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 Petunias and Mice and Things

I have a funny story about a boatload of purple petunias and ex-in-laws. I just never really found it funny.

When they were planning a visit, my ex informed me his mother really loved purple petunias. As we were spiffing up the place, I potted up tons of them to decorate the porch and the patios. She had no idea what they were, was not much impressed by the flowers or the effort and barely spent any time outside enjoying the gardens.

You may really like purple or petunias, but I fall squarely into the camp that finds purple overwhelming and petunias a lot of trouble.

And all that applies to certain people, too.

All of which came to mind when "petunia" popped up for the word at EIM:

This week, it's "Mice."

The word for the week at the 2 x 2 is "jewel." The toughest part of this black-on-black drawing  of a scarab beetle was making it all show up.

I kept the black paper out for the Diva this week, a focus on "Centre Square."

That's fluorescent gel pen with free-form squares.

And finally posting last week's:

That's coffee splotched on there.

I did last week's IAST, too:

The combination of "Fengle" and "Shattuck" naturally lent itself to a starfish and sealife. I was transported to Dunedin, Florida; a glorious trip to the Gulf Coast a few years ago and watching the sunset from the seashell strewn beach.

For this week, it was a hurricane for inspiration. While my relatives were battling what was left of Hermine, we had Newton. And aftershocks from an earthquake. And a fire. Nothing major,  mind you, but it was getting a little too exciting there for a bit.

Speaking of excitement, this was drawn while waiting in the ER with my daughter for test results. It appears she is the epitome of good health except for some stress-related symptoms. We think she'll be better when she stops eating In-and-Out burgers at 2 AM. (Or, as we found ourselves at Denny's afterwards for Grand Slam breakfasts in the wee hours. It was good. But we are tired).

 Lastly, as I had threatened previously, the finished poem to water for that 2 x 2:

There's a joke in our household about arroyos or desert streams. New River is so new they forgot the water! Arroyos are dry river beds until it rains (And then, watch out!). So, I just HAD to add the "just add water" part. Along with glitter, fabric paint and an antique rhinestone. I can't say if it's an improvement or not; I sure used a bunch of different materials.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy what I share with you. Please take a moment to check out the other artists that tackle these challenges and perhaps? Try your hand at drawing, collage, zentangle or whatever intrigues you. Especially the TwobyTwobyTuesday! Next time it's "astronomy."

While you ponder the stars (or next year's total eclipse of the sun here in the States!), I wish you the "just right" amount of excitement and a brilliant day! c

I'm Melting!

It's our rainy season and it hasn't been so much hot as it has been humid. Never did like that much when I lived on the East Coast; I forget how that feels. I look forward to the return of warmer, but drier, weather.

The weather factored into my thinking for the EIM this week. The word is, "sheep." While I've been doing plenty of my version of counting sheep (I count backwards from 100), I couldn't possibly do something so straight forward. I've been doing a lot of internet searches for the upcoming TwobyTwo and I went with a wooly (sheep = wool) blanket pattern called, "storm:"

I drew this with markers from this antique blanket for sale. The central design is called a "whirling log," a sacred symbol for all things good and is no longer used by the Navajo. I think you'll understand why that is so.

Rain also seeped into my Diva piece, a chance to try out a new pattern, Knightstar by Daniel Lamothe.

I can almost hear the corks popping for the celebration at the IAST, Adele's third anniversary:

Every day is a celebration; bring on the Champagne!
Be sure to see what all the other creatives are dishing up and if the spirit moves you, try out the TwobyTwo--two-inch art (you have plenty of time)!
Have a brilliant day!

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!

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

This is Your Brain

This is different. I started this week's goodies LAST week. It's quite unlike me to not procrastinate.

First, a carry-over for the IAST:

IAST 143

My scanner went to that great technology graveyard where so much has gone before....so it's a bit dark.
C'est la vie.

Then, it was on the search for....BRAINS!

It's the word for this week at EIM. Oh, the choices were plentiful!
I was going to go all-out Zombie, which would have required a LOT of thought as I'm not really into blood and guts. My favorite cartoon occasionally swerves into the territory, so I have to share this by Doug Savage:

Thusly, I can skip over the Zombies and move onto the choices I did go with:

We have: Stephen Hawking, brain extraordinaire, Brain from Warner Brother's "Pinky and the Brain," Einstein's Equation to describe Special Relativity and the image from the public service message from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (1987 version). You know the one, where they fry the egg? "Any questions?"

Over at La Casa Diva, it's a duotangle tango, this time with "Drupe," a floral, and "Poke Root." This reminds me of cherries and blossoms in bloom, a visual Haiku. It's a dedication of sorts to beautiful individuals that we have held dear, how loss and life are intricately intertwined.

