Week 57--Garden

Life is wonderful when you attack it with gusto and a fair amount of humor. This week's entries are a case study in wonderful.

From Arkansas, Freebird sent this offering in her trademark beads. She wrote:

Happy belated Mothers day, hope yours was a good one.  I chilled out and beaded me a garden! But I went different (as always) for this weeks theme.  I am not a flower garden kinda person.  I don't mind flowers, they are pretty but if I don't get flowers for Mother's day or my birthday it does not bother me.  Because I have an uncanny ability to kill any plant by looking at it!  At least it seems that way.  LOL  

So for this week's theme I decided to think of a big-sized garden.  The Garden State.  New Jersey! You can thank hockey for giving me the idea!  I was watching a game and the announcer commented on the fact that The New Jersey Devils were from the Garden state! 

We find that hilarious as we are from the Garden State. New Jersey has two personalities, North, near New York City and South, near Philadelphia. The Jersey Devils are based out of Newark, which is in North Jersey. Being from South Jersey, we grew up on the Philadelphia Flyers, particularly the Broad Street Bullies--Bobby Clark and Bernie Parent--that won the Stanley Cup in the Seventies. You see, we're hockey fans, too! And it's the Stanley Cup playoffs right now!

Our offering is intended to be humorous. If I'm getting blamed for something that has shared responsibility, I say, "Here, Have an apple." This modern Eve has an apple on an Apple.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the garden entries. Be sure to check out the artists' blogs and perhaps? Try your hand at the TwobyTwo!
Until next time....

I'd Like to be With You

While working on the inspiration for this week's idea, we've been humming along with the Beatles' song about an underwater garden...

The Octopus's Garden
Interpreted by the Lone Beader

Oh, the fantastic artwork we found on the subject of gardens of all varieties!
There is the original garden:

And some trouble over an apple. This one was painted by Thomas Cole in 1828 and resides at the MFA, Boston.

There was a "Secret Garden," filmed in black and white in 1949. This is a publicity photo for the Toronto Film Festival:

There are indoor gardens created for a week or two while the IDEA of anything actually growing is just a figment of one's imagination:

From the Chelsea Flower Show.

And some lovely quilted permanent gardens:

Ah, the mind reels with scrumptious colours and ideas!
Show us your "garden" twinchies! Send them to:
1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM, Arizona Time, Tuesday, May 16, 2017 along with blog links or notes and we'll post them later the same day. Join in the fun!

Big Blue Marble

Ever watch Seinfeld? There's one episode where George gets to pretend to be a marine biologist and saves a whale. You know the one? Go here for his closing monologue. Hilarious.

This time of year is focused on saving whales and saving the planet. We learned in the primary grades that Earth is three-quarters water, which means we need to take care of all that water for the health of everything and everyone on the planet.

Earth Day Flag
Created from image by Apollo 17 Space Mission

A friend of ours, Ron Watkins, is an underwater photographer and through his images brings that message home.

He just won an award for this image he calls, "One in a Million:"

One in a Million
Jellyfish in Alaska
Photograph by Ron E. Watkins

Isn't that cool? It's worth the while to see all the award-winning photographs for The Atlantic's 2017 Underwater Photography of the Year, so check it out!

These are Ron's own words on his craft, from a 2012 interview:

Life is short so make the most of it. I have been fortunate to pursue my passions and experience some wonderful places in my life. Another one of my passions is preserving the ocean and all of its inhabitants. I use my art to increase awareness of the reefs and marine life. The oceans support a diverse and important marine ecosystem which humans depend on. 

I hope that by people seeing my images, they will take more of an interest in the conservation of this fragile natural resource. 

If you're more of a tangly person, check out Laura Harms' art blog challenge this week and see why she calls Earth, "Amanda." Perhaps, combine these two challenges? 

There's plenty of inspiration available for this week's twinchie. Oh, yeah, the word is, "ocean."

Send your "ocean" via email to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Arizona Time, Tuesday, May 2, 2017 along with blog links and/or notes and we'll post them later the same day. Please join the fun and share the word!

We Ain't Lyin'

That is the most garbled heading I think I've ever come up with--truly butchering the English language. But I think you catch our drift--we are not lions, "Lion" being the word-of-the-week.
We love the big cats and on the bucket list of trips is an African safari to see them up close. The nearest we can get until then are the cats at the zoo.

Henry, 1996-2014
Henry Vilas Zoo, Wisconsin

We did have a close encounter with a mountain lion in very suburban Anthem while driving the parkway one night. It was much bigger than we had thought and we were glad that a) we were securely ensconced in our automobile and b) we didn't meet by accident.

Here's a familiar lion:

And here's one we remember from childhood:

And who doesn't recognize this guy:

Love the bow!

Show us your lion twinchies! Send images of your two-inch creations to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Tuesday, February 21, 2017 along with your links and notes and we'll post them later the same day. Thanks for participating and spreading the word!

Week 50--News

Not much news to report, just some great art entries for the week.

