Mooka Madness

I am addicted to Zentangles! Okay, now I've said it, the recovery can begin. Or, do I want recovery to begin ... hmmmm. Nah, it's way too much fun to give up.

As all of you who've tried zentangling know, it is SO much fun and highly addictive. I have been experimenting with zentangling for quite a while now and never get tired of it. The possibilities are truly endless.

Zentangling came to me at a time when I was just starting to get my "art mojo" back after a difficult time in my life of about two years where I was not even interested in creating art. As one whose soul gets kinda squirmy if too many days in a row go by without creating, this was, indeed, a dark time. But I always knew my mojo would return when it was appropriate for it to do so, and zentangling was there right around the time I was gettin' back into the swing of things.

I immediately recognized the myriad possibilities Zentangles would add to my collage art. It really inspired me to re-visit my love for all collage-y things of the zetti world. I could see marrying zetti and zentangle (in fact I coined a new phrase "zettangle" to describe this union) for a cool new look.

One thing though, with all the doodling I've been doing, I had been avoiding shading my work. Weird, huh? I don't know if it's just that I like my work to be very bold (which I do) or that I had some idea I couldn't master shading. A daft idea, I know, but we all have our little pauses for a lack of self confidence now and then.

Anyway, last night I doodled this piece while watching an old movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. I forced myself to do a bit of shading on it, even though I thought it looked perfectly acceptable in my usual bold, black and white style. Wonder of wonders, the world did not end with a bit of shading thrown in and the piece turned out okay after all. It might even inspire me to be so bold as to do more shading in the future or re-visit existing tangles and shade 'em. You'll probably hardly be able to see the shading, it's so subtle, but I promise, it's there.

I was also trying out two newer tangles "Zedbra" and "Mooka" and I love them both.

Enough ramblings. I hope you enjoy this little doodle.