While it contains brilliant colors and strong visual impact, LAUGHING ZEBRAS was not designed for the sighted. I was inspired in the summer of 1995 by a show I participated in called "Accent on Access". This exhibit, sponsored by the Illinois Artisans Shop, is a tactile show for the blind.

Most artists who create touchable works use an abstract style based purely on texture. With leather tooling I can exaggerate, through embossing and textures, realistic features enough so that a blind person can "see" an animal in its environment. Since many legally blind persons can still see some bright colors and shadows, I used them here for extra punch.

Look closely at LAUGHING ZEBRAS and notice that the dark stripes are embossed (raised) while the light ones are inverted. Unlike traditional embossing that uses multiple heights of plugs to create depth, I designed the shape of the stripes to mimic the body contours. There are 120 separate plugs under the leather that, along with traditional tooling methods and color, create the effects you see.