Proof Positive

I just finished reading a book by Dana White titled, "How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind." It's a hilarious take on real-world cleaning strategies. (Spoiler alert: Do the dishes).
I'm sure you're thinking why would anyone as organized as I need to read about home management?
HA!
In reality I'm just a crazy old cat lady hoarder-in-training. I mean, I don't even have one cat yet! I'm not so old! But if there were need of any proof that I have the hoarder thing going on, here is my entry to the Every Inchie Monday this week:

This is a clipping of a child's sweater from the Fall 1999 issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting magazine. I'm not sure why I still have the periodical, my knitting skills are not very, well, skillful. One of these days I'll actually knit a sweater. Maybe. It won't be that one.

For the Diva challenge this week:

The objective, to use Hamadox in a sentence (Ah ha!). Here, I put a few tried and true tangles to work. I'm really enjoying drawing with Prismacolor colored pencils and I'm trying to keep notes of which colors I'm using for future reference. (Yeah, like keeping a knitting magazine that is soooo last century. But, you have to admit, it came in handy this week!).

My last entry is for the TwobyTwo, where the word is "news." I like reading and am grateful that I can access whatever it is I need to know on the Internet. Otherwise, the papers might pile up ad infinitum. It could get out of hand.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a brilliant day.
I have to go do the dishes now.

Grand State of Mind

Everyday brings news. Some of it good, some of it not so much and a lot of it just needs to....be ignored. The last several holiday seasons has brought big, massive and decidedly in the not-so-much category sort of news.
Still, we carry on, don't we?
I, of the optimistic, glass half-full mentality, persevere.
When life hands you a bar coaster, you know just what you're going to do with it. First, you're going to squeeze fresh citrus and blenderize a margarita. Then, you're going to draw. This is what happened when I tackled the Diva's weekly challenge, number 301, a Diva Dance/Paradox duotangle:

This is an improved version, a tackle-it-after-coffee-infusion. An I'm not too worried about what I accomplish today version. It wanted to be a butterfly and butterflies are free.

At the EIM, the word is donkey. Doing some research on donkey made my head hurt and I'm not quite sure why I got too carried away with that as I knew right off what I was going to do. South of here, surrounding Lake Pleasant is a very strong population of wild burros (small grey Mexican donkeys). They are cute, but they are a hearty bunch that is overwhelming the environment and native species. You can adopt one through the BLM.
And hopefully NOT meet one by accident on the freeway. These signs were installed last year to try to prevent such incidents. (I tilted the sign 45 degrees to make it square instead of diamond-shaped).

Other than that, there's the TwobyTwo for next week. The word is "news." Hopefully, it's of the good news variety. I'm working on that, won't you join the fun? Anything can happen there, as long as it fits into a two-inch square.

Thank you all for visiting and your words of kindness and encouragement. It all makes my heart sing. I can't carry a tune, but my heart seems to know the words.
Have a brilliant day!

Out of Practice

It's not really that I haven't been creating, just not as actively as I'd like. Feeling guilty about that isn't going to help or change the world, but it did lead to not chatting about it. I have a stack of little artworks laying around, mostly tossed into a corner or three when guests came to visit through the holidays.
Then the calendar flipped and things really got out of hand. Let's just say that there is a little order that has come of the chaos. Life can be....interesting, and it helps to embrace that instead of trying to fight it, right?
I was going to start a botanical drawing class, but the instructor wanted a list of art supplies of which I have NONE. Hard to believe that's even possible! But I have the book and am digesting the ideas before I commit to a totally new set of (Faber-Castell) colored pencils. I'm already invested in Prismacolor and Spectrum Noir, isn't that good enough??
I say all that as an introduction to Diva 299 with the latest official Zentangle tangle, Drawings (think: draw wings). Working on light direction, foliage coloration and subtle shading.

Then there's the EIM that I'm working on. Here we go with the first four of 2017. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I didn't want to lose that fabric swatch, as I'm bound to do.

The first one is rabbit (and you never have just one!), the hampster dance, a cat who looks as happy about the weather as I do (the cold, the rain! just stay inside!) and the dog (which, for whatever reason, one repeat along the selvage had all green shading. weird).

