Donna mentioned a new "doodle" art called Zentangle at a recent family event and recommended that I give it a try.  Here are a few creations.  Although I enjoy creating them, they require such focus on hand eye coordination that they're far from relaxing... but well worth doing.  I have learned that patterns work better when they're not random and that I need to practice drawing weaves.

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Being careful not to slip down a path of problems, I goggled sailboats to see how they looked structurally and how the wind shaped their sails.  The sculpture's mast was too far forward so I shaved off the bump and formed a smooth peak further back.  By gently swaying the grinder up and down the jib, the rough spots gradually disappeared revealing a jib full of wind.  Then the back of the jib was cut in showing where it ties off one corner at the top and one corner at the side of the sailboat. 

I ground the main sail into a smooth curve then flipped the sculpture over and started working on the other side.  There are two straight lines on a sailboat, the vertical mast and the horizontal support under the main sail (I forget what it's called but I know it's there.)  These should be visible on the other side of the sails but my head was having trouble seeing where they fit in the stone.  My hand used the grinder to cut in gently lines where I think they should be.  Where I THOUGHT they should be.  Were they right?  Not sure.  Stop!  The artistic edge of my brain was fatigued and unable to set direction.  It had been an hour since I started carving and although my hands were capable of more, my head was not.  Past experience has taught me that continuing to carve in such a state is pure folly with disastrous errors about to occur.  Time to stop, wait and let the sculpture ferment in my head until the direction is known with confidence. 

That's the beauty of "working" at my own pace.  In the old days of working eight hour days for a paycheque the company insisted on working to a buzzer, start at the buzzer, stop for break at the buzzer, buzz to restart, buzz for lunch stop, buzz for restart, buzz to go home.  It was all so structured, all so counter to personal needs and efficiencies.  I'm glad to be retired, to be free to do what I do best when I do it best.

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