2010 Black & White Gallery

From 1996 to 2010 I found myself completely alienated from my creative artistic side as I poured all my creative energy into my online mail-order company. It was an exciting time as I worked 24-7 to grown my business. I did not realize how far away from art I had moved until 2010 when I walked into a vendor booth featuring Zentangle. It was an instant reconnection with my artistic side that had been stagnating in the background. I loved my earlier pop art works that focused on black and white repetitive patterning and I knew I was going home to pick up my pen again. My re-connection started with large 9x12" & 8x8" black and white works and like any other who find tangling, it was the jump start I needed to return to my art.

As I review these early works I see a style, a golden thread, woven into my work as it morphed and evolved into stronger, bolder pieces that can now be identified as my style of repetitive patterning. I see threads of botanicals and circles combining with mark making using pen and line, dots, checks, striping, framing, and backgrounds. 

The Circles

Circular 2010	Circles 2010	Circles 2 2010
Movement 2010	Circles 3 2010	Circles 4 2010
	Botanicals & More
Butterfly 2010	Heart 2010	Bird 2010
Botanical Circles 2010	Mandala 2010	Botanicals 2 2010
More 2010	Snow Flakes 2010	Movement 2 2010

Click Pix to Enlarge

When I look back at these older works that I began before my Certified Zentangle Teacher training in 2011, I realized I had already discovered the power of the dot, striping, the double line aka aura, backgrounds, framing, and my love of circles and botanicals as they wove their way into my works.

These same features and motifs became the foundation of Chapter 3 in my book:
Tangle-Inspired Botanicals
Exploring the Natural World Through Mindful, Expressive Drawing

Chapter 3:

  The Alchemy of Texture and Line Embellishment:
   Natural Textures and Patterns found in Nature Offer Inspiration

Discover the heavy lifters, blackout, frames, backgrounds, circles, orbs, outlines, striping, checks, teeny-tiny betweens while dancing with posies and petals.

 

Have you looked back at your early works?

What did you find?

Let us know in the Comments below!