I use mathematical concepts and curiosities as a prompt for my artmaking. The Artist’s Books are the outcome of an exercise to pull myself out of a creative block. I had worked on 8 non-intersecting loops in the past. So, I used the arrangements of 9 loops as a scaffold on which to base my daily drawing practice, drawing the loops out one page at a time. As I drew the loops, they morphed into unexpected shapes. Some took animal forms evoking Aesop or the Panchatantra; some were informed by the news and images in the media. Over time this process has translated mathematical structure into funny, sad, and deeply human pictures.
Artworks
The Druid
26.5 x 19.5 x 3.0 cm
graphite pencil and watercolour paint in spiral bound Artist Books
From Arranging Kinship: 9 Loops, 719 Tales: Book 5, 226 - The Druid
The 9 loops on this page have formed themselves into the stooping, wise form of the druid. Here he gazes out of the page as if telling us something.
The pages in this Artist’s Book are populated by the broken kite, wise snake charmer, wily gecko, scared lion, proud camel, peacock and the crocodile among others who tell imagined stories inspired by Aesop and the Panchatantra. The small image alongside the page number is to clarify the arrangement of the 9 loops used in making the pictures.
In the woods
26.5 x 19.5 x 3.0 cm
graphite pencil and watercolour in spiral bound Artist's Books
From Arranging Kinship: 9 Loops, 719 Tales: Book 8, 446 - In the woods
Most of the drawings in Book 8 were the result of hearing and seeing news stories and photographs in the media. 446 – In the Woods is the last page in Book 8 and was inspired by a photograph by Evgeny Maloletka/AP. The caption for the photograph is “Ukrainian soldiers installing explosives near the front line in Donetsk region”. It seemed to me that the soldiers were in a kind of clearing in the woods and I have used the outermost two loops to draw the woods and the foreground, three nested loops in the middle for each of the two soldiers and single loop for their bag of supplies.
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