A Shaky Start

I've missed the last few Diva Challenges. When things get difficult I get a bit social media phobic, which is silly, but there you are. I've read the blog each time and looked at all the wonderful creations, and even done some drawing late in the evening when the kids are finally in bed and I can breathe for a few minutes. But posting anything has been too confronting. Funny that this challenge takes all the pressure off.

Drawing with the off-hand is surprisingly stress-less for me (see this post from way back in 2014 as to why that's so, if you are so inclined). There is no way it can be like the things I draw with my usual hand so my brain just switches off its self-criticism motor, which is normally in over-drive, and I just go with whatever happens. So what we have is shaky and shonky, and the lines don't all join up in places, but I kind of like it. About halfway through I questioned the wisdom of choosing Auraknot, but in for a penny in for a pound and I managed better than I had expected to.

Diva Challenge #321, Auraknot, Frunky, Msst, some random auras

I went back and revisited the diptych issue. Reading through some of the other blogs, I realised I had not quite got what a Zentangle diptych involves, so I had another go. Two cards this time, with a paper hinge behind. The two halves are more echoes than reflections, but it works. Next is to cut a tile in half and attach the two halves either side of a whole tile so they swing out like doors and thus become a triptych. If I can get up the courage to cut a tile. Whole other thing than simply folding one. Aaargh. I'll work up to that.

Diptych, flat and standing. Xyp, Paradox, Arukas, Tipple, Hollibaugh, Tripoli,
Printemps, Noom, Copada

And finally, as promised some weeks ago, my "Jetties as a string" tile. This is the last of the "use tangles as strings" tiles that I began with Lianne Wood back in 2015. So this little tile spans about two-and-a-half years from start to finish. Slack, but I got there in the end.

Tripoli, Jetties, Meer, Flux, Bunzo, Coaster, Printemps, Pearlz, Purk, Finery, Tipple,
Zander, Crezn't, Chartz, and two that I can't for the life of me remember the names of.
I'll find them and put them in. Bear with me.

Know When to Hold 'Em, Know When to Fold 'Em

Yes, I missed last week's challenge. And I was almost a week late with pressing publish on some lovely comments (I moderate all comments. Prevents spam), for which I apologise. Thank you, everyone, for your lovely comments. I do value them. Things happened and I wasn't online. I haven't been online very much at all lately, and last week I didn't even manage to keep up with the Diva or the other blogs I follow. I looked at a couple of Challenge responses and then events overtook me, and that was that. There's a bit more of an explanation, along with a drawing technique, on my art blog, if you are so inclined.

Things are a bit less ga-ga this week, so here I am again.

This week the Diva posed us an interesting challenge. If you are going to be absolutely pedantic a diptych does not have to be reflected, just a hinged painting on two panels, but I did actually go with the instructions, so reflected it is. Which was a lot of fun. I don't think it would have been anywhere near so interesting to do if the reflection aspect wasn't there. But do you know, I found it really difficult to fold that tile. Part of me felt like a vandal. It was like the first time I made a note in a textbook (which I owned, by the way. I have ever since treated reading textbooks as having a conversation). I may as well have been sacking Rome. Once done, however, it seems churlish to stop. Tile done. Not the greatest, but not bad for a first go.

This is it lying flat. Flux, Squid, Dex.

I was going to gatefold it rather than wingfold it, but I had this idea of mounting it on red card. Which wasn't really successful.

The same on red card. No, the image is not squashed, it really does look this distorted.
Weird, isn't it?

So instead I stuck it, folded the other way, to my book stand on my desk, using my kneadable rubber (so many uses). I'll do this exercise again, gatefolded I think, and also on separate tiles with a paper hinge.

And suddenly normalcy is returned. This bends the same amount as the one on red,
just in the opposite direction. Go figure.

I was going to post the tile with the Jetties string, but today's photos were taken very late as my daughter had borrowed my phone for the day and my camera is on the blink, so I rushed to get the challenge photos done and forgot the Jetties tile, and now the light is fading. Maybe next time. 

Instead, in keeping with the idea of a diptych, but extending it (because I really do not know when to leave well enough alone), here's a set of three tiles that I did a number of years ago. If I hadn't sold them (yay!), I would be joining them and mounting them differently. I think on wood with metal hinges, in a concertina set up. That could be really interesting.

Cipher (yes, it got given a name), Tripoli, Jetties, Rixty, Shattuck, Web, Squid,
Msst, Hollibaugh, Nipa, Paradox, Waves, Tipple, Ixorus,
and a great big stripey snake thing (what is that, exactly? Barberpole?)

And now my brain is full of Patrick Woodroffe and his beautiful diptychs and triptychs (no, seriously, follow that link. His work is stunning. A great loss), and I'm thinking of Zentangle wooden panels, amongst other things and wondering about the possibilities.

In the meantime this was much more fun than I thought it would be (after the folding trepidation), and as usual I have been absolutely blown away by everyone else's Challenge responses. This is such an inventive and gifted community. Thanks to Laura for spurring us on each week.

A Certain Magnetism

I missed last week's challenge as I was away. As in right away. I went to my brother's farm outside Murrumbateman (a little town about 40 minutes from Canberra), and was without internet. Or news. Which was lovely. The television is satellite only, and bounced from Alice Springs, right in the centre of Australia, so it was kind of weird that I knew when their next rodeo was on, or where to get framing done in Alice, but knew nothing of what was happening in the rest of the world. Which given the way that week was seems to have been something of a boon. Ignorance really is bliss.

