Tuesday, October 25, 2016

O, What a Tangled Web!

And so begins a poem by Walter Scott from 1806.

It is a fitting title for a blog on the internet or attempting to create decorations for Hallowe'en celebrations...or, to create itty bitty art masterpieces!

You can have a spider web that's pretty and tangled up


You can be "Tangled up in Blue:"

Nobel Poet, Bob Dylan
You can have a tangled mess of earbuds:


Or Christmas lights

If you a tangler, your very art is tangled (shameless personal plug here):


There's plenty of inspiration out there for that kind of thing!

Show us your "tangled" art. We could be "Tangled up in You!"

Send your artwork to:  1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM, November 1, 2016, along with blog links and/or notes of inspiration. We'll post them later the same day!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Week 42--Quill

There were many different ways to take a "quill," and in true fashion, all of the responses were of different mediums and different interpretations.

First up is Zoe, a quilller from Australia. She created a trio of twinchie abstracts:


These are, according to Zoe,

"A quilled take on abstract paintings (from left) "Black Square" by K. Malevich, "Castle and Sun" by P. Klee and "Composition VIII" by W. Kandinsky. 

Next we have Freebird, a bead artist from Arkansas:


With beads, she "painted" a quill with an ink pot. We ponder what powerful words would pour from that pen! Mightier than the sword, indeed!

Our official response is a merging of quilling and quillwork:


You see? They're all very different, which illustrates how any artist working in just about any medium can participate in the TwobyTwo! Thanks for stopping by. Hope you consider trying the twinchie challenge yourself!
Until next time....

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Call it What You Will

With apologies to Annette Carlo, one of the first artists we've met that quill.

We have to apologize to artists everywhere as we snuck "quill" on the list as we thought it might be a handcraft that we'd like to try.

But really, our first thought was a creature that only a mother could love:


Very difficult to hug, we imagine. The internet thingie is full of images of people that thought they could get friendly with a porcupine. Were they ever wrong!


Ouch.

Native Americans of the Northern Plains use porcupine quills to create quillwork. It looks like flat beads, but the quills are dyed then wrapped and woven around ropes and reeds:


Then, there is quilling, the art of wrapping paper into coils and other patterns. It was considered a very popular past-time for the delicate creatures, ladies of leisure (!).

An artist we have met in the blogosphere concentrates her art on quilling. Zoe has allowed us to share this image, representative of her work:



We also follow the work of Kia, another quiller.

This year, the United States heart stamp art was created by a quiller, Yulia Brodskaya


You could just use a quill for calligraphy or fancy handwriting:



Write the novel of the century:



Or just create a fine signature that will be recognized the world over:


Maybe yours, too, could be worth millions someday!

Show us your quill-related twinchies!

Send your images to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2 PM Tuesday, October 18, 2016 along with blog links or notes and we'll post the entries later the same day. See "The Rules" for more information. Thanks for participating, even by way of checking out the "inspiration."





Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Week 41--Copper

If, indeed, there is a collective consciousness and inspiration is everywhere, then this week's responses drew from that collective wealth. The artists, with very different mediums, illustrated eerily similar ideas.

First up, Freebird beaded an entry to the periodic table:


And it snuck into our official response:


Be sure to visit the artists' blogs to see what they've been creating. And if the spirit moves you, to participate, next time, any time!

It's that time of year for posting next year's list! So you will see "2017" as a new page. It took a couple weeks to sift through the working list and narrow down the choices to 26--coincidentally, one for each letter of the English alphabet. We may rearrange the words yet, which is why there are no dates on the page. Get ready for another exciting year!

Until next time....