Good morning, well maybe. I burnt my fingers this morning reaching into our toaster oven to retrieve my toast. I reached in to high and my fingers touched the hot element . . . man instant pain. I put some burn gel on it but it didn't do much to relieve the the pain. I know eventually throughout the day it will subside but for now they are soaking in ice water. I will be back to finish this blog later on.

Well the pain has subsided enough so that I can type with more than two fingers. So here I go! The subject I want to talk about today is "Zentangle." A few of months ago a friend asked me if I had ever heard of Zentangle and my reply was no and I asked what it was. She said it was a type of drawing technique. Not knowing anything about this as an artist peeked my interest and I went into search mode. I found a book on Zentangle and discovered I knew all about it, more than I realized. The name of course has changed, it was what I knew growing up as a form of intricate purposeful doodling. Actually there was a famous graphic designer, M. C. Escher (1898-1972), who really developed this type of drawing. You can see his work on his official Website. I've included the link below. M.C. Escher is one of my favorite artists, his techniques were amazing but very time consuming. I would recommend that you take a look at his work at http://www.mcescher.com/ His work was phenomenal!

Now, for the book I picked up. It is titled "Joy of Zentangle" featuring three different artists. However, I recognized the technique right a way and knew I had seen the basics of it before in M.C. Escher's work. What disappointed me was the statement I read on page 9 (second paragraph). It states that Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas are the creators of Zentangle. I disagree! M. C. Escher developed this technique long before they arrived on the scene. Granted they have created their own designs, some even resemble Escher's, but not the technique, and if you check out Escher's Website the evidence of truth is overwhelming.

Let me know what you thoughts are on this, I'm curious to find out what you think!