Wow!  This has been a kind of tough week for me when it comes to the challenges and dares I love to do.  First Erin’s Zendala Dare, which asked me to draw the whole zendala in pencil (what?)!  I finished that one, and then looked at the Diva’s challenge this week which is for a brand new official Zentangle® tangle called by Schway, designed by Rick Thomas.  I had a lot of trouble with this tangle.  Not because I didn’t like it, or didn’t think it looked good the way Rick and Molly and some of you guys did it.  I just found it difficult to do.  I ruined several tiles trying to do it, and then finally got one I thought at least resembled the official tangle and was presentable enough to scan.  I’ll explain a little more after I show you my tile.

Diva-Dare-57

Tangles: Schway, Strircles, Footlights

After I finally got this one done, I tried to figure out why I didn’t like working on this particular tangle.  So many people had done so many tiles that were gorgeous, why was mine so ugly.  I broke a “rule” this time, and looked at a lot of entries while I was trying to do mine.  I think I figured out what bothered me when trying to create this tangle.

This particular tangle looks best when it’s very uniform; straight lines, identical margins, and it’s very geometric.   I think it brought out the anal side of my personality, and I didn’t like what I drew because it looked so wonky, or whatever.  There’s a reason why I’m drawn to the organic tangles, and why my grids are always started with a slightly bent line.  Zentangle has helped me to ignore my anal side, and go with the flow.  I don’t pretend to be there yet, but I’m much better than I used to be, when I was so fragmented.  A very anal personality and habits (born of necessity by my former career choices)  with a very undisciplined nature,  and a creative mind. Believe me, that is not a good place to be.  Once I figured this out, I went from “I will never use this tangle again” to “I will work on this tangle for “fun” in my sketchbook, but not on a tile”; to see if I can find the creativity within myself to turn this into a tangle I WOULD be happy to use again.

Thanks Diva for challenging me to go outside my comfort zone, and thanks Rick for designing Schway.  Your tangle is lovely when you do it, and once again Zentangle has caused me to take another look at myself, and find more enlightenment.  I’m almost 70 and you are never too old to grow!

If you are reading this, I thank you for stopping by, and I would love it if you would leave me a comment.

Linda