December 24, 2023

Texas Sky

December 24, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

The back of my parents’ house faces south. I’ve taken a few minutes to photograph the sky several times recently. I appreciate the trees close enough to make interesting horizons for sunrise and sunset pictures…sparse enough to show plenty of color.

The sunset was one that happened early in the month. My parents and watched it from the garden room…and I stepped outside to take a picture.

The next two were taken just after 8:30 in the morning….after a lot of the morning flights had taken off and the moon was still up.

I photographed a sunrise too. I used to try to hide the power lines but opted to feature them inn this image. There are still leaves on some of the trees (silhouettes); fall chores happen in December in this part of Texas!

December 03, 2023

Zentangle® – November 2023

December 03, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

30 days in November – 30 Zentangle tiles. All except one of the tiles I selected this month were from my ‘thicket series’ – which started with a branching double string that created many smaller spaces (a ‘thicket’) with various ways of filling the string.

8 of the tiles were made while my parent was in the hospital…a way to fill the time and regain some calm with the focused activity of creating a tile.

I left my scanner at home so the images were created with photos made with my phone…not as tidy as the scanned images of prior months but it was the best I could do when it came time to do this post!

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

November 29, 2023

Zooming – November 2023

November 29, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

November 2023 was a month of contrasts…an increase in day trips (to the Springfield Botanical Garden and Butterfly Palace in Branson) and then the more confined views while a parent was in the hospital/recovering at home. Photography is something I enjoy in almost every circumstance. I am either trying to capture a moment or create an artistic composition. And the zoom feature on my cameras are almost always used!

November 01, 2023

Zentangle® – October 2023

November 01, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in October – 31 Zentangle tiles. In the first few days of October, I made a variety of tiles…most of them with a botanical vibe.

Then I started a project to make no-frame tiles that started with a rift in the center. A pair of tiles was made using the same ‘fill’ pattern – in the rift and then outside the rift. The part that was left after the fill pattern was completed, started with a Neurographica™ inspired string and then the spaces created by the string were filled wiith curves; I quickly settled into the same type of curvy pattern to fill the string…and that is where the colored pens were used too. I enjoyed the bright cardstock colors too.

I may pick another project for November or revert to more diverse types of tiles….not sure yet.

August 01, 2023

Zentangle® – July 2023

August 01, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in July….31 tiles selected from the 56 I made during the month! I enjoyed the variety of colored pens, starting patterns with the indentions left by cans of cat food in the lightweight cardboard tiles cut from boxes, and experimenting with purple tiles. Enjoy the July 2023 mosaic!

July 02, 2023

Zentangle® – June 2023

July 02, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

30 tiles….selected from the ones created in June. Most of the square ones started as white pulpboard coasters; they are thick enough that both sides can be used. It was a good break from the light brown colored tiles cut from cat food box dividers!

15 of the tiles selected are rectangular. It is still my favorite size/shape. My set of gel pens and older ultra-fine-point Sharpies are beginning to sputter; I’ll do one more month with lots of color then maybe take a hiatus from color…designate August as a black and white ink month!

June 01, 2023

Zentangle® – May 2023

June 01, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in May – 31 tiles in the mosaic for the month. I had 53 tiles to choose from…and there were some tough choices to select only 31.

In recent months I have created rectangular tiles; in May there were also square ones although I prefer the rectangular shape. No matter the shape of the tile – the short segments of my day creating a Zentangle tile (or two or three) are islands of calm focus not impacted by whatever else is happening!

May 18, 2023

Windowsill Photography

May 18, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

I enjoy flowers in tall narrow vases on the windowsill in my office. Recently – the contents have been alliums and iris from my garden. I decided to try some creative photography with them on a couple of mornings when the sun shines through the window for a short time. The alliums made some interesting high key images even if the screen showed in some of them.

I opted to take advantage of a ‘sparkle’ effect that the screen caused for two images. Sometimes it’s fun to just use the artifacts created by the camera’s response to the environment as a creative prompt!

I took a picture of an iris bud that was outside with water droplets – on the other side of the screen….more sparkles!

Now for the iris…lovely colors and curves. I like to zoom enough to fill the frame with the flowers. This is the my first time for pink irises; the previous owner planted them on the west side of the house….not visible from any window but lovely to cut and bring indoors.

The two photography sessions satisfied an urge to do something a little different than my normal flower pictures….and reminded me how much I like my office in this house!

