Sophia Elia

Statement

My primary artistic outlets are film photography and knitting. In my photography, I’m often trying to capture a sense of peace. I usually shoot in black and white, and I appreciate simple compositions: a tree in the fog, a ridge with an unexpected curve, a lone boat in the bay. The quietness I can occasionally evoke in a photo is similar to what I feel when knitting, which is why I enjoy it so much. In my knitting, I like to experiment more with color and pattern. I’m a huge fan of Shetland color work knitting. I was really happy to bring in such bold, contrasting colors to this quilt, and seeing them makes me feel joyous every time! This is my first quilt, and I gained a great appreciation for the art.

Artworks

This fall, I read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. One chapter tells the story of twins who play a game in which they take turns telling each other prime numbers of 6+ digits. Upon meeting a particular number, the twins seem to immediately “see” how it factors into its constituents. I started to imagine what it would be like to have the twins’ vision. That led me to the creation of this quilt. The square of the quilt, created from 32 triangles, is halved over and over, in a spiraling pattern. After the last division, one indivisible triangle remains empty. It reminds me both of Zeno’s paradox and that with n bits, one can represent the numbers 0 to $2^n-1$.