Today we’d like to introduce you to Tammy Yung, Katelyn Hayes, Hailey Lanier and Jules McGee.
Tammy, Katelyn, Hailey and Jules, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
As math teachers, we try to teach our students that math is an integral part of their everyday lives. This includes looking at math with an artistic eye. Geometric art is a great way to showcase both the principles of geometry and creative problem solving. We partner with the Geometric and MADI Art Museum of Dallas to give our students an up-close look at this type of art work. Our students investigate various works of art featured at the museum and then examine them further during their field trip to the MADI Museum. With inspiration and solid mathematical skills, our students create their own artwork. Our partnership with the museum allows us to showcase student work in the museum on a rotating basis.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
We ask our students to create their own geometric art using transformations (i.e. reflections, translations, rotations, dilations, and/or stretches) of linear, quadratic, absolute, reciprocal, and/or circular equations. Students provide analysis of their overall work which may include citing lines of symmetry or noting its asymmetry, providing the scale factor, vanishing points or center of rotation or dilation, etc. All work is first created using the Geometer’s Sketchpad software program and then transferred to a stretch canvas to be painted by hand. The artwork is juried by the art teachers and/or students in the art classes to determine which pieces are exhibited at the museum.
What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
Once students move beyond elementary school and onto high school, many students think their opportunities to create artwork are over. Giving all students the expectation to use mathematical tools to create a piece of artwork allows every student to think of herself as an artist again–at least for this project. It is our hope as teachers that our students gain a new and insightful appreciation for the beauty of mathematics.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Ursuline student work is currently on exhibit at the Museum of Geometric and Madi Art located at 3109 Carlisle Street in downtown Dallas.
Contact Info:
- Address: Tammy Yung, Math Department Chair, Ursuline Academy of Dallas
- Website: Ursulinedallas.org
- Phone: 469-232-1800
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ursulinedallas/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ursulinedallas/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ursulinedallas?lang=en
Image Credit:
Tammy Yung
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