Bob Rollings

Statement

My interest in geometry stems from a lifetime spent in the cabinet making industry. Initially I worked as a hands on craftsman and later in a supervisory position which comprised of interpreting designer/architectural concepts and turning them into practical and beautiful pieces. After my retirement, I turned my interest in geometry into a obsession using wood as a medium. My investigation and interpretation of the platonic solids has been influenced by Johannes Kepler, Luca Pacioli, Leonardo Da Vinci, M.C. Escher and later by Buckminster Fuller and Donald Coxeter. After exhibiting some of my work at the Fields Institute, I was invited to share space in Donald Coxeter’s showcase in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toronto. Using a lathe as my primary tool gives me a more individualistic approach to the study and presentation of various geometric forms. My models this year shows the vertices & nets of the five platonic solids on the surface of a Tricontrahedron.

Artworks

The surprise I received to find out that the vertices of all five Platonic solids could be found on the surface of the 30 faceted Rhombic Tricontrahedron. The vertices of the Octahedron is to be found on the surface of the Insphere and all the other four are found on the surface of the Circumsphere.