Tuesday, May 31, 2011

30 Days of Creativity


STARTS JUNE 1!!!

Your brain is a muscle; when you exercise it, it gets stronger.

30 Days of Creativity is a social initiative to encourage people to create things - anything - every day for the 30 days in June. Check out the website here.

I heard about this a while ago, and was recently reminded about it by my eldest daughter. As far as art goes, I do something creative pretty much every day. I'm thinking it might be interesting to try some other creative endeavors... but what exactly?

I used to enjoy concocting things in the kitchen, but three or four years ago my inner cook went on vacation and hasn't returned. A few days ago I planted some bedding plants. Put me and gardening together and that's about as creative as it gets. 

Maybe I'll just stick to the studio. There are certainly plenty of projects waiting there. (I'm beginning to feel rather un-creative when it comes to being creative!) I'm not promising anything. We'll see what happens. In any case, it's always a good idea to keep creativity in mind.


DO YOU WANT TO JOIN IN?

Here's how to share your creations:
1. On Twitter: Follow #30daysofcreativity on Twitter. Send an @ reply to @createstuff to let them know you want to participate. Say simply, "I pledge to create something every day for 30 days in a row."
2. By e-mail: Share your creations with everyone via the website. E-mail to submit@30daysofcreativity.com

Friday, May 27, 2011

Combining tangles

I've been working on a large zentangle inspired drawing of houses. Because of the size, I thought I might combine tangles for an interesting effect; I could start with big tangles and work smaller things into them. I tried this idea on some tiles to see how it/they worked. This is a little like the Venn tangle challenge I posted about recently. The difficult thing for me was to be sure to make the first tangle really big! Also, to do a string with no really small areas to fill.

I began by using Cadent with double joining lines, but was really not pleased with the result. Much to regular, I think, and not the effect I was hoping for.

Tangles: Cadent, Beadlines, Gneiss, Perfs and Yincut

 Try again, this time with a regular string. Much better results.

Tangles: Bales with Lotus Pods, Bales with Hollibaugh, Dex with Cubine,
Parabola with Tipple, Rick's Paradox, Ninja Stars
Tangles: Hollibaugh with Finery, Hibred with Hibred,
Knightsbridge with Knightsbridge, Lotus Pods with Lotus Pods

As the houses develop, it looks like I may not use many combinations, but it was an interesting thing to try!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

String Theory challenge

The Diva's challenge this week is for everyone to use the same string, as shown on her blog. I quite enjoyed working with someone else's string. I missed last week's challenge, but I think I'll get some family members to draw a few strings for me to work with!  I find I tend to do similar hand gestures when drawing the string, so it was refreshing to have a different take on that aspect of Zentangle.

I think my first tile looks vaguely cosmic.

Tangles: Gneiss, Lotus Pods, (Sandy Bartholomew's) Miranda, Rick's Paradox, Xyp

The second seems to have a jelly bean cocoon about to hatch and shower us all with jelly beans! Yum!
Tangles: Flux, Hollibaugh, Knightsbridge Aura, black Pearlz, Striping?, Unyun

The third didn't quite come together. Ah well. I rather like this string. I think I'll do a few more tiles with it and keep a-goin'. It could be interesting to show a class, too, how the same string can have such a variety of results. Thanks again Laura!

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Knightsbridge, Rick's Paradox, Sanibelle, Screen, Tipple

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Diamond Grids

A grid is usually made with the two sets of lines at right angles to each other, creating a lot of little squares. I recently found myself wondering how things would look if, instead of small squares, I began with small diamond shapes. That meant doing a set of parallel lines and doing the second set diagonally.

I thought Knightsbridge would look rather harlequin-y, and I was right. Others I assumed would seem as if I was looking at them on a angle rather than straight on. Right again, Cubine for instance, or Up and Across. I usually do Cubine with an added corner; it makes it look more as if there's a "front".

The top tile uses Bales, Corn Rows (variation by Linda Farmer), Cubine, Facets, Knightsbridge, Up and Across, and Yincut. Facets ended up with 'squashed' gems; I think it would be rather different had I gathered the lines in the acute angles instead of the obtuse ones.

The bottom tile uses Demi, Dex, Flukes, Puf, St. John's Cross, and... yes, umm... 'Nzeppel; I botched the grid and it was too square so I did a random N'zeppl in that section. Like Facets, I think Demi would have quite a different look if I'd divided the diamonds the long way instead of the short way, and Flukes if I'd put the little black bit in the wide corner instead of the tight one.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Jack Wise, Artist

I have long enjoyed the intricate mandalas painted by Jack Wise. In particular I like how he often flows the same pattern through various color changes or shading.

