2021 Joint Mathematics Meetings
Stephen Maxwell Campbell
Artists
Stephen Maxwell Campbell
Artist
The Puzzle Factory
Manchester
Statement
My paintings have always come about from wondering ‘what will happen if I apply this method?’ or ‘how can I make sense of this?’ In this way I use mathematics as a frame work for approaching a subject or as a tool to solve a problem, such as “what would this look like through the back of my head?”, “what if the surface of my eye was bigger than the thing I am looking at?”
Artworks
Redder is the second in a series of paintings about palindromic numbers (same backwards as forwards eg 101).
The number line is arranged into rows that form a grid. I started with base 36 and gave each palindromic number a blob of paint. I incrementally changed the colour as the base number decreased. if a number was palindromic in more than one base the size of the blob increases.
I wanted to experiment with how I could bring in a flash of different colour without altering the progression. looking at the intensity of light from within a woodland; in the distance the light reduces the saturation of colour, as it shines through the leaves the light makes the leaves an intense colour, but then doesn’t reach the leaves further into the wood