22 November 2006

What I did last night.



It started with these doors that I found at the Metropolitan Museum's website. I repeated the image a few times, and then I started to map some of the geometry. Fun, fun, fun. Really.



I hope you’ve clicked the link to see the original. It is small, and although the design wouldn’t need to infinitely repeat to fill such a small place, it can and as my image shows, it can very well.

I’ve always enjoyed geometry. That was the only class I took in high school where the subject matter (rather than a charismatic teacher) was remotely interesting.

Whoever created this specific pattern did a few things that show a remarkable amount of artistry, or bending of geometry’s rules. The resolution of a square into a circle, of a triangle into a hexagon, the kind of stair-step alignment of the stars, etc. These are not perfect shapes, but shapes that have been slightly pushed and pulled to make the overall pattern work. I am baffled by this kind of art (craft?) because although I can find fun patterns in it, I doubt I could design this or something like it, and there are many variations on this kind of pattern that look quite a bit like this one but are different enough to have required a bit of genius.

3 comments:

Josh said...

i'm glad to know someone else who enjoyed geometry. not only did i get a kick out of shapes, etc., i liked learning the logic of proofs.

Dad said...

You are both crazy. Geometry is to be tolerated not enjoyed. Not really, it definitely was more enjoyable than calculus.

Mary Ann said...

oh yeah, proofs were the absolute highlight.