Patterns of Reflection

Barberry Arch
11

Great Stone Wheel
3

Sticks and Weeds Assembled
6

These are my submissions to the contest, based on your comments, the emails I received, and much thought. If you click on these, you’ll see a larger version than was available in the earlier post. It may not fit on your screen.

A number of you liked the three vertical compositions, but it didn’t make sense for me to submit all three of these. They’re the only ones of this type I have to show, so if someone followed up the contest entries looking for more of the same, they’d be out of luck. I did include number 11, because it received the most notice and has the richest color.

Number 3 had many supporters. It makes a strong thumbnail, and stands out in its apparent simplicity among the other entries at A Singular Creation. It doesn’t seem to be trying so hard. It would be easy to live with on the wall.

Number 6 had a lot of mentions, too. I think its unique shape will make people look at it closely and wonder how it is made. Getting people here to investigate and to Imagekind to look at more of my work is my primary objective in entering this contest.

I’ve been enjoying looking at some of the entries from other contestants. This is not going to be easy to judge.

If you haven’t visited www.origamitessellations.com, it’s well worth checking out. Eric Gjerde points out the wonderful work of a number of artists who fold paper, often into repeating geometric shapes. I don’t fold paper, but one day I took a picture of a napkin! Here it is:

The reason I relate this unremarkable occurrence is that I made a pattern from it that looks to me like the creation of an origami tessellator who has a certain verve but is none too tidy with the creases.

By all means, go to www.origamitessellations.com to see the real thing!

Over at A Singular Creation they’re having an “Art Showdown Contest” with the theme “Geometric Shapes and Fractals”. Entries are due by March 14, 2008. You get to submit 3 images. I’ve whittled my choices down to 8. Could you help me get it down to 3? Let me know which ones you like best and which you think would be the strongest entries, if the two are different.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

[update 3/10/08]

My esteemed cousin Deborah Chistensen Secor is a pastel artist and teacher, so I asked for her opinion. Her response, in effect, was none of the above. Here are her candidates, followed by her comments.

9

10

11

12

13

14

I don’t know what the requirements are, but the images above are far more visually exciting to me. They have shape, color, contrast, repetition, variety, strong line, delicate line. They suggest things, tell me things and intrigue me. If you can send three, send one set of these…don’t mix them up! Hey—you asked! I figure I just muddied the water. More.

The ones on the link page are safe looking, rather conservative. Interesting but not POW! Not zingy like these. If you have to use those, then I guess # 6, 3, 5. but don’t—use these. Just my humble but firm opinion!

Hope it goes well!!

Deborah

So, dear reader, what do you think? Votes and commentary are much welcomed.

[updated 3/11/08]

Let me include some of the images Betty Mackey mentioned in her comment below.

15

16

17

18

A small version of this image has been on curtis-hill.com for some time, and recently it came up for discussion in a geometry class at West Lincoln High School in Lincolnton, NC, so I thought I’d offer some close-up views. Two versions are available at Imagekind, one with a single instance of the basic tiling unit, and one with 4 instances.

The source photo shows a mixture of weed stems collapsed together next to my driveway, taken one frosty morning. This has been a wonderful source of patterns, because it shows many different layers, it has strong directional textures, the elements display a mixture of different widths, and almost the entire body of the photo has interesting material, so there are few areas that I have to avoid in choosing where to place my cutting templates.

Each of these patterns starts with a template; in this case the 12643b template, which produces centers of 12, 6, 4, and 3 sides. I place the template over the photo in Photoshop, moving, resizing, and rotating it to find interesting material, then run my custom scripts to pluck out each piece and place it into its position in the pattern. In this photo you cain’t hardly miss. But some are better than others, and I like this one a lot.

Read the rest of this entry »

This fun pattern shows the beauty of US currency. Here are links to the pattern and source photo at Imagekind, where I sell my work:

In this design I’ve chosen not to repeat the basic tiling unit, because the interesting thing isn’t so much the interaction between parts, as the parts themselves. I want the details to be large enough to see. Also, having the green star in the middle and light circles in the corners anchors the piece well.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like to give you a close look at the pattern bankhostab1612128e_3 and the photograph from which it is made. These framed images link to the Imagekind web site where I sell my work.

It’s hard to see anything but the geometry at this small size, though, so I want to zoom in and explore some of the details you’d see in a large print.

Read the rest of this entry »