Serenity in the Garden

Next Wednesday, March 18,  I will be speaking at the Ossining Library at 7 pm and signing books. I hope you can come!

Alexander Calder was a famous  artist that used shapes that are 'biomorphic'.  They recall shapes found in nature such as leaves, flowers, clouds. Shadbush leaves in Autumn - Calder's inspiration? Calder's other interests included physics, astronomy and kinetics.  He was inspired by color and composition and Piet Mondrian's paintings. by Piet  Mondrian, this incorporates Phi proportion In some of Calder's signature hanging mobiles, he arranged colorful natural shapes in a mathematical pattern found in Nature called the Fibonacci sequence which is based on the proportion known as PHI (1:1.618). In the Calder mobile below, called, 'Back, White and Ten Red' , the shapes are arranged in the Fibonacci sequence, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5.....(each number is the sum of the two preceding it).  Perhaps he got this idea from Mondrian who also used Phi in his famous artworks. Fibonacci sequence in Calder's  'Black, White and Ten ...

  The Fibonacci series of numbers is at the heart of Nature.... The Fibonacci Sequence is a simple series of numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ... The next number is found by adding up the two numbers before it.   The 2 is found by adding the two numbers before it (1+1) Similarly, the 3 is found by adding the two numbers before it (1+2), And the 5 is (2+3), and so on! Example: the next number in the sequence above would be 21+34 = 55 It is that simple! Here is a longer list: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, 10946, 17711, 28657, 46368, 75025, 121393, 196418, 317811, ... If you multiply a fibonacci number by 1.618 you will get the next in the series. This proportion of 1.618 is known as PHI. I teach this to my classes...everything is in a fibonacci number like 3 or 5...see this apple core? or this passionflower? or this shell?     bu...

  The ‘Garden of Cosmic Speculation’ in Dumfries, Scotland is a study in green sweeping earthworks and meandering waterways. Now who wouldn't be interested in a garden with a name such as this? Charles Jencks and his late wife, Maggie Keswick, created, what some call, ‘ the first true garden of the 21st century’ on the grounds of her mother’s 30 acre estate . Jencks wanted to celebrate the fundamental magic of nature via landscape design, so he used his property as a microcosm of a greater world. “What is a garden if not a miniaturization, and celebration, of the place we are in, the universe?” - Charles Jencks.   Jencks’ fascination with quantum science is evident in this verdant setting. The spiral shape is prominent and can seen in the tall, cone shaped grassed mound that rises several stories above - and reflected beautifully in - a body of curving, still water. Some say the spiraling paths of this mound is a template of the DNA molecu...