First time as artist in residence at the MAC, MacMillan Arts Centre, and there’s a snowstorm outside yesterday. Not one soul showed up, don’t blame them, I saw two pickup trucks in the ditch on my way back home. We are spoiled with the weather here, so we tend to forget our winter driving skills.
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Sounds line a shady drug-addicted character in a questionable part of town. But no, LOL. It’s a tessellation pattern accomplished with just one line!
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Originally designed this Canada Geese tessellation in the 90s. No giclée prints back then, it was complex screen printing. Multiple layers of ink over many days allowing drying time in between. The original print was huge, my biggest sheet of archival paper ever. The frames that stretched the fine mesh and stencils were big and cumbersome. But that was not my biggest problem.
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Sometimes just a quick tessellation exercise is required to limber up the creative force. A favourite one is Louis Cubes. This pattern was created with KaleidoPaint and Pixelmator, both, great apps on a tablet.
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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.
Sketched this Manta Rays tessellation five years ago. Love its simplicity. One single line connecting the center of an equilateral triangle, repeated in 60 degree increments to the three corners of the shape. This tessellations falls into symmetry system P3. I have many more articles about wood carving on my other blog, www.champagnedesign.com. It is a fascinating field to explore.
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
The other side of me is the carver, 3D instead of digital artwork. I came across a carving by Chouki Derrouiche, a tessellation of Whirling Dervishes carved with different woods. Spectacular. I undertook to figure out which symmetry system Chouki used to create his nested shapes. I was baffled as to which symmetry system was being used Continue reading
This is a lesson in wearing eye protection. Taking care of your body, your outer shell for the time you spend on this planet. I have not yet learned this lesson. But I am listening. If you’re an artist or carver and your whole life depends on your vision, please read this. Continue reading
A new iPad app for me, iOrnament, is not quite as versatile for me to create tessellations, or as they seem to call them, nested forms. It feels like an earlier version of KaleidoPaint, Continue reading
Sketched this tessellation a few years ago. I must have watched a jewelry heist movie. Wouldn’t we all love to get away with it! Continue reading
Can’t help drawing poopers, I have two huge ones here. Yahoos that have the freedom of fields, forests and beaches. Spoiled rotten. Not like the poor buggers tied up to leashes in tiny city dog parks. Continue reading
Rabbit issues abound here on the Island. They are invading cities and especially University campuses. Continue reading
Phone rings. She answers. He says “Salut José, c’est Yvon.” And nothing else comes from the phone. Do you know someone like that? Continue reading
Some symmetry groups allow for wicked twirlings, 2, 3, 4 or 6 intertwined figures. In this case, three cat tails spin into a Continue reading
