A solo exhibition featuring the work of Lawrence Holbrook.
May 29 – July 28, 2024
Reception May 31, 2024 4-6 PM
Larry Holbrook’s professional and personal life was an evolving expression of his love for art and mathematics. His professional career was, wide ranging; from teaching Philosophy at Michigan State University to his work as Director of the Michigan Department of Transportation Materials and Technology Research Laboratory. He utilized advanced degrees in Physics, Civil Engineering, Philosophy of Science, and Statistics to the benefit of the State of Michigan, closing his long civil service career as an Advisor to the Michigan Attorney General in risk management and tort litigation. In his personal life, he was a skilled photographer and especially loved contemporary art, architecture, and classical music. In retirement he turned his attention to the aesthetics of certain mathematical processes and thus his art includes many patterns exhibiting forms of symmetry as well as more abstract works developed from random numbers.
As he explained in his lectures and papers, his images are generated by mathematical equations which are fed back into themselves in a cycling or iterative process. For each point on the computer screen (pixel) the rate at which the numeric values of these equations either “escape to infinity” or remain confined determines the color and hue assigned to each pixel. The pixel behaves differently from its neighbors because of its unique position (in terms of its x-y coordinates) in the complex (imaginary) plane mapped to the computer screen. The use of computers to generate artistic images through, mathematical equations allows enormous variation in color and form as well as remarkable variations in latitude/longitude and self-replication symmetry. The mathematician/artist then adjusts and edits evolving configurations and selects and controls results to satisfy aesthetic preferences. The result appears to have surprising effects in no way evident in the initial numerical formulations. One can then export the selected image to graphics software for further editing such as color and shape adjustments and cloning of selected parts. In using this creative approach, Larry Holbrook’s Art truly Meets Math in the most unique and distinctive way.
For more information about the artist and the work in the show, please use the link below for an article that appeared in the City Pulse:
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