Paula Krieg

Hebron, New York, USA

My work has evolved into the examination of the visual relationships between shapes or between lines of functions. What an adventure to put related things together, follow their lead, then editorialize, with color or materials or whatever else the forms beckon! As an artist who has come late to the math party, I am happy to be here.

Wandering Quadrilaterals
Wandering Quadrilaterals
20 x 46 x 16 cm
Paper
2019

Wandering Quadrilaterals came out of Twitter musings between math educators. We wondered about the nature of the foldability of tessellating patterns. I tried out some. These particular quadrilaterals unexpectedly, and delightfully, insisted on curling, and then they went on to spiral even as their edges stayed rigid and straight. It was a productive struggle to follow the prompts of the angles to make folds that would show the tiling as well as support the spiraling. The final surprise is that it compresses into a hexagon-like packet. This iteration of wandering quadrilaterals is larger than my original ones, thus creating fresh problems to solve. Nods to my math community, for nudging this process along, and for keeping math playful.