Bathsheba Grossman


"Art Forms"


Digital print, 2004.

"This rendering shows four symmetrical tensegrity structures in which the parts do not touch each other, but only the colored spheres. They represent an interesting class of object: for a given number of spheres, there is a finite set of such structures. The two right-hand objects in this picture use 4 spheres each, but have different symmetry groups."




"Antipot"


Digital print, 2003.

"This sculpture was refined using Ken Brakke's Surface Evolver software. Its genus, at the time of this writing, has not been computed."




"A Twist in Time"


Snow Sculpture, 2002.
(photograph by Stan Wagon)

"This snow sculpture was entered in the Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championship, 2002. I supplied the design, and worked with Stan and the rest of Team Minnesota, to carve it by hand from a 12' block of compacted snow. Its genus is that of a Klein bottle with one handle and two holes, so it has one side and two edges."




"Forget-Me-Knot"


Digital print, 2003.

"A tetrahedral tangle in many orientations and inverse colorings, rendered in a spacelike homage to M.C. Escher. "




Bathsheba Grossman is a geometrical sculptor, creating metal and glass artifacts with symmetry and grace. Moving from a mathematics degree through study in metalworking and sculpture, she is now a pioneering expert in the use of 3D printing technology for art. She has also introduced the use of subsurface laser etching in glass for scientific imaging. Her work is collected by scientists, mathematicians and art lovers worldwide.

"My work explores order in three-space: the tension between inside and outside, the point at zero and the point at infinite distance, how the axes can be alike and different. I became interested in these ideas as a mathematics student, wanting to cross over from formal abstractions into working with physical shapes, and sculpture gave me the way to work with them.

"My approach is aesthetic rather than quantitative: I model by hand and eye, using a variety of software tools to generate and refine ideas, but always working towards a purely subjective perception of what is interesting and beautiful.

"For the physical expression of these ideas I use various computer-mediated technologies, mainly 3D printing, simply because they work better than traditional sculpture methods to make the objects I have in mind. New media are as always a blessing and a curse, offering unprecedented freedom and cruel constraints in one handy package.

"But the gee-whiz factor of fancy technology is peripheral to what I do: the center of my work is in the contemplation of symmetry, an ideal of activity and interest in space, and a meditation on order in the universe. I feel calm and hopeful in making it, and I hope it will bring some of those feelings into your life.

Bathsheba's metalwork and laser etchings can be seen at http://bathsheba.com, along with lots of information about the techniques used to make them. She can be reached at b@bathsheba.com, and visitors are welcome at her studio in Santa Cruz, California.