Un Poco Loco (Just a Little Crazy)

'Tis the season for a lot of craziness, isn't it? And that's what I was channeling when I pondered the EIM this week. The word out on Monday was, "locomotive." My son used to love trains in all sizes. His six birthday was spent on the Verde Valley Railroad. Another, much more recent, on the Durango-Silverton line. My dad had worked for Tyco a long while back and designed rail cars for some of their model trains. My nanna worked for the Pennsy railroad for a long time, affording my mother free travel before she married.
So I figured it'd be a piece of cake to dig up SOMETHING.
Not happening!
Which is why you get this:

Locomotion!

I did some research along the way and found out Little Eva was the original singer of "Loco-Motion" and Grand Funk Railroad really got it out there, but I wasn't drawing anything of the sort. So, let's move along, shall we?

It's the TwobyTwobyTuesday day and the word I selected was, "sparkle," thinking I'd find all sorts of glorious options from holiday goings on.

First up is from cookie baking day with my daughter last Saturday, a tradition carried on by the MEN in the family. With the passing of my brother last month, my dad passed it along to me as the cookie press is getting hard for him to manipulate. Thankfully, my daughter did a lot of it as the dough is, well, a tough cookie. Really yummy, though. The recipe is a family secret and the decorating is a day-long project, but quite worthwhile. Now, to ship the results to family far and wide!

Butter Cookies

All those candy sugars really sparkle, as do the real silver star candies at the top of the trees.

I went to Michael's last week for some art goodies and came home with these:

OOOH! Pretty!

But my official response to the twinchie and the Diva Challenge this week is this gift to the world, a sparkly star ZIA.

And one lucky visitor will get the original. So leave a message and I'll pick somebody to send this little two-inch gifty. (Disclaimer: it won't arrive before next Saturday, especially by international post).  Meanwhile, I'm going to try to clean up some of this glitter I have all over!

Thanks for stopping by! I do hope you are enjoying the festivities and all the sparkle of the season!

She's a Maniac!

Over at EIM the theme this week is "Nymph." Unlike many weeks this past year, I was not at a complete loss as to what to do. However, I learned that there is a tangle called, "Nymph," by Melinda Barlow that I'd not seen before (or was blissfully unawares).
If you have been here before, you may recognize my discontent with patterns featuring triangles.
UGH.
But, I will NOT be defeated!
And as my procrastinator self loves a good distraction; I dove right in!

Nymph Bijoux

Nymphie Twinchies and Zinchies, oh my!
on Waffle box paperboard

Then I pulled out a box of Staedtler Karat Aquarelle, which up to now I had not opened. 

Little did I know what I've been missing!

Nymph
Mixed-Media Fridge Magnets
Aquarelle, Sharpie, Perle Cotton and Sequins

Whew! I even made a French knot with some antique Perle cotton from my Nanna's stash. I could hardly contain myself. That's when I started singing the disco song from "Flashdance," which started out more from the Nymph side of things than the mania. 

Think about it. Uh huh.

But I digress. This is a (mostly) family-oriented venue, after all.

Where were we? Oh, yeah....

I wanted to see what these Nymphs could do in a more traditional setting, so this came about:

Nymph
Before Shading

Nymph
After Shading

Which do you prefer?

Along the way I saw samples of this week's Diva Challenge focusing on simplicity, or at least giving tangles some space to breathe. I enjoy Laura's challenges, but I had not done one in a bit.

So you get this:

Simple Flower
Free!

Totally unadorned, I want you to have this to do with it as you like. If you do decide to use this, please do me two favors: 1) credit me for drawing this simple pattern in the first place and 2) show me what you did with it by link or attachment to:

1xeritas@gmail.com

I'd love to see what, if anything, happens with it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a brilliant day! 

