Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Challenge #28 tripoli

Ahhhh, vacation. In between my paddling I have taken pen to tile and have produced two "tripoli" zentangles for Laura Harms' challenge. To be honest, I've been having some problems with this pattern. I really have to be paying attention to each stroke (I know, I know, I should always be doing that. I hear Maria in my ear....your strokes should be deliberate. She's right, you know). Anyway, I turned on my music and was more deliberate with each stroke and it worked oh, so much better.



This first one I used a string our school nurse drew for me for a past challenge but couldn't find until this week. The second one I was starting to get the hang of the pattern a little bit more. I started with a blind string.



Enjoy! Smile! Breathe!

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Saturday, June 25, 2011

ZIA fun

Last night my son and I went to Stratton Mtn to go see Deepak Chopra speak. Wonderful! We then listened to Andrew Bird, Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and whistler. Very talented guy! Wow,it was a great evening.

Today I took a class at Fletcher Farm School of painting silk scarves with Nancy Dorian. More fun! Of course I decided to make a zentangle scarf, which took me all day. Here's what it looked like once I got the resist on:






And here are some close-ups:


















Now I needed to figure out what to do next. Should I put a black wash over it (the resist washes out and will leave white lines in it's place)? Or should I put some color into it; if that, then what colors? Note: by this time everyone else in the class was on to their second or third scarf.

So here's what I came up with:






The black would've been really tricky so color it was.






























What do you think? I'm pretty happy with it, although I am quite tired.

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Friday, June 24, 2011

Challenge #27 "Duo-Tangle"

Wow, another crazy week, but school is out now and I have a vacation coming real soon. In the mean time I've been trying to post this for the past couple of days from my iPad but once I pressed the "Post" button it all disappeared. Bummer. So here I go again.

I enjoyed doing this week challenge that Laura Harms created for us. I've been practicing Verdigogh since the May CZT training and I'm actually feeling okay with it now. It wasn't always so. Dex I haven't had much experience with, but have done some. So, here it is: Click images to enlarge.
Our school has become zentangle central during the last week of school. I introduced zentangle to our art teacher as well as a few others during the school year and the art teacher, Casey Bailey, was smart to save teaching it to the kids until the end of the year. She was so happy she did because it ended up being the PERFECT project to do with the whole school (K-8) since it calmed everyone down. Blissful. Casey kept thanking me for teaching her about zentangle. She used paper puzzle pieces that were used by the Vermont Arts Council a couple of years ago to piece all different kind of artists artwork together. It was a great program and it seemed to work for the kids as well. The bigger size was okay for the kids since they used bigger art pens than what we use for our smaller tiles. Casey had 3 different size pens for the kids to try out.
Here's the 6th graders beginning of their pieces (they finished later):

Here's the kindergarten version:
And, of course I had to play too; luckily I HAVE to go to art class with one of my students :) . Here is what I came up with:
Best of all, is that once I told Sandy Bartholomew what our school was up to, she drove 1 3/4 hours over hill and dale to visit our school. How lucky are we? Check out Sandy's blog to see what she said about her visit.
She was a big hit with students and teachers alike.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Spirals. Challenge #26

'Round and 'round we go. Laura Harms returned and had us tangling in circles! My first tile I started in Whitinsville, Ma at the CZT workshop and finished on Monday.





This second one I created this week. It's not the nice, light and airy pieces I've been seeing, but I like where it took me. It started with a string of black beads.




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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

challenge #25 Zendala

Happy and healthy travels to Laura and her family and a big thank you to Genevieve for being our first guest challenger. She gave us a Zendala (zentangle meets mandala) design to work with. Once again I am amazed at the results of the zendalas I have seen and how mine came out looking different than what was in my head at the start. Hmmmmm. Funny how they have a life of their own. Here's my first attempt; I'm hoping for more if my week allows it.


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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Where does the time go? And Challenge #24

Wow, it's Saturday already, how did that happen? Lots going on, the school year is coming to an end, the summer job will be starting soon, trying to get my Zentangle gigs up and running, and taking time out to enjoy the outdoors with my friends and family.

Here's my one and only tile for the String Theory Part 2 challenge:



I have also been working on a multi-tile zentangle, or really it should be called Zentangle cubed. Once it is done it will be going into a photo cube. It's tough to get my mind around it all, but I like the challenge. This is what I have so far:



The next time you see this it will be completed (hopefully).

The nice break today was kayaking with some friends on a quiet, small lake just north of here, about 30 minutes. We were even amused by a couple of loons who were preening themselves and playing "motorboat" (skimming across the water while flapping their wings wildly, which sounded like a motorboat).



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