Dustin Wayne Clifford Skillman
By combining both Math and Art, bringing together concepts from each discipline, by way of Geometry and Symmetry, I have created a body of work that focuses on the simplicity of lines, shape, repetition, and color. I discovered artistic success and fulfillment by constantly challenging myself to be comfortable with a variety of techniques, to combine academic foci and to express my experiences through art. Piece-by-Piece I cemented memories, thoughts, feelings, and emotions into my work, ultimately leading to personal happiness through this artistic expression. My art is a representation of the time needed to overcome obstacles, and the peace of mind achieved having done so.
This mosaic spans from a series of work entitled “Peace by Piece” which reflects on the time spent creating this body of work, and it is paralleled by the peace of mind that follows the completions of an artistic journey. Each piece of glass was crushed by a hammer, washed, reassembled and adhered to a clear acrylic panel. Beginning with my concept colors, I used opaque glass to illustrate the properties of Reflection, Translation, Rotation, and Origin. Next I filled the remaining space with dark transparent glass. Recognizing simple geometric shapes/patterns I began reassembling the glass cementing memories, thoughts, feelings, and emotions with each piece, which ultimately led to serenity after the completion of this artistic journey.
This print began as an abandoned copper plate, riddled with imperfections and acid damage. By scraping and burnishing out flaws I was able to restore the copper to an engravable matrix. Pairing the aquatint process with the steps to create a Torus, allowed me to calculate out my inverse design. A marker is used to draw on the copper and is dunked in acid for 1 second, appearing white in the print. Then a second round of marks are made and will appear darker. Repeat this process in a series of timed baths for 1,2,4,8,16 seconds to produce gradients. The plate is then cleaned, inked, and pressed. It is this complex, sensitive, and manipulatable formula of aquatinting that inspired me to restore beauty to an abandoned object using mathematics.