Zentangle-y Mural at BeeHive Studio

If you would like to see lots of photos of the fabulous mural we started yesterday, jump over to The BeeHive Studio site. We had folks of all ages working on tangled ladies and and a tangled town as part of our annual Spring Into Warner event.

But the murals are far from finished!
If you would like to add your bit of flair too, we will be working on them some more this coming Friday, May 24th, from 3-5pm and  
Friday, May 31st, also from 3-5pm.
If it rains, we won't be painting. Also, bring bug repellent.

On June 8th, from 11am onward, we'll be finishing up any "loose ends" and you are welcome to join us and take photos, throw money in the tip jar or just "ooh and aah". :-)

My Maine Retreat - Part Two

Where were we?

Ah, yes, my sister went back home and I got to work.
I had done a lot of mermaids during the vacation with the kids, but now I started the actual homework, part of which was constructing a mermaid shaped journal.

I admit that my interest is more towards the mermaids than the circus. I've always found the circus to be kind of creepy... sinister... and I passionately dislike clowns. But then, the mythology of mermaids is also kind of creepy and sinister... even Disney has some evil mermaids. OK. Maybe I like creepy and sinister? That's probably why taking classes is a good thing - it forces you out of your comfort zone.

I drew a vintage style pennant on my cover. Normally, I would do the cover after I had completely filled the book and knew what the true theme or storyline was. But I'm not sure if I will have a chance to go back and do more creatures in here since I am trying to keep up with the fast pace of this class.

Inside, I did two pages. The first is a steampunk inspired merman. He's more of an eel... the title came to me as I worked. "Serpent of the Sea" - if I'd given him hands, he'd be holding an apple. His form was inspired by a leather ottoman in a fancy catalog. I had to paint in most of it to connect it to his torso. (I'd love to make some kind of a comment here about what I was thinking, but I have been selectively gagged. Who knew there were blog police? You can have fun speculating. ;-) )

 

The second mermaid page was built off of a face I had already drawn. 

To create her scales, I cut all the little swatches from the bathing suit page of a Lands End catalog into scallop shapes. Then glued 'em down. I am LOVING paint pens!! I've always loved the Sharpie oil-based ones for working on walls and furniture, but now I have been using the poster-paint and acrylic ones to work over the acrylic paint and collage. They are wonderful for adding decoration, details and especially, lettering. My favorites so far are the Sharpies, Molotow and Krink. You already know about my intense passion for Inktense pencils. I also love using the big brush markers from Pitt. They have a new one in white. The Pitt markers are India ink based. 

I prefer working in a more standard (un-shaped) journal and I found a fabulous, 11x14 sized hardcover one with thick, mixed-media paper from Strathmore.

Here's a before and after picture so you can see how the collage starts and finishes. Swimsuit models are great for mermaids! I cut the arm off this one and reassembled it, the skirt is part of a chandelier, and her headdress was a lampshade. I painted everything else.

 

This next one, I'm not quite so happy with - it still needs some work. I do like the baby fish though. I fused the lady's torso to the lobster-y tail and painted in all those bubbles!

 This next mermaid was started on black paper - I decided not to start with a collage element, but just draw and see where it went. Hmmm... another vampire mermaid? I guess I need to let this theme work itself out.

I'm still working on her.

I did a few pieces just for myself - based on quotes I stumbled upon while reading. I have pretty boring handwriting, and never really thought much about lettering, but realized that I have been illustrating with letters all my life!  I'll have to post some of my older illustrations sometime, but the cover of Totally Tangled is a good example. The letters seem to be more alive and full of character than the lady with the funny hair.

These aren't great photos, but I wanted to show you the before and after. I'd like to do prints of these, so I'll eventually show you the better, final images.

 I hadn't realized until I posted these that both quotes start with "You cannot..." Weird coincidence.

 And my MOST weirdest, and favorite-est project...

I was sitting in the living room, staring at one of the cemented rock pillars... the wall sconce was throwing a strange mix of light and shadows onto the rocks.

I think I was mesmerized. Images kept appearing and disappearing (no, I don't use drugs!) Then suddenly my left brain chirped "Draw it for goodness sake!"

I was so startled at the idea, that I actually got my sketchbook and drew the strange characters I saw. This is a cleaned up sketch on white paper.

I redid it in my gray sketchbook too. I'm only going to show you a little piece of the final drawing because I want to use it for one of the books. And I'm going to use the sketch for one of my surface design assignments! Most of the other students are posting beautiful patterns based on flowers...  I have freaky monsters I saw in the rocks!

