May 30, 2023

Hello Rick and Maria,

Welcome to Day 20 of Bijou's Be Well Bundle video series!

"Make a decision and make it right." - Maria Thomas

Bijou agrees that there is something magical that happens when an artist is faced with limitations, obstacles, and structure. A narrowing of the options invites a creative explosion.

However, along with any framework or limitations, comes choice. Our lives are full of choices. We make thousands every day. Each choice guiding our next step in the journey. Many of the choices we make are easy. Should I wear jeans or sweats? Should I have eggs or oatmeal? Should I walk or take the car? Then there are the choices that are much more complicated but have to be made in order for us to move through our lives.

Maria was talking about this very subject with Bijou. Bijou had heard from Maria's children that when they were younger and came to her about a big decision they had to make, Maria always said, "make a decision and make it right."

When they were young this frustrated them very much. They really wanted her to tell them what to do. They wanted to labor over the choices and complain about the situation, and have someone else make the choice, but this advice she gave them served to stop them in their tracks and put the ball back in their court. As they got older and wiser, they learned what she meant by this statement and why she always pushed them in this direction. What they learned was to take ownership of the choices they had to make. They learned that once they made a choice to move forward, they should do whatever they could to make that choice purposeful in what was to come next. They learned to not look backward and hem and haw about what might have or should have been but to focus on the belief that the choices made are always the right ones. It just depends on how those choices are embraced.

In our Zentangle practice we make choices too. What we do on the tile is a great way to practice what we do in our life. It might seem like a reach, but we have to start somewhere and why not have it be on a tile? So, choose your tangles and know, whatever you choose, it is the right one.

Be well, be you,

Bijou

Bijou's Be Well Bundle - Day 20

The videos in the Bijou's Be Well Bundle series will be released every day through May 31, 2023. You can view all of the videos in this series here (after their release).

Reticula and Fragments

Reticula and Fragments are a concept originally introduced in the Zentangle Primer Volume 1 (in the video, Rick shows you a page from the Primer that includes fragment options).

Reticula refers to the grids that you draw and then fill with delightful little elements that we call fragments. This approach to drawing grid patterns allows for endless opportunities for repeating, mirroring, and flipping the fragments to create new patterns.

At our Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) reunion in 2016, we asked our CZTs if they would be willing to contribute to a book we were contemplating. A resounding yes was heard. We designed and printed some special tiles on Fabriano Tiepolo. They were about the size of a baseball card. There was a square at the top strung with different reticula and places underneath for the artist’s name, CZT class, the fragment code, and an isolated fragment. We filled out all the cards with different fragment codes and then handed them out to anyone who wanted to be part of this project. Some CZTs did three, four, or five cards!

They are jewels, every one of them (approximately 650) sparkling

with energy and love. As far as we know, every one made it into the book. We

added our own bits of stuff to read, a few full-page illustrations, a brand-new

cover . . . and our Zentangle gold seal of approval.

We are honored to share with you this collaborative book, A Zentangle Collection of

Reticula and Fragments.

All profits from the sale of this book go to the Zentangle Foundation to establish scholarships for Certified Zentangle Teacher training, support research on the Zentangle Method, and provide funding for outreach projects that use the Zentangle Method.