2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings
Alain NICOLAS
Artists
Alain NICOLAS
Artist
Quincy-sous-Sénart, FRANCE
Statement
My goal is to reveal the wonderful worlds that can be created on a simple sheet of paper when we are inspired by the mathematical laws that govern our universe. I create my drawings to sing the glory of infinity with a deep faith in the beauty of the natural order and an absolute desire to "do better than well".
Artworks
Casse-Tête
15 inches x 15 inches
Paper
2013
M.C. ESCHER has amazed the world with his tessellations of creatures.
But there are another shapes that humans easily recognize: the written letters of the alphabet. They join them and recognize words! It has been a mystery to me why Escher did not design tessellations with words. In my book "Parcelles d'infini", published in 2005, I presented what I believe are the first word-tile tessellations.
"Casse-Tête" is my latest and longest word tessellation. "Casse-Tête" is the French word for puzzle; the literal translation is “Head-Breaker”! It is based on a P4 tile type that is composed of a base tile divided into eleven sub-tiles. The base tile is rotated and translated to cover the plane and colored such that the words can be read.