Soundtrack of Life

I am truly blessed. The love of my life adores me, his words, not mine. But he holds the line at my singing and for good reason. I cannot carry a tune to save my life.
This does not preclude me from enjoying good music and I truly love to dance (though I've taken no formal training, I just shake my booty).
My man immediately introduced me to flamenco guitar artists...remember Charo? Coochi-coochi? She plays a mean guitar. And he's fond of newer artists like Jesse Cook, Ottmar Leibert and Strunz and Farrar (and we've been able to see them all in concert in fairly intimate venues). Some of their songs are so emotional and passionate, they've become the soundtrack to our love affair.
But there's one song in particular that stands out from all the others: Malagena Salerosa, a classic mariachi song. The rock band Chingon recreated it and we like that rendition. But we really like going to El Encanto in Cave Creek and asking the guitarist to sing it--he can carry those notes for forever.
So I created this digital assemblage of a flamenco dancer and the music:

Malagena Salerosa

The impetus for this was the word of the week at EIM: "rhythm." I started with the Rhythm Room in Phoenix, which is hosting the world's only heavy metal mariachi band on Sunday: Metalachi. I'm not sure if Planet Earth needs more than one, but they have a VERY interesting sound.
In between, I learned that there are minimum requirements for the players in a mariachi band--there are specific numbers of violins, guitars and horns that make up the band. And pity the poor guy who has to lug around the humongous guitarron. He's the unsung leader as it is this instrument that sets the beat.

I leave you with this one.
What's the soundtrack to YOUR life?

Life is a Circus

This is monsoon season. It's hot and steamy and I'm not used to it. Lived plenty of years near the shore with plenty of humidity, but it's not what the desert is usually like. Except for this time of year. This is what "siestas" are for--work early in the day or late at night and rest in the middle.
Otherwise, you have no energy.
Funny that the word of the week for  EIM is "energy."
The first thing that I thought of was the notation, "NRG." It litters my science notebooks from school, a shorthand of sorts from the seventies. From there my brain went to the Kreb's cycle, or how we generate energy on a sub-cellular level. I wasn't going to try to cram that diagram into a square-inch or even try to wrap my way-past-academia brain around it. (I'll leave that to my sister, the Professor--she gets paid to do that).
I have a bunch of other ideas, instead:

Solar Flare from pcmag.com, Turning water and sunlight into food and oxygen from science.jrank.org and
"IVY MIKE," the first successful hydrogen bomb, 1952 from CTBTO

No original work amongst the choices thus far, so I reached little further...

I've been reading about solar power. In Arizona we have a wealth of it (330 sunny days per year!); it's just a matter of turning it into usable power. It would be fabulous to live off-grid! However, the electric company has instituted a nasty surcharge on homes with solar panels and solar companies are not keen on mobile-home installations. Federal tax incentives have expired and the value of solar homes is less than comparable homes without it. I found this in the venerable Arizona Republic Saturday (Valley and State, p. 1F, "Rooftop Solar: Does it add Value to your Home?" by Ryan Randazzo and Catherine Reagor).
The accompanying photograph was a riot of patterns just waiting for me! (You just never know from whence inspiration may come!) Now we're getting somewhere!

Solar Roof Installation
Rachael Le Goubin/The Arizona Republic

Let's start with some zinchies!

Then move along to a bunch of twinchies!

SOLAR

Still have that SOLAR theme going on!
Then on to other ideas....

Lavender Fields
My first set of four Somethings
Found papers, 
Acrylic paint and beads

Based on an idea from
EIM and ICAD

And onto all the Zentangly choices I can muster:

TM3 No. 005

Singing in the Rain
DIVA 226

Fried Eggs
IAST 102

I was still trying to muster that "enoughness" idea from last week. It took everything I had to NOT fill in that white space for the "String Thing." In fact, in disclosure the Diva art is my second attempt. The first one was so absolutely crazy it was a real circus. I may post that over on Flickr, but this has been a week and I'm done for now!
Thanks so much for dropping by! I appreciate the company as much as I appreciate the individuals that put the effort into creating the various challenges and prompts to get the creative juices flowing.
Have a brilliant day!

