Phil Webster
I’ve had a life long love affair with geometry, and my sweet spot is taking ancient geometric traditions – particularly, in recent years, Islamic geometric patterns – and combining them with modern mathematical concepts like fractals and polyhedra to create unique, modern art and décor pieces for the modern home. I love making art that captures ancient traditions with a modern twist, and that brings order, beauty, and peace into peoples’ private spaces.
This work is a manual re-creation of an especially elegant two-level Islamic geometric pattern found at the Madrassa Madar-i-Shah in Isfahan, Iran. The piece was drawn using nothing but pencil, straightedge, and compass. One half is fully complete and colored, while the other was left partially constructed to highlight the construction process. On the left is the larger, top-level pattern, which is a well-known pattern based on 5- and 10-fold symmetry. These lines were widened, and then, near the center, smaller versions of the same 10-pointed star are fit precisely into the widened bands and the reduced tiles in between. Pencil lines show alignments between small stars and help guide the construction of the remaining small pattern shapes.