Emmalee Bass
Typically, we think of math and art as being polar opposites, using separate sides of the brain. Art is creative; math is logical. But in actuality, art and math are often intertwined. For example, Leonardo da Vinci used many "golden rectangles" (rectangles with dimensions that reflect the golden ratio) in his painting Mona Lisa, including the proportions of her face. Another artist, M. C. Escher, created drawings that looked realistic but were mathematically impossible to create, causing interesting optical illusions. Some more modern artists are using geometric patterns to create complex sculptures, and symmetry has been used throughout the ages to create balance in works of art. Architecture also combines math and art to create buildings that will physically work but still be visually pleasing. As you can see, although math and art may be different, they can be combined to produce impressive creations.
Emmalee Bass
28 Comments
Anna Breck
4/21/2016 08:21:37 am
Wow this was really iteresting. I've never thought about these optical art illusions in such a way before
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Emma
4/21/2016 04:46:51 pm
Before I did some research, I didn't either! But to create optical illusions, you have to do a little math. The stairs, for example, are full of angles.
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Harrison Clark
4/21/2016 01:03:13 pm
I really like the way you connected math and art. I knew that math plays a big role in architecture, but I never thought that it would work alongside art as well. I think that like you said, if art and math work are able to work alongside each other they will produce amazing creations.
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Emma
4/21/2016 04:48:41 pm
Yes, I thought it was cool, too, how the subjects we study in school seem so separate but can overlap and combine like math and art.
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Jasmine Jahad
4/21/2016 02:19:10 pm
I thought this post was really cool!! I knew that some artists created art using different geometric shapes and partterns, but I never really thought about how making a portrait realistic was intertwined with mathematical elements!
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Emma
4/21/2016 04:50:12 pm
Thanks. If you do some research, you'll see that nature is full of proportions. Like you observed, painting realistically involves using those mathematical elements we don't usually notice.
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Joseph Foy
4/21/2016 03:17:28 pm
Very interesting stuff! Things like this have always puzzled me because I never understood why it worked an I didn't know where to look to try and figure it out. Now I know to look into the mathematical aspects. Awesome!
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Emma
4/21/2016 04:54:07 pm
It is very interesting to find out the underlying concepts in everything. Without math, M. C. Escher's drawings wouldn't make sense, but if you "know where to look," you can learn a lot about things you didn't know existed.
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Hannah Williamson
4/21/2016 05:10:43 pm
I've never really though about how math is used in art and how artists can sometimes incorporate math into their artwork. I also think it's really cool that artists make illusions that aren't mathematically correct. How do they come up with these patterns? People usually have to have a base for something, and I think it's really interesting that people can just create random images that don't make sense to most people.
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Emma
4/22/2016 04:29:51 am
People are very creative! Those images that seem random may have a basis in something, like you said. M. C. Escher's optical illusions have a basis in math, even if the average person couldn't tell by looking.
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Nathan Podbielski
4/21/2016 05:28:37 pm
You say that math and art can combine to make great works of art. But when art is mathematically impossible, do you really think that is math and art collaborating or just art saying "I can do whatever i want"
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Emma
4/22/2016 04:28:17 am
Well, by depicting impossible mathematical concepts through art, he created an optical illusion, so even if he was defying math, he was still using the fact that those concepts exist to create a work of art, so I would say that math and art are collaborating.
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Jessica Ruiz
4/21/2016 05:59:25 pm
I find it very interesting how you explained how math and art can actually work in harmony. People tend to think they are opposing forces, myself included prior to reading your post but I now realize how math would be helpful to creating art.
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Emma
4/22/2016 04:31:43 am
You're exactly right. Sometimes even opposites work together, like the north and south poles of magnets, or in this case, math and art. Before I did some research, I thought that you could be either interested in math OR art, not both. Now I understand that is a common misconception.
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Rayce Gibson
4/21/2016 08:45:12 pm
I always knew that math was involved with art (ex. measuring lines, shapes, symmetry, patterns, etc.) but I did not see it in this way. The way that you said logic and creativity can work together in harmony is very interesting!
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Emma
4/22/2016 04:33:20 am
Some of the hardest problems people face have to be solved through both logic and creativity. Like I said about architecture: creativity helps you think outside of the box and find solutions in places you wouldn't have thought of, but logic is necessary to make sure they'll work.
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Bryce Garner
4/22/2016 05:26:34 am
This was a very interesting post. I loved the way you actually have examples of authors using math in famous works of art. I would have never known math was part of painting the Mona Lisa until you posted it, very well written.
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Emma
4/29/2016 06:11:13 pm
Thanks! I wouldn't have known about all they ways math is implemented into art unless I had researched about it.
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Courtney
4/22/2016 07:21:33 am
This blog was very interesting. I never thought they could be intertwined.
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Emma
4/29/2016 06:12:32 pm
It is surprising how completely opposite subjects can be related. Math and art may seem different, but math explains the way things are shaped, so art needs math to realistically depict what we see.
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Breana Garner
4/22/2016 08:19:38 am
I thought your post was very interesting. Before reading this post I thought math and art were complete opposite. I think you did a good job bringing to everyone's attention how intertwined they are.
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Emma
4/29/2016 06:13:12 pm
Thanks! There are always so many more ways that they can be related; I only listed a few.
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Ryan Kimble
4/22/2016 11:17:13 am
Great job Emma, that was really great I really like how you chose a intersecting topic to write on. I myself never thought how math could be involved in art but after reading this i can see that art takes a lot of math to actually complete.
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Emma
4/29/2016 06:14:00 pm
I didn't know math and art were related, but I wanted to see how math could apply to something I was interested in, and once I did, a whole new world of math was opened up.
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Reid
4/22/2016 08:48:22 pm
I never thought of it that way and I can see your point. If art is our representation of beauty and thought, and art is created by math then by logical reasoning our brains process the world around us in math and we find this math beautiful in its being. Very thought provoking.
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Emma
4/29/2016 06:14:56 pm
Exactly!! And art needs math to depict things they way we see them, or the way our brains would like to perceive them. Nature is often geometric and proportional, so we need math to even create art.
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Spencer Daniels
4/26/2016 07:16:17 pm
This is very interesting! I knew that math had to have been involved in optical illusions but I never really thought about it. It is cool to think of how art and math, which are thought of as very different, can better each other.
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Emma
4/29/2016 06:15:40 pm
I think that concept can apply to many things. It is cool to see how math is behind the scenes in everything, though we may not notice it at first.
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