I thank you God for this most amazing day,
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees,
and for the blue dream of sky and for everything
which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
e. e. cummings

Growth patterns in nature such as those found in leaves, flowers and trees along with sea shells and parts of the human body, follow a numerical progression series.  The sequence of growth can be recreated infinitely through a common proportion-ratio 1.618… – The ratio 1.618 is called Phi ɸ (in Greek) – the Fibonacci series of numbers encapsulates this progression:  1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144… and it shares a close relationship with the Gold Section’s proportioning system.

A page of Fibonacci‘s Liber Abaci from the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze showing (in box on right) the Fibonacci sequence with the position in the sequence labeled in Latin and Roman numerals and the value in Hindu-Arabic numerals.

The Golden Section and the Fibonacci proportioning systems operate as the basis of classical design aesthetics and the symmetry found in nature.

 Source:  Geometry of Design, Kimberly Elam

While working with geometrical patterns, as an artist I am especially awed and fascinated by these living symmetries that unfold beautifully and that connect me to a dynamism inherent in these magnificent structural laws of growth and of life.   The following artworks, contain some of these dynamic symmetries of growth.

As you can see from the arrangement above, I set a series of images of my artworks side by side with some of the schematics of the Golden Section and the Fibonacci series to illustrate the dynamic “movement” and the universal beauty and symmetry inherent to these proportional systems.

Wheel within a Wheel 101-109

Next week, I will take a look at some of the neckties that I have been working on in my Geometric Botanicals wearable art silk painting project.