And, finally, I did do a lot of thinking about "real work." I'm working on revising two of the books and planning out a new one. I did do some work on all that. This last picture is just to prove that I did some brainstorming. You know, in case you don't believe me. ;-)

My dad came to visit me the last weekend and I talked non-stop! It is so strange to spend a week by yourself.  I did talk to a few people - stuff like "The dark chocolate ones, please" and "I'd like brown rice with the sweet and sour seafood" and "just leave the towels, that's fine." One evening, I found myself sitting on the floor watching a trail of ants march across the dining room floor. I actually felt guilty after I smashed the whole herd and a little lonely when they were gone. And although I really did miss my kids, and my cat, I find it so much easier to think without all the stuff and drama that seems to be stored in my house. There's a freedom to walking in a different direction every day. Wearing headphones, but smiling at everybody. No one knows your story. It doesn't matter. And everything seems so unimportant when you are standing with the toes of your sneakers in the ocean. Thinking DEEP thoughts... like what kind of crazy person first thought "hey let's stand on boards in freezing cold water and get flipped by deadly crashing waves!?" "Oh, hey, let's try it near those giant rocks!?" It's fun, and a relief, to watch other peoples' drama!

 If I could find a way to bring that kind of calm and focus home with me - gee willikers - I can only imagine the stuff I could create and amazing things I could accomplish!

My Maine Retreat

Alex on the Rocks

If you read my last post about all the classes I am taking in my self-induced Masters program and felt like fainting... well, I apologize, but I am really enjoying them. I get so excited when I can learn something new. The part I find most difficult is having to read and watch all the videos before I can get to the creating part. There were a few comments and emails with expressions of concern and caution and hopes that I am also taking care of myself. I appreciate the concern, and I know you all are right - I do need to focus on repair and remedy too. Is there a class for that? (hee hee).

Actually there is, and I took it. I did the entire 28 day program and I learned a lot about nutrition and how sucky I had been eating. I am also completely hooked on Kris Carr and reading her book Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It! Yes, my eyes glaze over too when a new diet book is mentioned. BUT, Kris was interviewed on Marie Forleo and she got my attention. She is wicked funny and her story snapped my head around. She was a famous TV starlet, eating atrociously, drinking, sleeping with too much variety (if you know what I mean), drugs, all the typical Hollywood stuff. Then in her early thirties she got that out of a blue wake up call - super rare, non-treatable, non-survivable, unpronounceable... cancer. Basically, she completely changed her lifestyle and her diet. She's still alive and she is my age (over 40). Wow. And she's gorgeous and healthy. I figure if I can survive Prozac, I can probably survive eating vegetables more often. ESPECIALLY if it means never taking those drugs again! And I lost a little weight. That never hurts as incentive.

That book was one of many that accompanied me on my Maine Retreat. Yes, I got home from it last week, but it took me a few days to recuperate and readjust to the real world. I decided to do my retreat to Ogunquit alone this time. I'm sorry I didn't invite you all like I did last year, but don't take it personally, I'd be happy to have you join me in Santa Fe this Sept.. :-)

Happy kidlet.

Happy teenager. Yes. That is "happy."

I started it out by taking my kids to Ogunquit for a few days. I got to show my daughter the ocean and that was such a fabulous experience for us both. (Do they make water-proof mittens for digging in the sand?)

On the really wet, gray day, we watched this beautiful view out our window and...

 ... we drew lots of Mermaids!

 I drew this lady and colored her with Inktense pencils (have I mentioned how much I love 'em?)
Then Lilah decided to improve on my mermaid and she drew this one in pencil (note the starfish in her hair too)...

And then she drew this amazing picture and we decided she was a vampire mermaid princess (see crown falling off her head)...

And I loved it SO much, I decided to do my own vampire mermaid...

Now I seem to be kind of hooked on Vampire mermaids. I've never really liked circuses, so my Mermaid Circus is .... dead. (I'm working on yet another Vampire Mermaid at this very moment here at home!)

Then Lilah's "babies" all wanted their portraits done - they can be a rather insistent group. And they smell like cookies. I can't resist them. I gave in and had Clara sit for her portrait since she is the calmest of the babies. I just realized I wrote about the babies, years ago, on the Wingdoodle blog.

