It's interesting to me how thoughts seem to be shared by many people unknowingly. How the universe connects us together even though we may be unaware of the connection. (Part of the reason I like Common Prayer where people all around the world say the same prayers, often at the same time. Maybe they are somehow stronger.) This week I have been seeing lots of posts online about tangling on a photograph. Margaret Bremner posted a beautiful piece she tangled on a black and white photo of some architectural columns. Another blogger is a photographer and has published a collection of photographs specifically for people to tangle on. And then...The Diva posts a challenge to use color. I know there will be tons of gorgeous, glorious, riotous, crazy good colored works to admire this week! But you know how I am... The strange part is, I have been hanging on to a selfie photo that my granddaughter posted on Facebook. She, of the formerly glorious, glowing light brown natural hair color, has seen fit to bleach her locks and color them shades of pink. Well, I'm all for self expression, and her mother and aunts all hit the hair color aisle in their early teens, too. My oldest daughter died hers a Strawberry Shortcake doll hot pink at about this age. None of us actually remember what this child's mother's natural hair color is, as it has been colored any and every hue since she was 13 or so... hehe! The youngest has taken her brown hair back to her childhood blonde shade (She was so cute - like Cindy Brady!..I digress...) I, of the color phobia, resisted coloring my hair until I was well into my 50s. Now, my reddish curls are what everyone notices about me! My first thought on seeing this photo with the hair going every which way was that it would be fun to tangle. So, here is my Tangled Pemba Kai... Gosh, that was FUN!   (DISCLAIMER: actually, I posted this on one of the Square One boards a couple of days ago, but I really like this so figured double duty was not in infraction of the rules, right? I should do something more, but...you know me and color...) * * * That's New To Me #24 was to use tangles beginning with "R" and include one or more patterns by the artist Lila Popcheff. Wow, she has about a billion of them on her blog site! (http://poppiespenpics.blogspot.com/p/poppies-patterns.html) Hard to choose! I loved a number of them, but you can only put so many tangles on one little tile... I chose the R tangles Reye by Penny Raille, Radi8 by Lizzie Mayne and Lila's tangle Zoose. Interestingly, my first instinct was to strip away some of the details and just use the basic shape. But once I got the design put together, I found they were just the right thing! See - TRUST! Thanks, Bijou! * * * For Square One: Purely Zentangle, the focus this week was Flux. I was still enamored with Genevieve Crabe's tangle Demi, and started playing around in my sketchbook. Flux is usually so flowing and flowery and organic looking, but that doesn't seem to be my style. So, here is my response to that focus. Then I did another tile just because... Everyone seems to be loving Narwal lately - and why not! With Sand Swirl and Waax. * * * In other news, I finished tangling that wooden box - finally! So, I am moving past the little square tile now. Yay! But original Zentangle tiles, I still love you best... I guess the upshot of this whole post is that we as a Zentangle community encourage us to move forward, expand our creativity, try new things and embrace the imperfect. Like everyone else out there, I have self-imposed limitations that I am working to be free of. Each of us tends to stay within our own little garden and never venture out into the world. I'm so grateful to have found Zentangle (yes, through a woman who is NOT a CZT, but passed along the beginning seed of Zentangle to our creative arts community). I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to become a CZT and to have an expressive art form that I can work at every day - no big studio or messy table required! Thank you for stopping by and for your comments. I cherish them all! Namaste, Antonine