Piece of the Week

A lot of Hex pieces in the works lately. This was a crucial key in the unlocking of a pattern.

watercolor

6x6in

2012

Series: Hex

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

So on Friday I had the opportunity to go to this workshop with Dr. Lisa DeLong. I was really excited for this workshop because it was about geometry, because I've gotten to hear Lisa DeLong before and because she got her doctorate at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts and she now teaches there. It was indeed a good workshop, probably what I was most excited about was getting instructions and cheat sheets (if you will) for some patterns based on four, eight and a seal of Salomon.
I really liked something that she said, she was talking about how with a compass and a straight edge you can make about anything in geometry because when you connect or overlap circles, straight lines become possible and from there the possibilities are endless.
She also talked about how rules or laws, rather than being restricting as is commonly thought, can open up all sorts of possibilities, I agree, in fact that's sort of what my series Hex is all about. These are three of several examples of variations on the same design/pattern.

Untitled
Watercolor and Sumi Ink
9x9in
2011
Series: Hex

Untitled/Pattern
Watercolor and Sumi ink
9x9in
2011
Series: Hex

Untitled
watercolor and sumi ink
9x9 in
2011
Series: Hex

PS You should also check out this lecture on the Beauty and Belief exhibit.

patterns unlocked

I have been wanting to use this pattern for a long time but I haven't been able to figure out how the pattern works. On Wednesday I came across a picture on the website for The Prince's School of Traditional Arts. Which gave me a starting point for figuring the pattern out. This was my first attempt after looking at the picture.

It was not a great attempt, but after looking at it more closely I was able to replicate the first piece of the tessellation (is there a term for that?).

After making the beginning of the pattern I had a hard time figuring out how to make it tessellate, short of cutting it out and using a pattern. There's a lot of extra lines and circles in the picture above from failed attempts.

After more trial and error I seemed to be on the right track, except that my page was too small.

On the bigger sheet I was able to make the pattern work! In this post it doesn't seem so exciting but it's been very exciting for me to finally have figured this out.

Tip: patterns like this have a lot riding on accuracy and so I use the attachment on my compass that lets me use a mechanical pencil so that the lines are small and accurate.

Let me know if you'd like more info on how to draw this pattern.

Piece of the Week

This piece of the week is from the Hex series, I saw a picture of this design on a youtube slideshow about the Prince's School of Traditional Arts. The design was done on colored paper and was just a line drawing but I've loved it and been playing around with it.

Watercolor

9x9in

2012

Series: Hex