Art for me is a journey of growth and development and over the years I’ve noticed that my creative expression is really much more clever than I am. It often gives me clues about who I am, what I’ve learned and what I stand for; and  it always does this well before I’ve consciously become aware of it. Because I know that (now), I try to pay proper attention to myself to understand how my creative energies want to express themselves and why. 

I spend time alone as well as talking to the people close to me to understand the flow of energy better. I also spend time talking to strangers who like and dislike my work - although the former is much easier to come by than the latter as people who dislike what you do don't tend to stop by for an honest chat. I do this to better understand what they see in my work, how they connect or disconnect from it and ultimately to learn from their answers.

Over the years of connecting with people outside my close circle, I began to realise that many people I speak to have a love for science and through that connect with my artwork. I’ve spoken to mathematicians, neuroscientists, astronomers, physicists, biologists and accountants to name but a few, all have their own angles through which they connect with my work. 

I love getting into the detail of these angles, the conversations allow me to learn about people and their passions and how they connect with the world and my artwork. The insight then flows back into my own understanding of both the world and of my art. Sometimes it gives me a clue to an important puzzle piece I hadn’t been aware of, sometimes it throws up an interesting question and sometimes it just connects me more with the world around me.

Looking back, it had never occurred to me that science could be an avenue through which to connect with my art, but in hindsight I can see it makes obvious sense. This realisation has provided a lot of interesting questions, food for thought and development for me. 

One of the interesting questions that came up in one of the conversations I had was:

“Is there an established mathematical concept that I am following or an underlying mathematical problem I am intuitively trying to solve with my artwork?”

Let me give you some context, and if you are a mathematician or pattern specialist or know someone who wants to get involved answering the questions - please reach out!

I was speaking to a collector at an art fair and this collector noted that my work reminded him of tiling problems found in mathematics and he asked me if I plan and calculate my work in advance. 

My answer was, and still is, no. I paint intuitively and free-hand without any prior preparation. My process is mindful and simply involves me following my intuition to achieve a composition that feels complete to me. 

I had to admit that I’d never even heard of a tiling problem before and the collector, ever the enthusiast, was very obliging and filled that knowledge gap. For the uninitiated here, a mathematical tiling problem involves covering a defined surface with tiles (shapes) without any gaps or overlaps. The complexity increases when there are constraints on the types of tiles that can be used to achieve the coverage of the surface. 

The collector was looking at the different coloured shapes I used in my compositions and at the distance they were placed from each other and from shapes of the other colours present in the painting. His mathematical mind was working to interpret whether my intuitive composition had a mathematical basis and if it was efficient or not. 

We spoke for quite a while and unsurprisingly didn’t get to a final conclusion. We left the discussion with him loving my work that extra little bit more because he had found his personal connection with it, and me having a new question to take away to savor.

So, let me pose the earlier question to you..

In your view, is there an established mathematical concept that I am following or an underlying mathematical problem I am intuitively trying to solve with my artwork?