PJ Martin Artwork: Art Became My Saving Grace!


This small mandala was created in the summer of '16 in a black sketch book.

The short story, of a long one, is that my love for all the arts started at birth but fell to the wayside in making way for the needs of a growing family. Then, many years later, it became my saving grace!

I am now the sole caretaker of my mother who has Alzheimer's. Being a caregiver is very stressful. It is also stressful as well as confusing for the person suffering from Alzheimer's and/or dementia. I have found that during this transition, for all involved, doing a artwork helps a great deal! (I will tell mom's story and share her artwork another time.)

Before I discovered this need for an outlet, I got very sick while taking care of mom. I didn't even realize how bad I was until the doctors wanted me to stay in the hospitable!

I remember my dad telling me repeatedly how when he and mom where in school, they had to draw circles over and over, so they would have nice penmanship. In much the same exercise, I started with an ink pens and a black Sharpie and drew circles in a little sketchbook.

I soon found an art form called 'Zentangle', and started incorporating what I learned from websites and YouTube tutorials. My circles started to evolve.

I mixed the Zentangle designs with my doodles and called my new artwork, 'Zen-Doodle'. (I found out later, other people were using the same phrase.) I put a book of my designs together, like the two above and below. (But it was never published.) This was the time of the explosion of the 'Adult Coloring' books. I gave many of my coloring pages to a local children's hospitable.