The objective at last week's TwobyTwo was happy. Too many ideas were trying to work their way through to the cerebral surface. One of my other goals this year is to tackle Illustrator. Again.
While this was created in Photoshop, some of the methods to make it were borrowed from what I know about Illustrator (slim-to-none). This simple thing took me an hour! UGH.

With many an apology to all of the artists who have gone before me in this, along with a special nod to Robert Herrick, who may have been the first to use the smiley in text as :) in 1648!
And we think we're so clever!

If the hamster dance music is driving you as crazy as I: Don't worry, be happy!
I bid you a happy and brilliant day! Thanks for dropping by!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Since Life as we know it can be weird and coincidental, it really was no surprise that the EIM and the 2X2 had similar themes this week. For the TwobyTwo, the word was "Astronomy."

Since life gets really weird sometimes, I recently received some mail that fit perfectly. 

We're particularly fond of Pluto, even if it was downgraded from full planet status; it was at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff that Pluto's existence was first revealed in 1930. Last year, the New Horizon satellite took close-ups of Pluto before leaving the Solar System and the observatory was in celebration mode all year. (The plastic bead is meant to represent the satellite. Do you think that works? I'm not so sure and haven't committed to it yet!)

The stamp arrived on mail last week for a different celebration. According to my dad's calculations, I'm going to be 37. I could live with that!

Over at the EIM, the word is "Infinity." I had nowhere else to go with this one. I pasted Buzz on a photo of the M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. If you're a geek like me, APOD is one of my favorite blogs, care of NASA, from whence I found the galaxy photograph.

Over at the Diva, the challenge was to step back, relax and just do the tangle. I stepped into the zone slowly. I gathered some "real" art supplies for a change (Faber Castell Pitt Manga markers and Strathmore paper instead of my usual journal and Sharpies), as part of the intent of Zentangle is to honor the method as well as the materials; to place value on the process and the result.
To experience unmitigated JOY!

I said some prayers to Rick and Maria, the founders of all things Zentangle and to Laura, the Diva herself. You know? To instill a feeling of gratefulness. I added Jean next to my list as she was the first CZT I found on-line and how I found the Diva and the EIM. Naturally, I then prayed for Trillian, the leader of the EIM and the entire pack that tackles teenie artworks on a weekly basis. Then back to all the creatives I've met through Laura.

Oh! My heart is full to overflowing!

I poured a cuppa, cleared my desk and was instantly derailed by the antique cuckoo clock that was recently resurrected. The ticking drives me BATTY! (I won't start about the midnight cuckoos)! 

Deep breath. 

I asked the Universe for healing that comes with FOCUS. 

I drew the most complicated string I've ever done because that's the way it wanted to be and the tangles filled the spaces and the world slipped away for just ever so long. 

Then I reproduced that string and did it the old-fashioned way, for me anyway. Just me and my Sharpie (two, actually, as one was destined for the great Dustbin in the Sky).

I drew it in this orientation:

But, when I was done I rotated it and much prefer this direction:

I "do" this with "Knightsbridge"--checkerboard in Zentanglese-- often JFF*, but this was the first time I restrained myself from filling in EVERY. LAST. CORNER.

It had reached its "enough-ness." 

Since you were so kind to stop by, I've posted the string in all its glory on the G2H page. Should you decide to use it, show me your handiwork--I'd love to see it!-- and be so kind to link it back to the page where you found it. 

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have a brilliant day! 

* Just for Fun

Up in the Sky

In a funny little vignette where life met art this week, a clerk at Wal-Mart asked me, "What is UP?" Among the choices he offered were the ceiling and the sky. My response was, "Superman."
His reaction and that of my son (who I'm sure was wishing he was anywhere else than in my company at that moment) was, in unison, "Okaaaaaay."

I had already posted my photograph for the EIM--and thanks to all who ventured to my Flickr to see what I did earlier this week!--and was working on some other ideas. There are many ideas for "sky," aren't there?

Look! Up in the sky! It's Superman!
I also have the photo I took, one of the Aurora Borealis that I didn't, and a little drawing of trees at sunrise. I have only seen the Aurora once from my home in Massachusetts when it was particularly active, but it wasn't very photogenic. It still was a sight to see.

