artamaze by Katherine Hilden

www.katherinehilden.com

http://www.amazon.com/Crocheting-Adventures-Hyperbolic-Planes-Taimina/dp/1568814526

The Hyperbolic Plane Workshop

Posted in inspiration, Roundness, Technique and Demo, Therapy, tagged Bolyai, crochet, Daina Taimina, Efi Efrati, Eratosthenes, Euclid, exponential progression, Gauss, hyperbolic plane, Lobachevski, meditation on March 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It was a wild and wooly Saturday morning.

We talked about crocheting, Euclid and Eratosthenes. Then came the non-Euclidians: Bolyai, Lobachevsky and Gauss. You think the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180°. On a flat plane, sure, but on a sphere the sum is greater than 180 and in hyperbolic space, it approaches zero. How could this not be exciting!?

Coral grows like a crocheted hyperbolic plane. As does kale and other curly leafed plants.

Then we picked up some cultural threads. The role of the opposable thumb in the making of civilization. Is this hyperbolic plane we’re crocheting an example of art or is it artifact? Looks like a sculpture. Is it?

Crocheting is repetitive, you have to count all the time. Valuable as meditation? Yes.

Would high school kids find this interesting?

In a year or so, we’ll have an exhibit of our crocheted hyperbolic planes. Stay tuned.

I offered this workshop last Saturday. Ten people showed up!

Here are a couple of emails, responding to the workshop:

1) “It is addictive, that’s for sure. And are you kidding? This is the perfect match for you: An endeavor that combines the artistic and intellectual…it’s fascinating. I am having trouble grasping the formulas and details of the math, even though I was quite into math and esp geometry back in the day. So much has fallen out of my brain, but that is another story. I am just going on faith though, not getting hung up on having to comprehend everything all at once. This definitely feels good for the brain though.Seems like there are so many options for this with students.”

2) “Thanks for the workshop, the follow-up information and your enthusiasm for the project! Yes, I can hardly stop doing the crochet. It is growing and evolving—”

Addictive! Good for the brain! Growing and evolving!

Who could ask for anything more!?

To pursue this yarn further:

Taimina, Daina. “Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes.” 2009

http://www.ovguide.com/crocheting-adventures-with-hyperbolic-planes-9202a8c04000641f80000000154ab61f

Euclid http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/bookI/bookI.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_geometry

Efi Efrati lecture at University of Chicago, “Frustrating Geometry” http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~efrati/compton/index.html

www.katherinehilden.com

Noodling with Marker: Part II, The Bad Ones

Posted in Composition, Imagination, Negative space, Seeing, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged August Renoir, bad, introspection, Max Beckmann, meditation, noodling, Pablo Picasso, Richard Diebenkorn on February 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Looking at art you don’t like is a valuable exercise. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I recommend that you get yourself a library book that contains your most loathed paintings, pour yourself a favorite drink and ensconce yourself with this picture book in a soft pile of cushions in the corner of your couch. You’re scrutinizing the image of this loathsome work of art and at the same time you’re introspecting, observing what happens in your imagination. What chain reaction of associations does this image unleash? Do it one evening, just set aside an hour for this weird exercise. Then rest a few days and repeat.

Here are the seven line drawings that do not feel right. (See previous post for the five good ones). Btw, the ratio of 5 good to 7 bad is about right. I expected a higher number to turn out bad. Remember, these drawings took only a few seconds, were done without revisions or corrections, one after the other.

You can start your meditation on bad art right here with these line drawings. (Click for enlargements.)

In the next post,perhaps I should reproduce some of my favorite loathsome works by such luminaries as Max Beckmann, Richard Diebenkorn, Pablo Picasso and August Renoir. Would I dare?

http://www.khilden.com

Voluntary Boredom

Posted in Composition, Imagination, inspiration, Negative space, Therapy, tagged boredom, breaths, bus, Einstin, ennui, meditation, train, voluntary on March 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When talking about art and art making we tend to use charged words. We like dynamic compositions, vibrant colors, compelling narratives, gripping scenarios…well, here, let me pick up Art in America on my desk and open it at random, here it is, the current March issue, page 139: “ …what ties together the exhibition’s diverse array of works is a shared sense of fascination and mission.” We like that, fascination and mission. The rest of the paragraph has us grappling, probing, investigating our assumptions, authority and power, and of course radically transforming our views. Artspeak always cranks up the vocabulary as if to apologize for the absence of a screeching car chase or a percussive sound track.

Making art is exiting, but not in an extroverted, docudrama sort of way. The excitement is in the intensity of the concentration and the tension inherent in the work process. This is not surprising and everybody knows this, more or less. What will come as a surprise to many is the other phase in the life of the imagination: boredom. I don’t mean boredom, as in unwashed insomnia. I mean voluntary boredom, as in meditation—doing nothing but in a highly structured way. Einstein, who knew a bit about the life of the imagination, said something like, boredom is essential to creativity.

If you can’t get yourself to sit for a spell and count your breaths, then take public transportation once in a while. As you wait for the train and wait for the bus, you’ll notice the tightening of ennui around your cranium. Excellent opportunity! If you invent your own way to structure this nothing-time, you’ll notice how interesting it really is.

Will this make you brilliant the next time you face your canvas? Maybe.

Johannes Itten and the Art of Color

Posted in abstraction, Color, Composition, Imagination, Landscape, Technique and Demo, tagged Bauhaus, color, Johannes Itten, landscape, meditation, process, sensibility on December 12, 2011| 1 Comment »

The Bauhaus was a school of art and (later) architecture in Germany, founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. In the first three years of its existence the school’s teaching methods and aesthetics were set by Johannes Itten, an artist inclined to Eastern philosophies and meditation. He was instrumental in bringing Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee to the school. The twenties is a time of tremendous energy in German art movements, for example German Expressionism and The Blue Rider, both concerned with the primacy of color.

Itten wrote “The Art of Color” and devised the Color Sphere, shown here.

He abandoned 19^th century teaching methods, involving rules and the traditional subservience of color to subject matter. Instead of color filling in a drawing, color became the starting point. He discovered that students find color associations that are unique to their temperament and sensibility. You start with color, he said. Then you contemplate it and the next color will follow from this contemplation.

This sounds easy. What could be easier than plopping down a dollop of color. Turns out, it’s not. When we’re in preschool, yes, but when we’re adults, there are often too many psychological barriers.

I suggested Itten’s approach in my class. Through our windows we could hear the wind howling. The lake was turbulent and muddy, the trees were bare and raggedy. Elaine C. put a wisp of green on her white canvas. Itten would have noticed, as I did, and he would have kept his meditative distance, as I did. The colors developed, as if on their own. I can’t explain how this happens. But I do know that the painting comes out of the process itself.