Elaine Krajenke Ellison

artist
West Lafayette Community Schools, Purdue University
Sarasota, Florida

The appreciation and demystification of mathematics is a common thread than runs through my mathematical art. Drawing, bronze, painting, glass, and photography were mediums I had investigated prior to 1980. In the early l980's, I settled on fabric to tell my mathematical stories. Mathematical quilt topics range from 2000 B.C. to the mathematics of the present time. I have quilted over 55 mathematical quilts---most by hand, but some by machine. Frozen Fractals All Around was completed at the end of 2015. Currently I am working on a quilt based on the Primitive Pythagorean Triples.

Frozen Fractals All Around
Frozen Fractals All Around
118 x 118 cm
Cotton Quilt
2015

The colors in the movie Frozen motivated me to design this quilt. The colors were pure and clear. For many years I had wanted to create a quilt using the grid of M. C. Escher's Print Gallery. This was my chance! In each corner of the grid I could insert the Koch Curve. Using the proportions that Escher used in these corners, the Koch Curve fit in nicely. The term "Frozen Fractals All Around" was heard in Demi Lovato's version of the song "Let It Go, Let It Go....". As the song is being sung, Elsa is constructing her monumental ice palace. Elsa sings of "Frozen Fractals All Around". Hence, the quilt was visualized and completed.