2019 Bridges Conference

Bronna Butler

Artists

Bronna Butler

Mathematical Artist

B. A. Baroque Arts, LLC

New Jersey, USA

butlerba3@gmail.com

https://bronnabutler.com/

Statement

My early interest in both the Arts and Science/Math resulted in two rotating careers, one in art and another in finance/science. My current artwork - multifaceted glass/metal sculptures and 2D imagery focusing on recreational mathematics, mathematicians and physicists, and science in general - unites my two passions. I strive to include puzzles, enigmas and optical illusions in my pieces. Stylistically, my glass and oil painting techniques are derived from the Baroque and Renaissance periods when artists were involved in the “science” of the arts such as the chemistry of their paints/materials, precise anatomy and perspective. The content and purpose of art during these two periods frequently embraced science and mathematics.

Artworks

Image for entry '"What if time is circular?"'

"What if time is circular?"

36 x 27 cm

Print - oil study for a glass window

2019

If time were circular, would we eventually “run into” our younger selves? Stephen Hawking concludes in his “A Brief History of Time” that the “arrow of time” travels in one direction, from past to future...it's highly improbable that a broken cup on the floor would jump back onto the table and reassemble itself. My piece, “What if time is circular”, is in the spirit of the Surrealist painters, many of whom were interested in time and other dimensions. I painted Hawking wheeling along the event horizon of a black hole (Hawking’s work transformed our understanding of black holes). The abrupt, incongruous doorway further ahead suggests a surrealistic, different dimension. Who, and more importantly when, is the figure standing in the doorway?