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June 23, 2017 · 3:16 am

2017-Machetanz Art Festival

Hi! Let’s fast forward to today… I’m still living in Anchorage, Alaska, in the same house for 20 years, and I still LOVE teaching the Zentangle® Method™. I have recently finished teaching my Fall/Winter/Spring Zentangle® art classes and now my summer begins. So now that I have more time, I’ll try to catch you up on some of the fun zen-happenings!

I just returned from teaching a Zentangle Basics 101 Class at the Machetanz Art Festival, in Wasilla/Palmer, AK. This was my third year teaching there and I absolutely LOVE going there! It’s held at Mat-Su College (UAA), in the beautiful Mat-Su Valley. The campus is lovely! It’s about 1-1/2 hours away and one of the most gorgeous drives you can imagine with huge snow capped mountains everywhere you look! The people are so friendly and the life style is slower than Anchorage (more zen…I like that)! The last two years I got to teach two Zentangle classes, but due to budget cuts this year, the art festival was only one day. I felt very honored to have been asked back again! Thank you!! ♥

There are lots of different art classes offered, like painting (oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolors), alcohol ink, encaustic wax art, wood burning, Zentangle and more.

Machetanz Art Festival

This year I had the most awesome group of students who were soooooo excited to learn all about Zentangle! We had a blast! It was very relaxing, as this year I prerecorded 5 hours of “zen music” on my mini-iPad and I bought a small but powerful speaker for it. It was perfect! In the “basics class” we learn the Zentangle® Method™, history of the art, language, the many benifits, and we create two beautiful Zentangle art tiles using six simple tangles. Each tangle I chose teaches something different that they will use often.

I’ve got to admit that I’m pretty spoiled as the room has a camera, computer, and TV so I can tangle right along with the students in real time! But I always have my backup easel and pad!

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AND I’ve gotten the same room for three years!! It’s at the end of a long hall, hidden away so it’s very quiet and peaceful! AND I’m right next door to Rex who always helps me with the computer and equipment

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When the class is done, we go around and collect all the tiles and put them together and create a big mosaic. Below is this year’s mosaic! It is truly magical to me that I give the same directions to everyone but each tile is soooo incredibly different and unique!! It’s exciting and so much fun!!

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The best part of the day is when everyone hovers over the mosaic trying to find their tiles! And guess what…many can’t find them because they ALL are so beautiful and creative!! Most of the students at the beginning of class said they couldn’t draw, but as you see everyone drew beautiful art pieces and walked out as “artists”!

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To see more mosaics from previous years, go to “Student Art” on my website www.tanglealaska.com I hope I’ll get to come back again next year! I LOVE teaching Zentangle®!!

Keep tangling!

♥ Donna

One Year CZT Anniversary!

Hi! It is really hard for me to believe it has been one year today when I was in Providence, Rhode Island, at CZT Seminar 17. After 4 days of intense instruction, I graduated and received my Certified Zentangle® Teacher certificate from Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts. It was one of the biggest days of my life! It was absolutely magical! I learned so much and made so many wonderful friends who I still stay in contact with. Zentangle® has changed my life, it has given me life! Being the agoraphobic that I am, I still shake my head that I really did it because it is very hard for me to even leave my house most of the time. I wanted so much to get a beautiful photo of Maria giving me my certificate and all I got was this…and I could NOT stop crying and saying “I did it, I did it, I really did it!” Maria, being the beautiful person that she is, handled it well! I’m also still amazed at that person who could not draw at all, now draws beautiful art and I am excited about teaching and sharing the Zentangle® Method™!

So much has happened in this past year! It’s been hard and yet wonderful! My goal was to teach Zentangle® Workshops at Blaines Art Supply (the only art supply store besides Michaels) in Anchorage, Alaska. When I got home I interviewed and got the job but it was one of the hardest interviews I’ve ever had and having been an RN in the past, I’ve had some tough interviews. Working for Blaines Art, of course I promote their products, but the problem was they didn’t have the Zentangle® supplies I needed (supplies I had learned from seminar). Not being able to use Zentangle® products was a challenge and I had to reevaluate and rethink everything. It stopped in my tracts at first but I’ve learned to be open and flexible because there are great art products out there. I’ve been teaching classes there now since January and everything has worked out just fine.

It’s been hard for me because there was only one CZT in my town and she doesn’t teach classes and I cannot turn to her for support. So I am on my own. Fortunately I have the support of my Zentangle® family in Providence and other online CTZ’s. My first class was January 9, 2015 and I was scared to death but my love for Zentangle® is so strong, that I did it! I think I had about 12 students and they were all so nice 🙂 We did 2 tiles and learned 8 tangles. After that class, I had many students asking me, “now what??” I knew exactly how they were feeling because after my first class with a CZT I said the same thing and wanted to continue learning more and to tangle with others…it’s all about the process and the enjoyment of being relaxed, “in the moment”, and being with others who speak the same Zentangle® language. The end result is always beautiful art. So my wonderful boss at Arctic Rose Gallery offered me the space to have monthly Zentangle® Social Meetups! Yes fantastic!! Better yet, we gather on Sunday when the gallery is closed and is quiet 🙂 Perfect for the “Zen”! The meetups have been so rewarding and fun and lovely friendships formed! And one of my students from my first class even went on to seminar and became a CZT!