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Artist Statement

A line drawn in the sand creates Art...NOT Argument.

"Art arrived on my artistic doorstep as a valuable tool of survival while living in a land of conflict. It not only became a technique of creating inner calm within myself but also within those I taught while living in the Middle East." ​~Tamara Cobbin​~

The Mandala, the Sanskrit word for circle...it became my focal point of creation. The Mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol made of geometric patterns. In Hinduism and Buddhism, it represents our Cosmos, both metaphysically and symbolically.  A microcosm of the universe.

With black Micron pen in hand, my passion for drawing created bridges of peace in a land of unrest, and helped those that saw my work and practiced the methods I taught to feel the connection of calm and balance that we have the right to live in.

Discovering Zentangle, the meditational art method of creating imaginative art through drawing repeated structured patterns called “tangles”, brought deeper dimension to my art expression creating larger pieces in finer pen and ink detail. Using graphite and white chalk shading pencils to “pop” the images out draws the viewer into a sense of calm.  Experimenting with watercolour pens and fabric paint on paper to enhance the black and coloured ink drawings, expresses the deep mosaic found within the world, and speaks both to me and to others of the beautiful, peaceful energy that exists here on the planet.

My work is an expression of my amazing life while living in Bethlehem, West Bank. Each stroke of the pen represents my emotions, observations and human connections that I experienced on my journey as a conflict resolution coach in a war zone. Jung believed the mandala was a symbol representing the effort to reunify the self, and my work speaks of my deep belief that the calm found within one’s artistic soul ripples throughout the world.

Now living back here in the western world, I continue my art with the enthusiasm once sparked in the Middle East.

​~ Tamara Cobbin​ ~