I am sure that if you have seen my Zen Kin® and the many Zen Kin® Cousins that have been created from around the globe, you can see that these new Kith are very different characters. I enjoyed designing them and have been looking forward to revealing them to you. I appreciate all the wonderful comments and caring that you have all shown my Zen Kin® and me. I am so grateful to all that participated in my recent project called Katrina’s Zen Kin® Cousins Project. If you are reading this and are not familiar with these things, feel free to look at my past blog posts for an explanation. I also have a book for sale of the project on Amazon.com. It is called Katrina’s Zen Kin® Cousins: A Worldwide Project. 

I am excited to tell you that I am going to do a project with these Zen Kin® Kith. I hope that you will enjoy these new, eccentric characters. I have called them Kith because the meaning of the word Kith is familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives. It seems the perfect name for these new creations of mine. It may be easy to see that I have pulled inspiration from many sources, and I am grateful for the many artists that inspire me. Many of you may be reminded of Picasso’s faces, and it is true that I looked at a lot of his work when drawing my Kith.  I was also inspired by many artist friends who draw unusual faces. 

I love this new design especially because it is reliant upon you, the artist, making “mistakes.” If you draw a realistic-looking face, then you will not be drawing a Kith.  When drawing a Zen Kin® Kith, the artist needs to make “mistakes” whenever possible. It is imperative to explore the unexpected and to express the eccentricity of these wonderful characters. Praise yourself whenever you figure out yet another way to make a mistake. Learn from these mistakes so that you may make them again and again. Laugh at your mistakes.  Enjoy the results of your mistakes.  Embrace your mistakes and know that there are no mistakes in this mistake-making. The goal is to enjoy, spread joy, and free yourself completely of any judgment. I hope that when you draw these characters, the experience will be as freeing for you as it is for me when I draw them myself. These were designed especially by me for YOU!  So, let’s get acquainted with this new project and the wonderful Zen Kin® Kith! 

As I have mentioned before, I feel as though we are all cousins. We all share the same experiences in life, and yet we all have different points of view and have lived differently. I feel a kindred closeness to you just by having you here, reading this blog. There are so many ways for us to connect in this world during this time where many of us still feel the isolation that the worldwide pandemic is causing. Many of us are feeling some tension from current events that affect all of us in some way or another.  There is no better time to spread joy, and this project is meant to do that. I hope for the participants a feeling of community and a feeling of joy will be a result of their participation. I know that many got that feeling by participating in my last project. Unfortunately, some of the same feelings of fear and isolation are with us because of COVID 19. Much of the world has learned to live with it in its own way. I am still wearing an N95 mask when I go anywhere because I still have two small grandchildren who have not yet been offered any kind of protection in the form of a vaccine. I am very alone in this when I go out in public, and for that reason, I feel isolated. There are family members that I have not seen since the pandemic’s beginning because I am still waiting for more protection for these under 5-year-olds. The current events of the world weigh on me as I know they must surely weigh on most of us. And yet, there is always a joy to be found and hope and love to focus on. This project is for you and for me. It is for me to have something wonderful to focus on during this time. I hope that if you participate, you will feel that you belong to a community of artists that have a simple goal of spreading joy through the creation of these eccentric Zen Kin® Kith. I want you to feel like you are part of a family that stretches across the world.

As with the previous project, I will ask that you follow the instructions on my video that you will find here on this website. I will draw a Zen Kin® Kith for you and talk about some of the options you might like to explore while drawing yours.  I would like you to draw one with the video and then draw another for you to keep at your home. You will send the first one to me to be joined with all the others from around the world. They will join in a Wall of Zen Kin® Kith. This is a way for these Kith to be together even when we all can’t be together. It is important to me to have the actual paper that you hold in your hands come to one place, here with me, to be joined by Kith from all over the world. I am aware that this could easily be a digital project, but that is not my desire.  It was very powerful to have all the Zen Kin® Cousins together and in one spot on this earth. There were cousins from 31 different countries and 44 states of the United States. I am both excited and optimistic when I think about how awesome this project will be!  I hope that everyone that participated before will want to also participate.  I am hoping that I will be able to reach out to people that will join for the first time. I really enjoyed the last project and although it took a lot of my time, it was time well spent.  I received so many positive comments about the project, and I am sure that the goal of spreading joy and fostering community was met. Many people have seen the digital presentation, and many have the book in their homes to enjoy and share.

