John Sims (1968-2022)

John Sims (1968-2022) was both a mathematician and an artist.

"The mathematical art that I seek to develop combines mathematical language and analysis with the expressiveness and creativity of the process to make expressive visual theorems," Sims once commented.

John Sims (1968-2022).

In SquareRoot of a Tree, Sims used images of a real tree and a branched fractal structure to show the tree-root relationship between mathematics and art.

In different orientations, the artwork becomes TreeRoot of a Fractal, Mathematics-Art Brain, and Art-Brain Mathematics.

In his pi quilts, Sims started with the essence of a circle, as represented by the number pi: the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Beginning with 3.14159265, the decimal digits of pi run on forever, and there's no discernible pattern to ease the task of computing these digits.

Sims took advantage of this apparent randomness when he mapped the digits of pi to different colors and constructed color-coded, square patchwork quilts. In effect, he squared the circle as he transformed analog into digital.

To Sims, there was deep symbolism in the colors that he chose to impose a human element on the randomness of pi's digits. In binary form (expressed as a string of 1s and 0s), pi's colors are starkly black and white. The result is a provocative, disorderly mingling of squares within a square.

In such ways, mathematical concepts and structures serve as tools for conveying new ways of analyzing and seeing the world and calling attention to and addressing social issues.

See also "Quilting Pi,"  "Fractal Roots and Artful Math," and "Form Plus Function."