In his early 30s Jack Wise moved from the United States to British Columbia, Canada, to pursue a life as a homesteader. That was in the early 1960s. After a brief hiatus, he returned to his painting with a passion that lasted the rest of his life. Wise was known for his calligraphy based upon Chinese brushwork, and for his colorful mandalas which embody a Buddhist cosmology. 

I originally had one of Jack Wise's mandala paintings on this blog post, but was requested to remove it. I did. Nonetheless, you can see some of his wonderful artwork here. Click on the yellow word "Contemplate", then on the yellow word "mandalas". Be sure to look at the detail images for each painting.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

SCREEN - a new tangle!

Here's another tangle based on a grid, inspired by oriental screens. There is room for lots of variations and tangelation possibilities.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

JASH tangle pattern

Lately, I've been rather enthralled by the line art of Justine Ashbee, and have posted about it a couple of times before. I love how her drawing swirls in and around and over and under itself.

A Zentangle enthusiast in Germany may have seen my posts about Ashbee's work, and has recently come up with a tangle inspired by her art. She's called the tangle JASH, and you can see it here. (In German, you'd pronounce it "yash")  :-)

In some ways it really isn't a pattern, but a style or method; you can take the lines in any direction and develop it from there. I've been trying this flowing line style on some tiles. I think the first one looks like a swirly, outer spacey landscape of sorts. (I shouldn't say things like that. I should let you see in it what you see in it!)

Tangles: JASH, Caviar, Coaster, Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, Lotus Pods, Umble

Tangles: JASH, Knightsbridge, Zanella (Sandra Strait)

There's a tangle in the upper left of the tile above. I saw it some months ago and quite liked it. It doesn't usually have the wavy lines or the extra central diagonal lines, but I needed to darken it a little. Do you know it? Does it have a name? Who designed it?

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Bermuda floors, ceilings, walls, and a chair

Not Florz, but a floor nonetheless!
I've had a few students to this pattern
instead of Florz, and it's an
interesting variation.
Two grid patterns: tile floor and lattice wall on a balcony.














Leaf imprints in a cement walkway at the Aquarium and Zoo.
A wall made of Bermuda limestone
beside a narrow road.











The not so worn back of the same chair.




The very worn seat of a leather armchair at
the Bermuda National Art Gallery.















Brick ceiling of the gunpowder depot
of the old British fort at Dockside.
Two of the 3-dimensional decorative tiles adorning the ceiling
at the Hamilton City Hall,  Bermuda.
More tangle development ahead!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Zentangle's new tangle OoF

Rick and Maria have presented another wonderful new tangle, OoF. You can see how it's done in the Zentangle newsletter here. I had a look at it, loved it, then had other things to do. When I got around to trying it I no longer had the computer screen in front of me, and made a few attempts in my sketchbook. All were quite unsuccessful as OoFs, but I did come up with quite a number of interesting other tangles!!! Here's my sketchbook page:


So I consulted the Zentangle newsletter and had a better look at OoF. I realized that if I oriented the little squares as diamonds it would work . Then I was away. Here's my first tile, with OoF in the top left and bottom right. I had trouble always getting the arcs to connect to the correct side of the little square, and botched a few by overshooting. That's the inspiration for the curvy fills in the lower right: trying to incorporate a few stray lines. I quite like it!

Tangles: OOF, Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, Seljuk and unidentified

Here's tile number two. There are two variations on OoF in the "pendant".

Tangles: OOF, Beadlines, Hibred, Lotus Pods

Zentangle classes in Halifax

While on holiday I gave two Zentangle classes in Halifax NS. One was a private class. A week before we left home I put an ad on kijiji for a Zentangle class in Halifax. I figured I'd go ahead if there was enough interest and if those interested would help with a location. I had two responses and one lady offered her apartment! In the end, the other lady couldn't make it but we went ahead anyway.

The second class was through my daughter and son-in-law. They have a lively group of four teenage girls that meets for a couple of hours every week to study one of the books in the Ruhi curriculum. The Ruhi Institute's "main sequence of courses aims ... at achieving three overall objectives: providing insights into spiritual matters, imparting knowledge about the Bahá'í Faith, and helping to develop specific acts of service." (wikipedia)

They decided to give an hour of their time that week to an introduction to Zentangle. We did one tile and five tangles. Although that's half what I do in a usual Introduction class, I've done a couple of one hour classes before and it's sufficient.

