Eight Fold Show

My eight fold series (a series of geometric/Islamic designs all stemming from one base pattern) will be on view at the Sprague Library May through July 2014! I'm very excited.
Here's the artist statement for the series:
I love drawing with a compass and straight edge. I was introduced to the art of compass and straight edge construction in college; it was amazing to discover all the different shapes, patterns and designs that I could create with two simple tools. My delight and discovery continued and I eventually found the beautiful world of Islamic geometric designs and a whole new type of designs and patterns that could be created with my compass. I have been studying and drawing these beautiful and complex designs ever since. Recently I was introduced to a pattern base used in many Islamic designs from which unlimited patterns could be produced; I’ve undertaken to create as many different designs and patterns as possible from this base. I’ve thought I’d run out of possibilities a time or two before but it’s been interesting to see how new ideas have come to me while I’ve painted other pieces.

The only problem now will be deciding which pieces to put in the show, there can only be 15 pieces and there's almost double that right now. 

Piece of the Week

This week, two pieces that are currently in the works. Check back to see the final pieces.

Piece of the Week

Another piece from the Hex series.

watercolor

9x9in

2012

Series: Hex

Blast from the past

This piece is the last of the series of geometric colored pencil pieces. Not a good picture and there's a lot that could be better about it but I do like the design and the colors.

colored pencil

9x9in

"Beauty will save the world" -Dostoyevsky

Template

watercolor and pastel pencil

9x9in

2010

Series: Choices

In part one of this topic, I talked a lot about Wulf, but Wulf has played a major part in my being an artist and my doing what I do now.
I was able to go to Italy in 2011. I loved it, I got to see famous and beautiful art that I'd studied and loved. I got to see works of masters like da Vinci and Durer. I also got to see the remains of cultures and civilizations that valued beauty far more than we seem to do these days. Buildings were made so that they still stand centuries later, buildings that were made to be beautiful, not just to be a building.
I hope to bring beauty to the world with my art, for the world to perhaps be a little better for my art being in it. I probably haven't fully managed that yet but I have goals to work towards.

Genesis

This piece is about dry land being separated from the water/ocean/seas. The scriptural references come from Genesis 1:10, and Abraham 4: 9-10. Again, I used the red and squares because they're symbols of earth.

Dry Land
Watercolor
9x9in
2012
Series: Genesis
Photo by Hawkinson Photography

Blast from the past

I think this piece is from when I first learned how to draw a star with geometry/compass and straight edge. I like stars but they're hard to draw. In first grade I couldn't draw a star very well, I hadn't learned the trick for drawing them and so a friend who was Jewish taught me how to draw a six sided star or Star of David, it was easier, just two triangles overlapping and going the opposite direction. Humorously I think I probably made a Christmas tree with a Star of David on top. Anyway eventually  I did learn the trick for drawing stars, but I loved being able to draw a perfect, or near perfect star. I also loved the idea that I could draw another star inside that star. This piece resulted I guess. Also blue and yellow are some of my favorite colors so I chose them for this piece. I love prismacolor's Copehagen Blue, which is what this color is, my copenhagen blue is probably the shortest of all my colored pencils.

colored pencil

9x9in

2007/8?

Genesis

This piece is the next piece of the Genesis series. It's based on Moses 2:8 and Abraham 4:8. The piece is called Firmament Called Heaven, and I tried to use symbolism to visualize heaven. The pillars represent a transition. The orthagon square is in the middle, it contains all 12 of the orthagons, I would once again remind myself and other artists that it perhaps would be good to leave yourself notes on what deep and creative ideas you have behind your pieces, so that you will remember them later on. I guess what I was going for with all of the symbols is perhaps a sense of the eternal, with the orthagons, the alpha and omega and the color purple which it the color of royalty. I'm very sorry that I can't remember more of the thoughts behind this piece.

Firmament Called Heaven
Watercolor
9x9in
2012
Series: Genesis

Blast from the past

 colored pencil

9x9in

I like the colors and the simplicity of the design of this piece. I love sacred geometry and all it's possibilities.

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

Genesis

So the piece this week is a variation of last weeks piece, a slightly different take and more inspired by Egyptian art.

watercolor

9x9in

2012

Series: Genesis

P.S. The lightning type stuff on the bottom is supposed to represent water, I think but can't currently confirm that that comes from Egyptian art.

Blast From the Past

This piece is from some of my first forays into sacred geometry. At this point in time I used colored pencil a lot, I don't so much any more. I do really like the color choices on this piece though. I don't remember why but I decided to tear it down to the size seen, not the best idea that I have ever had.

colored pencil

2007/8?

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

Alright, there's a lot in today's post. I'm running out of orthogons (there are only 12 after all) but the good news is that there's a lot more to sacred geometry than just the orthogons. Today is sort of a continuations of last weeks post, how to draw a hexagon or a six-sided star and the how-to on those opens up a whole world of possibilities.
Anyway, start with a straight line, I went horizontal but you could also go with a vertical line.

Draw a circle and sort of center it on your line.

Draw a circle with the point of your compass on one of the points where the original circle and the line cross. This is the same step to create a vesica piscis. P.s. don't change your compass setting.

 Draw another circle at the point where the two circles intersect.

Continue until you have six circles around the original circle.

Draw connecting lines between each intersection of the original circle.

The hexagon.You can also draw the star from this point but I did not.

If you want to simplify things, you can get the same results without drawing all the extra circles. Just draw the points where the circles intersect.

When you've done that you can make a hexagon or proceed as follows for a star.

Connect two points leaving another point in between them.

So there you go, now go and experiment and find out what you can do with all this.

Piece of the Week

I'm not sure that this is the pattern that I started out to create but I like how it turned out, especially the overlapping yellow lines that make stars.

watercolor

9x9in

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.

Piece of the Week

This is one of my most recent pieces for Hex. I'm really excited about the pattern/design. A few weeks ago I was looking through pictures on google for inspiration of patterns I could use, I found a picture of several hexagonal tile designs from the Victoria and Albert Museum and this was one of the designs. My colors are different but I like it. It's thrilling to figure out a pattern that's new to you.

watercolor

9x9in

2012

Series: Hex

Genesis

This piece is based off of Genesis 1:5, Moses 2:5, and Abraham 4:5, the moon through the night over a world without any land yet. The constellation is Orion. I believe what I was thinking about with the background pattern was heaven and earth, with the blue and read and circle/squares.

Night
Watercolor
9x9in
2012
Series: Genesis
Photo by Hawkinson Photography

Piece of the Week

untitled

sumi ink

9x9in

2009

I did this piece and some others the first summer after I graduated and at the time I was a bit disappointed with my efforts, but looking back at them now I like their simplicity. Also a note, you may notice that the piece is rather wrinkly, that's why generally when using water based media, you should use a watercolor block or stretch/tape down your paper.

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

Here's a two-fer, two pieces that weren't really part of any series. I had a hard time finding something I wanted to share for this piece of the week, I guess that means that I need to be getting more painting done and I look forward to doing so.

charcoal and pastel pencil

11x11in (which is a guess)

2011