Felicia Tabing

Statement

I recently learned about Lomonaco and Kauffman’s knot mosaics, which inspired me to create a set of carved blocks so that I can create prints of projections of knots. As a reference to nautical knots and a physical knot, I carved an image of rope into the blocks. I carved the rope in negative on square blocks so in printing, the ink will inevitably overlap. In the process of printing, I went from printing knot mosaics with a minimal number of tiles to designing knot projections so that the image of the knot fills up a given space with only non-empty tiles. I also transitioned from printing in solid color to printing with a gradient of colors to exhibit the different rotations of the tile, which resulted in more interesting visual effects.

Artworks

This block print is the image of a 21-crossing knot that was constructed to have some rotational symmetry on the outer corners of the print, while also filling up the space. The blue-white ink gradient was used to reference to the piece’s titular play on words and also in reference to the knot’s water-like ripples and waves. The color scheme is also meant to be reminiscent of the muted, pastel color schemes popular in textile patterns of the 80’s and 90’s, and Patrick Nagel’s illustrations. The color scheme references the waiting room “art” I saw as a child, so this print is also created as art that I imagine would be in a math department’s hallways, where a student can stare at it while waiting for a class or office hours.