Week 21--White

For the final prompt of this inaugural year, the word of the day is, "white." The resulting work was anything but bland or boring.

From Arkansas, Freebird sent this beadwork piece:

White by
Freebird

You really must read her blog to see what this has to do with breakdancing!

Our official response became this:

White by
Cheryl

Inspiration takes many forms. Freebird found it in something she's not real keen on and created a lovely art piece. Cheryl, well, we never quite know what to expect there.

We invite you to see what the artists are up to and to participate as well. Spread the word that there's a "twinchie" challenge open to all media worldwide. We would love to have you join us!

Until next YEAR....!

A Blank Canvas

As the year winds down and we're approaching the onset of yet another New Year (if you follow the Gregorian calendar), we look for a fresh start, a new beginning, a clean slate. For a writer that can be a blank page, for an artist, a white canvas. Either can elicit a mental block of where to start and what to do. Or it can be a refreshing change of pace.
The challenge this week is to use WHITE materials in any manner desired and in really, any color. It could be a cold, bright white like LED bulbs or a warm white like candlelight or any color in between. It could be a light blush, ecru or cream. Layer it all on or keep a nice, smooth surface...however you see "white."
So while you enjoy all the festivities of the season, create some "white" twinchies and send them to us!
The usual verbiage applies. Send images of your completed two-inch artworks to:
1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Tuesday, December 29, 2015. Include blog links to your post and/or a description of your work. The results will be posted later the same day.
Cheers!

Week 20--Sparkle

It's that time of year when everything is, well, BRRR COLD! Whoever thought Arizona was warm and sunny doesn't visit this time of year (42 and snowing?!!!).
But it's the time of year when everything is sparkly and bright and that's what this week is all about.

Freebird sent this message to share, for always:

Sparkle by
Freebird

Our official response this week is this:

Sparkle by
Cheryl

We're going to raffle our response off, our gift to one lucky visitor to my other blog, so check that out and throw your name into the ring!

Enjoy all the sparkly delights of this holiday season! Until next time....

Never a Dull Moment

Kind of drawing on last week's theme of tradition is the concept of lights to brighten the dark winter skies of December. With apologies to the Southern Hemisphere, which is experiencing their summer, all the major religions on the planet incorporate lights into ceremonies and rituals to ward off the darkness.

One of our favorite events this time of year is Las Noches de las Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Volunteers go around lighting thousands of luminaria each night and patrons enjoy intimate music venues, food and wine. What's not to like?

Desert Botanical Garden

We also enjoy Glendale Glitters and the downtown area all lit up.

Glendale Glitters

It's all sparkly and bright! Which brings us to this week's teenie art challenge: sparkle. Maybe you just add some glitter and call it good?

Glitter

Perhaps you play around with a camera and experiment with the out-of-focus light concept called bokeh.

By Zamnar

Or, like our usually twisted selves, go off in a totally different direction? We didn't know about this movie, but it's on our list, if only for the awesome costumes (we're certain the music is just fabulous, too!)

Sparkle, the Movie

From wherever the inspiration comes from and wherever it takes you, show us some sparkle!

Send your sparkly twinchies to:

1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM on Tuesday, December 15, 2015; include a blog link or what-have-you, too! And spread the word so more creative, twinchie people can get in on the fun!

Week 19--Tradition

Every culture, every community, every family has customs that bind them together. Some celebrate holidays, others the seasons. There are secular celebrations and others to honor a concept of a Higher Being, however that is described in ones life. There are those that mark life's milestones--from birth to death including the first day of school or passing a driver'license examination.

Freebird chose to expand on her family's tradition of serving in the United States military:

Tradition by
Freebird

It is because of the sacrifices of our veterans that we enjoy the freedoms that we do here in the States.

We went with a personal ritual that we enjoy during the winter season:

Eggnog
YUM!

What do you celebrate in Winter? (Or Summer in the southern hemisphere?) What traditions do you carry on in your family? Share your thoughts with us!
Until next time....

If I were a Rich Man...

The topic of the biweekly art challenge this time around is "Tradition." And we just couldn't stop ourselves from singing the song from "Fiddler on the Roof."
TRADITION!

This time of year sports a calendar packed full of holidays. We all have our religious, spiritual and secular events that we love to celebrate and each is grounded in the way we celebrate it. There are the colors of the seasons, the prayers and pageants, the cards and candles...

