'Unknown Horizons' was a series created in 2016. A series of 7 intricately hand-drawn artworks featuring mandalas and stippling (a pointillism technique that creates the artwork with a build up of dots). I created this series of drawings in my final year of completing a Bachelor of Arts and Media, where the graduating students hold a graduating exhibition and each student must create a series of works to go into the exhibition focusing on a theme/idea.
This series of seven works began with a journey and a series of (much less precise) drawings, where my aim was to capture a scenic centre offering a view into a wold for the viewer. Exploring a range of different techniques for this centre image such as cross hatching and line drawings. I used real photographs as inspiration to give a sense of reality (left: Nelson Lakes) compared to an imaginary image (right). I also explored a half mandala and if this breaks the traditional mandala design? On reflection I felt that the half Mandala resulted in a sense of incompleteness.
Hungarian culture and intricate patterns were big influences on these drawings. Huszka Jozsef's research on Hungarian decorative motifs played a large part in influencing the style of this series Unknown Horizons. His drawings of motifs and imagery inspiring my own works by playing attention to repetition, and balance, while also focusing on the use of line, forms, floral elements, positive/negative space and shape. 
A sense of precision become important with close attention to the designs feeling balanced.
This project was in many ways a journey of patience, the stippling technique incredibly meticulous. Using tiny dots to create the inner scenery for the centre of the mandala took an incredibly long time and the darker the area, the more dots and more time went into it.
The centre allows for the viewer to transport themselves to a far away place, offering 
multiple meanings, interpretation and anchorage; allowing my work to be interpreted freely with no specific direction towards meaning, so each viewer will have a different experience than the next viewer.
I loved every second of working on this series, it allowed me to explore and find my own style, and further develop as an artist. I also really loved working on a collection and seeing all these drawings fully framed and displayed for our graduating exhibition.
What a wonderful way to complete the journey of my studies, fortunate to study something I love and the opportunity create a series of works that I loved creating just as much.
