Just scheduled:  3 new classes in New Mexico.

      I love to visit Santa Fe, NM.  I enjoy visiting my sister Amy who lives there, I am inspired by  the creativity on every corner, and I feel swept up by the romance of the area.

      These classes are in addition to the ones I posted in my previous blog.

      I hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Suzanne

 On the beach in Virginia with Jill Berry.    

     Art and Soul Retreats are such a welcoming, inviting place to create. I love attending these inspirational events. I just returned from the April retreat held in Virginia Beach. I was thrilled to have Jill Berry as my roommate. I have taken several of Jill’s classes and always enjoy them. Part of the fun of attending these retreats is being able to hang out with other artists. Funny how we all seem to gravitate to the same things… Jill and I had fun exploring the beach together. There were tons of shells to pick up as well as stingrays (to look at) and even a seahorse.

     I also had fun taking a few workshops given by the other artists. Misty Mawn’s Paper Bag Expressions and Collage Workshops were great ones for me since my art features a lot of ladies faces. In this workshop we painted faces onto paper bags with different types of media. 

     I am teaching in only three venues this year, two of them are at Art and Soul. I will be giving workshops at the Portland Art and Soul Retreat in September/October. One of the workshops I teach incorporates VerDay paint from Ten Seconds Studio. It is a reactive base paint with metal particles. When you apply the Patina solution with a brush or spray, it creates wonderful blue-green patinas and rust effects. The thing that is so cool about this process is it works with not only metals but all types of mixed media –  paper, plastic and fabric. I also love to use it for my journal pages – and we’ll make a little art journal in the same class.

     My Portland class schedule is as follows, hope to see you there. Workshops run from September 30th thru October 6th. Check out their website to see all the classes and teachers that will be available. Come along and join the fun – it is a real treat to attend this event.

Mon & Tues evening  Sept 30 -Oct 1

     I am not sure I know where to begin… it has been exactly two months since I have been able to sit down and share anything on my blog. I have been thinking of my friends but life has been so-o-o hectic. Almost the entire two months I have been immersed in Zentangle® in one form or another. The “gift of Zentangle” has been all around me.

      It was wonderful to visit with Rick and Maria when they came to Texas for the National Art Education Association Convention. CZT’s and other tanglers attending NAEA got together with Rick and Maria one night for a reception sponsored by Sakura. It was very inspiring to hear Rick and Maria talk of all the people they had met and hear stories told to them by teachers, and how the Zentangle method has touched their life as well as the lives of their students.

 

      An opportunity to experience the force of Zentangle was presented to me by the 125 guest artists that Cindy and I worked with for the book ‘The Beauty of Zentangle’.  The art in the book is truly amazing – from classic black and white tiles to exquisite and intricate work from CZTs and tangle artists around the world. Each artist also contributed a short paragraph about how they were introduced to Zentangle and how they use it in their daily life and enjoy sharing it with others. It was so touching I wiped away tears a few times. 

      The book is posted on Amazon and is expected to be available in September.  

  

     Like the Trojan Horse, my journey with Zentangle is full of surprises. I was on a long flight and needed something calming to do, so I opened my sketchbook and began drawing tangles on this horse. A teenage girl and her mother sat next to me. The girl didn’t say anything, but she watched me work through the entire flight. As we were gathering our things to leave, the mother said, “Amy was fascinated by your tangles, she has been learning them in her art class at school. She has a Zentangle book. Are you Suzanne McNeill? I thought I recognized you from the photo in the book.” I nodded as she told me how much her daughter enjoyed my tangle art. 

     Hearing my name, Amy finally overcame her shyness and shook hands with me. “I can’t wait to tell my friends I actually met you. I’m going to put a page about meeting you in my sketchbook,” she beamed. “You have a sketchbook?” I inquired. “Ya. It’s homework, so I left it home. My teacher is always telling us to keep the sketchbook with us. Now I know why. Nice meeting you.” We parted with smiles and I had a story to journal in my own sketchbook.