From Arkansas, Freebird sent her graphic of a newspaper front page in beads:

Our official response is a collage:

Be sure to check out the artists' blogs to see what they have to say about their artwork!
Let them know you saw it here. Maybe you'll want to join in on the fun?

Until next time....

As Luck would have it

If you are fortunate, you are lucky. If you have a fortune, you are wealthy in the material sense or you're reading a magazine that you hope will get you there.
If you find yourself in Fortune, you could be in Arkansas, California, Newfoundland or the Philippines.
Or you could be a soldier of Fortune, an adventurer with your own magazine, (with what seems like a lot of weapons involved). Did you know that the boat on a second trip to deliver more Pilgrims to the Plymouth Colony in 1621 was called "Fortune?" Neither did I (and it's history is not very fortunate).
Perhaps you just opened your Chinese cookie. Now we're getting somewhere.

Next week and for a couple more weeks is the celebration of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese calendar follows the lunar cycles, so it's a movable holiday (this year starting January 27 or 28 depending on where on the planet you live) and involves a lot of noise-making and fireworks.
And with any luck, fortune cookies!
Have some fun with your art and show us your "fortune" twinchies! Send them to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Tuesday, January 23, 2017 and we'll post them later the same day. Share with us any insight into the inspiration and blog links. And share the fun!

Week 48--Happy

Apologies all around for my tardiness. Sometimes life can be...everything. We'll keep it at that and remain upbeat. Particularly since the word of the week is/was, "Happy!"

Freebird sent hers in on time. From Arkansas, USA we have:

And our not very timely nor original contribution to the cause:

Be sure to check out the artist blogs and to visit again next time!

Happy New Year!

We're yet just a couple days into 2017. The year is full of promise and excitement from this vantage point. Why not start off happy?

We can put on a happy face

You can exude happiness

You can even buy happiness

We're more of a coffee and donuts kind of happy, but you get the idea.

This is what someone named Jennifer Smith thinks happiness looks like

What do YOU think "happy" looks like? Show us your happy twinchies! Send them to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM January 9, 2017 along with whatever notes of inspiration and blog links you'd like to share. We'll post them later the same day.
As always, all mediums are welcome, check out "The Rules" page if you need to. We look forward to your submissions! And Happy New Year!

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!

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....

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."

Week 40--Astronomy

Look to the stars and what do you see? 

Freebird captured a spaceship and Saturn in her signature beads:

If you could rocket into space, where would you go?

We're not planning on going to Pluto soon, but we occasionally visit the observatory that was responsible for finding the dwarf planet. Thus we have:

Be sure to check out the blogs to learn about the artists and their inspiration, to see what they see. Perhaps, to try your own hand at interpreting the challenge, to boldly go where none have gone before? 

Until next time....

In the Night Sky

When you look up in the sky at night, what do you see? There is the moon in all its delightful phases:

There are stars, which us humans have grouped into constellations.

Depending on your point of view, you can see Ursa Major, the Big Dipper or Crux, the Southern Cross:

Crux from Taiwan
by PK Chen

We can pick out Scorpius in the sky by the bright orange star, Antares:

And on a clear, New Moon night, the Milky Way. So many stars!

Our favorite star cluster is The Pleiades.

The ancient Greeks have their stories of all the stars, referred to as the Seven Sisters, as do just about every culture on the planet. You probably see the stars every day here on the ground, as they have been stylized for the logo for Subaru.

Show us what you see! Send your artwork to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Tuesday, September, 20, 2016 along with your notes of inspirations and blog links. We'll post them later the same day.

Week 39--Jewel

It must be the craziness that is the last official "hoorah!" of North American summer, but "things" are moving slowly around here. Or just the distraction of family, barbeques and toasted marshmallows. MMM.

Freebird sent us her beading pattern for her "jewel." We're impressed with her dedication: even if she's busy with family, she still has time for her art and this challenge:

We can't wait to see the finished product; she'll post it on her blog when it's all done!

We went with drawing a ruby cabochon as a scarab beetle. The added challenge was to draw black-on-black then to try to photograph it.

On our Flickr feed, so far.

We all hope you like what you see, that you visit the artists' blogs and comment appropriately. Or perhaps? Try your hand at whatever inspires you and create your own twinchies!

Until next time....

What's the Difference?

Do you ever ask Google what the difference is between two different things? There's even a website devoted to clarification: differencebetween.com, naturally. We used it this past week to try to determine how to differentiate a jewel from a gem.
And the answer is: NADA!
At least as far as we can see.
For the particular person, a gem could be a stone left in its natural state while a jewel is more refined and ornamental.
Thus if this is a gem:

Then this is a jewel:

It's a game that we may or may not have played before:

And someone we have listened to once or twice:

So, show us your jewels and gems, if you wish. Send your images to 1xeritas@gmail.com by 2PM Tuesday, September 6, 2016 along with whatever message you want to add and your blog post, if applicable. We'll post them later the same day. 

Have a brilliant day!