Diva Challenge #363: Laura's auras

I love the fact that our Diva CZT, Laura Harms, has "aura" in her first name! To celebrate her May birthday, we were to use auras on our tiles this week.

Yesterday I attended "Red for Ed" day in Raleigh, the capitol of North Carolina. From all over the state, over 20,000 teachers dressed in red rallied for education. Rivers of red flooded the streets and squares. We called for increased spending on students, more schools and more competitive salaries for teachers. (North Carolina is sadly below average for all of these.) The largest education rally in the state brought in news crews from all over the country, as reporters followed what is now the 6th state in the US to see teacher protests. (To my great surprise and delight, I was interviewed by a French journalist from Le Monde!) In spite of the rain and muggy heat, we all took pride in showing our unity and dedication to the kids of our state.

Lining up to march

TV crews interview 2 marchers

Today I took advantage of a break in the rain to do some weeding in the garden. These small red leaves from a redbud tree caught my eye.

Thanks for your visit! Have a fantastic week!

Diva Challenge #362: Somnee

A confession: I have not tangled much this week. Instead, I've been "drawing", i.e. designing and planting, my garden. Here are the stars of the week:

Between gardening sessions, I did some substitute teaching and taught an Introductory Zentangle class at our local makerlab. I felt that my hands no longer knew how to hold a pen, after so many days of digging, shoveling and raking. I did manage to do two tiles with Somnee, this week's Diva Challenge. With plants on the brain, I really wanted to try an "organic" version of this tangle, but didn't have time. Maybe next week?

Happy Mother's Day to my stateside friends!

Enjoying the patio with my daughter outside the restaurant after Mother's Day brunch

Thank you for visiting! Have a lovely week!

Diva Challenge #361: Amanda Day

It's good to be back! Thank you, Diva, for this week's Earth, or as her son Artoo calls her, "Amanda", Day challenge. I repurposed a cracker box for my tile, and used a plastic cottage cheese cup for the string. (I'm now collecting these for a class on Paradox in circles.) Starting out, I wasn't very happy with the direction I seemed to be taking. As time went on, I started seeing elements of nature: sunshine, rain, waves, wind, mountains, flora. 

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During our two-week break, spring came and went! I thoroughly enjoyed getting out for some walks in the forest and some work in the garden. I witnessed the opening of my first peonies! Rebirth ensued. 

Between walks and gardening (and some substitute teaching), I continued to "grow" my art journal.

"Dawn". Listening to the birds before sunrise is a life-giving force for me. When I googled "Why do birds sing at dawn?" I found an intriguing answer that went into the journal. "I sing for I have survived the night." The cherry blossom tangle is "Ying", by Cat Kwan.

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"Dream". This page started with no conscious connection to the prompt, just a desire to play with leaves. I googled "What does it mean to dream about leaves?"  "It is time that you shed the old memories and struggles of life. Enjoy the changes of life. Be courageous and bold to face the changes. Life would be boring with no changes." New leaves can't grow until the old ones fall.

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"Unfurl". Helen Mirren said,"If it were all truly known and planned and determined, [life] wouldn't be worth living, just a giant to-do list waiting to be crossed off." The Cadent tangleation came from Rick's latest Kitchen Table Tangles.

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"Ripen". From Brigitte Bardot: "Il est triste de vieillir, mais agréable de murir." (The translation should probably be "mature" rather then "ripen". Poetic license!)

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"Presence". Playing with stamps on coffee filters and tissue paper, I created this after finding a quote from Winnie the Pooh. "If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever."

Thanks for visiting! Have a pleasant week!

Where to go for String Support

Here are some useful links I gave in today's "String Theory" class.

• tanglepatterns.com
• It's a String Thing challenge
• The Diva's Weekly Challenge

Here are some of the ideas for strings I mentioned.

• Letter
• Number
• Stain
• A shape you trace (lid, coaster, tile, leaf, etc.)
• Rope strands
• Ribbons
• Stack of wavy or straight lines
• Another tangle. Hollibaugh for "ribbons", Printemps for a spiral, Bales for a wonky rectangle.

