pattern

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Experimenting with the maths muse

Yesterday I posted on my TooManyPies blog about strategies for deciding what to work on each day, since I have so many things on the go at the same time. A while ago I was experimenting with line drawings that can be placed in any pattern combination—images that can be flipped, mirrored, rotated and even staggered—they aren’t constrained by a single orientation. As I was writing the post I decided to give it another go and this is what I came up with.

Here are 3 of the original drawings:

They line up to make a pattern whichever way you turn them. It’s a simple idea but loads of fun when you digitally manipulate them in photoshop:

A bit Cubist, a bit Futurist and very satisfying mathematically! Now I need to try the idea with more complexity—I’d like to create a more intricate network of lines that can be arranged in multiple ways.

Day 911/90 (approximation?)—I have to get an app that will countdown for me +×÷=∞

 

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I grok Susie Bubble

susiebubbleimages3wI’ve added a whole heap of inspiration to my plate in recent months, including fashion and fashion blogs. I’m also a new convert to the term grok which hadn’t crossed my screen until recently.

For anyone else who hasn’t seen the term grok used, it means to understand something intuitively, or to establish empathy and rapport with something or someone.

So, I grok Susie Bubble—I really get her. I can go to her Style Bubble fashion blog and find inspiration every day. Sometimes I think our thoughts and images are meshing in the ether. When you grok something or someone, I assume it’s close to aesthetic ‘knowing’—kind of inexplicable and personal. But why do I grok Susie Bubble?

1. She posts an eclectic mix of new and vintage, of simple and ornate, of wildly colourful and subtly neutral, of stupidly unnecessary and completely functional.
2. On the one hand she loves detailed patterns; on the other, she loves colour-blocking.
3. Her favourite artists are all expressionists, colourists, symbolists.
4. She admits to having multiple creative projects and resolving few.
5. She loves sushi.
6. (even though I hate them) She loves period dramas. Good to have a point of difference!
7. She uses metaphorical language and lots of exclamation marks!
8. Immersed as she is in her style world, she sees and articulates broader social and political commentary.