2021 Joint Mathematics Meeting

I am feeling a little giddy because I just won an award for the first mathematical artwork I’ve ever exhibited. “Laura’s Flowerpot” is a collaborative work made with my friend Duane Bailey, a mathematician and professor of computer science at Williams College, Massachusetts. The exhibition was curated by the Bridges Organization for the 2021 Joint Mathematics Meetings, an international conference of mathematicians. You may visit the exhibition here, and watch a 9min video of Duane and I discussing our sculptures.

The Artist Reception is today, Friday Jan 8th by zoom. All are welcome. Time: 4pm EST, 9pm GMT Information on how to attend the reception is below.

Join the Zoom reception via your web browser, the meeting ID is 867 8631 2058, and the Passcode is JMMbridges. If accessing by phone, the Passcode is 7707585650. Find your local number here. There will be Zoom breakout rooms so that small groups can split off to discuss particular topics in more depth. To access these you must have version 5.3 or later of the Zoom app. Please upgrade before the meeting if needed, at zoom.us.

Happy New Year indeed! I’m looking forward to connecting with old friends and meeting some new ones.

Exhibition of new work at Williams College

Laura’s Flowerpot

Laura’s Flowerpot (detail)

Cloaking Device

Cloaking Device (detail)

Mountain Laurel (oblique view)

Mountain Laurel (detail)

Mountain Laurel

This week I hung three newly completed mathematical sculptures in the Schow Science Library at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I’m excited to be able to share this new work, made in collaboration with computer scientist Duane Bailey. It’s the first public showing of our series of three-dimensional Penrose tilings. The exhibit is in the Schow Science Library and open extended hours. See Williams College Visitor Guide for location and directions. Contact me if you’d like a tour.

Photos above by Adam Kozik.

Below, assembling Cloaking Device.

Showing my stained glass in two exhibitions that open tomorrow, Sat May 21

Ornithologist

WILLIAMSTOWN MASSACHUSETTS

My stained glass panel Ornithologist is hanging in The Shops at the Library Antiques in Williamstown as part of  IS-183, the Art School of the Berkshires  25 year celebration Faculty Art Show. This delightfully unconventional exhibition takes place in various non-traditional gallery spaces up and down Spring Street in Williamstown Massachusetts.

Artwork by more than 75 artists from across our region will be on show until  June 16. Maps will be provided at the opening reception on Saturday, May 21, from 4-6pm, at the Purple Pub. After that, visitors may pop into any participating venue, pick up a map and take a self-guided walking tour.

MANCHESTER VERMONT

And… as a new member of the Vermont Glass Guild I am showing six of my stained glass panels alongside the work of 30 other Vermont and New England glass artists at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, Vermont. All are from my seven-year long, 14-piece series Menfolk that explores the emotional landscape of men over time and in different circumstances. Included in the exhibition is Sir Edmund Hillary (below, detail). This was the subject of a lovely 13min video made by our son, Jack Criddle that documents my process, showing how each separate piece of glass is cut, painted, fired and assembled.

There will be an opening reception for “Modern Alchemy – The Art of Glass” in the Wilson Museum and Galleries at the Southern Vermont Art Center, in Manchester, VT on Friday, May 21, from 5 – 7pm. I’ll be there to greet visitors and get to know my fellow glass artists. The show will run through July 10, 2016.

 

 

Stained Glass Tiling: the process

Williams College student Elizabeth Jacobsen describes the process of designing and building a stained glass window from a mosaic of transparent colored glass tiles, each handpainted and kiln fired to create a unique work of art.

Lunch of a Lifetime

I was giddy with the delight of meeting Sir Roger Penrose yesterday at a small luncheon for artists and scientists at Yale University. His extraordinary tiling patterns have obsessed and inspired me since I was a student at the Royal College of Art in the 1980’s. Recently I’ve been experimenting with 3D tilings using Baroque decoration to enforce Penrose’s mathematical rules. I took this model with me yesterday and had a wonderful time talking with others who are obsessed with his work.

I also took the very last panel in my Menfolk series to show Dr. Penrose. It shows him looking down at a student through one of his aperiodic tilings, a string of Superman images, and a copy of Grunbaum and Shepherds textbook, the definitive taxonomy of tilings.

  

Thanks to Laura Clarke and Site Projects Inc (who organized the events), to the Physics Dept. at Yale (for lunch), and my friends Lisa Nilsson and Denise Markonish (who tipped serendipity for me).

Reception, 12-1 on Thursday, for Stained Glass Tiling

My Winter Study students will be showing their stained glass tilings at Williams College on Thursday January 29th, from 12 – 1pm. Everyone is welcome. The exhibition will be held in the 3rd floor corridor (overlooking the atrium cafe) between the Chemistry and Physics buildings. Enter the cafe from the Science Quad and look for signs. The best place to park is at the far end of the public lot across from Tunnel City Coffee.

Ten students have created unique and personal works of art. Here’s a taster: details of stained glass windows designed, cut, hand-painted, kiln-fired and assembled by Julia Damion and Ivy Ciaburri.

Julia’s snowflakes

Ivy’s wings

Mathematicians: new window for Open Studio, Oct 4th & 5th, 10-5

Here’s my latest stained glass piece, a portrait of British mathematician Sir Roger Penrose. A cloud of his famous tiling patterns and a’ film strip’ of Superman images connect a bemused looking Penrose to his student. I made the panel for a recent show in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It marks the start of some new work (drawings and 3-D glass structures as well) that have mathematical underpinnings.

The site in the gallery for “Mathematicians” provided an interesting technical challenge because there was so little natural light available. More than half of the area behind the stained glass is white painted wood, with 4 small square window panes in the center. So I used a fair bit of opalescent glass (shirts, books and tablecloth) and laid smooth mattes (umber, sepia and bistre brown) over all the flesh areas to hold the light and prevent transparency. The white background areas are cut in old factory glass (like Luxfer prisms) that is transparent, but has deep ridges to scatter the light.

I’d love the chance to talk about my latest enthusiasms, so do come and visit if you can: Sat Oct 4th or Sun 5th. Please spread the word.

I’ll also be assembling the petals of a 5ft rose window (fitting the painted, fired glass into a soldered lead matrix); showing videos; and cutting glass for two new stained glass windows for Trinity Episcopal in Branford CT.

AND -if you’ve ever wanted to learn to cut glass- stop by at 11am or 3pm for a demonstration and free glass cutting lesson. I will have tools and scrap glass available.