Bridges 2024 Exhibition of Mathematical Art, Craft, and Design

Elizabeth Whiteley

Artists

Elizabeth Whiteley

Studio Artist

Washington DC, USA

whiteley.artist@gmail.com

https://portfolio.elizabethwhiteley.com

Statement

Educated as a visual artist, I often draw images by hand and then use software as needed for a finished mathematical artwork. To approach a tessellation design question “How can space be created where there is none?” one can think on visual and mathematical levels. In previous work, I placed prototype hexagons within a tile of a different geometric shape: a rhombus. The rhombus shape adds design space between the hexagons, thus answering the question. My current hexagon prototile is inspired by botanical blossoms. I drew the abstract image by hand within a hexagon shape. As a design innovation I left spaces, only partially enclosing the drawing within the 6 border sides.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Blossom Dance Vertical'

Blossom Dance Vertical

40.0 x 45.0 cm

Archival Digital Print

2024

This image is conceptually related to the ‘Blossom Dance Horizontal’ image. It differs by relying on a 90 degree change in the orientation of the rhombus lattice. I constructed this periodic tiling using my hand drawn prototile and Photoshop 2024. To form the generator, I placed 3 scanned copies of my original hand-drawn prototile image within the top triangle of a bisected digital rhombus. I applied translation, reflection, and rotation symmetry operations to the prototiles as well as varying their scale. I prepared a digital rhombus lattice with a vertical orientation to provide an underlying structure for the pattern. The vertical color bands emphasize the verticality of the unseen rhombus lattice.