In this issue...

• Playing—Or Not Playing—By The Rules
• Upcoming Workshops
• Upcoming Events
• Ongoing Events

As part of his retirement plan, my husband, John, decided to go back to school to get a math degree. (Yep, you read that right. It wouldn’t be MY choice, but…) For one of his classes, he’s been tasked with writing a paper where the only instructions are “It has to have something to do with math.” While being able to write about practically anything might seem thrilling to some, he’s finding it quite challenging, as there are so many things he could write about. He’d much rather have more parameters.

I’m sure that John will come up with a topic, but his struggle is one that many artists face as well. Instead of not having any ideas—aka “blank page syndrome,” which can also be difficult—they wrestle with having too many. "What medium do I want to work with? What specific project do I want to work on? Where do I want to start?" they ponder.

The originators of Zentangle®—a method of creating images by drawing structured patterns—came up with a brilliant strategy to address both potential stumbling blocks. Practitioners start by drawing a “string,” a line that separates their paper into sections that contain “tangles,” or predefined patterns. The sections serve as containers, or boundaries, within which to work. For newbies, the boundaries determine where practitioners SHOULD place their tangles; for more experienced folks, the boundaries suggest where practitioners CAN place their tangles. The strings provide scaffolding for the first group and a challenge for the second.
 

In the case of Zentangle, it is usually the more experienced artists who have the courage to venture outside the lines. For some folks, however, “rules” are almost always confining, even if they're trying to learn something; they PREFER ambiguity.

I encourage you to notice what conditions inspire your best work. Do you appreciate having just two or three options when making a choice (like me!), or would you rather have an entire catalogue to choose from? Neither preference is better, but it’s helpful to know what your preference is.

And there’s nothing wrong with creating artificial, or eliminating restrictive, boundaries if that’s what energizes you. For example, if you're struggling to write a paper on “anything," you might pick three potential subjects, and choose from one of those. If you dislike following "strings," you might ignore recommendations, and do your own thing. 

This month, we still have a few seats left for our Dot Mandala Painting for Beginners workshop. As the title suggests, the instructor, Nicole Haning, has geared the class to first-time painters and will be using a template and other techniques to make it easy to follow along. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t dismiss Nicole’s guidance and create your own design.    

And remember the Zentangle Method I mentioned earlier? Next month, we’re offering an opportunity to learn that as well. Certified Zentangle Teacher, Susan Goodman, has been encouraging students to play inside (and outside) the lines for years. If you take the Zentangle for Beginners workshop, I promise that you’ll have fun no matter which way you go!

I look forward to creating with you!

​—​​​​​​Pam Robbins, Owner

Upcoming Workshops

Upcoming Events

Ongoing Events