When I was in college, I would make these drawings of little trees and color in a very delicate sky.  I forgot all about them until I started thinking about ideas for "sky." I don't have any to show you, but I made this new one. I sold a few once upon a time; they must be worth millions by now.

All right, moving right along....

For the Diva, it was a monotangle of Tripoli. I feel about Tripoli the way I do about purple and petunias and purple petunias. If you dropped by last week, you know all about that. So, I attempted to make amends with all of that all at once.

Then I made this sampler. I keep this journal page as a reference.

For the IAST, I also drew two; one traditional, one not-so-much.

That is Faber Castell sepia pens on a light tan Canson paper with purple and lilac Crayola pencils. While you know by now that I generally stay away from purple, it is THE color to go to when working with brown. Something magical happens between those two colours. (Same thing applies to violet eye shadow or mascara and brown eyes. You'll see. If that is too far outside your comfort zone, try navy blue).

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I've been up to. Follow the links to check out all the other talented artists who follow these challenge blogs. Or try your own hand in it!

And before you go, one last "sky:"

Maybe all your sunrises be Tequila sunny!

Of Whales and Birds

I'll start with my contribution to the EIM. I had a whale of a good time finding information about cetaceans, the big mammals of the sea.

First up, the biblical account of Jonah and the Whale, a detail from the illustration by Everett Henry titled, "The Voyage of the Pequod," for the story, "Moby Dick," also known as just, "The Whale," by Herman Melville, the tail end of a whale and an image of a breaching whale.
Did you see the story of the whale they call "Granny" in the news this week?
Life can be funny that way, don't you think?
Ah, whale tales all! You can call me Ishmael.

Moving right along....
Next I tackled the TwobyTwo. The first two drawings are kind of self-explanatory.

This one requires a bit of back-story. I was in Sedona one day a while back and stopped by Garlands, a gallery for exceptional Native American jewelry, ceramics and weavings. I saw a beautiful Tree of Life (Bird Pictorial) wall hanging depicting hummingbirds and metallic yarns were used to make those lovely birds shimmer. I knew then that it would haunt me forever that I didn't buy the unusual piece (Navajo like to use only wool from the sheep they raise themselves. Metallic threads are unheard of), but the tag had more zeroes than I had.
Sigh.
So here I've attempted to draw a hummingbird that doesn't look like the Twitter thing:

I dream of hummingbirds, which I guess is a good thing.

Before I let you go, I'll share the Diva challenge piece for the week.

That's it for now. Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a brilliant day!

Rhymes with Ice

There's now a humongous fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Started by lightning three weeks ago, it is, to my minds eye, out of control. Tons of heavy equipment, 500 firefighters and support personnel (helicopter pilots, and others) and a million dollars a day to fight what was a nine-acre (now 13,000 and counting) fire.
It's in old spruce/fir forest headed to open grassland and just claiming earth in it's path. Zero contained, it's expected to burn for Two. More. Months.

This photograph is from that internet thingie here.

Why do I go on? Because we were just there.

We planned our summer get-away back in February and we were already late in getting a reservation then, grabbing the last available camping spot (it's a big celebration for our National Parks System--the centennial, so rezzies filled in quickly). While driving to the rim last week, we saw smoke from a hundred miles away and wondered if we'd have our little vacation.
We went anyway.
After all, Gil earned his lifetime park pass months ago and we had yet to claim it.
I asked the first park ranger we saw for details on the fire and her response was, "What fire?" She couldn't see the fire for the trees. From where we stood, the tall Ponderosa forest hid all signs of smoke.
As it turned out, we had four glorious days of blue skies and cool, crisp air (80s, no humidity), a respite from the desert heat we have returned to. From where we camped, the fire was about 10 miles to the northeast is all. I spent three nights trying to capture the sky from our campsite, particularly a single branch of a mighty pine.

I gazed at that one branch pondering last week's Diva challenge from Suzanne Fluhr (CZT and world traveler) to embrace Peace. If I had been home, I would have used the olive trees for inspiration. I have yet to get around to drawing this, now that we're back to "reality."
But I'm liking the photograph for inspiration as well as meditation, like a giant "Om." It's not the greatest picture I've ever taken as the wind was blowing 30 mph (helping that fire over there) and the branch was never still.
Perhaps I can still tackle this image to draw as this week it's about "movement!"