One of the cows dropped a calf. She is unbelievably cute. We dined on one of the steers (Space Ghost - he won awards on hoof and hook and was incredibly delicious), and there were fresh farm eggs. Plus I went in to Canberra a few times to catch up with friends and have beautiful meals with them. And I got painting done. As in real honest-to-god painting, in oils on canvas. And tangled in the evenings while watching television with my brother and sister-in-law and nephew. A very good week.

The kids stayed home with their dad and everyone managed without Mum for the week, so I am thinking I can really do this again sometime.

I was looking forward to seeing this week's Challenge, but when it came up it left me rather bamboozled. Something inspired by the Earth? Or something on a recycled support? Really, I was unsure. But Laura the lovely Diva was kind enough to clarify. Inspired by the Earth. Gotcha. Still, it took a couple of days for me to work it all out in my head. Lots of reading and research, which was fun. I know a fair bit more now about the Gaia Hypothesis than I did. And weather patterns. And the shapes of the Earth's tectonic plates. But nothing was really singing. I didn't want to just do leafy, organic patterns because I tend to do those most of the time anyway. And then I remembered the Earth's electromagnetic field, which protects us from the worst of the solar winds and stops our atmosphere from being stripped away. So the weekly challenge turned out like this:

Diva Challenge 313, Meer, Flux, Beelight, Tagh, Fescu, Noom, Bunzo, Tipple, Skoodle

Imagine you are the Sun, looking straight at our Earth, but able to see into it, in cross section. There are the inner core, outer core and mantle. The crust, so fragile and thin, is just a line, the biosphere and atmosphere are rendered in Fescu, with the ionosphere as the white halo. And then the magnetic field loops out in bows. Behind the Earth the solar winds push the field out in a great stream so that it looks like Earth has a tail, or long hair, but the Sun can't see that. If I were doing this challenge again I would fill every space between the loops with Meer, but it's still okay as it is. Not perfect, but okay.

Our planet is really quite fragile. That field goes and we and everything else are just toast. We should be grateful for our Earth and take much better care of it. It could all be gone so easily. The politicians and their corporate masters won't bother, so it's up to us to speak up every day and call them to account.

In keeping with the plan to catch up on all those Challenges I missed (well, most of them, but anyway...), here's one I did while on the farm. Challenge 304, using Waybop. Quite a fun little tangle that. I've been using it a lot. Funny how some tangles you just take to, while others take a while to catch on. I've certainly caught on to this one. I did Waybops that were more standard, but I really like the way this particular one turned out.

Diva Challenge 304, Waybop, Betweed, Msst

I also had a go at some of the Renaissance tiles, both square and round. They make me a little wary, so it's good to practice something that pushes me out of my comfort zone. Good old Bunzo again. Maggots in carapaces. I have jokingly called this Bunzodala.

Bunzo, Tripoli, Flux, Pearlz

The Four Corners of the Circle

I've been away for the weekend with my eldest. Went down to Canberra to see friends and family and the Treasures of Versailles Exhibition. We had a great time, but I was quite tired when we got home. Four hours plus of driving, with two near misses due to idiot drivers who weren't paying attention and clearly weren't expecting for someone to be doing to the speed limit. Still, home safe and sound, so yay for us.

Regardless of the tiredness, I couldn't help looking at the Diva Challenge last night. I figured it would be up, even though I hadn't got my email alert yet (time zones - one of the perils of living on a sort of spheroid planet). And when I saw it, oh, I was so excited. I nearly grabbed my pens and paper there and then. But instead I went to bed. And slept like a log. And spent all this morning running around doing the things that needed doing and itching to get drawing.

Laura has set a challenge that is right up my alley - a string with circles and squares.

See, here's the thing. I love sacred geometry. And the thing about sacred geometry, or classical geometry if you prefer, is that circles and squares are really important. And the presence of one implies the presence of the other.

I was reading recently "The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day" by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen¹. On p.52, writing about varying cosmologies, Stewart and Cohen point out that to "many [ancient central American] cultures the world was both square and round". Which when you think about it makes perfect sense. The Four Corners of the Earth, anyone? A circle is the basis from which a square is constructed and they share the same centre point (which is often considered the fifth point of the square). Prior to the invention of the set square the only way to reliably draw a square, with accurate right-angled corners, was to start with a circle. Frankly, it's still the best way to do it, as far as I am concerned. And you can do it with just a compass and straight edge. No fussing around.

A circle can easily lead to a square. A square has to have come from a circle. No wonder I couldn't wait to get started. Although of course, life gets in the way. So here I am at nearly three in the afternoon and I have only now found time to put pen to paper.

Diva Challenge #311, CircleSquare, Bunzo, Cyme, Knightsbridge, Marasu, Printemps, Wasser and a spiral
Megan Hitchens, black ink, brown ink, white ink, graphite, white chalk on tan paper. 2017

It's a little wonky as I did it free hand, but using a mandala tile really helped. I think the Knightbridge was a mistake, or needs something else happening in it. And I should have gone much more carefully with the spiral, but otherwise... well... it will do.

For squares and circles I much prefer this, which I did with a compass and straight edge, but it's not the formal challenge piece as it was done for INKtober last year.

Playing, Paradox, Knightsbridge, Hollibaugh, Meer, Tipple, other patterns that I should go look up their names
Megan Hitchens, blank ink on white paper, 2016

You can really see the difference a straight edge makes. Oh well.

Squares within circles, circles within squares, turtles all the way down.

No archived Diva Challenge today as I still have stacks to do.

1. Pratchett Terry, Cohen Jack, Stewart Ian, The Scicnce of the Discworld IV: Judgement Day, Ebury Publishing, 2014