James Mai
Artists
James Mai
Professor of Art
School of Art, Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois, USA
Statement
My recent work has focused on the combinatoric development of conjunction-forms. These are comprised of three circles in combinations of proximity (nearby, but not touching), tangency (edges contacting at one point), and/or intersection (edges overlapping at two points). Each three-circle conjunction-form is labeled by the contact-points of its constituent two-circle relationships. For example, three adjacent circles in horizontal alignment (A, B, C, left to right) is described as 1,1,0: A tangent to B (1 point), B tangent to C (1 point), C proximate to A (0 points). There are 200 distinct conjunction-forms, from which subsets are selected for artworks. Color and composition reveal structural similarities and differences among the forms.
Artworks

Amassed
36 x 36 cm
digital inkjet print
2021