In the meantime, I'll play with the EIM. My current offerings for "spiral:"

I drew a "fake" Spirograph (remember those? I used to love em!) in Photoshop and dug up a fractal image and a strangely similar nautilus shell and a spiral nebula.

I'll get back around to the various artistic endeavors. While we as humanity try to digest the recent events across the planet, I try not to infuse my work with tragedy or politics. The title is a reference to France, even though it doesn't.
For whatever reason, the fire has gripped me tightly. Words, and pictures, which usually spill from me, somehow fail me.

And the Rocket's Red Glare

The weather has been fabulous for this spot in the desert. We had rain (for ten minutes or so) a couple days in a row, which made the air just plain steamy.
Then it rained.
The Navajo have ten different names for rain and while I don't know what they are, I can easily identify a few. There are drizzles and showers. We have one we comically call twelve-inch rain--that's where we get a few splatters 12-inches apart. Then we have fat rain--big, burly splats of water that hurl themselves towards Earth and bounce off the ground.
It just rained, pure and simple.
Then the air cleared, just glorious. One hundred degrees and deep cerulean skies. And more of the same all week long. Perfect.
I have to get out and yank the weeds that were patiently waiting for a good soaking. They multiply before my eyes! But not until I take care of these little artworks....

These are for last week's IAST.

The first was the happy result of trying the #heftyhack that the Diva proposed a couple weeks ago. After many an attempt, I used Prismacolor brush-tip markers and kosher salt to create the watercolor background with "Ahh" fireworks. The second is a more traditional piece with my trusty Sharpie, Derwent charcoal and General white charcoal for highlights. The pattern "Floatfest" floats just above the surface.

Moving along to the inchie of the week...the EIM word is "computer." We are surrounded by them. I watched a program two weeks ago that showed the computers that helped put the man on the moon--with a whopping EIGHT megs of RAM! I don't think I knew what computers were in 1969, let alone RAM. Now here I am with 2,000 times the computing power at my fingertips.

That said, I give you the first known computer punch card created by a Mr. Korsakov in 1832.

The concept of which just begs that whole dangling chad debacle (2000 presidential election, Florida). This is an example of swinging door chads (and a single properly punched space):

Supposedly, there are some precincts that still use punch cards for the voting process. That's as scary a concept as thinking I could launch a rocket from this computer.

And while the Diva's proposal this week was to show our true (country's) colours, this was having none of it. I tried the Star-Spangled approach, humming the anthem all the while. I started with "the bombs bursting in air" and kept coming around to..."and the skies are not cloudy all day," (which has nothing to do with anything other than our beautiful weather). Doesn't explain this one wit:

It was supposed to be stars and streamers, fireworks and all that. Yeah, well....I guess I used that all up for the String Thing.
Hopefully, not a discouraging word is heard. Be sure to check what other crazy and tangly people are up. Always a treat. Have a brilliant day!

We are Victorious

It's a good thing I'm kind of ahead of myself as all of a sudden it's "INFERNO" season. That's when the temperatures are too hot to rain (115 to 120F) then it cools ever so slightly but the humidity goes up. Yes, from single digits to forty percent or better. It wants to rain.
When it does rain, we stop what we're doing and watch the sky or even better, stand out in the drizzle and act like we've never seen water fall from the heavens. Well, we get about three inches a year, so it's not a normal occurrence.
We haven't yet seen it where we could use a little less of it--where it pours all at once for twenty minutes. The weather wonks call it "monsoon" season. Back East it was "HHH" for hazy, hot and humid.
I guess i just need to add another "H." And it's not for "hilarious."

Here are some thoughts on "Physics" for the EIM. I'm glad I saved Einstein for this week.

That's a solar flare thanks to NASA; a hydrogen bomb test code-named, "Ivy Mike," from the DOEnergy files; another NASA image, the Helix Galaxy, also known as the "Eye of God," and Albert Einstein, who advocated a liberal dose of imagination in life. I'm glad his brain did a lot of heavy lifting so we don't have to!