Getting Squirrely

Another day, another challenge. Every time I look around, another one pops up that my teenie brain thinks it needs to do. And perhaps, I just might! Suzy Mosh's Tangle Me 3 is of which I speak and I've been doing the exercises, but I'll have to get around to posting them another time.
WHY?!
Because we're starting yet another home improvement project--without actually finishing any of the others! This one has come to the forefront--rebuilding the spa and the room it resides in. We want to use the spa when the weather starts to cool, so we have two, three months tops to do this. What a project!
So, today will be limited to posting that which is most timely and getting back to the other stuff...
One of the challenges that I work on occasionally is Adele Bruno's It's a String Thing. This week is her 100th, so it's big doings in Florida. That teenie brain of mine wasn't quite working out the particular challenge in a pleasing way, so my official response is a floral bouquet for Adele:

Happy 100!
A Tripoli Bouquet for Adele

If you've ever been here before, you KNOW I'm not a big fan of Tripoli, or any tangle based on triangles. Adele included this pattern for the 99th challenge and these are flowers based on all the variations sent to her in response. (I think I'm getting better with Tripoli, or at least improving my attitude immensely!)

I researched the proper gift for a 100th anniversary and found it to be a ten-carat diamond. I'm a little light on being able to do that, so I sent flowers instead. Flowers are always appropriate, right?

The other thing I've done is my official response to the TwobyTwo challenge. I have no business manning an art blog challenge if I don't do it myself, right?

To explain, ever so slightly, when we lived in Massachusetts we had these very mean squirrels with bad attitudes. I was told they were transplants from New York City (100 miles away) and had been dubbed Rabid Biker squirrels for their aggressive behavior. That always stuck with me. I want to revisit this and make a squirrel with a fabric bandana and some studs or something. Another day, perhaps! For now:

Rabid Biker Squirrel from
New York

I'll let you know if I get back to that.

For now, I'm pulling up these horrid burgundy and aqua tiles...and grey and white and rust and blue....

Las Floras

I have worked on the Flower of Life for the TwobyTwo challenge until I'm about blue in the face. I really wanted to give the theme the old college try and work it from different angles.

I really like the one I drew on a leftover watercolor best. As per my usual, I used recycled materials to draw on, with Sharpie, natch. The one on the bottom left, started with the wrong geometry, but no mistakes, right? The Diva Challenge for the week was to use Umble and that worked out just fine. It's just different.
I didn't want to cheat and not actually "do" the Diva Challenge, so this all came about:

I got to keep up with my zinchies AND break out a brand new set of Pitt sepia markers (Thanks, Laura!). The sepia brush marker made an interesting bronze color on the paperboard, almost sparkly. Interesting.
To finish up the Flower of Life I really wanted to do some sort of collage--cut out leaves or petals and arrange them just so. But that wasn't really working for me. What I really need to do is learn my way around the newest rendition of Photoshop which arrived last week. Thus, this version came about on my computer, my official response:

Some of the new alignment tools made this so much easier than I expected. And who knew? I CAN work in color. ALL of 'em!
Thanks for taking the time to check out my artwork, I appreciate that you do. You could be doing something else, like making a sandwich, taking the dog for a walk, laundry. But you chose to spend some time with me, you're so swell! And if you're ever looking for something different to do, (warning: shameless promotion!) try the TwobyTwobyTuesday art blog! We all would like to see what you do with that! Join the fun!

From Sea to Shining Sea

I had a tough time wrapping my head around the latest Diva Challenge. Just getting started seemed so ridiculously tiring. It might be the humidity, it might be the long and varied laundry list of to-dos. 

I needed some mental centering. I needed to focus on the can-dos. I needed to get my head screwed on right. Count my blessings. Pray. 

So, I did what I do when I need meditation and clarity: I sewed. It's all very methodical and the hum of the machine is reassuring. It's productive, too, an added bonus. I felt good about what I accomplished there so I could move along...and back to the drawing board.