Boxing Day
England
December 26

Eid

Diwali

Menorah
for Hanukkah

Nguzo Saba of
Kwanzaa

Oh! Tannenbaum!
Christmas Tree

Pinecone Drop
Flagstaff Arizona
New Year's Day

First Day of Christmas
Partridge in a Pear Tree

Which brings us to this:

The Partridge Family

It's neither a Partridge nor a family and has very little to do with the concept of "tradition," but you know us! We always find some weird variable while we're doing our research! Let's move along, shall we?

May your table be surrounded by the people you love and have all the foods you just have to eat. Many blessings to all who participate and to friends and family. Let's eat!

Potato Latkes

Bunuelos

Thanksgiving Dinner
United States

When you have a moment, show us what traditions you follow or learn something new and follow that! Plenty of inspiration is available through this season.

Send your "Tradition" twinchies to:
1xeritas@gmail.com by 2pm Tuesday, December 1, 2015
along with a description and/or blog link, if so desired.

Thank you for being a part of the TwobyTwo family. Share the bounty with others so we can all have fun. Blessings!

Week 18--Bee

It's a quiet week here at the Two by Two. Must be gearing up for all the falalala-ing, yes?

Freebird contributed this adorable bee:

Bee
by Freebird

She has been as busy as, well a bee, so bee sure to check out her blog post!

This is our official response (and so far, you'll see it nowhere else!! Might even throw in a free set of Ginsu knives if you sit still long enough!)

Bee
by Cheryl

That's what's happening here! Bee sure to see what all of our contributing artists are up to.
Until next time....

Sting Like a Bee

You can have honeybees and killer bees, quilting bees and spelling bees. You may not know beeswax even though it may provide you with light. You may be a worker bee or Queen Bea.

Queen Beatrix of
The Nethelands

Bees can do wonders with pollen and are a necessary cog in the machinations of growing fruits and vegetables. Without their input, food as we know may be just a memory.

My Nana used to sing about peas:
     I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them
     the knife.

A lot of people are allergic to bee stings. Just ask Joe Frasier what he thought of Muhammad Ali, or what Ali thought of himself:

Muhammad Ali

Cartoons have their super villans:

Queen Bea
Super Secret Secret Squirrel

There's a throne for the Queen Bee in "Orange is the New Black," but we've never seen it, so that's kind of lost on us. Surely, one of you all knows what that is all about?

So what's all the buzz about? Show us your bee twinchies!
Send your images to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2 PM, Tuesday, November 17. Include whatever you'd like us to know about it and/or a blog or web link so we can see more goodies!

Week 17--Nine-Patch

There's a chill in the air and what could be better than to crawl under a nice warm NINE-PATCH quilt with some hot beverage and a good read? To check out Nine-Patch art!

Margaret sent in these beautiful nine patches of nine patches from Saskatchewan:

Nine-Patch of Nine-Patch
by Margaret

AND she's raffling them off! That's NINE chances to win a lovely twinchie!
So, go to her blog and enter!

Freebird created hers and you'll have to read her blog to learn why this is not her favorite color combination! She found a  quilt pattern on-line and interpreted it in beads!

Nine-Patch
by Freebird

And our official response is a pieced patchwork just waiting to be included in a (much bigger) quilt!

Nine-Patch
by Cheryl

Thanks so much to the artists that participated and created beautiful teenie twinchies! Be sure to check out their blogs to see what else they've made--plenty of talent--and perhaps try your hand at it?

Until next time....

Looking Forwards and Back

It's that time of year when the days are notably shorter and around the corner is the return to "Standard Time." We don't know about the rest of the planet, but "Daylight Savings Time" is nearing an end here in the States (Except for most of Arizona--we don't do that as we don't need to save sunlight, we could use blessedly less of it in summer!).

Sunset by
Brian Bender
wunderground.com

That's important for two reasons. One, we've already begun our planning for next year and have posted the prompts for all of 2016! And two, the inspiration for this week's word is supposedly and decidedly an American-originated concept: quilting. The pioneer women would piece together patches of fabric to create blankets and from "crazy," haphazard piecing came patterns.
There are plenty of complicated patterns out there, but "Nine-Patch," is one of the first, dating to early or mid 19th century and one of the simplest--three rows of three columns of squares.

