Look to the Horizon

We're in the midst of full-on fall here in Arizona and the leaves are indeed a-changing. Nothing quite so lovely as Vermont sugar maples here on the homestead (but I can get my fix by running up to the West Fork of Oak Creek in Sedona anytime I get myself moving...). The mulberry trees that provide deep shade in high summer are dropping a tremendous amount of yellow leaves that turn brown before they hit the ground.

So when the Diva asked all the tangly people to use leaves for inspiration, I steered clear of the front of the house (and the thoughts of having to do all that raking!) and slipped out the back door to the citrus trees, which are evergreen. I used some leaves to create a stencil for some Eric Carle tissue paper and drew the veins in with my trusted Sharpie. The circles are meant to mimic the concrete walkway between the trees...and perhaps I'll color in the pebbles sometime soon.

That was just plain fun!

Then I used the same papers for the EIM. The word is "horizon." From our house, we don't see where the land meets the sky quite as we're surrounded on the east and west by 7000 foot mountains (that's over 2100 meters and we're at only about 2000 ft/610 m). Our view looks similar to the inchie on the left I made with tissue and the magazine cut-out on the right. The little artwork in the middle is meant to look like the ocean when the fog rolls in and you can't discern sky from the water, a view I miss from back East.

The word at the TwobyTwo this week is "quill." Originally, the thought came from porcupines and their nasty barbs.

Along my way through art challenges and such, I have met three fine quillers in the blogosphere: Zoe, Kia and Annette (and you should check out their work! I'll wait! Their work does a much better job of describing their craft than my words ever will).

Perhaps, I thought, I'd try my hand at that paper art. Let's just say I'll keep trying!

While researching for the TwobyTwo, I learned about quillwork, where quills are used to create functional art. I came up with an idea to kind of combine the two art forms--using paper strips instead of those barbs, which are in short supply around here. I don't know what to quite call this. "How to take 250 square inches of paper and reduce it to 4" probably doesn't sound very appealing. But, that's pretty much what I did.

Sunset with Wrapped Paper

All the same, I'd do it again. At least, I gained some insight into paper economy.

Be sure to check out the various art blog challenges and if the mood suits you, try your hand at the myriad techniques and ideas. There's still time to submit to any of these, particularly the TwobyTwo!
Thanks for stopping by and have a brilliant day!

Leaves of Greens

Yesterday I was driving with my son as passenger. He is always asking questions, always interested in how the world works. He carries with him that sense of wonder like toddlers do with their pleas of "Why?"
He's 25 now and the questions get more difficult than, "why is the sky blue?"
Yesterday he pondered why our Park Service vehicles are all a color green.  A hideous aqua color, especially for a car or truck.
I'm usually pretty good at research, but I came up with nada on that one. We talked about it and concluded that it must be a color that kind of blends into forests but still stands out. Then we discussed how leaves appear green, but when you break that green down as, say, in a painting, it's many shades varying from white to greys, and colors from bright yellows to deep teals and everything in between.
Which served me well working on this week's Diva challenge.
I tried a couple in plain black on white and it wasn't flowing (and you're not seeing!). But then I thought of those leaves and this is where it took me:

Leaves of Greens

This is a duo-tangle of her tangles named after her two sons. (I don't have the patterns down quite right, but this just FELT right. I hope Laura doesn't mind too much). The boys are in sick-bay and I hope I'm channeling some love and healthfulness for their recovery, sending some Zen-fulness their way. I photographed it under the shade of the olive trees, which explains the mottled shade.
I'm grateful for the Diva and her efforts to inspire a bunch of tangly people; be sure to check out what she has going on and see what others have done with this challenge (including the correct patterns!).

Jumping From One Thought to Another

I'm going to have to be brief today as I have a lot of running around to do. But I do have some explaining to do.

But first, I hope you take in the TwobyTwobyTuesday blog. I would like to grow the audience and the participation for the twinchie art challenge this year. It's every other week and the prompts are already posted for the whole year. The next one up is "Unicorn" for March 8. All mediums and talents are welcome--it just needs to be two-inches square (or even cubed!?)
This week's twinchie word was, "leap," and that got us to thinking...

Ooooh, danger!

My first thought was of Stag's Leap, a vineyard that produces wines that I like. Then I thought of "Artemis," a Cabernet Sauvignon they bottle that is quite yummy. [Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt, which would be an appropriate deity to call upon if you were trying to hunt deer]. From there, we thought of Artemisia, a group of plants that sport white or grey leaves. The group includes a popular garden plant (Dusty Miller or Artemisia stelleriana) and wormwood (or Artemisia absinthia, the stuff from which absinthe is made).
And that's how I got to this, a Zentangle-inspired tangle of leaves:

It's kind of a hybrid between Sampson, Verdigoh and Amaze, I guess. I drew upon this source for inspiration.
It's not the craziest nor the most convoluted thinking, as it was a linear path, right?

The other item I'm posting is for the EIM word of the week, "earth." Trillian, the woman in charge there, put it as earth, little "e," so I went with dirt and my little garden trowel that helps me dig the weeds out of same:

For now, that's what I have. There will be more this week, so please entertain the idea of returning!