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!

Spacey Space Themes

Previously, I mentioned that NASA released new images from the Hubble Telescope of the Eagle Nebula and that I could not find the links again. Well, tada! Here we go:

New!
Pillars of Creation in
Infrared

You can read the information here.  I found it as I was reading the story about how five of our planetary sisters are all going to line up in the sky starting tomorrow. That would be something to see, wouldn't it? I hope to get up to the Lowell Observatory and check it out through their telescopes.

There were also photographs from the ISS of a space zinnia.

I was very glad to find the links again as I had designs on the stars. 

You know you can put images from Hubble to personal use, right? It's a public domain thing, since We-the-People have paid for the space program. Therefore, you get this:

Space Bubble
Photomontage

It wasn't really doing what I wanted it to do, but yet another digital image collage is born (is it really collage if no paper is involved?) in answer to an art challenge. This one is for EIM; the word of the week is, "sofa." I wanted to tackle the thing from the perspective of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," just without the crazy two-headed president. (I'm almost done re-reading the book!!)

A different art challenge I responded to this week is from the Diva. This week is to raise awareness of Moebius Syndrome; her son has this neurological condition. Please read her post and you'll get an understanding of what that all means. Here's my rather simple answer:

MOEBIUS
Staedler Watercolor and
Derwent Metallic Pencils

Remember creating Moebius paper strips in school? Or even better yet, going to the Museum of Science and seeing their massive Moebius sculpture? Or the Van de Graaf generator? COOL!

If you're wearing an infinity scarf, that's a Moebius! If you're a fan of Dune or the Fifth Element, that's a different Moebius. If you're my friend, Mark the sculptor, you have created several stone Moebius. And if you're a little boy nicknamed, "Artoo," that's living with Moebius. 

I thank you for stopping by. If you're in the greater Phoenix area the next few weeks, I'll be hanging out at the Celebration of Fine Arts ("The BIG white tents") weekends through February 7 or thereabouts. Booth 216. FIND OUT WHY! You can email me (1xeritas@gmail dot com) to see when exactly I'm there; I'd love to see you! 

Meanwhile, the twinchie word of the week is, "MONEY!" That's what I'm doing next! How about you?!

Sunrise, Sunset

This week is ridiculously busy. Running here and there, putting hundreds of miles on my car every day. That's not a difficult thing when you live out in the country and to get to town is 50 miles. It also means that precious hours are gobbled up on the freeway.
If only I could drive and draw!
(And don't get me started on the idiots that seem to be doing just that while hurtling their steel bombs at 80 mph).
So forgive me if I kinda cheesed out on the EIM this week. I selected an image that happily greets me every day and makes me quite happy in return. As the advertising jingle used to sing: "The best part of waking up is Folger's in your cup." Oh, yeah!

So, what you have here are (clockwise from upper left), a) from an advertisement for a coffee syrup, b) Folger's foil liner with the sun peeking over the mountains, c) a sun rise peeking out over the mountains in Tahoe, Nevada from a tourist brochure and d) the silver foil liner from the coffee can.
Plenty of fodder for the inchie collection and some twinchies, too, I'm sure.
Inspired? Hardly, but art is where you find it, yes?
I thought I could post more, but like I said, run, run, run. If you're looking for my goldfish, or wondering why I would have goldfish, check this post out.
Thank for stopping by. And thanks for the fish.

This Fish is a Gold Mine!

Here are some variations on "Goldfish," for the TwobyTwo art blog. I didn't want to do just one and I had the luxury of trying different media. Indeed, I want to tackle each word this year from various perspectives. We'll see how successful THAT is!

I like the look of watercolor but have no formal training in it and my results can best be described as elementary. This one was done with Staedtler watercolor pencils:

He looks quite mean, doesn't he? You should see my other attempts, but I'm not showing them. This guy should be happy he's the best of the bunch.

Then there's a pencil sketch. While he already outgrew his fishbowl, I used it to contain the composition, unlike the first guy's blank canvas:

I really wanted to try to draw a koi in a fish pond, but he looked more like a drowned rat getting gobbled up by lily pads that resembled Pac Man, so forget about seeing THAT.
To try to just get to know some colored pencil colors, I downloaded a coloring page of Cleo from Disney's "Pinocchio."

The colors are all wrong, the yellow in the scan is too dark. I have no delusions that I own the copyright to that image, since Pinocchio came out in 1940 and Disney's lawyers are everywhere. I colored it, I'll take the blame.
This one is a photocollage of several digital images. As I was playing in Photoshop, I wanted to create a sense of movement, which is why some of it is blurry. It was intentional! Do you think it worked out?

The tangly woman at Tickled to Tangle is up to challenge #126. I haven't done one of those in a while and this one worked out better than okay. Thanks, Adele!

IAST 126
Phroz, 4Fun and Pop Clouds

As per usual I had one idea on how I wanted it to end up and it had its mind made up on how it wanted to go. Some of the geometry is off, but it's not a real distraction to none other than myself.

So that was soooooo last week. Now to work on THIS week!

What in the World?

While the New Year is already a few days old, this is the first I've been able to do "me" stuff. You know what I mean, right? The obligations of running a household or taking care of or participating in family matters are caught up and you can do....absolutely nothing.
Which is surely an important task on the to-do list: to rest, to contemplate, to consider or resolve. I'm not one for resolutions on the top of the year, they become too overwhelming with guilt when they don't pan out immediately.
But I have my wishes: to be more creative, to be more fiscally mindful. to stretch the grey matter as well as all the rest of my cells....ah, the list is long and not very focused.
To wit, what does more creativity really mean?

