|
WELLESLEY, Mass.
-- How do you make an American quilt? Just ask expert Jinny
Beyer, who will present a lecture on "Celebrating Quantitative
Reasoning and Art" Wednesday, April 7, from 12:30-2 pm in
Collins Cinema at Wellesley College. In the last of four “QR
and Art” lectures offered at Wellesley this spring, Beyer will
talk about how quantitative, or mathematical, skills are used
in creating quilts.
Beyer
will discuss symmetries and other patterns in her quilts. She
will feature her own designs as well as tessellations
(interlocking shapes that repeat to fill a surface without any
gaps or overlaps) by mathematical print artist M.C. Escher and
others. She will also offer a hands-on design
workshop.
"Jinny
Beyer is not only an amazingly talented quilter with a keen
sense of form, design and color, but she also has a gift for
explaining various symmetries and other geometric patterns in
a way that is fun, understandable and easy to apply," said
Corrine Taylor, Wellesley College QR program director. "Jinny
describes how she almost failed high-school geometry — a
course that entailed dry memorization of formulas and
equations. Only upon discovering the beautiful tessellated
arrangements in Oriental rugs, South Asian tiles, American
quilts and M.C. Escher’s prints did she become excited about
geometric patterns."
Beyer
began quilting in 1972 when she and her family lived in India
and Nepal. Using her simple drafting system and inspired by
the culture of the Far East, she created her "Ray of Light"
medallion quilt. In 1978 this creation won the top prize over
10,000 entries in the Great American Quilt Contest sponsored
by Good Housekeeping magazine and the U.S. Historical Society.
This catapulted her into the quilting spotlight. The author of
10 books and three videos, she also designs fabric especially
for quilting.
This
spring's "QR and Art" lecture series inaugurates Wellesley's
new annual Ellen Genat Hoffman ’68 and Stephen G. Hoffman
series that will explore how quantitative reasoning
contributes to a variety of study. For more information about
the Beyer lecture, call 781-283-2152.
Since
1875, Wellesley College has been a leader in providing an
excellent liberal-arts education for women who will make a
difference in the world. Its 500-acre campus near Boston is
home to 2,300 undergraduate students from all 50 states and 68
countries. For more information, go to
www.wellesley.edu.
###
| 