May 14, 2023

Springfield’s Artsfest

May 14, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

Last weekend we enjoyed the Springfield, Missouri Artsfest. My daughter has enjoyed it in years past and I’ve been on the receiving end of some of her purchases; we missed it by about a month last year when we moved to the area in June. So – we anticipated a great spring outing this year.

The day we went was forecasted to get to the high 80s, so we chose to go in the morning before it got too warm. There were enough people around to make it a festival but not too many to impede browsing the arts. Artsfest is held on a street with older houses that are now businesses and (Missouri State University) student housing. Food trucks and canopies for artists lined the street (that had obviously been closed to traffic). It was a great opportunity to buy local!

We wandered all the way down the row enjoying the artists on the right side then worked our way back as we looked at items on the other side. I bought some earrings for myself right away…before my daughter reminded me that she intended to buy my Mother’s Day present at the fest!

She bought the next pair from an artist that upcycles glass; the glass I the ones I bought is from a jam jar!

My husband bought a turned wood plate for my daughter and son-in-law (they seemed very drawn to it…we were happy to indulge them)!

I found am stainless steel yard ornament that I plan to give to my mother next time I go to Carrollton. I chose to get one with pink speckles to pick up the color of the oxalis and hydrangea in her garden.

After a little more than an hour at the Artsfest, we made the decision to find a restaurant rather than getting something from the myriad of food trucks and sitting on a curb to eat it! Overall – an excellent outing!

Later in the day, the Allen, Texas mall shooting occurred. It put a damper on the joy of the day. We are reminded again and again that mass shootings are unpredictable…can happen anywhere (evidently more frequently in the US than anywhere else in the world, and more frequently when there are few/no limits on guns). Thoughts, prayers, and more guns aren’t reversing the trend. If something does not change dramatically, we will eventually modify the way we live to make ourselves less vulnerable (i.e. not gather in larger groups, order items to be delivered rather than shop or go to an Artsfest, interact differently (or not at all) with anyone we don’t know)….a dystopian vision for the future.

May 01, 2023

Zentangle® – April 2023

May 01, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

30 days in April…30 tiles selected for the mosaic below.

Almost half of them started out without a frame…just a simple a spiral string. Sometimes the string is highlighted and sometimes it almost disappears. It was fun fitting patterns into the string.

Creating a Zentangle tile or two (or three) has become part of my daily routine. It’s a good way to focus for a few minutes, be creative, and be pleased (or surprised) with the result. Sometimes I think there should be a big display of tiles where I can see them frequently but then I decide that the process of creating is the most important aspect…I’ll keep boxes of finished tiles but very few of them will ever get a second look!

April 02, 2023

Zentangle® – March 2023

April 02, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in March and 31 Zentangle tiles. The habit of making a tile (or several) every day is entrenched at this point. Seeing patterns in my environment or in the books I am reading…using them as prompts…often surprising myself (in a good way) at what emerges on the tiles. It feels good while I am creating each tile and then looking back at the month’s production. This month there were a few tiles that carried over from the ‘5 circles’ pattern from February…but ‘7 circles’ or ‘9 circles.’

I continued to prefer the rectangular tiles….and enjoyed a variety of patterns and colors (some new pens). I tended to use the paradox pattern in quite a few places. I spent the two hours it took to get my car serviced making Zentangle tiles…got so involved that I didn’t read the book I had on my phone at all!

There was only one square tile the whole month and I liked one side of it enough to select it as the 31st tile!

March 01, 2023

Zentangle® – February 2023

March 01, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

I opted to create most of the tiles in February using one pattern….which I call ‘5 circles.’ The idea is to make 5 circles (or ovals) on a framed tile….then proceed to aura in various ways….color the circles and some of the aura rounds…and finally add some highlighter.

I found myself enjoying the pattern so much that I had a lot of them to choose the 28 for the month. The amount of color allowed me to use up some pens I had since the CZT class in 2019 plus some that my sister had acquired during her teaching career. I discovered that having a pen low on ink to draw the circles and auras is not a bad thing; the amount of coloring overpowers the original drawing anyway!

Now I am ready for March….and more variety to the patterns I make!

February 01, 2023

Zentangle® – January 2023

February 01, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

I created 97 tiles in January…made some hard choices to select the 31 to feature in the blog post. The skew toward square tiles continued. I am enjoying new pens too. In addition, I found a great red gel pen in a draw with pencils and ballpoints in Carrollton…not sure where it came from but it was fun to use; red became the most frequent color for the month!

