A little Zentangle for you

{image via the zentangle blog}

If you have not been introduced to Zentangle yet, I would love for you to meet! Without further ado, Zentangle is the creative expression developed by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. The image above caught me eye and made me take a deep breath. This is Maria's blotter from her workspace, where she is a master calligrapher. I am sure there is a story behind this blotter. There is always a wonderful story. One day while working with them, I had the pleasure of sitting with Maria and Rick in their home studio for a photoshoot. If you know Zentangle you may know about their home. A story in and of itself, or many stories of a lifetime of unbelievable art, work, life and creativity. Their home studio is their workplace and their home, filled with incredible visual inspiration and quirky interesting artifacts. So, we were there in Whitinsville, Massachusetts and Maria was doing some freestyle writing for us to capture on video. While writing and chatting, Maria tipped her ink and it spilled on to the blotter. I immediately looked for something to clean with, while Maria sat me down and told me to watch it. "No, no, watch what it does", she said. So I did. In my amazement she continued to work with the ink spot and create the most amazing drawing from it. She created a Zentangle mixed with her free and whimsical flourishes. I was in heaven just watching her hands and seeing what came from her imagination to the blotter in mere seconds.

When they are not spreading wonder around the world in the form of Zentangle, Maria and her company Pendragon create beautiful invitations. They have been a colleague of our's for years. We have been lucky to watch little Zentangle grow into a worldwide phenomenon in a very short time. Please take a minute to visit their site and take in some of the amazing creativity. Their new blog is growing so quickly, no doubt every person nipped by the Zentangle bug around the world is waiting everyday for a new post. {Take a peek.}

Zentangle Workshop Today!

{Zentangle by Maria Thomas}

So excited for the Zentangle workshop at our offices this afternoon.

ANYONE can do this...

If you want to lose yourself in the artform that is spreading all around the world, check out their website and galleries! We are lucky to have Maria and Rick close to home to share first hand with us. They will be joining a long list of amazingly talented people at the GEL Conference in New York City.

Gel 2010

Thursday-Friday

April 29-30, 2010

The Times Center

New York City

If you would like to pursued your boss to go to GEL, they have a cool info section on their site. It reminds me of a giant Pecha Kucha.

Street Art by SpY

Lately, I've been following the work of SpY, a street artist from Madrid, Spain. His work is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek and very playful. Street art can often be controversial, as art often is, but it would be hard to get upset at much of SpY's portfolio. The case in point can be shown through SpY's "For Security Reasons", a play on the CCTV camera, a device of state and private control, now ubiquitous in much of western Europe. Here, the CCTV camera is resigned to keeping watch over the heavens, a pile of bricks, some refuse bins, and the broadside of a brick wall.


Another project has SpY creating LED crosswalk signs, and using them to break pedestrians out of the ordinary interpretation of signs and symbols. While the green crosswalk person shines, SpY's adaptation allows the red crosswalk person to flee:



SpY's personal website contains a large number of installation pieces, all of which are enjoyable on a variety of levels, particularly: creative, social, and philosophical. If you get the chance to visit the site, definitely do so, SpY is getting more and more press coverage and will no doubt be a familiar name in the near future, not only in the creative world, but in the broader community as well.

Visit The Paper Fashion exposition at MoMu in Antwerp, Belgium via Antwerp Fashion Observer. I am having a small love affair with texture and these designs have me in a bundle. They look like you could actually put them on and style.