I’m dedicating this week’s Hump Day Zentangle Challenge #4: Perspective Edition to Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) Kelly Barone and her son, Travis. Since becoming a CZT myself at the Providence Seminar #18 in 2015, I realized I joined an immensely supportive community that shares not just our artwork, but also our joys and sorrows. When we were dealing with a family tragedy, a friend shared a Swedish saying which feels relevant:
Shared joy is a double joy. Shared sorrow is half a sorrow.
On April 27th, Kelly’s son was a 17 year old, looking forward to his high school graduation. On that day, Travis wasn’t feeling well, so Kelly took him to an urgent care center to get checked out. Within a few hours, he had been transferred to a hospital, was paralyzed from the neck down, and was being prepped for emergency surgery to address a large clot discovered in the epidural space of his spine. The diagnosis was a rare “spontaneous epidural hematoma” not caused by trauma. The prognosis was “we’ll do the best we can”. Another complex spine surgery followed.
Travis has been hospitalized since April 27th and Kelly has been by his side almost continuously. Through Travis’ grit and determination, and the work of his skilled medical team, including talented and dedicated physical and occupational therapists, Travis has regained some use of his hands.
Travis, Kelly and their family have a long, difficult road ahead of them. When Travis leaves the hospital, in order for him to be able to live with his family, he will require a motorized wheelchair, a specialized van with a lift, and the family will have to find and move to an apartment with no stairs, and with structures adapted for a wheelchair bound resident. At the moment, in addition to the never ending concerns about Travis’ medical condition, Kelly is dealing with the “through the looking glass” world of trying to figure out how to find and fund the services Travis will need, including housing.
A GoFundMe campaign was started for Travis. If you’d like to contribute, you can do so at:
Hump Day Zentangle Challenge #4: Perspective
(If you are wondering what Zentangle is, you should start here.)
When I originally thought about the theme for this week’s Hump Day Zentangle Challenge, I was thinking about perspective in the visual sense. According to Mr. Google, in this sense, perspective is defined as:
The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.“a perspective drawing”
In this tile, I used the technique of “drawing behind” for depth, along with tapering lines. I tried to make some of the perfs look like cut outs and the others I (shaded) to look raised. I should not have so darkly outlined the ones I wanted to look raised. Tangles used: Cadent; our old friend, Nzeppel , Tripoli, and a tangleation of Knightsbridge.
Tangles used: Paradox, an “official” Mother Ship tangle by Rick Roberts; and, I’m not sure about the stripey one. Can anyone help with the name of that–if it has a name?
And then this — because I was having so much fun being “perspectivey”. Here we have Paradox again, and again I need our Zentangle hive brain to identify the other tangle.
The Other Kind of Perspective
The other kind of perspective is defined as:
A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.
Having inhabited this planet for over 6 decades (!) now, I’ve learned the more life throws at us, the more perspective we gain. To survive with some workable mental health, we have to learn to have perspective, to be able to understand where individual events belong in the “grand theme of things”. I even wrote a blog post about “the grand scheme of things“.
I think Kelly and Travis’ situation is a huge wake-up call for anyone who thinks the world has stopped turning on its axis because their Amazon delivery is a day late, because the refrigerator is making a funny noise, because the dog wants to go outside at 3:00 a.m., etc. ad nauseum.
When I was growing up, I used to roll my eyes when my now 94 year old mother would announce, “Any day you can walk outside is a good day.” Now, I understand that being poor during the Depression, losing her mother at age 12, and having a sister with polio, taught her to have perspective, and to be resilient.
Share Your Perspective
Please share your response to this week’s challenge with us in the Hump Day Challenge Facebook Group and/or on your Instagram or Twitter feeds. Use the hashtag #hdchallenge4 . The Facebook group is a “closed” group to discourage axe murderers. So, assuming you’re not an axe murderer, please just search for the name of the group in Facebook and submit a request to join. There are no pre-requisites to join the group — other than relatively good manners and the afore-mentioned not being an axe murderer.
We also have a Pinterest group board to share our Hump Day Challenge responses. Email me at suzanne@boomeresque.com if you’d like me to add you as a contributor to the Pinterest board or you can mention that in a comment below. (PS: The first 2 times you comment, I will have to moderate the comment. It will show up once I’ve done that.)
BTW, feel free to share your work for this challenge at any time—even next week, next month, next year, ad infinitum.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Suzanne,
Perspectives change over the years too.
I remember leaving my 18 year old son at the door of his student accommodation when he first went to university and being so sure I had lost him forever. And I had indeed lost that version of him. I had lost the little boy who needed me so much, but time changed my perspective and found me another, different, grown up son, who needed a different me too.
Later, much later, I began to see that one of my grandchildren had symptoms of autism. (Working as I did with many young people with differing learning disabilities, I spotted it quite early.) As a result of knowing this wonderful child and watching him grow, my perspective on other children has changed and I have developed a tolerance for “naughty” behaviours I wouldn’t have believed possible, because I now see beyond it.
What I have realised about perspective is that, if we use the cliche of life as a journey – it’s a very handy cliche isn’t it?- then we are constantly on the move and seeing the world from a different place, a different perspective.
I don’t have some clever conclusion to draw from this, just an acceptance that change isn’t necessarily bad, although as a species I think we tend to either rush towards it or resist it. And if I were to define what perspective is, i think I’d say “It’s just another point of view.”
M
Perspective definitely represents our point of view (POV), and it changes as we proceed through life, and sometimes even as we proceed through the day. Our POV is informed by our individual life experiences, but also on a more micro level sometimes by whether we had enough sleep or whether we’re hungry (hangry) and even the weather (hot and humid in Philly today).
Hi Suzanne,
That striped snake in one of the tangles above is called STRIPING. (really!) The zig-zaggy UTP (unidentified tangle pattern) in the other drawing looks like a variation/tangleation of HIBRED. Both are official tangle patterns.