I ended up shading it, but I like it better without, in it's "elegant simplicity." I was also going to just Photoshop in the black, but chose to draw it in with my trusty Sharpie. It's not quite so neat, but it was the right process, nice and slow.

Lastly, I have this:

I did this for the TwobyTwo. You'll have to tune in next week to see what this could possibly have to do with "Echo." Head over to that blog tomorrow--Tuesday, natch--for the challenge post.

Be sure to check out all the associated blogs! And have a brilliant day!

No Fooling!

April Fool's Day may have been practiced since Chaucer wrote his "Canterbury Tales" (the first evidence of any such thing according to Wikipedia and you know that must be right), but I try to shy away from all that.
Alas, the day is yet young.
There is a fine intersection between Ms. Bruno's "It's a String Thing" and our very own "Two by Two by Tuesday" art blog challenges this week. She said, "Citrus" and we said, "Orange."
Could there be this strange coincidence?!
[NB: we posted our topics for the whole year way back in November]
Well, I went just crazy for Citrus, as you can see in my last post. What I hadn't done was my official IAST artwork, which I present here:

No,
It doesn't say, "Sunkist"

I drew Citrus as the string and SQUEEZED in: a triangle pattern, Paradox, Phroz, N'Zeppel, Shattuck that got Hypnotized and Printemps with a little Tippling (going clockwise from bottom left), all nested in a triangular grid. 

Remember the advertisement that asked, "If doesn't say 'Sunkist' you don't know what you're getting?"

That pretty much sums that up, doesn't it? 

Now to go back and work on some "oranges." I'm thinking on collage this time...

Aren't you glad we didn't say, "Banana?"

Does that joke even translate from English into other languages?

It's a Spring Thing

We know it's springtime in Arizona when the winds pick up. The desert palo verde tree blooms are sent every which way and the fine citizens of Phoenix are sent rushing for antihistamines.
Just about everything native to around here blooms bright yellow--the palo verdes, brittlebush, creosote--with an occasional pink thrown in for contrast.
The last thing to bloom will be the ancient ironwood trees with the palest of lavender flowers come May. They are my favorite as they signal the beginning of summer. And they're NOT yellow!
Our grapefruits are yellow with a pink blush as they are, in fact, PINK grapefruit. And our oranges are, well, ORANGE!

A Small Portion of Last Year's Crop

[Warning: this is blatant self-promotion!]
Which brings me to...the theme for this week's Two by Two challenge is: "ORANGE!"
I'm not going to cheese out and re-use an image, so this is just a tease! Please consider playing along!

Last week's IAST had an egg-shaped string in honor of Easter, but as I wrote to Adele Bruno, all I was seeing was LEMONS!

I drew [the] egg string diagonally and it turned out looking like a lemon. I put the Warped Egg in as I did and it all looked like an Angry Bird and I really had "lemon" on my mind. I still have several yet on my tree and it recently bloomed. So Mel Mel turned into a giant lemon blossom. When I started adding color pencil to it, the middle turned into a suggestion of a butterfly. I kept to a pastel palette as a nod to the Easter theme and added the yellow as I was really stuck on having a "lemon!"

IAST 137

Adele also came out with a new tangle she calls, "Citrus." Lemons, oranges and grapefruits...oh, MY! It continues the fruity theme which I used for the Diva Challenge this week. The objective from guest blogger Jane Reiter is to stack a bunch of borders around a central piece. I started with a Citrus zinchie and a whole bunch of art stuff. I was most pleased with the Sakura Glaze pen in clear drawn on black paper (the outermost border); it has great dimension but doesn't show up very well.

Citrus

Can you see the Border?

It was quite a project; the list of art stuff is long and varied and it took the better part of two days to complete. It was worth the effort and I'd do it again. The process kind of elevates the drawings to "real" artwork since it creates its own frame.

SOME of the Materials
Used in the Making of
Citrus

I took Adele's IAST for this week to good use for the twinchie challenge (and because I had a lot of my art stuff out. Still have to do the actual String Thing challenge!).

Orange you Glad?

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I put this together for the Inchie Challenge. The EIM word of the week is "Peanuts."

That would be Charlie Brown's sweater, Lucy Van Pelt's sign, some dry roasted peanuts and Mr. Peanut going ice skating from a label for trail mix (caramels, raisins, peanuts, oh, my!).

Thanks for stopping by. I'm thrilled that you do and I'm honored for your time spent with me. I'm glad that my tutorial on composition was so well received last week--promises to become the most often read post I've written thus far! (My writing teachers would be so proud and I'm sure quite amazed).

And if you come to visit, you will most certainly leave with some citrus. It's a bumper crop of pinkies this year and plenty of oranges, too, still. Dew drop in!