How to draw IMOJ

Greetings tangle fans 🙂

Our midweek muse is another cool tangle deconstruction from Maryland CZT Angie Gittles. IMOJ is an addition to her ever-growing Southwest pottery inspired series, however its name is another inspiration all together.

Angie gives us the background and explains the name IMOJ:

Recently I was saddened to learn of the death of Jackie – the bald eagle from Big Bear Valley, California. The world has been following her and her partner Shadow for many years via a live stream of their nest and habitat. If you are not familiar with these famous eagles, here is the website. Warning, you may get addicted to watching! Long story short, she was attacked by two other eagles on July 17, 2026, and could not fly. She was rescued and has been cared for by the Ojai Raptor Center for the past few weeks until she ultimately passed on August 10, 2026. It’s just a bird, you say? No … she meant more to the world. I can’t explain why – if you know, you know. The website has complete details.

I have a stack of unnamed tangles I’ve been working on inspired by the pottery of the Southwest. I decided to pull out one and name it in her honor. The tangle looks a little bird-like, although the write-up for the Laguna Pueblo pottery that is the inspiration piece describes it as an 11″ Wide Laguna Water Jar with Butterfly and Cloud Patterns (1970) by potter Evelyn Cheromiah. (Fun fact – this water jar was sold for over $2,000.)

I did try to further research Laguna bird symbols and even asked ChatGPT – and it’s not a bird symbol. Anyway, I thought about naming the tangle after her but decided to go with “IMOJ” for In Memory of Jackie. I paired it with the Zentangle®-original tangle Drawings (for her wings) and threw in some hearts to symbolize how much she was loved. The tangle is in no way as beautiful as she was. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it.

Angie illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing IMOJ below and she features it in a ZIA zendala and a Bijou monotangle.

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Check out the tag angieg for more of Angie’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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5. Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
6. What Makes a Zentangle tangle? A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle. Patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles, and tangles never start with pencil planning.
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