Moving Tangles

Do-Something-Everyday, July 19, 2016

This weeks challenge at I am the Diva is to tangle a tile while moving. When I created the above tangle I was not moving but the paper was. There was a sudden thunderstorm with gusty wind that blew through the window. I had to hold the paper down with my left hand while tangling with the right. There are a lot of squiggly wavy lines there.

The one below is all stillness. Visits our yard every afternoon. Don't know why since there is not much to eat. But there are many birdbaths. Maybe he comes to quench his thirst. He is very quiet and stealthy. Tiniest sound has him scurrying away.

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Cat on a Wall :Weekly Challenge Fanz

This succulent planter was a gift from my daughter for our wedding anniversary. The blank space of the wooden container was beckoning to be filled with drawing. Last Saturday morning, I began to draw  a tangle cat sitting on a wall first. Even as I was doing it, I realized that this could be my substrate for the Diva challenge for a while! This morning I extended the wall to include a bit of Fanz to it. It is not  perfect because I had to tilt the container to draw which was awkward at best. Also the graininess of the wood made the lines wriggly. That's okay. I like the imperfection of it.

I Am the Diva CZT Challenge 112: Tuxedo

It is UMT week at I am the Diva and Laura chose Tuxedo, a tangle created by the kindest and everybody's favorite tangler, LeeAnn (Ledenzer).  I wanted to take this tuxedo to the most popular tuxedo wearer known to humankind. It took me several tries before I got this particular tangle and even then I am not sure I have done it right. But, I am happy to make it by the deadline. 

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Year of the Snake

This is my submission for this week's topic "Year of the Snake"  at  I am the Diva CZT.

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Weekly Challenge #100

Out at I am the Diva, Laura is celebrating the 100th Zentangle challenge, in honor of which, Maria Thomas (the founder of Zentangle) came up with three new tangles. Our challenge was to create a tile using three new tangles. I always find it easier to do ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art). This being the holiday, I decided to tangle this reindeer. Laura Haams is bit like a reindeer herself, beautiful, gentle and strong and if you look closely you will find her name somewhere in those tangles.

I got this lovely image of the reindeer from the Graphics Fairy, a wonderful site for free vintage images.

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Katrina and beyond

I just returned from a conference in New Orleans. This is my first trip to New Orleans and it is hard to be there without remembering the cataclysmic images of hurricane Katrina. Not that the location of my hotel, the French Quarters, was  much affected being several feet above sea level. In the Big Easy, the divide between the one percent and the 99% is a lot starker and it was this 99% that was most ravaged by Katrina. Little of that is visible in the French Quarters, a tourist hotspot. Except, for the permanent exhibition called Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and beyond at the Louisiana State Museum. From the continuous looping video of 24-hours before Katrina made landfall- the gigantic waves, the blinding rain, the toppling roofs, to the chilling breath stopping digital simulation of the breaching of the levees as neighborhood after neighborhood submerged in flood waters and to the stories of those witnessed it, it is haunting.

So, I decided to dedicate this week's I am the Diva Zentangle Challenge #73 Bridgen to the spirit of New Orleans. In Bridgen, string is the basis of the tangle. I used a grid map of New Orleans as my string and connected the various parts of the map (or string) with WAVES, HURAKAN, River Rocks and FLEURI (fleur de lis) is New Orleans' logo) and Fescu.

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A Mandala for the Earth

The theme for this week's I am the Diva: Certified Zentangle Teacher is
Earth Day also called Amanda Day by Laura's son Chewie :). I thought I would do my tangle art with minimum of foot print, using impermanent organic materials. I was not breaking any new ground, just borrowing from the Tamil practice of kolam drawing. I did not have the materials that are typically used in Tamilnadu. So, I improvised. I drew the mandala using  rice flour, turmeric and pink vermilion (kumkum) powder on a bamboo cutting board. Because the powders I used were finely ground and smooth (unlike those used in typical kolam drawing), they did not lend to smooth and intricate line drawing. But, I was not aiming for perfection. After it was completed, I gathered the powders and mingled them with the mud in the backyard.

I washed the bamboo board and put it away.

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