Miriam Badyrka is The Doodler

Doodle of the Week

Summer is lazily progressing.

In the spirit of not fighting Summer to maintain my schedule, I am thinking of changing my Doodle of the Week posting day to Monday for the summer. I keep missing the weekend. Since I think that eventually I will start missing Mondays and it will just sort of naturally migrate back to Friday by the time fall rolls around.

It sounds like a good plan to me.

This week's doodle is an enormous carpet doodle. I think this is probably the largest one ever I like that a few of the motifs change in size and that there are several that get added as it goes along. The medallions were done as a part of the carpet. They were not random medallion doodles that happened to get swallowed by a carpet doodle.

I got a new cell phone which doesn't come with a manual. I like the phone, but it is very irritating when they just include a DVD. It rapidly goes through the steps. This is no problem when you already know where the buttons are, but is confusing when you don't.

It took a while to dawn on me that there is supposed to be an audio component to the DVD, because my computer won't (or can't) play it.

*raspberry noise*

Doodle of the Week

Ok, I did it again. I somehow managed to forget to post last week's doodle. Instead of making it a bad thing, let's say that today you get double the doodles!
I like a couple of the roundels, but the thing that made me choose this one is the cute scalloped edge on the carpet doodle. It seems so girly. The curved top is a nice touch too, don't you think?

I have been cleaning out my studio and moving things upstairs in prep for next week's Cleaning of the Basement. A horrifying thought. We have been in this house for 15 years. Although we have cleaned it in sections, we have never pulled everything out and done the whole enchilada.

Pray for us.

I chose the the second one because it is a sampler of all sorts of design elements, and many of them appear to be new ones in my doodling repertoire. I think it is because I have dragged all my books off the shelves and have flipped through some of them because I had kind of forgotten that some of them even existed. It is like getting a bunch of new books for free!

What the heck has gotten into me today? I sound like some kind of carnival hustler.

Doodle of the Week

I made some really pretty doodles this week, but I am attracted to the random nature of this one. There are a lot of individual elements in this that I like, the pattern samplers, the horses. How well these pieces look  together is the interesting thing to me.

It is the strength of that central mandala that ties it together. It seems to be drawing all the other pieces in towards its center.

Heck, it seems to be pulling me into its center. It is a powerful graphic. I can't think of anything to say and I just want to stare at it.

Doodle of the Week(s)

I didn't post anything last week, and I am unrepentant. Company on Friday, daughter leaving Sunday morning. Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, and that is all there is to it.

If I had posted a doodle last week, it would have been this one.

What happened to that bottom circle? I checked the image. I didn't cut it off when I scanned it, I ran off the bottom of the page.

The doodle makes me think of flowers in water. I had beautiful clematis blooms (Nelly Moser), and I floated some of them in a shallow bowl of water.

The bowl is an old one, made before machines, and the edge is uneven. You can see that it was cut off with shears and then rounded off. It was never a high quality piece, but I love it when you can see the human hand in things.

Here is today's doodle.

I like the ribbons as a connecting element. It looks like dancing. Do you think that this is the doodle version of rhythmic gymnastics?

 Looking at this photo, I think I may be on to something with the rhythmic gymnastics. What do you think? It is not so far fetched of an idea.

If you want to see some of the amazing things these gymnasts do, you can watch this video

(I totally kyped this lovely photo from google images, and I don't know who to credit for it)

Doodle of the Week

This was the most uninspired week of doodling that I can recall. Usually, I have to choose from several candidates, but this week? I didn't see much I liked in this bunch. So, on the strength of Eeny Meeney Miney Moe, this is your doodle.

It is not totally without some charm. Look at the goofy cartoon dog. The space is split up in an interesting way, and the checkerboard field gives it a strong graphic look. So, I guess it is not so horrible after all.

Or maybe it just looks much better on screen than it did on paper.

Doodle of the Week

I really like this doodle because it is less static than my usual carpet doodles. There is a sense of motion. I think it is because of the boteh (or paisley) shapes. Associated the wave motif, they look like splashes.

I made banana bread today, and the strangest thing happened. My oven, which has always been funky, was not heating up properly. I had to bake the banana bread for 3 hours. I think that just might be a world record.

Then, the bottom stayed in the pan while the top came out. It is crumbly and pathetic looking, but it tastes good all the same.

I just noticed that this doodle maybe upside down. I don't really care, but it says Systematic Landscapes up in the corner. I love earthworks, and have posted about them several times, so it probably refers to the amazing Maya Lin. 

Doodle of the Week

A list this time. Notice that the doodle is much larger than the list itself. Some of you are shaking your heads and smirking at me. You know who you are, and, yeah, I know, it is just like me.

I almost never write lists, or if I do, I don't look at them. Lately, I have had some major time sucking things going on. I must have written down the other things I didn't want to forget to do. Though I must admit that I haven't made much headway, due to the previously mentioned time sucking items.

I have to add something to the list. Read. All the books on my library queue have shown up at once. I have eleven books sitting in the living room saying "Read me..." and it is a beautiful weekend. Why, oh why, couldn't this happen in the winter when it is rainy and cold?

Embroidery #10

Here is another one of my Slow Doodles. The doodles are slow because I stitch these, rather than draw them. It slows things to a crawl. Rather like my brain this afternoon.

I call this one Horse Heaven.

But that errant hair in the image? That is canine not than equine. There is probably some feline hair in there too.

I need to get me one of those tapey things, aka  a lint roller, before I take a picture.

Actually, I have one. The thing I have to do is Remember To Use It!

You can see it (and buy it, please) and several other embroideries and even a couple of folded books at Art Over Macleay Park this weekend.

Doodle of the Week

This doodle was an easy choice because it has a few elements that are new. Or at least, different.

Yeah, there are medallions, mandalas or plain old concentric circle designs. Yeah, there are leaf shapes. Yeah, there are some geometric patterns. All of the usual suspects, but there are a couple of twists as well.

The pattern is a very simple patchwork of square shapes shapes. Usually my field designs are made up of interlocking pieces, more like this one. This field is very simple, but satisfying because of the interior rhythm and movement inherent in the simple patterning.

I am tired, and it is showing. I can't seem to type a word without misspelling or  to compose a coherent sentence. It is frustrating trying to do this post let me tell you, but I will soldier on.

Another thing that caught my eye is the "bubble" element that you can see in the medallion on the lower right. They look like the bubbles on the bottom of a pan while you are waiting for the water to boil so that you can put your oatmeal in it.

And, in case you ever wondered, the water in the pot will boil eventually, even if you do watch it.

Doodle of the Week

I decided to spare you from yet another group of circles, and this group is a veritable potpourri!

Notice  that there is a camel. This is the whole reason I picked this group. I blogged about wanting to start a camel craze. I was kidding, of course, but that is definitely a camel.

I also wonder what 10:40 means. Is it am or pm? What was going to happen at 10:40? Knowing me, it probably has to do with a cooking time. I often write the time something finishes as a reminder to myself. But why would I be cooking at 10 am or 10 pm? Seems strange to me.

Possibly it was an appointment or when I was supposed to meet someone. But since there is no notation, it could be anything.

It is a mystery, just like a doodle, so I am intrigued.