Jessica

Math and Puzzles in Art

Me and math are best friends. Math? Say what? What does that have to do with anything?

Well, I believe that my love for math helps me create beautiful art. A quick online search about math and art will bring up a vast amount of articles on how and why the two can go together.

This week, I am helping a friend learn geometry, statistics, and algebra for a test she is taking soon. Yesterday, I mentioned Leonardo DaVinci to her and how it is believed his drawings and paintings are full of math concepts such as geometry and the golden ratio. Which is pretty cool!

So, how does math help me in art and how could it possibly help you in learning this type of jewelry art?

Simply put: jigsaw puzzles.

Puzzles and math go hand in hand. Puzzles can help to develop spatial reasoning. Reasoning and logic are math concepts.

A search of ‘puzzles and math’ this morning turned up a pretty fun website, if you’d like to see it. https://www.coolmathgames.com/0-jigsaw-puzzles They have free puzzles you can do.

For me, puzzles are similar to jewelry art. Imagine this:

  • a cleared off table is like a blank canvas
  • puzzle pieces can be sorted into edges, like colors and like shapes and jewelry can be sorted into like colors, types, and shapes
  • a puzzle box gives you a visual of what the pieces are making and where they go and our creativity can give us a visual for what we want our art pieces to look like and where the jewelry goes
  • sometimes a puzzle piece we choose doesn’t quite fit, logic says to get another piece and try again
  • sometimes a jewelry piece doesn’t quite fit on the canvas, logic says look for another piece and try again
  • each puzzle piece builds towards the whole puzzle and each jewelry piece added to the canvas does the same
  • when the last piece of the puzzle goes in, there’s a ’masterpiece’ and when the last piece of jewelry goes on, there’s a ‘masterpiece’, too

If math is not your thing, that’s fine. If puzzles aren’t for you, that’s a-ok. This kind of art is adaptable and accessible for everyone to learn. It just takes something to create on, some jewelry, and some glue.

Personally, for me though, I’ve noticed that the more puzzles and math I do, the more ideas I get for art.

Here’s my latest piece:

my latest piece

Here are some of the puzzles I’ve been working on:

doing puzzles helps me with my art ideas

It may just come down to the things we are passionate about. A singer may be inspired by music for their art. A gardener may look at their flowers and create art from seeing the shapes and colors. And, a girl like me, might get ideas from doing math.

Thanks for reading.

Jessica

32 comments

  6. Jessica, I love this post! So many people think math and creativity are not related. I am glad you see that they are. Music is very mathematical! I enjoy puzzles. I used to do puzzles with my mom until just a few years ago. It was good for her brain. I can certainly see where puzzles would inspire your jewelry. Your latest creation looks fabulous! Kudos to you for helping your friend with her test. I will say a prayer for her success.

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    • Oh that’s right! I forgot about math and music. That’s a wonderful point. Many famous mathematicians are/were so gifted in music and many musicians are/were gifted in math.

      Thank you so much. I’ve been thinking of writing this post for awhile. Just fell out today, ha ha.

      Thank you- it was an easel, but I accidentally broke a leg off, so now it will have to sit in an easel. Ha.

      I love that you did puzzles with your mom. I bet that was so nice. Those ones in the picture that I’ve been working on are SO hard. They are for medical students that are learning the tiniest details of the human body. The abdomen puzzle took me a couple weeks. The edges aren’t straight and the size of pieces varies so much. But, I finished it!

      We’ll take that prayer!!! Her test is Tuesday morning at 9:00. (July 26) She had zero confidence about math when we started and now she believes she can pass!!!!

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  7. When you told me you like math, I thought the same thing you’re saying here, how art and math go together. On a personal level, no wonder I’m not good at art…I’m not good at math. Hm. Interesting.

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    • Well, I’m not sure I believe that. What do you mean by not good at art? Because, in my eyes, art is about self expression. And, art has a broad range of topics. My husband can transform an entire field with a bulldozer, and I consider him an artist. Some consider gardeners artists. Others consider cake decorators artists. My guess is you’re probably brilliant at something you may not even consider art. And, if you still think it’s tied to math, my opinion is that math isn’t taught right and not everyone is able to learn it out of a textbook. Maybe you’re really great at it, but maybe you just weren’t taught it to the way you learn?

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  9. Jessica, this is a brilliant math/art deduction! It is also a good example of systems thinking–everything is related, from the tiniest cells in our bodies or other living things all the way out into the infinite universe. Understanding that is key to understanding everything–math, art, or anything else! Cool art picture, too!

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    • Hi. I love your comments. I hadn’t heard of systems thinking, so I’ve been looking into it. Thank you for mentioning it. I do love the idea that everything is related. I’ll definitely do some reading on it. And, thank you, none of those pieces, the chalkboard, the jewelry, or the saying in the middle initially went together. All separate parts, but together they work. Hmmm… lightbulb moments here. I better see what system thinking is about. Ha ha!

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