The truth is, there are really no mistakes in life, only opportunities to learn and grow and become a better version of ourselves. This project holds promise to see the joy and beauty of the unexpected and eccentric world that we live in. In my opinion, if we all embrace the fun and unusual differences we all have, not only in our appearance but also in our whole beings, we will know true joy. We are only on this earth for a short while, and, I believe that the more we accept each other’s differences, the happier we will all be. 

I feel strongly about these eccentric characters being a representation of joy in the unexpected! There are so many disheartening and real traumas in life, and this is not to ignore these but to find joy in the things that we can find joy in. A little bit of respite from the difficulties in life may be had by participating in this project. I have learned from others that there are many that have deep and constant sorrow, while there are many that feel fortunate to have joyous lives. Lives are full of differing experiences, but we are all similar. We all have the ability to experience joy. Let’s all come together for this project to take a few moments to appreciate the fun of putting pen to paper and creating something that gives us and others some joy.

Each of these characters has a tangle or two and that is the extent of tangling. My Zen Kin® and Zen Kin® Cousins have a lot of tangles for hair.  It is intended that these Zen Kin® Kith have just a bit of tangles for hair. Maybe just one tangle, or two at the most.  It is part of their eccentricity. Zen Kin® Kith have just a couple of colors and only in a few places. They are not meant to be colored fully, and the colors used are usually picked out of a pile of colors at random. These Kith differ from the cousins as they have no DOB, or date of birth, and they have just one name. The name appears in quotation marks and on the right side of the artwork. 

Zen Kin® Kith are Zentangle® Inspired Art but this is a little “out of the box” thinking because the tangles are few.  Still, my inspiration to draw these has come from my love of the Zentangle® Method of Drawing. Since they all require tangling, albeit minimal, they are still considered ZIA.  Each Zen Kin® Kith has two eyes, two ears, a mouth, and a nose, but none of these are typical or drawn in typical places.   

I think it can be further contemplated that several of us are easily swayed to be critical of our own facial features. Many are subconscious of our looks and others’ opinions of us. As we draw our very likable, eccentric, delightful, joyous, Zen Kin® Kith, let’s keep this in mind. Let’s ease up on our own criticisms of ourselves and remember that spreading joy is not dependent on any physical features. It is something that can be done by anyone at any time.  It is my goal in life…to spread joy. 

I would encourage you to draw these characters for the project with your family members. I have especially enjoyed doing these with my Granddaughters.  I love to tell them that they really did a great “mistake” on the eye, or say, “Wow!” That mouth looks so “wrong,” and hear their giggles.  We are told we are making a mistake or are wrong so often as children, and it is a fun activity to do with our little ones.  They love being told how “wrong” they are when it means they were right! Let the child in you play with this and enjoy being so perfectly “wrong” as you draw this eccentric, joyous character. 

Again, look for the video, and make sure that you include all the information on the back of the artwork. I will tell you exactly what to write and where to send it in my video instructions. To be included in the project, I will need you to follow the directions on the video.

I appreciate you all and hope that you will feel excited about these new characters. I hope that even if at first you are not “drawn” to them, you will give them a chance and try to create one. They are very different than my Zen Kin® or the Zen Kin® Cousins, but I assure you, they are all from the same family. I wish you, as my Kith and Kin, joy today and always. Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear what you think of these new Zen Kin® Kith. I am so happy to present them to you today.  I can be reached at katrinathiebautczt@gmail.com

You may post your Zen Kin® Kith on my Facebook group called Katrina’s Zen Kin Cousins.