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! 

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!

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? 

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!

Take Care of Amanda

It's Earth Day 2015.

I've been working on an article on compost in my head for a long while. (It's been a longer while since I've been a journalist and what's worse, I have no set deadline). I have been applauded or accused of being a compost queen for years. Since moving to Arizona, I have moved my compost heaps three times (Try explaining THAT to a mover!). I currently have two bins and a heap of leaves just piled up.
I think it's the easiest thing on the planet to do to help take care of it. But that's just me. I'm crazy like that.

There's a song from Genesis called "Land of Confusion." Written by guitarist Mike Rutherford, the chorus is hard not to associate with today:

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.

If you have a spare five minutes, check out the video. It's cold war era and the puppets are kind of creepy. I had to go to the Wikipedia page to figure out all the allusions and all those characters.

I took the Earth Day Footprint Quiz. I failed miserably, but it was assuming things such as my commute would be by car, instead of taking public/mass transportation (while I commute by fuzzy slippers to my desk. Besides, I'm "out there," so to speak) and it doesn't take into account that I'm growing enough citrus for about thirty people, thus adding back into the global footprint. It does say quite clearly that as Americans we enjoy a lot of benefits that a far majority do not, such as clean water and we have electricity available 24/7. It gives me pause.

I've also been following the Reduce Footprints blog. Every Wednesday there's a new challenge to do just that. This month has been about caring for the soil, right up my alley.

A different way to take care of Mother Earth is to promote her care. And that's where Amanda comes in. You can read that explanation on the Diva's challenge this week.

(I've always wondered why our moon doesn't have a cool name like all the other planets moons..It's just a moon. If the earth can be called Amanda...).

Whole World in His Hand
(on recycled paperboard, natch)

That didn't turn out quite as I imagined, but I thought I got my left hand pretty good, including my knobby, arthritic thumb.
I was without my computer all weekend (GASP!), but I did have my phone where I saw a new string on Tanglepatterns.com. Had to do this one:

Flower Fell on the Ground

I wanted to try my hand at Man-O-Man, but the scale was all wrong for this. So I went with only one tile on the tile, instead of the mosaic pattern.
I also tackled the EIM on recycled paper. The word this week is "octopus."

In an Octopus' Garden
Sing along now!

And lest you think I've been forgetting to do my zinchies...!

Recycled printer paper & paperboard

Notice I worked on those pesky triangly patterns, and I think I got them pretty well squared away (Triangles squared!? HA!). I still have the zinchies just in a box. I sooooo need to organize them somehow!

I thank all of you who have interacted with me through this blog. I appreciate all the comments and I attempt to respond to each and every one (sometimes it takes me a bit, but I think I'm all caught up!). And I REALLY appreciate the intrepid artists who are tackling or are interested in my own art challenge blog, Two by Two.  Be sure to check out the amazing artwork on all of these blogs and entertain the notion to try them yourself.

Meanwhile, I'll be working on IAST 89, a fitting tribute to the Queen....

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!

Simply A-Maze-Ing

Over the weekend I worked on some challenge pieces. The first one was for last week's IAST 86. Adele Bruno created an egg-shaped string which I drew on a bar coaster. I drew some other lines which made it more global. I realized that a couple of the patterns for the challenge were more complex than I originally thought, so I tackled them with zinchies (En guard! Take that!). See the "Well" patterns below and perhaps you'll see what I mean.
Well, they look complicated.
Then I went back to my coaster and this is what happened to my Easter egg:

And that was BEFORE I put something cold and refreshing on the coaster. (Actually, I'm not going to be using it; I'll throw it back into the wild and see if anyone catches it).

The inchie for the week is "knitting." I've been trying to knit a scarf for my daughter for about a year. It's a lovely yarn and a simple enough pattern, but it requires circular needles and starting with only three stitches! Talk about twisted up! So, i went and knit an inch using a deep ocean blue:

Purl, Actually

My official response to the Two by Two challenge this time is mostly just the pattern, "Amaze." I hope to play with scissors and paste later and try a collage, but for now:

And here's a batch of Zinchies:

Go ahead, try those "Well" patterns and tell me how that worked out for you. Even better, try "Myko." Deceptively simple, it's simply devious. When you try more than one, it gets VERY interesting!

Thank you for stopping by and for all your kindnesses. 