I intend to participate more fully in the art challenge blogs I've enjoyed and to put more energy in the one I host. I want to try different media and some new techniques, especially before I buy more goodies from the art or crafts stores. And when the year is up, I'd like to have an organized record of what I've accomplished--whether it's here or in a box or heaven help us, framed and hanging on my walls (OMG!)

To get started, there's the art challenge blog called, "Every Inchie Monday," hosted by Trillian. The objective is to work on inch-sized art with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" as the governing theme for this year. The word of the day is, appropriately, "galaxy."
I hold the galaxy in my hand every day, a Samsung phone that is smarter than I am. For a long time I desired granite countertops in my kitchen and the color I chose was "galaxy black," which looks very much like the glitter paper I was using last week. So this is where we ended up:

Six Colors of Glitter
Black glitter paper
Glue and goo

I wasn't too amused as I tried desperately to 'set' the glitter with a spray acrylic medium which spewed white ick instead of CLEAR sealant. Not only do I have white splotches on stuff, I STILL have glitter EVERYWHERE!

While I was trying to get my brain wrapped around the stellar concept, I found that there were new images of the Eagle Nebula out last week (but could not find the link again!). This region is called the "Pillars of Creation," as many stars are born here:

Messier Object 16
Hubble Telescope

I think I'll enjoy the space-related art prompts. And I'll have to read the book as I forget some of the story lines.

Moving along, the Diva Challenge this week is a duotangle--two tangles together--of Auraknot and Diva Dance. It's the five-year anniversary of Laura Harm's blog challenge and here's what I did with it:

Can you spot the mistakes? Good! There aren't supposed to be any in the Zentangle mindset, but that doesn't mean they don't exist!
I sooooo need a new stubbie, I lost mine on a flight to New England. I had had it since college, will it take me as long to replace it? Can I put an asterisk on that resolution to not buy a bunch of stuff at the art store?
Won't they miss me?
Won't you come back and visit to see how things are going? How about checking out the art blogs and trying your hand at it? Join in the fun!

What's Next, Pure and Simple

I hope for all you that stop by that your festive falalala season was everything you needed and nothing you don't.
That may seem slightly cynical, but it's been, well, a little too much of stuff that I could do without. My sister is having a time of it trying to accept our brother's death last month and yesterday she had to put one of her dogs to sleep after a brief but mighty fight with liver cancer. After Craig's funeral, we agreed that we would check in with each other DAILY. This is different for both of us as I used to hear from her every four months or so.
That she's not in a good place emotionally gives me more to worry about and she's 2000 miles away.
Closer to home, I had the kids over for Christmas, an event we have not shared for about five years. It was fun, short and sweet. I decorated a tree for the first time since moving here, which is crazy as I used to decorate one for every room. Gil fixed our pellet stove, for which we are blissful, as it's been freezing here and the warmth is amazing. (In Arizona! For real!).
Gifts all around were plentiful and practical.
I am blessed.
It's time to take stock as this year winds down and we all look toward the newest of years.
I was crazy enough to start a challenge blog this year. The journey that got me to that point is fodder enough for a book. I really enjoy seeing what other artists create and how talented they are and hope more participate in 2016.
I have really liked meeting the ladies across the globe (for whatever reason, it's all women!) and how much they pack into Every Inchie Monday. There are the Zentangle challenges that I attempt not so regularly, and am grateful for their creators (there are many, but try here, and here and here!) and the effect the art form has on my psyche.
Indeed, playing with artist materials has been quite beneficial to me mentally (and covered my refrigerator with magnets to the point that you can't tell the finish is black).
Here are some photos of work that went into this week's TwobyTwo. The word for the day is, "white." I started with a concept that I've seen for learning more about brush strokes and personal style, without color to worry about.

Titanium White on
Hardwood panel

Only thing is that is 4 x 4. An interesting challenge unto itself to just stick to one color.
Then I pulled out some ephemera and odd ball "stuff."

Whites
Novels, receipts, barcodes, lace, paint, beads,
Glitter and various papers, foamcore

The center one is 4 x 4 and the others are approximately 2 x 2. The top left is my official response to "white," paper cutouts on a glitter paper. Let's just say they didn't want to stick together. A LOT of glue was involved! The same could be said for the lace one, too. The biggest one has a picture of an old lady flinging a car tire. Hilarious! For that one, I used paint instead of glue to hold everything in place.

A close-up:

Silent Night
Ink jet and Glitter papers
Glue and Sharpie

While I was trying to do the cut-outs, I drew more than a couple houses. And I got to thinking about the EIM for the week, "next," a dangerous thing. Thinking, that is. There's next year, which is about to become THIS year any minute, but I had more in mind "next door." Thus, here'e the houses next door, even if they don't look anything like a house near here:

Maybe I'll attempt another Silent Night. In the meantime, it's time to prepare for festivities to bring in the new year and to find out what's "next."

Additionally, the winner of last post's raffle is Wendy from England! Wendy, please send your address to: 1xeritas@gmail.com and I'll get your prize out to you!

Thank you so much for joining me here, following my mental meanderings and sharing your awesome perspectives. I wish you a happy new year!

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!