Boomeresque:Definition
1. Adj.: Describing a person born between 1 Jan. 1946 and 31 Dec. 1964
2. Adj.: Description of a person, place or thing possessing Baby Boomer je ne sais quoi
3. See also, Boomer, Esq.: A Baby Boomer who is also a licensed attorney (See, e.g., About).

Hump Day (Wednesday) Zentangle® Challenge #2 – Independence Day Edition

by Suzanne Fluhr on June 26, 2019 · 3 comments

Zentangle fireworks

Based on feedback I received from my first Friday Zentangle challenge last week, I’m changing our Zentangle challenge day to “Hump Day” a/k/a Wednesday. At about noon Sometime on Wednesdays, most workers realize they have finished half the work week and are thus over the proverbial “hump”. What better way to celebrate the workweek being half over than to go out drinking with your friends get down with some creative meditative art form like Zentangle and/or Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA) by participating in the Hump Day (Wednesday) Zentangle® Challenge.

Brigantine, New Jersey after the sunset

I realize I shared a gratuitous sunset photo last week, but tonight’s “after the sunset” was just too beautiful to keep to myself.

Where Does the Term “Hump Day” Come From?

I realize Hump Day is an English idiom and I hope some European tanglers (other than from the British Commonwealth) will participate in our Hump Day challenges. (Not intended as the beginning of a discussion about Brexit!) So for those for whom English is not your first language, I thought I should explain the idiom.

This started me down the rabbit hole (another idiom?) of trying to determine the derivation of the term “over the hump”. According to one source, the term “over the hump” was in use as early as 1914 in reference to being past the midpoint of one’s prison term. However, my first awareness of the idiom “over the hump” was as the term used by World War II pilots who had to fly supplies over the Himalayas to China. With typical GI gallows humor, they referred to the mighty and dangerous Himalayas as “the hump”. Once they made it safely over the wind-swept, often cloud shrouded high peaks of the Himalayas, the most perilous part of their flight was behind them; hence, they could breath a sigh of relief when they were “over the hump”.

Join the Hump Day (Wednesday) Zentangle Challenge Facebook Group to Share Your Creations

Last week, I promised to look for a secure way for us to share our responses to these challenges with each other. In her Zentangle Diva challenges, Laura Harms used a nice Mr. Linky “widget”, but I don’t see that it still has active tech support.

People seemed to have difficulty figuring out how to share a link to their work in my blog comments last week; therefore, I’ve started a Facebook group, Hump Day (Wednesday) Zentangle Challenge as a place to share your creations in response to the challenge prompts. After all, one can never belong to too many Zentangle Facebook groups. 😉 Feel free to include a link to a blog post or to some other social media there as well. (Use the hashtag #hdtangles. Please invite any of your tangling (or wanna be tangling)  friends!

Hump Day (Wednesday) Zentangle® Challenge #2

Independence Day Edition

In the United States, we will be celebrating our Independence Day next Thursday, on July 4th. Think of it as our Amerexit from the British Empire in 1776. 🙂 As contentious as the proposed British exit from the European Union seems to be, Amerexit was considerably more fraught, involving an 8 year shooting war.

We celebrate Independence Day as July 4th, 1776 even though independence wasn’t officially achieved until the War for American Independence (or as we call it, the Revolutionary War) was ended by the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Back in 1776, John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, predicted that Independence Day would be marked:

…with Pomp and Parade, with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

I have to admit I’m feeling somewhat ambivalent about celebrating a nationalistic event this year. I’d rather celebrate our universal humanity, those attributes we share, rather than those that divide us. Do we really have to wait for an invasion from Outer Space to bring us together? But, as usual I digress…..

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, my hometown, is where the Declaration of Independence was debated and signed. At the time, it was A. VERY. BIG. DEAL. since from the British perspective, it was an act of treason. We celebrate Independence Day in a big way in Philadelphia. In fact, you’re all invited to Philadelphia to celebrate the Fourth of July. We celebrate for an entire week!

This Week’s Hump Day Zentangle Challenge

For this week’s challenge, share with us a tile (composition) representing how you (and/or your country) celebrate a national holiday. I’ve done 2 tiles. For the first, I used the American flag motif as my string. Except for a little shading for the last stripe, the only shading I did was to try to make the flag look like it was “waving” a little:

Zentangle American Flag

For the field of stars, I used a tangle I deconstructed. However, Linda Farmer of tanglepatterns.com thought it couldn’t be considered a Zentangle tangle since it has representational features. You can find my step outs at Spangles. For the stripes, from top to bottom, I used a tangleation of Knightsbridge; a tangleation of Printemps; Hibred; Rick’s Paradox; Sand Swirl by Karry Heun; Fassett by Lynn Mead; and Cadent. (Unless otherwise noted, the tangles used are “official” tangles from the Zentangle Mother Ship. You can find the step outs for all these tangles at http://www.tanglepatterns.com

Then, I was feeling that all that black and white was not sufficiently celebratory. So, I tried doing some Zentangle Inspired Art that is supposed to represent fireworks. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it:

Zentangle fireworks

I did this using my favorite Premier Prismacolor pencils and some metallic gelly roll pens that look better in natural light. (These are affiliate links). The tangles I used are: Toodles (Mother Ship); some version of Caracole by Lily Moon; and Fission by Richard Anderson.

If you’re a “pinner”, I’ve started a Hump Day Zentangle Challenge® board on Pinterest. I’d like to make it a group board, so please leave me your Pinterest handle in a comment below if you’d like me to invite you to be able to pin there. Meanwhile, I’ll be pinning a photo for each of these challenges there. Feel free to pin this if you have your own Pinterest boards where you keep track of all things Zentangular.

Pin Me!

Does this challenge format work for you? If you’d like me to add you to a private email list to receive a notice when each week’s challenge goes live, please email me at: suzanne@boomeresque.com

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Debbie June 29, 2019 at 11:39 am

I have no artistic ability. I remember trying to draw as a child and giving up because what appeared on paper as I carefully drew never came close to matching what I was attempting to create. My “formal” education in art ended in fourth grade when we were instructed to draw the face of a fellow student. I was crushed that the image I created looked nothing like my classmate. In hindsight, it looked like a face that was drawn by a nine year old. But when you’re a perfectionist, even at nine years old, you expect, well, perfect.

Your Zentangles and ZIA are beautiful, Suzanne. I love seeing them and how your work has evolved. I’m tempted to give tangling a try, but I know nothing about perspective, shading, highlighting – all the techniques that give artwork depth and dimension and bring it to life. Nevertheless, I’m going to try to embrace the “zen” aspect of this – no mistakes (hard to say with a straight face) and take it one step at a time. Thanks for providing links to resources for beginners. I will try to leave my perfectionism (and intimidation by the works of masters like yourself) at the door and see where this goes. I will take full responsibility for any addiction that might develop. I have a feeling I will either love you for introducing Zentangle to me, or hate you for it. Probably a little of both.

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Suzanne Fluhr June 29, 2019 at 5:20 pm

I started without knowing anything. My father was an art teacher, but gave me no encouragement at all. I had to take art in 11th grade in England. My teacher’s final comment was: “Her work is sooner careful than creative”. I learned everything I know by starting with the book I mentioned in my intro Zentangle post. Also check out Zentangle.com and TanglePatterns.com There are a plethora of resources. I think this would be a great stress reliever for you!

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Debbie June 29, 2019 at 8:11 pm

I’m eagerly awaiting an Amazon delivery scheduled to arrive on Monday!! Thanks again for the sharing your resources. And for your encouragement!

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