One evening, I had a visit from Suzanne McNeill as she headed back to Texas after visiting her daughter. It was nice to chat with a "big person" for a few hours. :-)

The kids got along great. Seriously, they never fought. We walked a lot and saw The Croods... twice. And Alex even gave Lilah a ride back to the hotel on his shoulders when she got tired. It was like one of those credit card ads. "Priceless".

When our little bit of bliss ended, on a beautiful sunny day, of course, I drove the kids home to their dad, reloaded my car with everything I MIGHT want to work on... and headed back to Maine.

This time I had a studio apartment with my own woodland garden.

Since I was there for two weeks, I got to watch the garden spring into bloom. 

 These were my neighbors....

 My sister came down from Bar Harbor for a few days. Not only did I have her complete attention - no competing with her husband or her kids - but Jen can't speak more than a sentence before she has a coughing fit, so I got to chatter on endlessly! It was awesome. Every little sister's dream come true.

She may not be able to breath, but my sister, Jennifer Steen Booher, is a freaking amazing photographer! And she has a seriously big-ass camera hanging around her neck. (That might be why she has trouble breathing?) ;-) She has an Etsy shop with her prints HERE and her blog, which is kind of a travel/nature blog, is HERE. She did a post last week, with adorable photos of baby foxes playing in her friend's backyard.

And I post pictures of my kid's doll. Sigh. Jen's always been the more sophisticated, classy one. She's Martha Stewart. I'm Mary Engelbreit.

 We got our kicks "shooting" each other on the beach. I think this beach is so amazing and bizarre! I'm standing on sand, but there is ocean between us, then more ocean behind Jen, then land again. A beach sandwich? Huh, maybe it's just a sand - wich?

Oh, dear. It's 1:32am. The rest will have to wait for another post. I had planned to show you a bunch of the artwork I worked on over the rest of the retreat, but it has been pointed out to me that many of you have actually signed up for some of the classes I mentioned! And, that I might influence your artwork if I show you what I did for my homework. Should I show you anyway? :-)

Life - the Ultimate Learning Experience

Two weeks! Yes, I have been away for two weeks. I went to Maine for a fabulous art retreat... by myself. I will do another post to tell you about that, but for this post, I want to tell you about learning experiences.

Every few years, I get an overwhelming urge to go get my Masters... in something. Something artsy. And I start scouring the internet reading descriptions from schools in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. But I can't seem to find the right curriculum. The fact that I can't really leave my kids, and I can't afford the tuition... I could find ways to argue those away - after all, there are some schools with low-residency requirements and scholarships... but I have no interest in writing a thesis or discussing art theory. I even looked into the cartooning school in Vermont which is supposed to be top drawer - but it didn't have the old-school style classes I wanted.

So I decided to create my own program. After all, it's not really the degree that matters, but the info and experience right? And thanks to the internet, I now have access to some fabulous people I have always wanted to study with. Here's my program so far...

Inktense pencil sampler by Sandy Bartholomew

Class #1 - You all know about the Inktense- from Soup to Nuts class with Jessica Wesolek, I've posted some of my art from there in past blog posts. That class finished up and I am proud to say it is one of the few that I was able to keep up with and actually finished all the projects. I adore Inktense pencils and have used them for ages, but I am now armed with some freaking cool tricks and color confidence I did not have before. Plus - it was fun! If you are intrigued by these amazing watercolor-like colored pencils that turn into super bright, permanent inks when wet... good news! Jessica is just about to start up a new session. You don't need to have fabulous drawing talent and this class would also be great for stampers and scrapbookers. So run over to the Inktense info page and sign up! Tell Jessica I sent you. :-) And while you are there, sign up for the Art Journaling in Paradise retreat! There are only a few spots left... I'll write more about that another time.

Making Waves by Sandy Bartholomew

Class #2 - The Mermaid Circus with Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport. I had always wanted, and intended, to go to ArtFest in Port Townsend, WA. Alas, I never made it and last year was the end of it all. Teesha is the mother of "art journaling" as we know it... layers of paint and collage, text, lettering, stripey dunce hats, creepy people... love it. This is the first time she has done an online class - so I jumped on it. Jane is a bubbly mermaid from Australia who has a ton of intriguing online classes. If you have been wanting to really learn to draw faces and figures and all that - Jane has classes that make it easy. This class is awesome fun - but has a lot of videos and homework. And the materials are not very portable. Those aren't complaints, just my minor excuses why I keep falling behind! I did a lot of Mermaid work on my retreat and I will show you more in a later post.

