Artist Bio

So I've been working towards some goals and in the process I've had to update my...pr materials(?). I generally don't like the thought of having to write an artist bio but it was required for something I want to do, so I buckled down and wrote one. I cannot say enough how helpful The Artist's Guide by Jackie Battenfield has been to me in several such occasion in helping me figure out how to market myself/my art. Anyway, here's the bio:

J M is a native of Utah.  After loving art growing up she studied painting and drawing at Brigham Young University and was fortunate enough to study with noted artist Wulf Barsch.  While at BYU M was introduced to techniques used by ancient Greek and Renaissance master artists, such as sacred geometry, the golden section and symbolism, all of which have become an integral part of her artwork.  Often M’s art draws inspiration from the likes of ancient Egyptian art, Classical Greek architecture, masonic art and symbolism, as well as Islamic geometric designs.

Since graduating with her Bachelor of Arts in Visual Art in 2009, M’s work has been shown nationally in Connecticut and Georgia, and throughout the state of Utah in solo and group exhibitions including at the Springville Museum of Art.

Thoughts?

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. 

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

As promised, here's the list of books that make up my library on sacred geometry.

*Sacred Geometry: Deciphering the Code by Stephen Skinner
*The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret by Scott Olsen
*Sacred Geometry by Miranda Lundy
*Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice by Robert Lawlor
* Quadrivium: The Four Classical Liberal Arts of Number, Geometry, Music and Cosmology
*Islamic Design: A Genius for Geometry by Daud Sutton
* Ruler and Compass: Practical Geometric Constructions by Andrew Sutton
*The Power of Limits by Gyorgy Doczi
*The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry by Jay Hambridge
*Geometry of Design by Kimberly Elam (this isn't the version I have, I have the older version I guess.)

Those are my geometry books, I really enjoy the ones from the Little Wooden Books series, there are a lot more books in the series that I want to get. I like that they're divided into sort of small bites and have lots of good and helpful illustrations. They're probably one of the best places to start your geometry research.
Sacred Geometry:Deciphering the code is also a pretty good one to start with, it does seem to focus a lot more on number than I really care for, but it does make a pretty good introduction to the subject. I do feel that Mr Skinner, or his writing style, have a tendency towards pretentiousness but, over all it's pretty good. Geometry of Design was an interesting one to look through, though as I mentioned above, I believe I have the older version and I don't know how the two versions differ. It's been a while since I read either Sacred Geometry (Lawlor) or The Power of Limits, I got lost a bit and overwhelmed when reading both of them, I don't know if that was me and where I was at or them. I haven't made it all the way through The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry, Hambridge seems to be more about the numbers and that's daunting for me.

What I'm about

I recently finally bought two books on sacred geometry that I've wanted for years, I just started reading one of them (I started reading it years ago, then it went back to the library...) and found this quote that I really liked.

"At a more exalted level, geometry distinguishes between the domain of the sacred and the profane."

-Stephen Skinner, Sacred Geometry: Deciphering the Code

Be on the look out for a post on my library of sacred geometry books. Also maybe just a run down of my art books in general.

PS I don't know about anyone else, but once people start talking about numbers in regards to sacred geometry, I find myself quickly getting lost or wanting to skip. Sometimes I can figure out what it's all saying and feel proud of myself but that's not all that often. Anyway, back to reading.

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

Alright, so today's task, say you want to center you're drawing or painting etc. a square in a bigger space, how would you do that in the way that looked best? Wouldn't it be great if you could center the square so with the space on either side would be a golden section? You can do that, here's how:

Take the width of your paper (etc.), that is the line that you're working with. Also, you should do this on a scratch piece of paper first, so draw a line the same size.

Find the perpendicular of your horizontal line and draw that in.

Set your compass in the center point of the horizontal line and draw a half circle on that line.

In the center of the half circle, draw a double square (or the corners of one).

Draw a diagonal line through each of the double squares to meet the half circle.

Draw a line to connect the diagonal lines.

Set your compass with the point in the center of the top horizontal line and set the drawing point to one of the diagonal line intersections. With your compass set the same way, put the point in the center of the bottom horizontal line and mark the two bottom points of the square.

The square is now the center of two golden sections. Leave the distance between one half of the semicircle and square between the top of your space and the square.

Genesis

This one is also from Genesis 1:12. The design is called the Breath of the Compassionate, it's from Islamic art. The Compassionate is one of the 99 names of God in Islam.

The Breath of the Compassionate

watercolor

9x9in

2012

Series: Genesis

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

Today, how to find the golden section division of a line.You start off with a line, mine was 4 inches.

