Are you an artist? Meaning, do you create in some way for personal enjoyment, self-expression, to sell as a source of income, or for some other reason?
Maybe you like to draw, paint, or sculpt.
Maybe you use words to create by writing poetry or stories or songs.
Maybe you make things to sell, like jewelry, purses, or clothing.
Maybe you create with thread through embroidery, cross-stitch, or quilting.
Maybe you enjoy building furniture, cabinetry, or tree houses out of wood.
Even if you don’t consider yourself an “artist” in the traditional sense of the word, there are limitless ways we create as humans, so I’m going to assume you create something and, well, that kind of makes you an artist. I’m also going to be bold and say there’s math in whatever you create. I don’t usually operate in absolutes or extremes. In this case, though, I believe it’s pretty safe to bet all forms of art involve math in one way or another.
So, my argument is, if you create, you are a math person.
There is not enough space on this page to get into EVERY way math and art intersect, so let’s talk through a couple of the most common mathematical ideas you might encounter while creating.
Patterns
Many crafts and creations require or utilize some sort of pattern. Making clothes and accessories, whether you are knitting, crocheting, or sewing, for example, follow a pattern. Blueprints for houses, decks, and furniture are patterns. A recipe for soap or your favorite dish is a kind of pattern. Even if you are freestyling it, there’s a basic template you likely follow. I mean, we don’t usually see sweaters with more than two sleeves, right? Template just happens to be another word for pattern.
Of course, there’s also the visual aspect of pattern that uses repeating colors or shapes. I’m not going to dive into that right now because these kinds of patterns are familiar to us. We’ve been learning about them since we were very young.
“What if I create with words?”
Would it surprise you to know there is a pattern to written and spoken language that we sometimes overlook? Sentence structure. Word choice. Rhythm and flow. The way words rhyme. Or not. Limericks, haiku, and sonnets all follow a specific structure. A pattern, or recipe, if you will, that distinguishes them from others. Stories, short and long, also typically follow a general pattern. Ever hear of the hero’s journey? There are sometimes twists and turns we don’t expect, but overall, a story follows a somewhat predictable pattern. This happens so often that when we read a book or watch a movie that doesn’t follow the conventional pattern, it just feels off somehow.
I’m wondering, where do you see and use patterns in your art?
Proportions
Many forms of art make use of ratios and proportional relationships. Rates and ratios show up everywhere in our everyday lives. I’m planning an entire podcast episode/blog post devoted just to this topic, but today let’s just stick with how they show up in your art.
Want to make the human form look realistic (or not) in your drawing, painting, or sculpture? There are basic relationships between the lengths of arms and hands, legs and feet. The placement of features on a face. We know not all humans reflect the same exact proportions in their form, but there is a generally accepted common relationship between the parts and we notice if a person’s features, in real life and in a painting, are outside of this norm.
If you are at all like me, you might like to rearrange a room in your home from time to time. Or change up the colors a bit. I cannot tell you how many times I moved all the furniture in my classrooms! I just needed a fresh space, I guess.
The way you design your space is part of how you express yourself, and that makes it an art. It’s so interesting to me that when we design a room, the golden ratio often shows up in the arrangement of furniture, objects, and color, even though we might not be fully aware it’s there. {There’s a rabbit hole to dive into. Go search the internet for “golden ratio” and see what shows up.} If you’ve ever been out shopping and fallen in love with something only to get it home and discover it’s too large or too small for your room, you’ve discovered the scale isn’t quite right. Scale is another word for ratio or proportion.
There are ratios and proportions in perspective drawing, photography, even in color mixing when you are trying to get just the right shade. Do you create or play music? Chords and harmonies and scales and rhythms are all based on ratios. And that’s math.
Are you seeing ratios or proportions in your artistic expression yet?
Of course, there are many, many more examples I could discuss. The point I’m making here is no matter what your artistic expression involves…dance, music, paint, wood, yarn, paper, flowers, food, words…there is math in it. Even if you aren’t aware it’s there.
Meaning, if you create art of any kind, you are a math person.
Story time.
One year, my school had a fundraiser where they auctioned off pieces of art created by the different classes. I was in charge of the sixth grade piece and I wanted something super simple, not very time consuming and that had a direct connection to math. I didn’t consider myself to be very artistic at the time and my knowledge of what was possible was limited. So, I did what anyone would do. I googled it. I guess these days we might ask chatgpt or gemini for some ideas, but at the time, Google was what I had available. I think I searched for “math in art” or “art projects that use math” or something like that. It’s been so long, I don’t really remember. What I do remember is being amazed at what I found. People are so creative! {Try that search sometime and see what fun and interesting things come up for you.}
Anyway, I settled on a class painting that represented the digits of pi. If you aren’t sure what I mean here, we often approximate the value of pi as 3.14, but it’s actually an irrational number, which means the decimal portion continues on forever without a repeating pattern of digits. To create the painting, I penciled in a grid of one inch squares to cover a canvas and assigned each square one of the digits of pi, in order. Then, we chose a specific paint color to represent each of the digits 0 through 9 and the students painted each square the color that matched its number. For this particular painting, we used ten shades of blue…you might guess blue is my favorite color…and titled the piece “Blueberry Pi.” Of all the class projects I’ve been part of over the years, this one is probably my favorite. It’s an example of creating art from math instead of finding the math that’s inherently present in the art.
That’s not something I expect you’ve done before, maybe you have, but it is an example showing it can go both ways.
Remember that thought that keeps popping up in your head? The one that tells you you aren’t good at math. The one that has you convinced you are not a math person. Well, noticing the math you are using to create your art, whatever kind of art that might be, is one way to begin untangling that thought. Noticing your patterns of composition and balance, the contrast or blending of colors, the scale of your design, the rows and stitches you create, the cadence of your words or movements…noticing where math intersects with your art provides your brain with proof you are a math person. Keep giving your brain evidence like this and one day you will find yourself thinking about yourself differently.
You’ll see yourself as the math person you really are.
I love hearing from you! Whether it’s a comment on a post here or a direct message to me on Instagram or through email, I would absolutely love to hear about what kinds of art you create and where you see the math in it. You can reach me by email at Je******@************pi.com.
Let’s continue the conversation.
