Amy Selikoff

Statement

I am not a mathematician. I majored in history and journalism. My highest math class was not calculus, it was math for liberal arts major, or as my transcript says “Concepts of Fundamental Math” (lovingly nicknamed ‘fun-for-mentals’ by the mathematics department). I didn’t even begin my life as an artist until 8-hour graduate school seminars and a set of highlighters gave me time and opportunity. Art was a way I could multi-task and make my lecture notes look like Seurat’s pointillist landscapes. As it turns out, I love math and I love art, and I love creating art that also uses math. I am fascinated by shapes, patterns, design, and colors. For the past few months I’ve been exploring modular origami.

Artworks

I came across these beautiful shapes a few holiday seasons ago. I had plenty of unique old books that were falling apart and needed a new life. I cut them into squares and learned the simple "sonobe" module and started putting 12 or 30 together to create these incredible stellated polyhedra. Anyone can put these together with time, patience, and paper needing a new home.