In Maine for Mandalas

As part of my attempt to get myself out of my house and back into the creative world... I pushed myself... HURLED myself - out of my house and all the way to the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel in Bar Harbor, ME, for the Creative Solstice Mandala retreat hosted by Jenny Peruzzi.

Wowza. Not only did I learn a ton about all kinds of Mandalas, but I re-found my "Tribe". I've been out of the Zentangle Universe (for many reasons) for the last 10 years and I'd forgotten how good it feels to hang out with a bunch of women who "get it" and geek out on learning new art techniques and playing with art supplies!

I also got to visit with my mom in her nursing home, help her rearrange and organize her space, and load my car with all the junk that she didn't want anymore. And as I write this, I'm recharging for a day in Ogunquit - my favorite place on earth.

Here's what I created on the retreat:

This Owl-Bear emerged after a lesson on Chakras and a guided meditation through a forest - where I saw a huge owl who transformed into a giant bear... but was still an owl too. Hard to explain - but its face looked like the Third Eye Chakra, And there was a very real, painful throbbing in my forehead that appeared and then disappeared. So this has something to do with trusting my intuition, and light (symbolized by the rainbow).

I love mandalas with words and playing with the lettering.

This one spins in four sections! And it has Bling on the tangled pieces.

We learned about many different mandalas and how they appear in many cultures. This next one is the Four Gates Mandala - mine is something to do with light in the darkness.

And my favorite! It started out as a flower mandala... but for some reason... my brain saw monsters...

I love it in B&W - I thought about coloring it with grays, but I decided a rainbow would be fun...

Although this one is all one piece, I see it as 8 monsters on a spinning amusement park ride - they're all holding on to the center flower and waving their left hands in glee!

This last technique is not a mandala, but it would make a great background for one. It was the simplest, yet most satisfying and relaxing.

You simply use a large gray alcohol marker to draw Zentangles and shapes, then outline them with a black fine point pen.

I took it one step further by drawing on gray paper...

and then a second step further... the alcohol marker had bled thru to the other side of the paper... so I outlined the bleed-thru with a white gel pen...

Cool, right?

Sitting here, looking at all this work done in about two days (OMG?), thinking about all the encouragement, laughter, and friendships... I am thinking about starting to teach again.