JunXiang Shao
Merritt Johnson
HUMN-311
March 17, 2015
Golden Ratio and Pattern
Ancient Greek mathematicians were the first to come up with the principles of the golden ration; this was because it presented frequent appearances in the study of geometry. They used the concepts of the golden ratio to explain the relationship between two distinct quantities. With time, the school of thought of the golden ratio got to be adopted by many other individuals including the engineers, musicians and artists. They were able to incorporate the concepts in their works in terms of geometric proportion and dimension to achieve the desired results. For example, they argued that the isosceles triangles that make up a pentagram corners each have the unique properties of having the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side being consistent to the golden ratio. Similarly, in an apple, the seeds arrangement depicts a star pattern in a pointed fashion, thus a natural occurrence of the golden ratio (Werness 78).
Research further reveals that the concepts of the golden ratio helped influence the ancient works of painting. A famous philosopher, Agrippa Heinrich drew a pentagram and a man inside the circle, depicting an application of the golden ratio. Additionally, the illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci of polyhedral in regard to the divine proportion and his thoughts that most bodily proportions are in consistent with the golden ratio made most scholars speculate that he made use of the concepts of the golden ratio in his artistic works. However, the implication that his painting; the Mona Lisa employed the golden ratio ideology has not yet been fully confirmed.
I put Golden Ratio into my artwork. For example, the red line and the revolving step. I used these to represent the change of the history, because the history is changing me all the time. For example: I have learned a lot of traditional elements in art history, I studied aesthetics, composition of a picture, structure, etc. And then I created a specific way to represent this topic through my understanding to the history and my research. Also, my artwork shows a lot of history messages, this is the interaction between me and the history. And I learned a lot valuable things about the feedback from the art history. It is not only the definition of morality. I used my own decision to decide the correct things, and then redefine these things, create more elements in my work, and tell a specific event or judge this specific event.
The petal shaped pattern with red associate with blue is from Chinese history, a distortion from the elements of Beijing Opera. Through the history, a few traditional patterns have been kept a lot but not with the original color. These patterns have no meanings in modern era, they only contain the representation of the history. So i redefined and recolored, to change this pattern, to make this pattern has a specific meaning in modern era. Also, i used golden ratio to define the size of this petal, so I made this petal into perspective, walking from a dark place to a bright place. For every changes of every pattern, I have a very strict design plan of the size, and there is no color repeated. We can see very clear color changes through the revolving step and the petal.
Connect Golden Ratio with the artist work of the patterns is very valuable in modern era. Personal explanation, creation must build on a very penetrating research through the history. We need to learn more about traditional art, more than only art history. And the composition of a picture and the uses for the perspectivity really effect the artist work. Use mixed color and steady texture can make the picture looks more comfortable, and even can let people feel the drawer's feeling. Next step, I will design and search more patterns and ways of color changing. There will be a lot of work to do, but also, they will be fun.
Works Cited
Werness, Hope B, Joanne H. Benedict, and Tiffany Ramsay-Lozano. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Native Art: Worldview, Symbolism and Culture in Africa, Oceania and North America. New York: Continuum, 2000. Print.