Double Nine-Patch
Squares of Nine-Patch in a
Nine-Patch Pattern

Once you know the "rules," you can break them:

Disappearing Nine-Patch inside
Disappearing Nine-Patch

It's not a pattern that is expressly and solely associated with fabric.
There's glass:

Paper:

Chittlechattle.com

A total (diet) spoiler (Food as canvas):

We think everyone's a winner
in this game!
cupcakepedia.com

Computer program?

Nine-Patch for Android
Tutorial

Makes our collective neurons hurt! But you know us! We have to find off-the-wall, out-of-the-box
investigations as part of our on-going research. (For the record, we understand the underlying concept, but we were lost after the first word of the instructions. You know? Anything after "The...").

We've updated the last post, so check that out when you have a chance.

I was going to put that stuff here, but that would make things disorganized for the long term. And anyone who knows me, knows how organized I am (not! I'm going to grow up to be one of those crazy cat ladies who needs an intervention for 'stuff').

So show us your nine-patches in whatever medium you should choose! You know the deal--two inches!
Send your images of them to 1xeritas@gmail.com by Tuesday at 2PM Arizona Time (which never waivers), November 3, 2015. Include your blog post or what-have-yous for sharing!

Week 16--Is

No matter what your definition of "IS" is, it's hard to describe and yet more complicated to address artistically. We knew it when we put this into the challenge mix.
What has transpired is that more than one artist jumped right over it and went to the next challenge. And rather than spoil that fun, we'll save those with any others that come along for the November 3 post.

Sarah in Michigan was up for the challenging challenge!

Nature Is...
By Sarah

This is our official response to this week's:

A Daughter Is...
By Cheryl

Thank you so much for stopping by. Be sure to check out the artists that participate and let them know you appreciate their efforts. And perhaps, join in on the fun?!
Until next time....

Update 10.26.15:
From Freebird:

She writes:

i love the theme.  For me, the take on the theme IS was so clear.  1 Corinthians 13:13.  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these IS love.  So for my IS twinchie I redid a pattern that I designed for a Stethoscope bead that I designed for the nurse that took care of my daughter after her surgery.  It has a cross, a rainbow, and a dove, faith, hope and love. 

Love Is...
By Freebird

Isn't that just lovely?

It Depends on Your Definition

We have often ruminated on the testimony provided by then president William Jefferson Clinton during the Lewinsky trial. When asked if he had relations with Monica, he responded with, as best as we know, "It depends on what your definition of 'IS' is."

Bill Clinton
Official White House Photograph

Our take on it is, it either IS or it isn't, not much grey area there, right? Which, led us to the dictionary to find the definitions of "is," and we found there really is only ONE! "Is" is the third-person conjugation of "be," as in: he IS, she IS or it IS.
Not much to really figure out! But if you go further with the study, back to "be," things get more interesting.
First, you may consider one of Shakespear's most-quoted lines, as Hamlet asks himself if it is better "to be, or not to be. That is the question."

Edwin Booth as
Hamlet
by J. Gurney & Sons, 1870

You can find various philosophers that posit the essence of "being," but it was Rene Descartes that put forth, "Cogito, ergo sum," translated to "I think, therefore I am." Rodin created a beautiful sculpture to illustrate this concept.

The Thnker
Rodin
Philadelphia

In a variety of ways, we have seen this tripartite:

To Be is to Do--Socrates

To Do is to Be--Plato

Do be do be do--Sinatra

And from there, the opportunities to extrapolate are endless:

Scooby Doobee Doo!

Yabba Dabba Doo!

Hey, Boo Boo!

How about a Picnic Basket, Yogi?

Do be a Do Bee!

AND, last but not least:

Exactly! Now, go out and just make art, whatever YOUR definition of "IS" is!

Send us your twinchies by 2PM on Tuesday, October 20th to:

1xeritas@gmail.com

Include a link to your blog or what-have-you and spread the word!

Disclaimer: all of the above artwork is copyrighted by their respective owners, creators and companies. White House photographs are in the public domain as are those greater than 70 years, such as the image of "Hamlet." The images are represented here to offer creative opportunities and are not meant to infringe upon individual or corporate rights.