Class #3 - The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design with Rachael Taylor. This one is the serious, OMG-I'm-back-in-school-class. It runs in three trimesters throughout the year. There is homework and reading every day. Yep. I have fallen behind. If I can carve out some time to concentrate, I think I will be fascinated by the pattern design! My mistake? It overlaps with the Mermaid Circus class, and when that ends, my next class will start. What was I thinking! This segment deals with sketching and creating patterns, so I'm kind of OK. But then it will move on to using Photoshop and Illustrator more intensely. Then the business stuff...

Class #4 - Starts in a few weeks. It's Make Art That Sells! with Lilla Rogers. Lilla Rogers is an illustrator and an artist's rep and she really knows the biz. This class also has multiple segments and it covers everything from illustrating for the giftware market to fabric to kids clothes to childrens' books... and it has the added excitement and stress of trying to get her attention. She only reviews a small handful of work and she has a lot of important contacts. A few of these folks will be doing interviews in the class. She has a book out too called "I Just Like to Make Things" - I love the title because it's just so true for us artists.

As if I weren't overloading my plate as it is - she just announced she'll be doing a Global Talent Search, starting on May 14th! There will be assignments and challenges and the winner gets a two year artist's rep contract with her! OMG! OMG! I'd be absolutely insane to sign up for that right? Right? Insane. Ok, I'm on the wait list to hear when the sign ups open. Sleep is over-rated anyway.

I should probably count the iPad Studio workshop as well... Class #5. This one is waiting for me to come back and finish. I got so terribly distracted by multiple lawyer issues this winter... but now, with all the computer design things in the Surface Design class... and the horror of buying Illustrator for $500 (!?)... I am seeing the appeal of design apps for the iPad that cost less than $30 bucks! The iPad Studio class not only teaches you HOW to create art on the iPad, it gives you step by step instructions for using the best apps. Plus I just bought this really cool stylus that has a paintbrush on one end... I am such a geek, I know.

This last one (so far!) doesn't really count, but I have to tell you anyway. I'll be at the upcoming Zentangle Certification Training in Providence, RI in June. I've lost track of what number it is... I've been to quite a few of them, starting with #1! But this one will be the best training EVER! Why, you ask? Because my son ALEX is getting certified!!! Whooo-hee! Amy Broady's daughter, who is the same age as Alex will also be attending - they may be the youngest CZTs yet. My daughter, Lilah wanted to go too... but 6 seems a bit young and she'd never sit still. ;-) I get to roam around Providence with Amy and schmooze with the ZT innocents.
Heaven.

And speaking of Amy Broady... she made the mistake of telling me that she was retiring from teaching art and trying to decide what to do next... ooooooo! An art teacher and CZT searching for meaning in life... I convinced her to kind-of-sort-of take on the Zentangle for Kids blog!

Be sure to take a look at her amazing series of Earth Day tangled postcards here (strings) and here (pre-shading). And another adorable post about kids' interpretations of Lilah Beans, by CZT Katy Abbott... here.

And the very last thing I want to mention before I finally keel over and crawl into bed... this has to do with the title of this blog post. I decided NOT to rant on and on about something I discovered that upset me really REALLY badly. I'll just say that I learned that my art and ideas from my books were "borrowed"... extensively... in a book that was recently released by another artist (this has nothing to do with my own publisher). My horoscope last week warned me that these very upsetting incidents (that keep happening!) are an indication that "there is something I need to learn." I am desperately hoping that I do indeed LEARN something in one of the above classes that will make this crazy-making stop. There's just so much exciting STUFF going on I don't want to waste any more of my dwindling brain cells gnawing away at anything yucky!

Jen's Book Party

Once again - I realized too late... "I should have taken pictures!?" Doh.

The book party for Jen Carson was a blast! Just the right sized mini-mob showed up so we could all work on our own mini-bear head pin. Jen is an excellent teacher and coaxed us all into not only designing our own patterns, but cutting fabric and stitching up our little creatures. She started us with a very basic bear head pattern, but we all ended up morphing our creatures into everything from tiny white rats, to a made up, reversible creature, to my badger-bear.

My badger bear ended up a lot bigger than I had intended because of a little piece known as the gusset. He's the one on top of the water bottle... he is still thinking if he wants to be on a stick, like a jester's puppet, or maybe attached to a badger body. He definitely will NOT be a pin!

The workshop was a great example of why we all need Jen's book - Beyond Bears - How to draw, design and sew your own stuffed animals. I love to make stuff - but I always want to make it my OWN. I hate using other peoples' patterns. This workshop was very "Zentangle-y" in that we all started with the same basic instructions and very similar patterns, but the results were so totally personalized and distinct. Love it.

