Tag Archives: #barbmasinton

Artist Focus: Liz Drake

Liz Drake’s “Joy”

Meet Liz Drake! Liz is one of a long list of amazing artists I’ve met through Tangle It! Pattern Club. Several weeks back I featured an artist named Barb Masinton from the group. The post included Barb’s “go-to” week one entries. I thought it would be fun to see how Liz approaches the challenges. As we move forward, I hope to have a great collection of different artist’s “go-to” challenges. I’m going to enjoy having them to compare and appreciate! 

Liz Drake

 “Liz Drake here, Artist at large. After raising 4 sons, spending 40+ years in medical imaging as a career, I retired, cashed in enough of my IRA to put a down payment on a semi, obtained my CDL and went over the road with my husband in our 18 wheeler. Living a life of adventure on road offers opportunities to see things I would never see otherwise, it does have some artistic limitations, space for supplies being just one. Two people living in 47 square foot can be quite a challenge in itself. Most art store parking lots are designed to prohibit big trucks entering. I’m not real sure how their delivery drivers manage, but the space allowed for them even is very tight and restricted from customer use. We have no route, no schedule, no structure or calendar beyond the load that is on at the time. On a good day with no major cities involved, we can do up to 700 miles per day. On days we are in major cities, have to load or unload—or both, we sometimes only log 200-300 miles. Sometimes we sit for pseveral days between loads. Life is very unpredictable, getting mail is next to impossible, and the stress levels can become incredibly high when you throw weather, road construction and unreasonable dispatch into the mix. The need for a Zen-like art outlet is more than apparent in my life. Enter Zentangle Inspired Art, I had scratched the surface several years back when my artistic passion was gourd art, (where I was represented in several galleries, vended at several yearly juried shows, and taught classes)

 


I publish a short “lesson” note each week along with attempting to post a daily doodle on my Facebook Art Page Tangled World by Liz Drake. Go ahead, check it out, oh and give it a “like” while you are there. All comments appreciated.
  
My next art adventure is to get a few of my favorite pieces printed into note cards and postcards. I hope to package and sell to finance “My Epic Adventure” when I plan to build a pedal vessel and camp and pedal my way from the source of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.” 
 
 
One of Liz’s “go-to” challenge tiles. I love her ideas!

I am amazed that Liz is able to produce art like this while working on the road! I want to be around to see the art she comes up with on the pedal trip!
 
Thank you so much, Liz, for allowing me to share your art and your journey! You’re a fascinating lady and I expect I will be asking to add your art here and there when the opportunity arises! I’m off to check out your Facebook page.
 

 
 
 
 

This is my favorite! Of course, if it’s purple I am guaranteed to love it!

 All the art and images on this site are copyrighted by the creating author/artist. They are not to be used, copied or pinned without the creator’s written permission. All rights reserved. 


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Milestones

I had to stop yesterday and breathe, and focus on accomplishments. I am normally frenetic about constantly creating at a high level (that’s a high level for myself not everyone else!) and pretty OCD about getting things done well and on time. Unfortunately, this means I get lost in the journey and forget about the big picture. Me and half the population, right!? Today was a big picture day for me. After slogging along for about 9 months this blog hit 3,000 views and today i had 100 views in about 8 hours. Seems silly but its nice to see your hard work realized even to a small scale.

I wouldn’t be here though, without the encouragement and support of the wonderful people in the Zentangle® Mosaic app, as well as the amazing group of artists and friends at Tangle It! Pattern Club on Facebook. Hmm, this sounds like a bad award dinner speech! Since I’m thanking the academy, let me give a nod first to Barb Masinton for the use of her beautiful art for this post! It’s nice not to need to prepare art for each post and quite honestly her art has been part of the reason my site traffic has been up. It’s simply spectacular! I also wanted to thank Dr. Ellie Miller (who’s off for CZT training next week, Gratz Ellie!🤗) of Tanglesxm.com and Write of Passage. She stuck with me thru a long time during which I couldn’t write or create. We found each other on WordPress then discovered we were both on Mosaic. Since that time, she’s been a true friend in her support and encouragement. Thank you Ellie! I cant forget Terri Delaune, CZT for your help with my pattern submissions. It helps having feedback! Dolly Bolen, CZT, Jody Genovese, CZT, and Sarah Fowler, each of whom have been encouragers, and all of whom created fabulous art using my Patterns so I would be able to showcase them in a variety of ways, thank you all! In honor of their impact on my life, here is some wonderful art by these wonderful ladies! Zentangle is amazing! Everyday, I get visitors from all over the world. April has been my most successful month yet. Thank you all!

Apcorg by Sarah Fowler
Apcorg by Terri Delaune,CZT
image9.jpg
Apcorg By Dolly Bolen,CZT ( a favorite!)

 

Apcross tiles by Terri Delaune, CZT (thank you so much!)
Tangled tile using Apcross by Terri Delaune, CZT
Apcorg by Dr Ellie Miller
Apcross by Dr Ellie Miller
(struggling with this WordPress iOS app. So the photos aren’t set in perfectly and I had 2 duplicates I couldn’t remove without starting over. My quick post changed into a nightmare but I’m still grateful!)

Easter Weekend Catch Up

This week’s “it’s a string thing” from Adele Bruno is going to be delayed a week. The lovely Adele, is taking a magical trip to Fabriano, Italy. This lovely Italian city is the place where the original Zentangle®️ tiles are created.  Luckily this gives me, and others, time to catch up on their art, spend time with families and enjoy the weekend. I know I literally have dozens of projects awaiting my attention!
First on the list is to work on this week’s go-to library submissions. One of the talented artists in the group, Barb Masinton, did her first week’s tiles tangled together on a journal page. I loved the design and wanted to give it a try myself. Let me show you how awesome Barb’s art is and why it was so inspiring! As I’ve posted before, there are 7 strings per week with a focus pattern to use with your go-to tangles. Here are Barb’s 7 posts and a final picture of it all together. I just loved it!








I’m really blessed to be able to share this wonderful piece of art with you all! Barb is one of the people I’ve run into that is so encouraging and inspiring, it makes it a treat to login everyday!

I almost didn’t post my work after these great pieces, but…unafraid… here are my first 2 tile/journal entries. 



I would like to invite everyone interested to join the Tangle It! Pattern Club on Facebook. Lots of great people and tangling fun!