Kaleidoscopic
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
I’ve been re-visiting some older designs, some of the very first knots that I created that took on the shapes of waves. I’m trying to use the computer to create attractive designs from these very simple sketches. Along the way, so far, these are what I’ve created.
The horizontal design makes me think of graphics from neo-psychedelic posters for raves in the 90s. Helterskelter, Flashback and Atomic Jam…. if you look closely it’s surprising how close this Kaleidoscope transformation has created a good knot from the original.
The vertical design makes me think of native american cherokee style feathered motifs, like some kind of space age red-indian artifact from an imagined civilization! But then I’ve been told before I have an over-active imagination!!
The Kalidoscope inspiration partly came from seeing pictures by North Devon artist Connor Wilson. His work can be seen in the Blue Groove Cafe in Croyde, which hosts an amazing giant mural depicting a perfect summers A-frame peak as spied through a break in a lush canopy. A surreal moon transformation floats in front of this scene… it has to be seen to be believed! The cafe also has many of his framed works including surreal style, automatic sketches and Mandalas (see resource here).
These Mandalas, or circle rotations, almost form celtic knot patterns (though close inspection shows the rules of interlacing, continuation etc are not followed). So roatating my simple designs produces these Celtic like patterns… which in themselfs I find inspiring. I want to take these computer generated patterns and come full circle to work over them by hand.
References:
http://conorwilson.co.uk/
www.mandalaproject.org
Blue Groove Cafe
Cheers!