Polly Wolly Doodle All the Night

I am finding that my Zentangle doodles are definitely art therapy, even though there's not much of the calmness (OR enlightenment) that I thought zen promises. But the degree of agitation, anxiety, despair and irratation with ALL THIS SNOW does diminish. 

Thinking of a word on which to meditate was useful a couple of times.  I read a book called The Happiness of Pursuit:  Finding the quest that will bring purpose to your life.  Unfortunately the author's idea of heartfelt quests never resonated with me. I'm still mulling it over, though.  I do feel rather lacking as far as "purpose" or mattering what with the overwhelming freedom of retirement.

 This  Pinterest quote made more sense to me.  I think because it is "only" a daily goal and could change day by day. 

 Considering how tired I am of snow, there's a fair amount of spring-time color in this chilly meditation.

 Then it I got mad.  What would help?  GRIT.  Apparently trying to teach grit in school is a trend these days.  It's not one of my strongest characteristics. If you have ever deliberately increased your grit quotient and remember how you did it (besides the Biblical test of trials and tribulations), let me know.

 I'm not sure my hybrid of Zentangle patterning and an imagined still life is of much interest.  I did incorporate a new set of markers, though.  And it inspired me to buy yet another set as well as some new colored pencils. 
When in doubt, buy art supplies!!

 Even though the cat is blue, look what showed up in my drawing:   a (relatively) blue bird, the vision that the ground might be something other than white, the sky something other than gray, and bits of things could begin blooming.

When in doubt, remember Camus:

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

Hope you find your invincible summer if it's been lost.

(Cabin Fever) Doodles

 I confess I've been chicken.  Too wimpy to even check the temperature in our mostly unfishished, definitely un-heated basement: which is where my oil painting supplies and work tables are.  So I've been doing stuff that can be done in my rocking chair in front of the TV.

Fortunately, Staples had an inexpensive set of colored pens on sale that I picked up a week or so ago.  I am pretty partial to graphic design and have been playing with Zentangle doodles. 

It may be a passing fancy.  But I can do it and stay warm.  AND when I do it, I can't be chowing down on "comfort food" -- which trust me, is definitely salt, fat or sugar!





How many buildings do you recognize in the montage below?

Before they predicted a BLIZZARD on Valentine's Day, I was looking forward to hearts and flowers.  As it turned out, I'm glad we made it to the grocery store for cat food and cream.  Other customers were in similar desperation mode.  The woman behind us had a case of beer, champagne and orange juice (and nothing else).  The man behind her had the 6 decent remaining roses in the flower section.

 

This was inspired by a Zentangle sample on Pinterest.  I think mine isn't subtle enough.  Story of my life. I'll tell you though, all those little circles take a LONG time to do.  And it's harder than you'd think to vary their size!

Coloring the Zentangles might be my favorite part.  It's like icing on the cake.

After an appointment in Newburyport (which was the only demand that I'd had to get out of the house for several days), I drove out of my way toward Plum Island.  Plum Island is a barrier island being battered by storm erosion and "connected" to Massachusetts by a grid of marshes, dunes, waterways and bird habitat.  It's full of wonderful colors and biting flies in the summer, and deceptively solid looking covered in snow in the winter.  It's hard to tell what is inlet or harbor or marsh.

I also sketched the famous/infamous  abandoned "pink house."  I don't quite understand it's artistic appeal (LOTS of local painters paint it).  It is falling apart, but apparently outside the bounds of condemnation or repurposing. I wish someone would re-build its framework with re-bar and let it be a giant nest building site for birds.