In science fiction, creative writers try to imagine life in four or more dimensions, a notion that is hard for the non-mathematical mind to comprehend. In my work, I use the laws of geometry to craft a more direct translation, from higher dimensions down into ordinary space. I use visual art to explore the nature of space and time.
With the guidance of computer scientist Duane Bailey, I started working with a very specific ‘slice’ through a five-dimensional grid of cubes. I studied the underlying mathematics and began making drawings of this imaginary place, following my own, invented algorithms for the placement of color and pattern.
In this drawing I use color as a coding device, and shade to imply depth of field. The drum shapes are imaginary objects, drawn as if the fall of light and shadow in five dimensions might follow the everyday laws of physics.
acrylic ink & graphite on vellum, 30” x 40”, 2017
As a stained glass artist I have made geometric drawings by hand using ruler and compass for decades. But when I encountered the concept of geometry in higher dimensions my head began spinning.
In five dimensions there are five different axis of measurement, all perpendicular to one another. This drawing is based on Penrose tiling, a mathematically precise two-dimensional version of a five-dimensional grid. I isolated the five different axis, painting them as if folded ribbons passing through ordinary three-dimensional space.
acrylic ink on vellum, 30” x 40”, 2017
acrylic ink on vellum, 30” x 40”, 2017
(in progress) acrylic ink on vellum, 30” x 40”, 2017
In the autumn of 2017 I spent a month at Jentel Artist Residency program in Banner, Wyoming trying to figure out how to visualize higher dimensions of space. I made seven large transparent drawings in colored ink over a grid of Penrose Tiling, a mathematically precise projection of a five-dimensional lattice of hypercubes.