It Takes a Village

I'm reading "Your Personal Renaissance," by Diane Dreher. Her suggestions sometimes veer into woo-woo territory, but it's on my to-do list to be a more centered, a more complete me. The current chapter is about adding creativity to my life and I'm kind of full-up right now. I'm at the "Big White Tents" surrounded by amazing artwork every day I'm there and I am a self-supporting artist.
But I do want to try to tackle the art challenges more thoroughly and in various forms and add more art to my life, not just the work-related stuff.

First up, EIM; the word for the week is, "village." I know the reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I peeked at some of the other ladies and their work. Cute little buildings in cute little villages. Uh, nope, not working for me.

READY?!

I just HAD to tackle it this way!

Next would be the Two by Two for the week. My response to the challenge was this collage piece:

I don't know how many solicitations I get every week to spend my money or for credit card applications. So I took some of those goodies the mailman brought and added a moth sticker, as in my wallet has not much more than moths floating out of it. (Nope, didn't win that massive lottery week before last, did you?).

For the Diva, I picked up a string I drew four months ago but did nothing with. This is 100 as a string:

A tad too minimalist, but I think I'm channeling the precepts if not the efforts. I'm going to try re- doing "Nymph," using my Zentangle gift to the world. You can, too, by checking out this post.

In other news, we're almost done the dining room, except for the flooring which we haven't picked out yet. We're moving right along, having ordered up a gas stove and microwave. It's going to mean we're out of a dishwasher for a bit as we're doing a total rearrangement of the kitchen proper.

It's so wonderful to have a plumber in the family. Just so long as he's not a Village People plumber.
Thanks so much for stopping by. Be sure to check out what all those talented folks are doing at those other challenges. Feel free to poke around and try your hand, too, at making some art!

Have a brilliant day!

Secretly Praying for Rain

I haven't been sitting still much this past week. My son has his one-week vacation and wants to do "stuff." The beauty of self-employment is that I can make time for "stuff." Our original plan kind of got way-layed, so we slipped into Plan "B."
I won't do that again!
When he was learning to drive, I had sonny boy drive up Schnebly Hill, a nice off-road experience, with some pretty views of Sedona as a reward. It was a lesson in caution, patience and attention for a brand new driver.
This time it was a lesson for this driver. That road is mess, the worst I've ever driven. My car performed admirably, but I won't punish it again.

The Red Badge of Courage

The Reward
Affectionately known as
The Cowpies

I'm not done with that story, but I need to move along. Sonny boy is hungry, wants to "do" lunch and that requires thought, perseverance and a big wallet. There's a lot of him to fill.

But before I go, I'm posting my responses that fit the TwobyTwo and the Diva Challenges. The first is "Rain," and the second is to "go Organic." Here's what I came up with:

The top two are just doodling. I was working on this umbrella idea for "Rain," which I was kind of successful with. The bottom left represents umbrellas, looking at them from above. I used Spectrum Noir markers, but could not find a nice yellow to finish the third one. Hmm. The bottom right represents my Diva response, gel pen over watercolor. I was thinking about how raindrops ripple on the water surface in our pool. I guess it worked out okay. 

I need to loosen up and experiment more, but I have to allow my adult self a chance to play more with my toys. It's a slow process, but I'm gaining on it.

For now, it's lunch time!

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!