Last week was an investigation into "Victory" for this week's TwobyTwobyTuesday. I liked what I did, but one in particular needed a quick revamp:

Funny, that's what the Diva was thinking for her challenge to us tangly people. I didn't so much rework an old piece (the point of the exercise) so much as just re-do it.

The one on the right was done while I was still in that "will-not-shade-at-any-cost" phase, while working through the exercises in "One Zentangle a Day." The scribbles are an indication of what the string looked like. The new one has dimension (including using the General white charcoal for highlights), a full-range of tones from light to dark, but lacks variety in form. Everything is a similar size. I need to diversify!
(BTW, I still haven't finished that book. WAAAAY too many different types of materials needed, even for me! Yet, it's a great introduction to method outside official Zentangle releases and a source book for tangles and methods).

I finally did last week's IAST. It seemed disingenuous of me to skip over an important milestone for Adele's blog just because I didn't like the string. I shy away from representative images as it shuts down  my creative juices and I just could not make this one work in its original form. So I rotated the string and made a mirror image of it. The result is a full-moon garden which evolved when I didn't worry about what it should be. The stripe represents the Milky Way, much like graphic representations of the stars in Native American petroglyphs.
So much for non-representational artforms....

Colored with Spectrum Noir professional pencils. (ANYBODY out there have the Essentials set??! Must have...And then there's the whole batch of watercolor sets they came out with! No more art supplies, ha!) And I'm very happy with my new Brother all-in-one; color scans are spot-on. I love Photoshop, but if I don't have to use it, all the better.

To my friends stateside, a very happy Fourth. And to all, have a brilliant day! c

Frightening!

I would like to thank the wandering internet soul that checked out all ten of my top ten visited posts last week. It is my hope you found what I have created and what or how I say what I say resonated with you and left you refreshed or inspired somehow. (Should you want to do that, they're posted on the bottom of the page or you could pick something randomly).
I'm excited that this blog has survived almost two years and appreciate that you have taken some of your valuable time and spent it here with me. You're all so swell.

My current offering is limited so far to this week's EIM. If you're not familiar with Every Inchie Monday, it's a challenge blog dedicated to one-inch art. This year all the words factor in the novel, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. This week the word is "ghastly."

At first I took pause to figure out how to describe this adjective until I started my research. WOW! Choices aplenty.

Ready?
We have (Left to right, top to bottom) Sir Graves Ghastly, a 1970s TV personality out of Detroit; Gastly, a Pokemon character that is 95 percent gas; The Ghast from The Vault of Ghastly Tales; a music artist that goes by Ghastly!; "Weeping Woman," by Pablo Picasso (what a vivid and quite unpleasant depiction of his mistress Dora Maar, in my mind, anyway); and the cartoon character Major Doctor Andedonia J. Ghastly.

But all of that pales in comparison with our choices for the next president of these United States. While the campaign has been dragging on for over two years, it has never been far from entertaining. I could get quite animated about my politics, but I prefer to leave that away from here. I give you:

Ghastly
Digital Composition of
Political Figures of 2016

Now THAT'S "ghastly."

I hope to revisit the Diva, who quite decidedly needs to take a break this week and Adele who will be posting later (I got mine in first last week, so when you go there, what do you see?!!).
I have projects aplenty and I need to get to them.
Have a brilliant day!

A Space Odyssey

I hope you didn't miss me too much or worry that I'd fallen from this planet. I kind of took a necessary technology vacation, unplug for a good week. You ever do that?
Not that I was sitting still. There was the pool to open and the citrus need to be fed this time of year, time consuming projects both. No idle hands here! (And good therapy for my recovering hand).
So I didn't really get to the various design challenges, either. Time to refocus and get caught up to date!

I have some pretty pictures to share for the TwobyTwo. I've also been doing some much-needed organizing and found my daughter's baby blanket that my mom stitched for her. If you've been around, you know my daughter works, goes to school, has a serious boyfriend...you get the idea. It's been a long time since she's been a baby.

