Call and Response Tessellation Series

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Two Canadian tessellation artists. There aren’t that many of us. One in Ontario, the other in BC. No, we have never met, other than through social media and texting. Through these platforms we have learned about many other tessellation artists around the globe. I think Escher would have been impressed with all these artists, influenced by his work. Even corresponding, learning and collaborating with them. He would not have been alone “beyond the garden gate”*.

Which brings me to today. LASTEST UPDATE : May 18, 2023

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2023 International Women’s Day Tessellation

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On the forefront this year for sure, #IWD2023, March 8th. Two fronts actually. Two shows in Victoria (Canada) and my dueling inspiration, a game of tag with Jason Panda on Instagram. The first instance, a show at the Victoria Arts Council, I wrote about in a previous post. A juried show with the IWD premise celebrated for the whole of March, workshops, talks, conversations, panel discussions and of course, the artwork. And a showing of four tessellations at the Eckankar Centre, two blocks away.

Jason Panda? We became aware of our common passion for tessellations, a few years back, on social media. He is an excellent tessellation artist and a Canadian too. Ya.

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KaleidoPaint iPad App Help

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A new version of KaleidoPaint has arrived. Here you will find:

  1. A link to the side by side comparison of the new features vs. previous
  2. Jeff’s List of upgrades for V3.0
  3. Many youtube videos about tessellations
  4. Skillshare classes on the different symmetry groups
  5. Help files on previous versions
  6. Drawing a tessellation in each symmetry group
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Hiking Season, hiker tessellations

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From initial first lines to final print, with a funny twist at the end. A video, a short one, showing you the first two lines required to draw a most simple nested shape tessellation. It’s easy to draw tessellations if you have an iPad, the free KaleidoPaint App from the iTunes store and the magic sentence to get you started, one simple trick for each symmetry method.

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Rubber Ducky tessellation

The Complete Rubber Ducky Collection — 18 tessellations!

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The Complete Rubber Ducky Collection: a series of tessellations, eighteen of them, covering the complete range of classic tessellation symmetry groups, plus Elvis! All of these rubber ducky tessellations, all eighteen, were crafted and refined, in the space of fourteen days, from May 24, 2021, to the sixth of June. Quite a feat for me. When creativity is in the air sprinkled with intuition, follow the flow and take advantage of it, good things can happen. Where does this topic originate you ask? I have a rubber ducky on the handlebar of my bike. It squeaks and has flashy disco lights.

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Re-Creating M.C. Escher’s Lizard #Tessellation

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M.C. Escher’s Lizards are by far the most popular of Escher’s tessellations. It can be seen gracing many multitudes of surfaces, legally or illegally. From tattoos, puzzles, belt buckles, car wraps, flooring or landscaping stones… My initial introduction to tessellations was through redrawing this lizard in its nested shape during a class on crystallography at Carleton U. That was a few decades ago, in 1988. But, as I keep on repeating (no pun), to draw a tessellation or to truly understand the structure behind it are two different things.

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Pentagonal tiling #tessellations, Part 3

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Apprenticeship

Most of us learn the easy/best way. Look at the masters, follow their path and learn all that we can from them. Replicate their artwork. It is a long process, especially without any direction or assistance from a teacher. This is where I’m at right now — copying / learning from the pentagon symmetry system seekers: Reinhardt, Kershner, James, Rice, Stein, Mann, McLoud, and Von Derau. As I did for a while, copying M.C. Escher’s tessellations, decades ago, although I no longer need MCE inspiration to create a tessellation. Continue reading →

Yes, another Dog #tessellation (taking a break from pentagons)

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Dog Tessellation

There are three of them living under this ruff. They own the place. Yahoos when they are not gate guardians. Named this one Bibi, possibly for bierbelly. It is based in symmetry group P3 and the pentagons of Type 3, a hexagon split three ways. It’s a stretch from its original lines, but that is indeed where I started. Quite a simple tessellation with only a few lines. And a favourite tail twirl around a three-way rotation point – I’ve done that one quite a few times. Continue reading →

Pentagonal tiling #tessellations, Part 2

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My Pentagon Challenge is keeping  me busy. I am plowing my way through all of the pentagonal tiling types. Quite a few of them are built within either a perfect hexagon, or one that has been distorted beyond recognition. I am finding some interesting rules of symmetry I had not yet encountered. Wrapping my noggin around new concepts. Many of these symmetry types are skew-able, not only scale-able. Also, many of the anchor point for division lines inside hexagons are variable in their location, as long as the variable is kept constant for each pentagonal unit. Continue reading →

Pentagonal tiling #tessellations, Part 1

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Another challenge showing up on my desk, compliments of Woodpecker Carving. Hussein posted a beautiful Islamic geometric design, displaying the use of pentagons. But wait I thought, aren’t pentagons impossible to tile using the original seventeen symmetry groups? Or so I thought. I had seen intriguing examples of pentagonal tiles over the years, but I was still obsessed with M.C. Escher type nested shapes – and will always be. Continue reading →