The Irony
of the 4th Dimension and the Making of Existential Moments
Time - it dawned on me today how the artist, in whatever medium is used, is working and expressing in 4 dimensions. Maybe this is my new definition of art.. not sure yet.
About 20 years ago as I wrestled with the skills of my craft especially drawing, I identified one of the most powerful tools; it had never dawned on me to use the clock. I had read about and seen used plumb lines, the pencil held up to an object to measure it or note the angle of the line, the thumb outstretched for relative size but never had I seen the analogue clock face used as a drawing tool. This tool created to measure the 4th dimension was one of the most powerful to help interpret 4 dimensions down to 2.
A piece of paper has 2 dimensions and yet we strive to represent 3 if not 4 on it. Isnt that incredible? A clock face is flat- 2 dimensional so it is the perfect reference for line direction when attempting to achieve depth on 2 dimensional plane. If you are wanting to draw, use the hands of a clock to determine the angles of lines on your paper. For example the roof of a house that you are facing. You know it is parallel to the ground (well maybe if it isn’t really old and catawampus!) yet that roof line does not look parallel to the ground. One method to determine the representation of depth is to hold one’s pencil up resting it on the roof line making sure it is parallel to one’s eye, to see the angle the roof line makes. When I would teach this, folks inevitably held the pencil so it went into the 3rd dimension, depth, instead of keeping it strictly parallel to the eyes. So we practiced considering the pencil as an arm on an analogue clock. With this tool we could more readily show depth on a 2 dimensional surface.
My husband and I just finished watching Orville. It is a sci fi show that, like Star Trek, shows us the ‘what if’s. It gets us thinking in 4 dimensions for it considers time - like the artist-historian ( thank you Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder to mention a few) who are so good at this and the future ‘what if’ thinkers like Gene Rodenberry, George Orwell and Seth Macfarlane). Any way, the final episode is very powerful because of how 2 story lines conclude. One of them is dependent on a character who thinks in 4 dimensions. And I thought how we need to celebrate the artist in each of us who is pushing the realm of thought, patterns and connecting to break us from the ‘both sides’ syndrome helping us grow beyond the concrete operation stage into the ability to work in and celebrate 4 dimensions. We need to embrace the ironies.
Some works of art capture the eternal- that which transcends time and lives forever. Some art gives us the promise of rebirth- I think of our gardeners and our farmers. Some art gives us a sense of the existential connecting life together. Some art gives us pure emotion that can take us places and times we may not remember or otherwise go. Make your art! Spread it out into the world and spread those 4 dimensional sparks of what ifs.
I posted this picture on facebook the other day for I have been struggling with making these days as waves of ill thought wash over us. It is a depiction of the bullying I saw far too often when I worked in schools. It is one of a few protest paintings I have ever done for I am, as you can tell, a ‘what if’ painter seeking hope. So the ‘what if’ in this picture that I may yet paint is what if one child in the group on the left had turned to the child alone and beckoned them over? How what in time might have changed?
This is another protest painting done after Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act. Teachers cried on my shoulder because of what they felt would happen to our educational system due to the test culture required to enact it. This is titled Biology’s Standardized Test.
What is your what if? How do you explore the 4 dimensions in your work?