Figure 1 – Cut-outs, Natick, MA. IPhone photograph, (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Figure 1 is an abstract that I took of a cut-out paper background in a store window with my IPhone. The appeal of Iphones, both to the artist and the viewer is an intriguing and multifaceted one.  They appeal to the human mind which is intrinsically reductionist – assessing a scene from a limited set of points and what are called spatial frequencies. Beyond that there is the appeal of purity: the appeal to a vivid and pure color, the appeal of a pure tone. I suppose in a sense that the appeal of black and white images lies in the shedding of color, the reduction of the image to form, and the replacement of  color with a depth and richness of tonal dynamic range. In some cases there is the suggestiveness of the form, an allusion to something purely human such as spirituality or sexuality. In the image of Figure 1 the triangular glare that emits from some of the horizontal surfaces reminds me of votive candles, suggesting the sacred to me. And yes I use both those terms in the same sentence. And of course, as in the present image we surrender ourselves to the purity of geometry. Indeed, where as in the current image that geometry becomes broken, we are not dismayed. Rather it enhances the appeal, as if the the deviation reminds us of the complexity of the real world. It is as Euclid (365-275 BCE) said:

“The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God.”