I guess I sort of skipped a step, you need to make a vertical line

like so, but you need to find the half way mark of your first line and then your vertical line needs to be the same as half of your first line. I picked a line length that was easily divisible so that I already knew the half. I think that was harder than it needed to be.
Draw a diagonal to make a triangle.

Set your compass with the point on the top point of the triangle, put the drawing point on the bottom left corner of the triangle and arc up to meet the diagonal line.

Then set your point on the left corner of the triangle and the drawing point on the intersection between the diagonal and the arc. Arc down, that is the golden section division of the line.

Piece of the Week

Another new one from the Genesis series, I'm excited about how it turned out and glad that I found a way to make this idea work. When I first started the genesis series I had a piece akin to this but it just wasn't working and I couldn't figure out how to make it work. Problem solved.

Day

watercolor and pastel

9x9in

2012

Series: Genesis

Genesis

Another piece based on Genesis 1:12.

Watercolor
9x9in
2012
Series: Genesis

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

Now that the orthogon's have all been explained... wait, now that I think about it there's one more orthogon thing that can be shared, anyway another time for that, this week, an arched window, doorway etc. I was looking off a drawing in Sacred Geometry by Miranda Lundy, but it's not as helpful as I would have liked. My first attempt looked like this:

After giving it some time and thinking a bit more about it, I was able to get it right.
Start off with a square.

Find the half way point at the top and draw diagonal lines to meet the point. Also through trial and error, I found that it's a good idea to go ahead and extend the diagonal lines up to where the arch will be.

Set your compass with the pointed end in the center mark at the top of the square and the drawing point on one of the top edges of the square. Arc like your drawing a circle from the upper square points but not drawing in between the extended diagonal lines.

Next set your compass with the point on one of the bottom corners of the square and the drawing point set to the opposite circle arc.

Repeat on the opposite side and there's your arch.

Piece of the Week

The latest from the Genesis series, there's more where this came from.

In the Beginning

watercolor and pastel

9x9in

2012

Series: Genesis

Genesis

Posting is not going as usual this week, sorry about that. I've got a deadline coming up for a show application (wish me luck there) and it's not sent off yet, and yesterday was my normal blogging day but the days events seriously deviated from my plan. Here's the next piece in the Genesis series. This piece was another one of the first pieces I made for this series, the first ten or so. It comes from Genesis 1:12.

Watercolor
9x9in
2012
Series: Genesis
Photo by Hawkinson Photography

Piece of the Week

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

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

This week, the Wedjat eye, or the eye of Horus.

To start you need a square, but make it a bigger square than you might usually use and find the vertical and horizontal axis.

On the left double square draw the diagonals.

Set your compass with the point on the bottom left corner of the square and the drawing point on the half way point. Arc down until you meet one of the horizontal lines.

Set your compass point on the bottom right corner of the double square. Set the drawing point to where the last arc stopped and arc to the edge of the double square.

Repeat on the top side of the square: set the point on the top left corner of the square, drawing point on the half line and then arc to meet the horizontal line.

 Set your point to the top left corner of the double square and set the drawing point to where the last arc left off. Arc to the edge of the double square.

 To draw the pupil of the wedjat eye, set your compass point at the center of the square and set the drawing point to the where the lines and arcs intersect and make a circle.

Next set the compass point on the bottom point of the pupil, set the drawing point at the top of the pupil and arc down to the horizontal line.

Repeat in reverse.

Next the eyebrow. It's drawn like the top line of the eye, but closer to the top (one probably should do it more scientifically than picking an distance that looks good, unfortunately I don't know any other way.)

Next is the little curly thing under the eye. I realized after doing it that it was facing the wrong way. It will still show you how to do it, you'll just need to flip it around. Actually, you could just draw the curly thing free form, this is just one way to do it.
Set your compass with the point in the center of the pupil and the drawing point to the right most point of the eye. Use this measure to make a square below the eye.

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

Sacred Geometry: A Primer

Today, the last orthogon, the bipenton. I left it until last because it was very complicated looking, and it did take more steps than I think any of the others took but it wasn't as bad as I thought.

First, start with your square. I find it easier to extend the vertical lines of the square when I draw it in anticipation of the finished orthogon.

Find the horizontal halfway point of the square.

Draw a diagonal line from the bottom left corner to the right halfway point.

Set your compass point on the right halfway point and your drawing point on the bottom right corner of the square. Arc up to meet the diagonal line.

Set your compass point on the bottom left corner of the square and the drawing point to where the arc meets the diagonal line and arc up.

With your compass at the same setting, put the drawing point on the bottom right corner of the square and arc up to meet the side of the square.

Draw a diagonal line from the bottom left corner and passing through the point where the two arcs meet.

Set your compass point on the right point of the new diagonal and the drawing point to the bottom right corner of the square and arc up.

Top off the bipenton.