It's the half way point of the 30 days of art challenge and a full moon all at once! (Not quite sure why that has me so excited -- it just does :)
Today, I felt a certain amount of resistance to doing art, and especially to displaying my effort. I think it's because I've suddenly become an intense critic of my work. I have a tendency to push and push to get "better," which only serves to take the joy out of the effort. And then I just stop doing.
This time, I decided to take another approach. I wanted to do something much more free flowing and abstract than I've been doing in my other projects. Plus, I'm always curious about new ideas. All this led me to try my hand at a zentangle. Have you heard of them? I didn't until just a few weeks ago. Basically, it seems to be a meditative form of doodling.
So that's what I did -- I doodled. I create a zentangle in the form of a mandala. And an interesting thing happened in the process; I heard The Voice of the critic loud and clear as I doodled away. It is the same Voice that appears when I'm doing other creative work, such as my writing. But this time, it was different. This time I heard The Voice whine on about how I "wasn't doing it right," and that one thing was "ugly" while another would be great if I just didn't mess it up. Finally, I just had to laugh: This is a doodle for heaven's sake! There is no right or wrong.
I thanked The Voice very much for its contribution, and I went on about my business.
4 comments:
Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I am returning the favor. I like your zentangle. I love zentangle sort of. I like doing them but I do not like the business of it. Some people decided to copy right doodling and call it zentangle. I was watching some you tube videos and one lady made a comment, doodling and zentangle are two different things. Another comment asked the question... what is the difference?
The difference I found out is you go to a class that you pay for and learn to zentangle and become a teacher and then you can use the art form. The rest of us are too smart to pay to learn to zentangle so we just doodle.
I like one way somebody described zentangle, doodling with a purpose.
Thanks Karen for stopping by and for leaving a comment. I appreciate the effort.
Yes, I've noticed quite a firestorm has developed around Zentangle. I think there is some truth to both positions -- probably the people who "invented" (we need a better word!) their own Zentangle process offer something unique and helpful to some. And self-directed work offers benefits to others. I've never done a Zentangle class but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it. I very much enjoy that kind of thing -- almost as much as I enjoy doing my own thing! So here's to multiple possibilities existing at once.
I look forward to seeing the body of your work evolve during this 30 day art challenge.
Your Mandala is wonderful I especially like that you added words, and didn't stick to traditional symmetry! I don't know if you'd be interested, but I facilitate a Mandala Prompt group at Wild Precious Studios. We'd love to have you join if you think it's something you'd like!
Thx Barbara -- I'm checking it out now!
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