I've seen some of the other responses and I know this is true-to-myself off-base. I started with beads, for the theme was Beads of Courage, but there the similarities depart. 

From the Mountains to the Sea

I think what I was trying to convey is that no matter who we are or where we are, we are connected because we are human. The beads on a string became birds on phone lines. I was going to have one "bird" singled out, but that did not support my claim, that we are not alone. Our challenges are divided by our numbers and our joys are multiplied. 

All that in a four-inch square? Huh!

I'm keeping up my zinchies! I rely on them to try out some new patterns along the way. I need to go back and identify these. Mostly done on a waffle box scabbied from the recycling bin. 

The oddball there is a pattern I call, "Confetti." I have used this doodle for years. I must do a larger work with it as it has a unique attribute--it creates its own shading. Has anyone seen this elsewhere as a tangle/pattern, if so please advise?! It morphed into buildings in the Diva art. 

The last four are for this week's IAST, which reminds me of a Piet Mondrian, if he would have ever used curved lines. It's much more abstract and minimalist than the representational piece I did above.

Neurons

Thanks for stopping by and for all your kindnesses. I can't wait to see what you all have been doing. It feels good creating, doesn't it? 

Do the Wave!

I'm trying to work a little ahead, a concept that seems alien to my uber-procrastinator self. I started working on this week last week. Baby steps.
The word for this week's EIM is "wave." The first thought that came to mind was this iconic image from Japan:

The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai
c 1830

Can you say, "Wipe-out?" Can you believe that's a woodcut print? It's affectionately just called "The Wave."
Well, if that's the case, we have one of those around here:

Shreddin' Betty
"The Wave"
by Gilbert Gustavsen, (c) 2006

This is in the Pariah Wilderness of northern Arizona. I've been there twice--both times in summer. Gil, aka Sleeping Man, got to go one January, thus this photograph. That's snow you see there on the East face. It is surreal and it is unforgiving in summer--my camera quit on the first trip; the sensors overheated. It is a very long story for another day. The short story is: hydrate, people. Carry water. Lots of water.

I already have posted an EIM for the wave, back in September. (That image exists as I took to heart a rule of photography: always carry a back-up camera!)
Thus, I had to go in a different direction and found an image for yet another famous wave:

Queen Elizabeth II
Sixty Images from Sixty Years
heart.co.uk

I am sure I'm in trouble 47 different ways with this one, stepping on toes of intellectual property owners across the commonwealth and beyond. But I did search far and wide to see if anyone else took this approach and nope, it's original to (totally twisted) yours truly. So, as derivative work, I'm on fairly solid ground. I hope the Queen has a sense of humor, anyway.
I've been working ahead on the TwobyTwo, the word for the biweekly challenge is "Amoeba:"
This Zentangly one based on the "Amoeba" tangle is "cute," my apologies to Linda Dawson who created the pattern. I can do "cute," but it's not really my thing.

I much prefer this one done with stippling, and a departure: color!

For now, that's what I have accomplished. Thanks for visiting! What have you been up to? Are you going to give these challenges a go? Well, you should!

As Good a Place as any Other

I have to get caught up on my posting. Here and now seems as good a place as any other. The weather has been too fine to sit inside--the best spring I have ever seen in Arizona. I've been creating, just not writing about it much. (though it's heating up--100+ for the foreseeable future).
My previous posts were for inchies and twinchies, now to get to the zinchies and ZIAs.
I'll start with last week's IAST. The prevailing theme was May flowers...I took some splattered watercolors and carried on:

IAST 94
With Matching Zinchies
Jasmin, Sooflower, Fleuri, Wist

The word of the week for EIM is pillow. I have a barely there pillowcase my mom embroidered many moons ago. The stitches are worn and barely visible, though stitched with love and patience. The fuschia French knots have held up through the years. I drew this ZIA on watercolor paper with Spectrum Noir markers (which, I'm still trying to get a handle on). You'll find my official inchie on my Flickr page.

