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Julia Gandrud — painting

Artist's Statement
for 'Calculated Result - Mathematical Art,' September 2011:
This painting ['Caspar David Friedrich, Romanticism, Penrose and the 5th Dimension'] is an homage to Caspar David Friedrich, in that it mimics the pose from one of his paintings, 'Woman at the Window.'
What does a romantic painter have to do with aperiodic tilings? Perhaps the link is personal, in that my longing for the greater world, exploring the adventures of its patterns, is linked to the math world I gave up ten years ago, committing myself instead to painting. But it has another link, as well, perhaps the reason I love these tilings to begin with. We can recognize them, and become familiar with them, even renaming recurrent motifs, but we can’t easily predict them. Familiar, but unfamiliar. A classic romantic theme.
A little more background on the tiles: In the painting is one possible solution to the shapes and rules set forth by Sir Arthur Penrose (and copyrighted by him, too. There is a funny article on what happened when a toilet paper company used his design without permission.) I have a fond relationship with these tiles, or tessellations as some people call them, when a set of forms can fill space without gaps to infinity by following some basic rules. Penrose tiles have the distinguishing feature that they can tile space infinitely, but you can’t predict their patterns. At least, not in this dimension…
In college, I had a class with a brilliant woman, Marjorie Senechal (her name  can be linked) She taught us discrete mathematics, and a class on tilings, both of which were thoroughly enjoyable classes. In addition, she looked strikingly like the white queen from Tenniel’s illustrations  for Through the Looking Glass.  Professor Senechal is a world expert on quasicrystals, and predicting semi=regular tilings. She wrote the books which sits admired and misunderstood on my shelf, Quasicrystals and Geometry. can be linked Quasicrystals are described as “periodic in higher dimension,” which I find pretty trippy stuff. What does this have to do with Penrose tiles? Well, apparently, if you bisect each side of the tiles, and connect the ones that are parallel and share a tile, you end up with 5 sets of lines, which then can be stretched straight. Then, through a process called “abracadabra,” you turn each of those sets into another dimension, and then, somehow, they are predictable. I don’t get it, but I love the idea.
Penrose tiles are a rich symbol for me of all mathematics I studied, and loved, even when I wasn’t always very good at it. I left it all behind when I started studying art more seriously. Maybe I will go back and get a PhD in math when I am an old woman…

Artist's Resume:

EDUCATION
2004 MFA Film, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2001 Post-Baccalaureate in Painting, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1997 BA Women Studies, Smith College, Northampton, MA

SCREENING OF ANIMATION COLLABORATION
Concerning the Doodle Merkin Hall, The Kaufman Center, NY, NY 2010
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Screening My Thoughts AS220, Providence, RI 2009
The Light Alps Little Falls, Pawtuxet Village, Cranston, RI 2008
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
In Place Everywhere AS220, Providence, RI 2009
Martini and Massage Night Copley Plaza, Boston, MA 2006
Resistance, Rebellion Death 1451b Stevenson, San Francisco, CA 2004
Breathless 60 Folsom, San Francisco, CA 2003
Take Out Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2003
Annual Student Art Show June Steingart Gallery, Oakland, CA 2003

GROUP FILM SCREENINGS
Derapage 10, sélection officielle Centre de Design de l'UQAM, Quebec, Canada 2010
Free, As Always New Nothing Cinema, San Francisco, CA 2004
Motion Graphics ATA, San Francisco, CA 2003
ONLINE GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Art for Healthcare Reform http://artforhealthcarereform.googlepages.com/ 2009

PUBLICATIONS
The Art of Self Acceptance, curated by Tamara Laporte, Lulu.com 2010
Release Print Magazine, illustrations for the Film Arts Foundation 2004
And the Moon Came With Us, illustrations for a children’s book by Georgia Pannos 2002-3

PRESS
Alan Kozinn, “Work by the People and for the People” The New York Times February 25, 2010
Greg Cook, “Channel Surfing,” The Providence Phoenix November 17, 2009
Meredith Tromble, “West Coast,” Stretcher.org June 27, 2003 http://www.stretcher.org/archives/b-wc_a/2003_06_01_wc_archive.html

Visit Julia Gandrud's website.