A few artist inspire me.
A multitude of traditional art and craft traditions also inspire me, particularly when they incorporate a mathematical element.
I use a "making with rigour" approach to my art.
Making with rigour is a research methodology that combines the making of exemplars of specific media with a reflective attitude that seeks to capture emergent thinking, here specifically of a mathematical nature. This approach requires accountability for what is made, the how and the why, in an effort to show the richness of the mathematical structures underlying the practice.
I am mostly inspired by these schemata and concepts:
My interests have alwayscombined visual art and mathematics. From a young age, I spent time investigating how I could generate tiles that would tessellate the plane. In doing so I developed a vocabulary of lines that could be used to generate such tiles, based mainly on the square grid and its isometries. In CÉGEP (college), I studied science and visual arts. This included studio courses, art history, mathematics, science, humanities and languages.
At University, I studied architecture. In doing so I accumulated further studio and design experiences, including drawing, painting and photography. In addition, I studied the history of architecture, topics related to physics and mathematics (including calculus, the application of geometry to the built environment, and land surveying). I also spent a 6-months study term in Venice, Italy, where I learned Italian. I accumulated experience working in architecture, engineering, photography and graphic art studios, mainly in Switzerland, where I also did some translation work. I also did short apprenticeships in stained glass and ceramics studios.
My interests in mathematics and art then led me to do a Masters, whereby I investigated the transfer from 2- to 3-dimensional space of a piece by the Swiss Concrete artist Hans Hinterreiter. In the process, I further developed my own tessellation work, and taught myself about the history of the Constructivist and Concrete Art movements, projective and descriptive geometry, topology, 3-dimensional geometry, and colour theory, and a variety of computer software and programming languages. I also took courses in symbolic logic, number theory, sociology of art and art-and-computers.
I spent the next 3 years working as a graphic artist, during which time I developed skills in computer graphics, technical writing, web design and management, document template design and implementation, hyperlinked documentation preparation and printing. I received several awards in the course of this work.
Since then, I have been disseminating my work in art through exhibitions, publications, presentations and workshops.
My interest in mathematics was not only aesthetic, and in 2008, I completed a doctorate focusing on elementary student teachers' perception of mathematics as a discipline. The insights I have gained from this, and my subsequent work teaching both pre-service and in-service teachers, continue to inform my artwork.
A recent sabbatical gave me the opportunity to develop a research programme, with 5 collaborators, focusing on the mathematics involved in visual art and craft practices, and on the eductional implications thereof.
I have also completed a Visual Arts Certificate in Studio: Textiles/Fashion from NSCAD on a part-time basis.