My Sonshine

We seem to have jumped from a cold, wet, dark early Spring into full-fledged, fiery Summer up here in southern Ontario.  In keeping with this, and as my finish example from last week's challenge, "With A Little Help From My Friends", I am sharing the string and resulting tile from a collaboration with my 22 year old son.  My son is an artist, too, although I don't know that he recognizes this himself yet.  He writes the most amazing lyrics and poetry with a depth of understanding WAYYYYYYYYYY beyond his few years.  He also makes the most incredible art.  From early on he always processed his life through writing and drawing and by his early teens had developed a really singular design aesthetic to his work.  He created little characters that made repeated appearances in his artwork and developed a really unique and proficient style of pen work.  He is the third person I asked to draw a string for me; my parents also participated and their strings have already been shared.  I only asked for a single, continuous line that could be as long or short, curved or angular, open-worked or crossed-over as he chose.  This is what he drew:

And this is what I made of it:

Happy Sunday!

Here We Go Loopy-Loo...

Yeah, I know... now you have the same earworm I have!!! *G*  I had so much fun yesterday I thought I'd try it again today; combining this week's challenge with the tangles that I found from the wedding of William and Catherine.  As I mentioned yesterday, I found the hats of the lady guests quite entrancing.  There was so much to see - texture, materials, unusual shapes, all kinds of design rules respected and broken - that I find myself poring over the photos of the guests quite as much as the bride and groom!  There was one particularly interesting hat in a deep blue that I just loved, and found it evoked a tangle I had just used recently, but not drawn up and shared.  So here it is! *G*

Today's string was drawn by my father:

And this is what I made of it:

And here's the step-out of the new tangle, LUPE:

Happy Wednesday!

With A Little Help

La Diva has excelled yet again and so I am driven to try the challenge!  This week it's to be done "with a little help from my friends"; someone else is to provide the string for your design.  Wow!  Cool idea, girl! (tipping hat).  I chose the three members of my family under my roof tonight - my dad, my mom and my son.  I took a Zentangle tile to each one in turn, along with the pencil, and asked that they draw a continuous line, in any direction they wanted, crossing itself or not, as they wished.  Three totally awesome strings later, I was ready to play!  This is the string my mom drew:

Cool, huh?  Here's what I made of it:

I really had fun, even though this was the least complex string given to me.  It also introduces the second tangle inspired by the recent Royal Wedding.  Mesmerized by the hats and fascinators and other accessories worn by the lady guests, I found myself watching with amazement the peculiar feathers bouncing from every direction.  Peculiarly stiff and never curling, yet bending and bobbing with each motion, a stripped shaft tipped with a pruned plume, I found these unusual adornments utterly irresistible.  I wanted to somehow capture the peculiar proportions and bouncy, bobbing style, which led me to design the following new tangle, FEDR:

Happy Tuesday!

New Tangle

As promised, I've been working up the tangles that the recent British Royal Wedding drew to my attention.  You may recognize this particular one from my second entry to the lovely Diva's "Royal Wedding" challenge.  One thing that had struck me as a singular statement was the beautiful, classic yet lush, elegant yet feminine, full but soft draping to the skirt of Catherine Middleton's gown as it flowed to the side and merged into the train.  The graceful lines were iconic of her style and somehow immeasurably appealing.  I did promise I'd work up the tangles, so as time permits I will keep my word.  Here's the first:

Happy Monday!

Classy Sunday Fun !

What a great day!  Today was an Act 1 (Zentangle basics) class.  We held it at Ruth's condo, which is a warm and welcoming nest in which to work.  Our students were lovely ladies who drove as much as 1 1/2 hours to attend!  What an honour to be able to introduce them to Zentangle.  We had so much fun and the tiles completed were each so very different, one to the next.  That's one of the things that I love best about Zentangle - the endless possibilities!  I had such a great time teaching that I forgot to ask if they'd mind having their photo shown on my blog, so I can only offer you a photo of their first tiles.  Didn't they do a great job?

Happy Sunday!

OOF!

Yup, that's a good word, all right!  I spent the weekend attending a workshop led by a buddy who is not only an amazing artist but a really good soul.  Another good buddy, hosting the event, redefined the word "hostess" with her lavish and thoughtful caretaking throughout the entire weekend.  The whole thing was a whirl of creative excitement and wonderful play and exploration, but - OOF!  Exhausting!

Of course our lovely Diva came up with a serendipitously perfect challenge - to use the new official Zentangle tangle pattern, Oof!

After a couple of nights' sleep, I today took pen in hand and had myself a bit of a solo play time.  Here's what happened - four tangleations:

Happy Wednesday!

Royal Wedding Again

It was so fun doing Laura's challenge du semaine that I decided to play with it again.  There's so much possibility with the layers of humanity and history all congregating to recognize and celebrate a single event...I've started playing with tangles inspired by aspects of the celebrations and hopefully I'll have a series to post quite soon.  In the meantime, here we go again! *G*

Happy Thursday!

Royal Wedding

The Diva has issued her latest challenge (drumroll, please)...ROYAL WEDDING! (Note to self; why didn't I see this one coming? *G*).  Of course, this was too intriguing not to pop into right away.  The wedding was SOOOOOOOOOOOO all over all media that it was, quite literally, inescapable!  I was pleased to see that Catherine chose a truly lovely, classically styled gown with wonderful modern touches and fabrics treated with respect by real artisans.  The interaction between William and Catherine was a treat to watch - I felt rather like a voyeur!  They truly seem to care for each other, and not in a light or superficial fashion.  The small gestures and glances were quite telling and I enjoyed the clips I saw.  The pomp and pageantry was fun (viewed on the small screen only; I don't think I could live through such a crush of people in real life!) and while the television hosts were irritating, banal and trite, with the sound off it was a great show!  I saw lots of inspiration for new tangles, which I'll work up time permitting.  In the meantime, here's the first impression to flow off my pen:

Happy Tuesday!