January 02, 2023

Zentangle® – December 2022

January 02, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

31 tiles selected from those made in December. There were not as many to choose from as usual. My week in Carrollton was so busy that I didn’t make as many tiles…and crocheting was competing for time (and had priority since I was working on a lacy white scarf I wanted to wear during the holidays).

Most tiles are square this month…and include experiments with a variety of pens.

Enjoy the December 2022 mosaic!

December 01, 2022

Zentangle® – November 2022

December 01, 2022/ Gwen Morrison

30 Zentangle tiles made in November…or rather 30 chosen from the much larger number of tiles I made during the month. The tiles are all squares this month – a rare occurrence for me. I was trying not jump ahead to December motifs but couldn’t resist a cluster of stylized trees and red dots! Otherwise, I stayed focused on the fading green and orange color pallet for fall…and then using up gel pens from my sister’s teaching career for the tiles I made while I was in Carrollton.

Enjoy the November 2022 mosaic!

November 01, 2022

Zentangle® – October 2022

November 01, 2022/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in October….31 Zentangle tiles. A lot of the tiles this month have a seasonal palette: orange, muted red, pale green. I had a purple gel pin that I was using up too. Most of the tiles in the mosaic were made in London, Ontario during the hotel room part of my ‘retreat’ from my normal routine. One of the ways I filled the time I gained from not doing online activities or interacting with people was making the tiles. I had taken plenty of supplies.

I also drew 31 tiles that I didn’t color. I’ll probably finish them next month…maybe post the before and after images.

October 16, 2022

London, Ontario Tree Sculptures and Murals

October 16, 2022/ Gwen Morrison

Like many small cities, London, Ontario has street trees to break the monotony of concrete, asphalt, and brick. The tree sculptures make it different. They are positioned along the streets in similar positions that real trees might be desirable, but the sidewalk is too narrow or there is some reason that a real tree would not thrive. The pole (trunk) and the ‘canopy’ of the sculptures take less space…and they will be the same size year after year. I enjoyed the sculptures in the early fall and realized they would make the streets more colorful and appealing in winter when the real trees nearby would be without their leaves.

The city has buildings of various ages…some over 100 years old. Murals have been painted on some of the brick walls.

The sea mural was the largest…partially hidden by a construction project.

My favorite was the mural across from it – also partially hidden by the construction project.

Overall – the sculpture and murals always made my walks around the central part of London, Ontario more interesting!

October 02, 2022

Zentangle® – September 2022

October 02, 2022/ Gwen Morrison

“30 days has September…so this post features 30 tiles. I was consciously using a variety of colors (inks and tiles) and patterns. Some of the tiles were made in Texas…I seem to create a lot of tiles during the week I am at my parents’ house while I sit with them as they watch television or work on a jigsaw puzzle. I am still using older pens and tiles from recycled materials although there were a few official Zentangle tiles I found from a class I went to several years ago…rediscovered when I was packing to move from Maryland to Missouri.

September 21, 2022

Dried Roses

September 21, 2022/ Gwen Morrison

Sometimes the roses I bring indoors for my windowsill or a center piece on the table turn into subjects for macro photography as they fade…before they go into the compost pile. While they all start out as a pinkish red, there are variations in color that develop as the petals dry. Often the color darkens to a burgundy…other times there are tinges of orange and yellow. I used several variations in magnification with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) for these images….was pleased with the results.

My phone is almost always with me and I’m still in awe at the quality of images it can produce. The cameras in phones have come a long way in the past 10 years…and mine is not even ‘top of the line’ at this point! The technology is no longer a limiting factor for much of the photography I want to do. It’s up to me to be creative…and consciously utilize the technology in my hand!

September 04, 2022

Zentangle® – August 2022

September 04, 2022/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in August – and 31 tiles selected for this post! There are more since two of the ‘tiles’ are mosaics of 6 triangular tiles!

There is a little skew toward rectangular tiles this month. All of them were made at home in Missouri. I tend to enjoy the slightly larger format. I have a green paint pen that I use to fill some of the larger areas. I’ve been thinking about the trends in the tiles I am making now. There is joy is not preplanning too much…just starting out and letting the tile emerge from the string or a simple initial pattern…enjoying the color application is much as the drawing!

Many of the square tiles were made in Carrollton…enjoying the leftover gel pens from my sister’s teaching career. I deplete a few more every time I am in Carrollton.