Pillow Talk

And in no particular order, so I can post and move along:

Diva 218

Don't Move a Mussel
Diva 217

I really liked that one. The geometry speaks to the geek in me and the resulting Zebra mussels lend movement and a cautionary tale about conservation efforts out on our lakes, thus the name. This next one I chose a cursive "V" instead of the Roman numeral for five. Anything goes, right?

IAST91

IAST 92

Made by Joey
Mumsie on Black
Looks better in real life!

Weather Patterns
Diva Challenge 219
with some patterns of my own creation

These are bloody blurry, but my computers went to hell (yes, both of em) and now my scanner can't speak to the new models so that needs replacing. Here I am, photographer me, using her phone. with seriously mixed results. Good enough. Thank God for Zentangle--it's okay not to be perfect!
Now onto the latest and greatest. Yay!

This is NOT a Maze

My most gracious thanks go out to you all who dropped by this past week. Those who left comments, did so delightfully. I'm am grateful that you spent the time to visit with me and I am humbled that what I said resonated with so many and how I said it was deeply appreciated.
I savor those thoughts.
I guess I've raised the bar to that which I must achieve. Forgive me if occasionally I just walk under it.
Hopefully today is not one of those days.
I got my creative juices going by checking in at EIM. The word of the week is "shell," (and there's this crazy coincidence with my research for "Royal"). I drew a zinchie, my official response, then I went on to drawing a twinchie using the pattern, "Sanibelle."

Zinchies--I'm up to 111!

Undersea 2.0

I thought I'd try using some sea shell stickers I have laying about, but they were much too big for an inchie. So i gathered some magazine elements and a shell sticker for a different twinchie:

Ce n'est pas un coquillage
This is not a sea shell

I felt I was channeling Rene Magritte just ever so much and then I got lost looking at some of his work, some serious paintings in the surrealist manner....In that vein, "This is not a seashell," just a representation of one. It can't be a seashell if it's hanging on my refrigerator!

Since I was working this through on Sunday in anticipation of EIM, I was amused when the Diva put forth a challenge for a labyrinth on Monday.

This is not a maze. (We did those at Twobytwo, silly. That is soooo last week).

There's a labyrinth not far from here. Every once in a while I think I'll go and actually "do" it. It sits all nicely groomed, like a zen garden and the path is marked with rocks. The thing of it is, it sits about 50 feet/15 meters, if that, from the road. There's traffic buzzing by at 50 mph/80 kmh.
I can't figure where to park my car.
I never stop. I hardly slow down. (Metaphor for life, yes?)
So, I wanted to channel the concept, to be mindful of the process, to slow down and "be" in the labyrinth.

It was an admirable attempt, and certainly deserves another try. I managed to focus and pay attention to what I was doing, working from the outside in and back out again. That's something!

Meanwhile, my to-do list expanded to include the It's New to Me challenge, since the letter of the week is D and I found the pattern DL Labyrinth that I must try out. Plus, (shameless self-promotion alert!) I have to get back to working on "Royal." Please join in on the fun, won't you?

Challenges

Rattling through some challenges today, not doing too much else (laundry, weeding..nothing much! A lot of laundry.). To get going with the Diva's, I started with some zinchies to get some patterns and some brain power going:

Then I felt comfortable going forth with the challenge to use "Fanz." I can't decide which end is up, so I've kept it how I drew it in my journal, but I think it could work any which way.

I kind of like it; I haven't drawn many "traditional" Zentangles lately so I feel out of practice. The string was very twisted up, so I'm surprised there's any semblance of order in it.

Then it was off to the String Thing challenge for the week. I kind of just dove right in, but I turned my string 45 degrees, then ended up turning the whole thing upside-down:

I also added to my zinchie collection by way of some other challenges. The Knyt pattern goes along with EIM. And the quilt patterns go along with It's New to Me. (I'm going to have to sign up for Pinterest just to access Suzi's great pattern boards. Wah!). 

And as promised, I put together a collage for the TwobyTwo:

Have an A-mazing week! Thanks for stopping by!