Collections of work

Art organised into various collections.

No. Digits

by Theo

Can you solve these simple equations and find the pattern?

No. Digits (Just Equations)
No. Digits (Just Equations). Digital Image

This was the question I posed to friends on Facebook. Thanks to them I found some missing brackets and corrected the above image, representing digits as equations.

From this, I created a simple book reminiscent of a child’s counting book or math exercise book with a number represented on each page by its equation. If you include the answers to the equations (left as an exercise for the reader), each statement has all of the digits from zero to nine appearing only once. I created the book from a school desktop flip calendar, giving it a distressed old school look by painting the pages with a mixture of gouache and acrylic house paint. Letting the wet pages stick together before separating and applying a second coat produced the rough surface for the equations in pastel, sharpie and pencil.  

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The title of this work No. Digits is a play on the idea that “Number” is often abbreviated as “No.” and for each equation there is no digit for that specific number until you solve the equation.

Country Thief

by Theo
CountryThief
CountryThief

What would happen if certain countries did not exist?

One of the items in Theo’s procrastination list (since 2014) is an geographical education computer game called Country Thief. 

As someone who comes from a country (New Zealand) that is often left off global maps, I decided to create a game where countries are disappearing from the map for various reasons (evil dictators, nuclear war, economic collapse, alien invasion, meteors of unusual size and shape, global warming). Players race against decreasing time limits to find the missing country and identify it. Can you beat the clock and save your country from disappearing?

Given recent current events and environmental concerns, I am releasing this concept design image for people to share on social media and make their own comments.

Approximately Φ

by Theo
Acrylic and Gouache on Lack Coffee Table, 90x55 cm
Approximately Phi, Acrylic and Gouache on Ikea Lack Coffee Table, 90×55 cm

 

Approximately Phi, Acrylic and Gouache on Ikea Lack Coffee Table.
Approximately Phi, Acrylic and Gouache on Ikea Lack Coffee Table.

The mathematics of the golden ratio [phi (ɸ) ~1.61803399] and of the Fibonacci sequence [1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, …] are intimately interconnected.

At 90 x 55 cm, the dimensions of the Ikea Lack Coffee Table are close to two consecutive terms of the Fibonacci series, and give a ratio of 1.63636363636 which is only 0.01832964761 or 1.1328% more than phi. Our coffee table was in need of refurbishment and so I painted it with this exaggerated approximation of the fibonacci series / golden ratio spiral.

 

 

There Once Was Sky (Under Construction)

by Theo

Over the last few years the landscape around our neighborhood has changed as more and more of the older buildings are replaced with luxury apartment blocks.

A neighbor behind us had a two storey house where they kept chickens on their rooftop under a grapevine.

There was sky
There was sky. Photograph.

In 2014 they and others in the street sold to developers and their houses were demolished to make way for new construction.
Concrete foundations for the new building were poured and then demolished again. Rising five floors above the second foundation the new apartment construction took about two years.

Under construction
New neighboring apartment building under construction, photograph

The new monstrosity now blocks our view of the city, hills, afternoon sun and sky.

This painting series aims to capture that there once was sky.

There once was sky, under construction.
There once was sky (under construction). Gouache on canvas board, 30x40cm.

North & South

by Theo
The Land of Confusion - North and South
The Land of Confusion – North and South, digital image

Another in The Land of Confusion series, North & South highlights places in the world with North or South in their names.

Virgin and Child #1

by Theo
Virgin and child #1
A small canvas on a larger virgin canvas

Inspired by Ron Tekawa’s Madonna and Child (1990) and various historical images of the Virgin and Child. 

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Vitruvian Stained (“Lumo” Vitruviano)

by Theo

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a pioneer of the hospice care movement, said

‘People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.’

Vitruvian Stained (“Lumo” Vitruviano)
An imagination of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man as a stained glass image

Ten to talk about in hushed tones

by Theo

Ten to talk about in hushed tones
Ten to talk about in hushed tones, digital image

Featuring rectangles from the following works:
Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci, 1517)
The Scream (Edvard Munch, 1893)
The Starry Night (Vincent van Gogh, 1889)
The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci, 1498)
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Johannes Vermeer, 1665)
The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo, 1512)
The Persistence of Memory (Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1931)
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (Georges Seurat, 1886)
The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Hokusai, 1832)
Guernica (Pablo Picasso, 1937)

Social media procrastination die

by Theo

For indecisive procrastinators, yesterday I created this papercraft social media die:

Social Media Die 1 Social Media Die 1

 

If you were to use an online tool to randomly choose a social media website to go to, you would save time. But procrastination is not about saving time. Using this manual tool makes your procrastination more effective. First you need to step away from the computer, roll the die (perhaps several times), then manually go to the social media website. Each step provides an opportunity for distraction and further procrastination.

Features logos for:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Google+
  • YouTube

 

3 dominates π

by Theo

3 dominates π, digital image

This work attempts to show the significance of the starting digits of pi. [Zoom in hundreds of times on the SVG image above to see all nine of the circles]. Over short distances, it is the 3 that dominates.

C = π2r

So for a small circle you can roughly approximate the relationship between the circumference and the diameter (2r) as three. You will be wrong, but only .14159265359… wrong. Round it to 3.1 and you are less wrong (.04159265359… wrong).

Pi is irrational, not like a two year old having a tantrum, but in the mathematical sense where it cannot be represented by a ratio (fraction) because it has a infinite non-repeating decimal expansion. With infinite digits after the decimal point, the best we can do is approximate pi to the number of digits we know. [Currently pi to about 12 trillion digits has been calculated].

For calculating the distances and sizes of far off galaxies, the decimals of pi take on more significance and more precise estimates of pi are needed.

So how much pi is necessary? In Scientific American’s blog: How Much Pi Do You Need?, the answer is 32 significant digits for use with the fundamental constants of the universe and 15 or 16 for everyday things like space station and GPS navigation.

Happy pi day!