Audrey Nasar
I am a mathematics professor, illustrator, and printmaker. My work is focused on teaching mathematical concepts through illustration, graphic novels, and animation. Recently, in preparing teaching material for a course on geometry and art, I’ve found inspiration in the symmetry of protein structures.
The images titled Genetic Economy I and II, are inspired by the icosahedral symmetry present in the capsids (encasements) of spherical viruses. This symmetry allows the viruses to use a lower amount of genetic material to build the capsids as one gene can code for many identical protein subunits.
The artwork draws from the theory of Caspar and Klug, which provides a conceptual framework for the construction of icosahedrons from a template based on a hexagonal net. Depicted in each image, are four icosahedrons built from triangles that are drawn on the same net according to the vector T(h,k)= h^2+hk+k^2 for T=1, 3, 4, and 7. The choice of composition aims to showcase the sequential formation of the icosahedrons as a result of different triangulations.