-18 - "Outside the box"

February 28 - I thought I'd try to copy the tile illustration. At least the flower made it.

March 1-3 - All Romanancy. I love the 3D effects possible with this tangle.

March 4-6 - "Tangles where the gray mid-tone is critical."

March 19-21 - My first time trying Tofube. It was especially fun doing the numbers.