Meegan K. Kainady

I have been creative my entire life. I have spent most of my life exploring various ways of expressing myself artistically. When I was very young, I loved drawing, but I eventually explored sculpture, ceramics, graphic art, poetry writing, costume making, many various types of crafting, furniture refinishing, and more.

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I had already been doing a kind of drawing/doodling that I called “tattooed” because that is the way it looked. The sketches would end up looking like a "tattooed" teapot or animal. I now know that style is something like Zentangle, and I realized those sketches were of that style mixed with a bit of Henna design.  

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For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by these types of art, including indigenous and ethnic folk art, especially Meenakari, Kalamkari, Lippan, and Madhubani styles. These interests combined with delightful memories of my grandmother drawing mandalas led to a love of mandalas.

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About eight years ago, I learned dot art from a friend. I had had some experience with other dot art but nothing like what I learned from her. From that moment on, I was hooked. 

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I love painting mandalas with dots because there is beauty in the overall piece that is made up of so many imperfections. The imperfections can be found if you choose to focus on those, but the final product is an organically perfect collective, much like each of us.

 

Dot mandalas remind me of nature, life, the planet, relationships, growing as a spiritual being having a human experience, etc. We can get so bogged down in the details of things that aren't going just right that we miss the overall beauty and growth that results from even—and especially—our imperfect experiences.