Perspective

perspective: /pəˈspɛktɪv/ – noun
1. a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance
2. the proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see it; objectivity
3. the theory or art of suggesting three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface, in order to recreate the appearance and spatial relationships of that objects or scene

Usually when you hear the word perspective thrown around in art circles, they are talking about definition 3. I want to talk to you about the first two. This week’s excellent guest post over at the iamthedivaczt is by Katie Cromett. She talks about simplicity in life and in Zentangle. If you haven’t read it, pop over and have a look. I’ll wait…

So, with the challenge of simplicity and using just 2 or 3 tangles, I thought I’d start without a string and use something organic. Lately, mock mooka is my go-to tangle. Since I wanted a simple background, I chose patena. I didn’t want a lot of extra ornamentation, but did want the mock mooka to stand out from the background, so I did a single aura with a bit of rounding and shading. It seemed like it would be simple, but the results, well, see for yourself.

Simple challenge – just mock mooka and patenna.

So, is it simple or not?

At first, I thought, not so much. But, then I pulled out this thing from my bag.

Everything but the kitchen sink – plus watercolor

That certainly puts the first one into perspective. Yes, it is simple. At least in comparison.

Want to hear a funny story about tile 2? I wrestled with this tile last week at the beach. It seemed that no matter what I did, it was just too busy and too ugly. Even Sonya couldn’t offer any suggestions for improvement. In desperation, I took watercolor to it. That did enough to “rescue” it, but, I still had no plans to share it with the world. Or anyone. I tucked it into my bag and forgot about it. Or perhaps I blocked it out of my mind. This morning, reached into the bag to show my bubbles tile to a friend and it accidentally fell out.

Lo and behold, it is no longer hideous. When this happens, I tell my students that it is because the tangle fairy came. Often students are not quite happy with their first tile. I tell them to put it away and let the tangle fairy come and when they get home, show their family. Every one of them has told me that they liked it better when they got it back out again.

Why? Often when we are tangling, we are hyper focused and notice every tiny imperfection. When in this mindset, all you notice are the flaws (that are usually invisible to others.) It can be difficult to switch to a more objective perspective. Sometimes, these minute flaws can stop you from seeing the big picture. If this happens, here are a few tips to help:

1. Put your work away. Let the tangle fairies come work their magic. Often, all you need is to see your work with “fresh eyes.”
2. Share a tile with a friend. Hearing others’ perspectives can help. Note: be careful who you do this with. It works best with other tanglers.
3. Rotate it and see if there is a side you like better.
4. Hold it at arms length or even view it from across the room.
5. Put it in a mosaic with other tiles. When seen in a larger context, most “mistakes” will disappear.

Do you have any tricks to help change your perspective? If so, please share in the comments below.