Not as it seems...

Sometimes the world is not as black and white as we'd like it to be...

Even in the clearest moments, I wonder...

"is it black with white stripes or white with black stripes?"

That's where the grey comes in.

Fuzzing things up and creating questions.

A friend commissioned me to make a zebra for her husbands birthday.

At first I thought...sure! No problem!

After I made the initial sculpture I began in on the stripes.

In this case it was white with black stripes.

But as I do with any animal I'm making, I began to research.

Then it became more than just applying the stripes...

No two zebras have the same stripes.

They are like fingerprints.

Similar until you look very close to see that each animal is unique.

Even the pattern on each side of the zebra can be slightly different.

Did you know there are 3 different kinds of Zebras?

Each with a different pattern to their already unique stripes.
There are many theories to why zebras have stripes.
To confuse prey, to confuse flies, to hide in the tall grass.

When my friend came to pick up her gift, she told me the significance of why 

her and her husband like zebras so much...

They met later in life, each with a big suitcase from other lives.

Their melding of lives was not easy at first.

They realized that so much of one persons 'black' was the others 'white'.

Instead of fighting it they saw that together

they were as beautiful as a zebra.

I like that.
Black and white can bring forth the most vibrant of colours , not just grey.