Oh, yes - and there were bear head cupcakes too!

Thanks to everyone who showed up and was willing to go with the flow and try something new. It was great fun and I hope to see you all back at the BeeHive in May for more fun. :-)

Tangled Fashionista Contest

As an added bit of excitement and challenge for TangleU participants, my publisher, Fox Chapel, and I decided to host a contest with Elaine Huffman, the TangleU organizer. The contest was open to all CZTs (Certified Zentangle® Teachers) and the only requirement was that they use an image from my book, Tangled Fashionista, as their starting point.

The submissions were amazing! And it was really hard to choose a winner, but here they are:

CONGRATULATIONS Tangled Fashionistas!

It's Me?! Chris Titus' Grand Prize winning tangled art from Tangled Fashionista.

Grand Prize: Chris Titus

Runner’s Up:
Judy Burkett
Kathy Redmond
Martha Deckel
Brenda Shahin
Marizaan Van Beek

You can download the pdf of all the contest entries from my Dropbox, here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l8h4ourrtdmxczx/LtC7uAyDDP   
(or click the cover image below)
It's a really big file since it is chock full of ART! Gorgeous art!

Design Originals also posted all the art on their Facebook page. That's a great way to see it all if you don't want to do any downloading. But the pdf has extra info and tips added to the pics as well as contact info. If you have been at a loss as to how to use Tangled Fashionista, this collection of art will get your creative juices flowing!

By the way, Chris' grand prize? The COMPLETE collection of Zentangle books from Design Originals/Fox Chapel! Awesome!

If you are all excited now - get to work tangling your own Fashionista artwork. I'd love to do a revised edition of Tangled Fashionista sometime and include even more inspirational pieces. Still not quite sure about getting yourself a coloring book? Sure, I get it. This one was designed to be a spoof of all those Fashion Magazines out there, so it is kind of whimsical/silly and geared toward big people. Yes, like you. So, anyway, if you like to "test" things out first, head on over to my website: www.SandySteenBartholomew.com and download a few pages for free. Then get to work!

Online Sale Too!

Yes, I can see the comments now "But I don't live close enough to come to your store..." So let's do an online sale too, OK?

This sale will be for 15% off everything in my Etsy store, Bumblebat. with a $20 minimum purchase. Sale ends April 18th, in the evening sometime.

Sound good? Be sure to enter the coupon code: SPRING13 during the check out process for the discount to take effect. (It doesn't count if you email me the code, I can't change your order.) Oh, and this sale is good until Thursday night. After that, the shop will be closed for vacation.

Starting this weekend, I will be away on an adventure for a few weeks and I'll be putting both the Etsy store and the web store on "Vacation Mode". That means I can't accept any orders because I'm not here. So, if you will be needing any books before May, please order ASAP or order directly through Fox Chapel or Amazon. The shops go into Vacation Mode on Thursday night. Remember, you can get the books at wholesale on the web store, but the Sale is only on the Etsy store.

Speaking of Amazon, you may have noticed my fabulous, mysterious Tangle Cards are listed for "Pre-order". Yes, coming soon! Amazon says Sept. 2013, but I'm hoping it will be sooner. When I know for sure, I will give you all the nitty-gritty details. If you can stop yourselves from pre-ordering from Amazon and wait to pre-order from ME... I will award your patience with special, secret, limited edition... stuff. ;-D All I can say right now is you are SO GONNA LOVE THESE CARDS. Yes, I AM yelling!

Back to my running away... um... adventure. I'll be thinking of what to sell on my Etsy shop... still pondering the wholesale dilemma. Thinking about doing an Etsy shop with all my grandma's portrait paintings (yes, she was an artist too) for sale to raise money for The BeeHive. Thinking about a bunch of different book ideas I'd like to do - both real books and ebooks. Thinking about classes and workshops and retreats and teaching at Art 'n Soul again.... hmmmm.... Thinking about doing a summer art camp for kids - and maybe for adults too? - with Dianne (a fellow CZT!) Mostly, I seriously need to get some new work done! But if you have any ideas, opinions, or requests... for any of the aforementioned items.... now is the perfect time to tell me. I really do want to hear your thoughts. I probably won't respond to emails until I get back in May, but I promise to read and consider all ideas. Unless they're mean. Meanies, I delete you! Right now, I need protein and chocolate and television. And sleep. You - go buy some stuff so I can make some new things. ;-D