Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Life and Art, a Juxtaposition

This past week was a whirlwind and as usual life can be, well, very lifey. I won't go into details, but if it's in you, pray for my brother and pray for my son. God will know why and take care of the rest. Particularly my brother, Craig, as thoughts of him weigh heavily on me this week and I can't be near to him right now. My son, Terrance, moved nearby this year and I can keep closer tabs on him.
In fact, last week he asked if we could do a little road trip together (before his recent troubles fell into place). It's not unusual for us to go to Prescott or Sedona, a mere hour away, when the opportunity arises. But, he had much grander plans in mind. Real Grand.
Grand Canyon Grand.
And away we went on a DAY trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I've done it before, I can do it again, right? We had breakfast at the Cameron Trading Post and afternoon coffee at Hermit's Rest and he took me for a lovely dinner at the grand old El Tovar Lodge. (oooh, fancy!)
Brr. The East View from Desert Tower
On the walls in the Dining Room (I told you it was fancy. Capital Letter fancy!) are paintings of various tribes of Arizona. Our table was in front of the fire, a view window of the sunset over the canyon and the paintings of the Hopi and Navaho. TJ remarked that they chose the phonetic spelling rather than the commonly used, "Navajo."

I was rather amused when I set out my plans for my zinchies this week and I saw the pattern, Navaho. I just HAD to do that one. I also had to do Amoeba as my teenie brain thought there should be some such pattern and come to find that indeed there is one of those already. 
I had to try Pinch with my brand new Spectrum Noir markers as I saw a tutorial in a zentangly book where the shading of that pattern was done with markers and with pencils. (If I remember which book, I'll be sure to make a note of it). 
I hardly know what to do with those markers; I'll get to that sometime. 
And I thought I'd better give the patterns for this week's Diva Challenge a go before I actually tried an honest attempt at it. I really found Margaret Bremner's "And then some..." blog entry on Cubine to be very helpful. I like grid- and geometric-based tangles, but she goes a LOT farther with it, so check that out. 

I found Slices on Banar's Flickr feed. (I find her work to be very inspirational). It's similar to Kuke, which I tried out last week (Slices is based on half-rounds while Kuke divides a circle in thirds). I'll be trying out some investigative work on those two patterns and a third I found that follows a line. Could be interesting. Perhaps.
Without further ado, here's my attempt of tangling up Cubine with Pokeroot. Could there have been a more disparate pair?
Over the Cliff
Diva Challenge 208
I actually drew a string line and did some massive shading, all at 3am. As I was saying, I have a lot of corrugated boxing materials from the construction project, so I used some for my drawing this week, including this entry.
NEWS FLASH:
I created a Flickr group for Zinchies! Check it out here! I thought maybe, just maybe, it would be a way to create a wall full of zinchies, a virtual library of patterns and designs from intrepid tanglers who make inchie-sized ZIAs. 
I appreciate your checking in on my ramblings, my drawing and your prayers. We all could use some extra help and inspiration now and again, right?


16 comments:

  1. I like the tile with Pokeroot and Cubine, it's so well shaded! You son and brother will be in my thoughts!!!!

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    1. Heel erg bedankt, Anne! Ik waardeer uw gedachten, altijd. Hebben een schitterende dag! c

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    1. Thanks, Suzy! Glad you liked my interpretation. Have a brilliant day! c

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  3. Wonderful post with photos from your recent trip. The Canyon looks beautiful in the snow, and sort of puts our tiny lives in perspective, doesn't it? If there is anywhere you can access the energy - the soul - of the universe, that would be it. Hope all improves for you. I love your corrugated cardboard tile. Your design acknowledges the vast difference between the two patterns, and it looks great. Love your little pattern Zinchies. That looks like fun!

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    1. Thank you, Antonine! The Canyon was quite beautiful and peaceful plus a big source for spiritual energy that I've really been drawing on this week. I am glad you liked my interpretation of the Diva Challenge this week and yes! the Zinchies have been a lot of fun to work on...and meditative. Have a brilliant day! c

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  4. Prayers/energy going the direction of your family. Loving all the cubine/pokeroot goodness emanating from people's creative interpretations this week. Somehow they all seem to go hand in hand in spite of being design disparate.

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    1. Thank you, Lynell for your support and for you taking the time to check out my part. Have a brilliant day! c

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  5. Great post and what a fun day trip! Beautiful tiles too. Prayers coming your way.

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    1. Thank you very much, Lady Kate, for your thoughts and prayers. Much appreciated! Have a brilliant day! c

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  6. I love the way pokeroot comes out of cubine. Veru beautiful.

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    1. Thank you, Carmela. I am glad you liked my interpretation. Have a brilliant day! c

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  7. I will be thinking of your loved ones and sending strength to them and to you as well. Love the tiles and thanks for sharing your lovely trip and picture :)

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    1. Thanks for thinking of me and mine, Jean. Very much appreciated. Glad you liked my pictures. Have a brilliant day! c

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  8. those darling little onesies! inchies...or whatever...I love them! so much fun....I like slices the best. But everything is just great!

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    1. Thank you, HeidiSue! I can't take credit for these things, I just replicate them...teenie. Glad you like them, though. Have a brilliant day! c

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