My daily block printing art practice is going very well with 2 months of printing and posting them on Instagram. I am continuing to print single pages of tessellating torus mandala blocks on old book/magazine pages. I’m playing with black and brown on the aged papers with lovely results. I came across this pink gelli printed book page and printed my spectacles block in pink and black and I played around with varying sizes of square blocks in a variety of colors on a scrap of paper from a large mandala.
I have a trip coming up in May and I have been putting together a travel printing/art kit to take with me. I recently went to a one day mediation retreat and took my kit to give it a trial run. The “Love” print got a Zentangle treatment and turned out nicely. The little sketchbook is new and I am very happy with the paper. The ink didn’t bleed through and it took shading well. I decided I needed blocks that I could layer and play with a lot of different combinations so I created a bunch of one inch squares that are super fun to play with! And I played!
Have you noticed that I have a tendency to play and experiment? Another series of experiments I am working on is combining watercolor with my block prints in a really mindful way. This is bringing me lot of joy and I hope it cheers you up as well.
Grids keep appearing in my art journals. The square blocks I carved in December work so well on them and creating a master sheet that looks like a hot mess then comes together in something beautiful is a metaphor I really need these days. This is a new junk journal I made recently using a wide variety of papers in a cereal box cover.
Today is day 2 of the 100 day project. I have started off printing on very old papers. I love the November 1878 issue of Demorest’s Monthly Magazine. I’m also printing on pages from an old dictionary and a geography book from 1901.
“The 100 Day Project is a free, global art project built around one simple idea: show up to your creative practice every day for 100 days. Anyone can participate! Subscribe to receive updates and daily creative prompts.”
Since I am doing a 365 day project this year I am absorbing the 100 day project into it. There is a sense of community that helps maintain enthusiasm for a longer project. I still have lots of ideas for my 365 day project and am going strong. I will do a blog post about February in the beginning of March. For today I just wanted to share my first 2 days of the 100 day project.
I am teaching a Zentangle class at the Art Hub in Cambridge, WI on Friday, March 20th. Register here. We will use the pattern called “C Knots” as the focal point for our piece. Here is an example
So this is my goal for 2026. It is an ambitious one but I’m going to be gentle with myself about it. It is aspirational but I got a great start in January!
I’m having lots of fun exploring the blocks I carved in December and older blocks as well. I have even carved a few new ones, some of them inspired by the Zentangle Fragments of Your Imagination January challenge. I love to use Zentangle patterns as inspiration for my blocks. This one is my favorite.
I used a block printed mandala using some of these Zentangle fragment blocks as the pattern for a screen printing class I took at Polka Press and here’s some napkins and tshirts that are the result!
I printed a cover for the paper bag art journal I used to capture my Carve December work.
Here are individual photos of some of my favorites.
Making art is a form of self care for me. I think it is also a form of resistance against evils such as fascism. I’m surrounding Minneapolis with Love & Love & Love. Let’s make something beautiful today.
I carved more than 60 blocks in December. The picture above is missing most of the words I carved. They are posted below. Carve December is an Instagram challenge that helps me in the darkest time of the year. It has been the best medicine for my seasonal affective disorder ever! I’m really excited for this first version of a new, big torus mandala that I designed over the course of the month (below).
I wasn’t happy with one of the new blocks and used an old favorite that I’m still working to redesign. Here’s a gallery of the blocks I carved and the photos I posted on Instagram.
I made another paper bag art journal to capture all the fun blocks I carved and to keep a record of them all together. Now that I have completed 5 years of this challenge I want to be a little more organized about the hundreds of blocks I have! I will post a video of the flip through on Instagram.
Wishing you peace, good health and happiness in the new year!
I love Carve December! It is an Instagram challenge started and hosted by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer of Balzer Designs. She provides prompts for each day of the month and people carve stamps (blocks) inspired by those prompts, or whatever. I have generally been one of the “whatever” carvers but this year I am following the prompts and having a lot of fun with it. I am curious if you can guess what the prompts might be based on what I carved. I would love it if you would leave a comment with your ideas.
I have made another paper bag art journal to capture all of the printed goodness.
I used a paper bag art journal to capture the essence of October. It was a jam packed month! I posted a video (reel) on Instagram that you can see here. I wanted to share some still photos as well with more information about the content of the photos.
The paper bags come from a meal subscription service I use called Isthmus Eats and I get 1-2 meals in them most weeks. All the ingredients come with a recipe and they are very tasty but sometimes challenging to make. It has been great to increase the variety in my regular meal rotation. In any case, I have a growing stack of these paper bags and I knew how I wanted to use them. You can see I decided to make a paper bag book with pockets! It got really chunky!
This first page layout includes a Zendala with the first Inktobertangle (Inktober Zentangles) patterns of festune, toodles, seedways and melvina by Zentangle, Inc (first 2), Carla Jooren and Nadine Roller, respectively. Click on the pattern name to go to the instructions on how to draw that Zentangle pattern. The orange print with the eyes is from the resource I made for my Block Printing Fest handout. The background is papers that I have gelli printed in October and that were laying on my work table.
The list of Inktober Tangles prompts is on the next page with a tan phi tile with some of the patterns. The tan tile includes Star Rite by Nina Dreher-Goddertz, Oyvia by Shie Naritomi, and Adriadna by Tomas Padros. When you flip that pocket over you can see the ogee variations I played with. On the right are 2 ogee blocks I printed during my Repeat Pattern Design Deep Dive class with Ali (@3DottedPenguins). I used the ogee shaped spaces to draw in the pattern Lilife by Barbara Steyer. I liked this pattern so much that I carved a little ogee stamp of it and played with it some more. This is layered over some woven gelli prints.
