How My Current Art Began

In the fall of 2001 I was a talent visual art teacher responsible for a caseload of elementary talent art students at four schools. I was filling in for a talent art teacher who was on sabbatical. When I tried to explain the art term “value” to my students all I saw were blank confused looks.

So I came up with a grid of triangles. I handed each of them a grid to draw patterns in each triangle – lines and dots. Before having them start, I held up a sample grid I had drawn. When they finished drawing patterns, I held up each page so they could view the results from a distance.

And what does this have to do with my dot art? Well, this is where my current art began. I created this patterned grid. After that I played with color in a similar grid. These were rough ideas leading up to my dot paintings. Below are the first three stages of this process.

Except for a few spots on the ink page, there are no dots on the other pages. Well, the dots were not involved yet. I was having difficulty completing four acrylic grid paintings. The dots came about later. Along the way I had changed my mind several times.


ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"


colored pencil on paper, 5.5" x 8.5"


ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"