At 08:27 AM 8/28/02 EDT, you wrote:

>Since I share a secondary classroom with a (believe it!) geometry
teacher, I 

>want to integrate math into my art some. 

>Beth

	I am enjoying a new book, <italic>Art and Cognition: Integrating the
Visual Arts Into the Curriculum</italic>, by Arthur D. Efland, 2002.  I
recommend it for art teachers who want ideas to help them articulate ways
that art helps us all become better at thinking.

	I also like to make math/art connections.  The whole business of size
rendition in drawing as it relates to distance can be mathematically
predicted and/or based on observation.  Linear perspective can be
observed and/or calculated.  My drafting software renders three-objects
in perspective as if by magic.  Of course it is all mathematically
determined in the computer.  Camera zoom lenses provide very interesting
perspective comparisons.

	When mixing colors it is interesting to note the mathematical
proportions of pure blue to pure yellow to make a medium pure green. 
Comparing this mathematically to the making of red and blue to make
purple seems like good science that is very useful to artists.  How much
black by percentage is needed to make a white into middle gray?  Of
course all these experiments are specific to the particular paint quality
being used.  I work a lot with pottery glazes and find very interesting
strength relationship between various glaze colorants.  Lots of math and
science is needed to work creatively with glazes.

	Here is an optical brain twister.  Think about creating a realistic
painting that uses all the possible devices for creating the illusion of
depth to cancel each other out until the painting appears just as flat as
the canvas.  Might be a good assignment to reduce sanity.  When I was a
kid, I also thought I could invent perpetual motion.  In my high school
psychology text I read that this was a symptom of insanity.  I decided to
try art where insanity and normality could be mixed with impunity.

	Marvin




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