Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Fibonacci lives on .....

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Our jurors selected three submissions as best reflecting the golden ratio.

Juror's statement: The theme for our current show is "There Goes Fibonacci". Fibonacci is a mathematical sequence that is found in nature. Some call it the golden ratio because it is aesthetically pleasing. We had many aesthetically pleasing submissions and chose three to highlight the theme: Fran Spaeder's wall quilt, "The Golden Spiral", Betty's Ford's wall quilt "Galaxy" and Ruth Blau's shawl "Fibonacci" woven on a network and mirrored.

... and here they are:

Ruth Blau interpreted the golden ratio in the design of her gorgeous shawl.



Betty Ford's wall quilt subtly incorporates the Fibonacci sequence in her pieced background.



Fran Spaeder recreates the notable Fibonacci spiral.



I hope you'll visit the Gallery this month to see these beautiful artworks.
Ann Graham

Friday, September 2, 2011

A new season

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Daylight is getting a bit shorter, the nights a little cooler - autumn can't be far away. The Gallery's parent group - the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild is starting it's 67th season as the oldest fiber guild in the Washington area. The Gallery will be juring in - on September 12th - art work that incorporates aspects of the Fibonacci number sequence.

Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician, born to a merchant family that lived in Northern Africa. In traveling with his father for trade, he became aware of how difficult and cumbersome Roman numerals were for efficient trading purposes. He studied the Hindu-Arabic numerical system and published his book Book of Abacus or Book of Calculation, and thereby popularized Hindu-Arabic numerals in Europe.

In the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, each number is the sum of the previous two numbers, starting with 0 and 1. This sequence begins 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987 and so on .... His work includes the Golden Section, and Fibonacci spiral. Artists have used the Fibonacci number sequence in their work for centuries. Click on the title of this post to see additional information.

I'll be reporting back on September 13th on how our Gallery members have interpreted Fibonacci for themselves! Better yet, stop by the Gallery (105 N. Union St., Old Town Alexandria, VA) and see for yourself!

Ann Graham