Diva Challenge #360: Tripoli and Shattuck

It's Wednesday, and I'm ready to post! That doesn't happen often! With a fairly busy end of the week, I took to my art journal this morning after prepping a page titled "Emerge" yesterday. If you saw my post last week, you may recall that I've been trying to incorporate more Zentangle into my art journal.
Last night I returned to my small handmade 3.5 journal to play with Tripoli and Shattuck, two of my favorites, and some Koi watercolor pens.

This morning, on to the big journal. I did the tangling before I knew if I would use "emerge", which seemed tricky. Once finished, I looked for a quote. The quote inspired the addition of color, which, for me, brought it all together.

"I'm very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. 

But when you're painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge."

-Jackson Pollock

I like this. Here are some other pieces leading up to it.

"I am neither of the east nor of the west. No boundary exists within my breast."--Rumi

Inspired by creationsceecee video

Started with a giant bleed-through, ended with Zendalas! (Templates from Zendala Dare)

Thanks for your time. Have a lovely week!

Diva Challenge #359: Finger String

Most of my art time this week has been in the company of my art journal, with very little Zentangle involved. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm having so much fun working on a larger surface, problem-solving, playing with paint and glue and paper and ink and sparkles and text and...everything! The Pinterest pages and the youtube videos just delight the senses! Michele's recommended creationsceecee videos are so relaxing and instructive. But I am missing Zentangle, too, with its structure.
So this week, I decided to combine the two, or at least try! (Yesterday, after subbing in a sixth grade class, I needed something quiet and soothing!) I traced my hand in the journal, and immediately thought, "That's a lot to tangle!!!" So I drew a stacked string behind it. The bands were wide, so I picked up my gold Shadow Gelly Rolls. Filling them in, I made some mistakes, but just kept going. This hardly thrilled me!! The empty hand puzzled me. I had thought I would leave the negative space, but the dots from the Rhodia paper just didn't work.  The journal52 theme for this page was "Release". I hesitated, but put down some blue acrylic for a sky.  Clouds, then some shading,  highlights and my reminder to "Let go".

(5.5 x 8 in. /14 x 21 cm) 

I like how it finally came together.

Thank you for visiting! I look forward to seeing your tiles!

Diva Challenge #358: Pickpocket, or Mistakes

Mistakes. According to Einstein, "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." They prevailed in my artistic endeavors this week! A hot mess of mistakes. Trial and error. Attempts gone awry. I used to tell my middle school students, in their moments of frustration, that learning is messy, not pretty or comfortable!
Our Diva challenged us to use Tomas Padros' new tangle "Pickpocket".  My first attempt, not shown, taught me that I need to be focused on the connecting lines that imitate the "telephone" lines Maria describes in Huggins. And then, those pesky triangles, that remind me of the "Play" and "Rewind" buttons on my old tape player, which remind me of how old I am. Can I still learn? Ha! My second attempt saw me focused on direction--under, over, left, right. Not my personal forte, but I did it! My third attempt turned me on my head again, so out came the giant black marker to reclaim the space! My final attempt  s l o w e d  me down, and almost made me snap at my husband when he asked me a question!

Marks-a-Lot to the rescue!

My art journal, where I collect favorite quotes and try to learn how to keep paint and ink from falling off the page, reflected my experience with Pickpocket. If you were here last week, you may recall Michelle Obama's quote: "Just try new things. Don't be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?" I continued in this vein with a quote from Mary Tyler Moore: "Take chances. Make mistakes. That's how you grow." I had this nice background that I created with watercolors and a straw.

I finished the page with some tangles and the quotes, and then without scanning, went back to work on the previous page. This was a simple page, where I just wanted to play with texture and acrylic. Forgetting to put wax paper behind the page, I spritzed it and finished the page with a quote from Chuck Palahniuk. 

And then I laughed out loud when I turned to the next page and saw the results!

Lesson 1: Don't forget the waxed paper! Stay away from the Gelly Roll! Laugh if you goof!

Finally, two more pages where I seemed to maintain my focus a little better!

"I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection." --Leonard da Vinci

Photo courtesy of Duke Performances and Steve Olivia

Remembering a childhood friend who recently passed away

Thanks for checking in on me! If your week is messy, have a good laugh!

Diva's Challenge #357: Paradox

"In contradiction and in paradox, you can find truth," said Denis Villeneuve.

I don't know if I found truth this week, but I know I had fun! Here are my 5 days of Paradox.