In Flux

I'm tired.
A quick trip to Las Vegas will do it every time. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Vegas, baby, really does not want you to. Ever. You never know what time of day it is and even so, the Strip doesn't wake up until I'm ready for some shut-eye. It was perfect weather for a road trip in the convertible, sit by the pool with some frosty adult beverages and generally not feel guilty about chores at home not being done.
Perfect.
Still, I squeezed in a couple challenges. The word for the week at Every Inchie Monday is "oak." I recalled that there was a tangle that had to do with oak and a String Thing challenge that I had drawn. A quick review of that brought me to "Oke," my EIM response and the rest of this weeks zinchies:

A lot of these patterns are new ones I found on Tanglepatterns.com, The oddball here is a pattern from the new Victoria's Secret Sport catalog that I reproduced. (If you know me, I have a hate-hate relationship with triangly patterns, so that unto itself was a personal challenge of sorts). If you pick up the magazine, you'll see some interesting tangling in the wild, so to speak. 

The other challenge I've tackled so far this week is the Diva's. Laura requested we give the pattern "Flux" a workout. I may be squarely in good company preferring one way of drawing it over another, but I started with a bar coaster for Rolling Rock beer. The reverse side asks to Show the world--#HowWeRoll and "CREATE SOMETHING." So, I did! 

Fluxuation

Be sure to ROLL over to all the wicked talent at these art challenge sites. I'll be headed that way soon. And thanks so much for taking the time to check out my responses. I know your time is valuable; that you chose to spend some of that on me is incredible.

Playing Catch-up

Thanks for checking in on me occasionally. I like that I'm a part of a world-wide community and that you all reach out from afar with lovely notes and anecdotes.
I found spirals at two of the Zentangle challenges I participate in (not so regularly). The Diva Challenge
posed a spiral and I made Bijou-sized with stripes and sparkle:

I thought it was a pretty bold statement. I'll be adding it to my fridge art!
The IAST started with a spiral string:

The spiral is in there; it was getting a little wonky so I called it good rather than overdo it.
This was last week's response to the IAST:

It has a minimalist attitude about it and that suits me just fine. As you can see, I'm upcycling the corrugated boxes that my new kitchen cabinets came in. Sure, I could use nice paper. But I like the mid-tone of the paper. Besides, corrugated boxing machinery put me through college, so I really like it. 

And finally...a big collection of zinchies I've made in just the last two days! If I'm ever going to get through 3,000 of these things, I better get jumping!

Thanks for taking the time to look at my artwork. I really appreciate that you do and your kind comments. And don't be afraid to tell me like it is; I'll just go happily along as I am without some constructive critiques. 

It's a Simple Explanation

I'll start with my zinchies for the week. My first one was "OOF."  I it saw on some other tanglers blogs from last week. I had to do it, as OOF just sounded weird. The explanation of it's origin is interesting enough, but I didn't see it. So I also drew the source material--the window at the Cloisters. They don't look quite a like, but the OOF is for "out of focus," so I guess if you squint real hard...
And a few more. I read on Genevieve Crabe's blog that she has catalogued 3,000 patterns. At my current pace, I'll have that many done in 9.5 years.

I've been playing with the whole Trees concept for the inaugural TwobyTwo challenge. My citrus trees are spitting fruit, so I took a photograph of the harvest last week:

Yes, I played with the image in Photoshop. It's my day job.

In search of inspiration for the EIM word of the day, I found the most confounding explanation of something or other that I cannot even begin to understand...."Lasso and the Least Angle Regression"
yhat=b0 + b1*x1+ b2*x2 + ... bp*xp
from: Stanford, which says it is a "simple" explanation.
Sure! Riiiiiight. Simple. Back in college, I may have been able to wrap my grey matter around that, perhaps, but now?! Not a chance. No way! I can't even help my daughter with her college math classes let alone whatever that is.
From there it was a jaunt through cowboys, horses, spurs and saddles...with a detour to some beefcake and well, it just deteriorated from there for a bit. I didn't realize it's a specialized genre for romance novels--the whole cowboy thing. And I guess the Australian Thunder Down Under show in Las Vegas has disappeared? Bummers.....
As I tell my children, I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.
Well, ahem, back to the task at hand! Here's my "lasso:"

Happy trails to you...until we meet again.