2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings
Karl Kattchee
Artists
Karl Kattchee
Associate Professor of Mathematics
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
Wisconsin, USA
Statement
The creative process has many facets, and mathematics is useful on all of them. By using mathematics on many levels, abstract artwork can be infused with mathematics without necessarily "representing" any particular mathematical thing. I use pencil, pen, pastel, paper, cardboard, scanner, camera, computer, and printer to achieve my desired effects.
Artworks
Habitat Yellow (1 and 2)
10x16 inches
digital print
2013
Habitat Yellow began as an abstract automatic drawing on scratch paper. After digitizing the sketch, I subjected the image to a sequence of duplications, rotations, reflections, translations, and superpositions intended to breed a sense of chaos. Once that was done, I returned order to the chaos by symmetrically arranging four copies of the image. The finished work displays the two ways of doing this so that yellow occupies the center.