I continued to play with that little ogee stamp on a blue phi tile shaped piece of paper and a little scrap of the blue paper. The tile is on a background of “quilted” gelli printed papers and book pages. It includes the Inktober tangles cochombros by Tania Ferriol Joyer and Ole Ole by Reyes Galindo. The Zendala on the right side is one of my favorite Zentangle patterns, zenith by Zentangle, Inc. It has some similarities with delwhy, another favorite and one that I have carved a bunch of stamps of and I included 3 of the stamps on the Zendala. You can see the Block Printing Fest label and in this pocket I had some of the prints I used in my Block Printing Fest presentation. I put a copy of the handout from my presentation into another pocket. Here is a photo of the stuff from all of the pockets in the book. It includes some Artist Trading Cards I got from Mel Beach.
The page under that pocket includes a Zentangle tile with the patterns Mrth and Tripoli from Zentangle Inc, and Puffle by Sandy Hunter. I carved 2 little tripoli stamps (the triangles) and added some tangled triangles. The triangular Zentangle tile includes the patterns Ing from Zentangle Inc, letterish by Jody Genovese, and they both also include some other patterns that I use frequently.
The next page layout includes 2 ATCs left over from a batch that I created to trade with Mel Beach for the lovely chicken and lady liberty (seen above). Behind that pocket is a print in yellow green and blue inspired by the Block Printing Fest session with Sarah Matthews. There’s also a few of my stamps included here on more gelli prints.
I love how these Zentangled papers turned out! The big grey one includes Middleton by YuRu Chen, Kangular by Tomas Padros, and butria by Ute Andresen. The one on the right on blue paper includes owlpeek by Susan Yeo, Yeed by Midori Furuhashi, quandry by Zentangle Inc, and bownus by Angie Gittles. The page under the pocket is some block printing I did for my presentation for Block Printing Fest and from some block play that Ali Baedecker did during one of the zoom sessions.
As you can see, there was a lot of inspiration and art making in October! I want to thank Stephanie Jennifer for again organizing the collection of patterns for the month. She provides the links to the step outs for all the patterns and it makes it very fun and easy to participate.
This coming Saturday I will be teaching an art journaling class at the Art Hub in Cambridge, WI. We will start out altering a book to serve as our art journals and then we will do some gelli printing. After that we will use a stencil and black or white paint to create a line from stenciled images along the edge of one of the pages. Then we will cut along that line to make an interesting edge. A gelli print will go on the next page that will show off the cut edge. Coordinating papers will be collaged on the main page to create a cohesive layout with pen work to tie it all together.
The class will run from 1-4 pm and the cost is $65. All supplies are included and you will leave with a new altered book art journal for you to continue your art journaling practice in. The Art Hub is located at 145 W Main St. in Cambridge. There’s still time to register if you are quick! Register here.
I currently have art on exhibit at UW Hospital on 600 Highland Drive in Madison, WI in the surgical waiting area. It will be up until October 4. Hopefully you won’t have a reason to see it in person at the hospital so here are photos of the pieces that I will have in the show.
I had one piece, Dane County Garden, juried into the Art by the Foot exhibit at the Center for the Visual Arts in Wausau, WI. This show will run from October 3 through December 20. Here is their description of the show “So much creativity in such little space! Art by the Foot features a variety of artwork that is 12 in or smaller in size. A great show for collectors to visit.” There will be a reception on November 14, from 5-7pm.
Wishing you good health, safety, plenty and peace.
A collection of mixed media index cards created for ICAD (Index Card a Day) 2025.
I used a compass to draw some circles to expand my usual torus mandala to create spaces in between the patterned block prints. Then I added some Zentangle patterns that would unify the piece. After that I cut off an index card sized piece each day or so and worked on it as it’s own discrete entity. Here are some examples of the cards. My last two posts (June and July) also have more examples.
I am so happy to have explored all these possibilities! It demonstrates the value of diversity and inclusion and will hopefully improve the next piece I plan to create. It will be a version of this with my favorite components of these. Which one do you like best? Great news, you don’t have to choose just one.
I am beyond excited to announce that my pattern designs have been published in the 6th Surface Pattern Design Guide published by UPPERCASE Magazine.
UPPERCASE Magazine is “for the creative and curious since 2009.” It is published by Janine Vangool in Canada. I encountered Janine in a class during the Sketchbook Revival Workshop last year and immediately subscribed to this gorgeous magazine. I was very excited to see how supportive she is of new and emerging artists. She has a variety of calls for art and I submitted some pictures for her newsletter, The Pattern Journal. I was very excited to have them published in her newsletter and it gave me the confidence to submit photos for the Surface Pattern Design Guide.
“For this edition of the Surface Pattern Design Guide, 790 artist submitted their work for consideration. …The intent of my curation is to present a representative variety of the styles and stories that were shared by designers of all levels.” Janine Vangool
I feel so honored to be selected but also excited by the possibilities that are offered through this guide. One of the artists, Sarah Matthews, was awarded the honor of her design on the cover of this issue of the magazine. There were people who won fabric design offers and classes and the cover of the design guide itself was created by Lisa Deighan. This design guide is used in the surface design industry by companies looking for artist to work with and as such may open unexpected doors in the future.
Jeanette Clawson Art 