   
The second one is part of my receiving blanket. Yup, still got it, still in great shape. It can't be more than thirty years old, right?
You can stop laughing now.
I missed posting last week's EIM, button. I have a collection of vintage button cards on my nightstand, doesn't everybody? So here are some thirty-plus year old buttons:

This week's EIM is robot. If you're playing along with the galactic hitchhikers, the obvious choice is Marvin, but then there's Rosie from the Jetsons or B-9 from Lost in Space (you know? "Danger, Will Robinson!!"). I certainly can't go with something obvious, so while it's not really a robot, it is an intelligent non-human character:

Hal 9000
2001: A Space Odyssey

Two down, two to go...
The IAST this week played with flowers. It strayed into cartoony territory, but I like Zingers.

Say it with Flowers

Last weeks:

Cloud Nine

And the one before that. Since this also fits the Diva this week, I'm cheating and applying it there. (And yes, I used a pencil, so that's cheating, too!). I wasn't excited about it, but the woman next to me at the doctor's office waiting room thought this was an amazing design. The stippling kept me as busy as I needed to be for the waiting part.

The last one is last weeks Diva, bringing me up to date. I'll have to try these patterns again sometime. Like sometime I need to really sit still for a long while and focus. I don't think today is that kind of day. I might wander the weird wide web and see what the others are up to, though. I suggest you do, too! There is such an amazing amount of talent out there, and the ladies that come up with these challenges are quite devious, er, ah, dedicated.

Have a brilliant day, thanks for stopping by!

ECHO Echo echo.....

I'm kind of house-sitting in Anthem, la-dee-dah; my biggest job is to NOT kill the plants. I think I successfully pulled a couple gardenias through a few days of 102, fainting violets, indeed.
Otherwise, my job is to produce frosty recreational beverages (we call them FRBs for short. It's our survival mechanism for surviving triple digits ourselves) served out on the patio and watch the sunset.
Such trauma.
In between, I'm trying to make sure my little farmette survives the heat, too. I thought how could I possibly have time to be creative? I'm hardly sitting still. Doing a lot of driving around. Here I am thinking I've been slacking.
And yet...!
For your enjoyment, I've a surprising bunch of stuff here. It's kind of all over the map, so I'll start with the work I did for my own challenge blog, the TwobyTwobyTuesday.
The word for the week is, "Echo."
First, the portraits. I had to hunt far and wide to find a picture of a face in a magazine that would work for this. In the concept of "Echoism," a person who has a more symmetrical face is considered more appealing. Split the face down the middle and create mirror images of each half. It's an exercise I remember doing in sixth-grade art class (I was ten.).

Myrna Dow
Winner, PPFA Contest
And unwitting portrait
Participant

Sigh, I'm not ten anymore. I think I did a better job back in grade school. It was hard working on such a teenie scale.

If you visited last time, I put in a teaser for my other answer. This is that project in its entirety:

I took the tangle "Echoism" across the entire page in my journal, created six two-inch tiles, mixed them up, drew each one, then put them all back together again. That was more fun.

While I was at it, I did a more traditional piece, same method, just one pattern:

In my garden, I've been nursing an amaryllis bulb for two and a half years. You know, the ones you pick up at Christmas and force to bring bright colours into your home in the dead of winter? Well, normally, they are quite happy in desert surrounds, so armed with that knowledge, I planted the bulb out in the garden after it bloomed. That was winter, 2014. This is now.
Isn't she pretty?

Which inspired:

I took a photograph of the string and I give it to you all for your drawing pleasure. You will find it under a new page titled, "G2H." You'll see.

Now, onto some challenges.
Last week's IAST was to honor Mom. Adele started us out with a big "M" and the instructions to fill it in. These are supposed to be "Hollyhocks." Hmm.

This is my doodling for the EIM, the word being "Three-Dimensional." I'm a "flat art" artist, always working two-dimensionally. I picked a variety of ideas for creating the LOOK of that third dimension.

I couldn't wait to give the new-to-me tangle, "3-D Room" by Dami Tang a workout and I took my chance on the Diva this week, where I gave it a more controlled grid to fill:

The call was to use more black. I used a LOT of black last week. All I wanted to get out of this week was high contrast; didn't want to over kill it. It's interesting.

I think that brings me up to date. Be sure to check out the various pages across the weird wide web, I'm sure you will find inspirations in abundance.
Have a brilliant day! c