Making marks

Yesterday I saw a link on FaceBook to a video about the Nigerian artist, Victor Ekpuk and felt such a joyful feeling of recognition! He has a style of mark-making that reminded me, immediately, of my own mark-making, doodling form. Here is a sample of his work:










Here is a sample of my doodle form:










It feels like something I've done forever and I don't even know where it came from. It is just my doodle. I somehow think most people, or at least most creative people, have their own personal marks, as individual as their handwriting, that has developed organically. Do you? Do you incorporate it into your creative, visual work?

I think I started using my silly doodle in some of my fabric work about 10 years ago, when it just sort of popped up in some background quilting stitches, then began to assert itself more aggressively as a way of expressing my own voice in little ways. And I love seeing those very personal, iconic marks in the work of other artists. Think of Klimt, Mark Tobey, Paul Klee...

Unlike carefully designed and rendered motifs, there is always something happily free and spontaneous about such mark-making—just watch Victor Ekpuk in that video!See it here

Some examples of "the doodle," which is what I call it...