Watching TV, I got distracted and started drawing Paradox like Munchin, but I think it still worked.

Paradox à la Zenbutton, a trend started by Marguerite Samama on Facebook.

Another journal52 prompt: Soar. My text was excerpted from this Michelle Obama quote: "Just try new things. Don't be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?"

The elegance of simplicity

Following Michelle Obama's advice, I did a trial with homemade scratch paper. 

Another journal page

Thanks for peeking in! Let me know if you found any truth here!

Diva Challenge #356: My name in string!

From the sound of it, we've all had a pretty busy week, and mine was no exception. A delightful Zentangle intro class at the library on Sunday; a quick, but fun visit from my daughter on Tuesday; snow (!!!) on Wednesday; a relaxing Zentangle intro class for an engineering company's wellness program on Thursday and an inspiring March for Our Lives (and more snow!) yesterday. In my spare time, I've been looking at youtube tutorials--thanks, again, Michele Wynne!--on art journaling. What a fun mess that is! I think I prefer the portability, simplicity and economy of Zentangle, but I'm having a blast exploring mixed media and the possibilities for upcycling.
I started my art journal a year ago, inspired by journal52. I was quickly overwhelmed by the prompts: one word, and then lots of reflection questions, plus a visual. For now, I've decided to make my art journal a place to play and explore different techniques, and incorporate favorite quotes or ideas connected to the prompts. I'm using a Rhodia journal that was a gift from one of my students. I've discovered gesso, which I now use to sturdy up the pages.
Anyhow, here's what I have to show for my week:

Ah, the joy of black and white on a 3.5 square paper!

Gesso, crayon resist, acrylic, collage, Prismacolors, embossing, Microns, Sharpie, Royal Coat--everything but the kitchen sink!

Just collage today, but that may change ;)

If I don't somehow glue myself to the kitchen counter, I'll be back next week.

Thanks for your visit! Have a creative week!

Diva Challenge #355: The Verve!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope you are enjoying a good brew with some nice corned beef, cabbage and potatoes and dancing a happy jig!
This week I've been fighting--and mostly losing!--a common cold, the first I've had in years. When I take the cold medicines, I feel better, but loopy, which just makes me close my eyes and sleep! When I don't, I can't stop sneezing and blowing my nose. Yesterday, I decided to go with loopy until I'm better.  So I haven't had my eyes open very much. When I did, I drew the craziest stuff. It reminds me of Dr. Seuss.

I was inspired by Michele's beautiful drip flowers, and watched the tutorial. When I flipped my paper, my hand slipped and the drips came out wonky! (This is actually quite befitting of my week.)
Before I did this, I had done another Verve attempt in my little journal, while watching David Letterman's interview with Malala Yousafzai.  The text on the right was something I wanted to remember. "The best revenge is forgiveness."

Thanks for visiting! Have a healthy and happy week!

Diva Challenge #354: Siri

How has your month of March started off? Mine has seen me trying to get back to a "normal" tangle activity. Tomorrow I'm teaching a class called "Now What Do I Do?" Many of my students have experienced artist's block, and so have I! While preparing for the class, I remembered Sandy Hunter's Tangle Jar, which I made a few years ago. I decided to draw some disks and see where they took me. Feeling a little uncertain, I picked up my bold tip Pigma 10, an inky security blanket, like those big pencils and crayons we had as kids. When I finished, I added some color.

On Tuesday, I made 2 hand-sewn 3.5 inch square journals. These can sometimes make daily drawing easier, since I don't "worry" about using a tile. (I know. That's silly and un-Zentangley.)

Free-styling with Wholly Hollibaugh

I was delighted to see "SIRI" as the Diva's Challenge this week. Simone and Ria are so creative, supportive and generous, and deserve to be honored in our community. The tangle was challenging for me, so I needed a few days to reconcile my hand and brain with it. 

Siri #1, with a little help from the Tangle Jar, and with a pop of pink for Simone

Siri #2, straight, no chaser, but not quite there yet!

Siri #3, on a Cheez-Its box

Siri #4, Bijou-sized

This high-focus, for me, tangle was just right for my current state of mind. Thank you, Laura, Simone and Ria, for this great gift!

Thank you for all your support and kindness. Have a peaceful and positive week.