As they used to say in newspaper social columns, "A good time was had by all." :-)
You can read my daughter's blog post about the class here. Here's the group and the Zentangle tiles they created:



Monday, May 9, 2011

Maritime 'Nzeppel

Visiting Canada's east coast I've been seeing the tangle pattern 'Nzeppel.

Fishing nets over a tarpaulin (over some buoys).

Striated shoreline rocks.

'Nzeppel in the foam of crashed waves.
(Or maybe it's more of an uneven Tipple?)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

SELJUK - a new tangle!

While visiting our daughter in Halifax we spent a couple of hours at Doull's Bookstore. One website called it "a second-hand bookstore that is a dark and musty extravaganza of disorganization". I would add "delightful", but I'm a second-hand store sucker.

I spent all my time at the front of the store poring over their art section. In one book - which I didn't want to buy just for this - I discovered a lovely pattern from a 700 year old Seljuk Turkish carpet. I fished out my sketchbook and copied it (along with two other patterns!).

Here's the page from my sketchbook:


It's a border pattern and if using it as a long border all you have to do is a series of squares, then fill the squares in this order: square spiral, white, square spiral, black, and repeat.


On the rug it was done around the edge of squares (upper right), then the squares were tiled alternating with another pattern (lower right), à la checkerboard or Knightsbridge.

Around the perimeter of a square, be careful to make five small squares on each side. I didn't notice what the ancient Turks had placed at the center, but there are lots of tangle possibilities. Here's how to do SELJUK:



I tried it on some tiles. In the first (complete with fingerprint smudge) I put a square spiral in the wrong place right from the get-go (lower left), so I did square spirals in ALL the little squares and vowed to concentrate more the next time (upper right)!

Tangles: SELJUK, Cubine, Dex, Knightsbridge, Yincut

I've really been wanting to use white on black but rarely seem to get enough black on a tile to warrant it. (Maybe I'll just start with a lot of black next time!)  In this tile I used some white ink dots in the black areas to soften the edges. I also used white on the black squares of Seljuk (bottom edge) because that tangle was too prominent.

Tangles: SELJUK, Caviar, Cubine, Flux, Mooka, N-zeppel, Opus (with Aura) , Purslane, Rick's Paradox

The next tile has some variations on Seljuk. Some of its small squares are checkered; some of the black ones have white square spirals; one is striped. I wanted the inner square to stand out more so I added white to some of the black areas in it, and shaded around the outside edge.

Tangles: SELJUK variations, Caviar, Hibred, Knightsbridge, N'zeppel, Rick's Paradox, Striping, Yincut

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Patterns at Peggy's Cove

During our visit with our eldest daughter in Halifax NS, we went to Peggy's Cove for an afternoon. Although it had rained the day before, the day we went it was lovely and we enjoyed walking through the tiny town and scrambling on the coastal rocks. These are some of the patterns I noticed in my wanders.

Black and white twisted rope lying on a wharf.

Driftwood tree roots near the shore.

Tidal pool on the rocks. The dark part strikes me as a filled-in string area and the lighter corners as parts of a tile left blank.











Lobster traps stacked on a wharf.

Y-Not!!! Table and shadow on the deck of a café.

That table and it's shadow made me think about Molly Hollibaugh's tangle Y-not and I had to do it again on the drive back to Halifax. It was a twisty, bumpy road so my lines were going to be very wobbly. Besides the Y-not, I opted for some tried and true tangles.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Knightsbridge, Shattuck, Tipple, Y-not

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Glorious Landscape Striping


At first glance, it looks like a giant child with a giant box of crayons has been set loose upon the landscape and drawn dazzling stripes of purple, yellow, red, pink, white, orange and green.


In fact, this is the northern Netherlands in the middle of tulip season. The Dutch landscape in May is a kaleidoscope of color as more than three billion tulips burst into bloom.

 
In the 17th century, tulip mania swept the globe and the most eye-catching specimens changed hands for a small fortune. The Netherlands produce more than nine million bulbs a year. Once the flowers are gone the land will be cultivated for crops of vegetables.




Canada has a special relationship with the Netherlands, and with its tulips. 

During World War II Canada sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In 1943 Princess Julianna gave birth to Princess Margaret at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was officially declared temporarily to be international territory so that she would be born in no country and would inherit only her mother’s Dutch citizenship.  

When the war ended in 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.  

The Canadian Tulip Festival is held annually in May in Ottawa. It claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips. More than 500,000 people visit annually.