Curves: Flowers, Foliates & Flourishes in The Formal Decorative Arts

Wooden Books

by Lisa DeLong

Curves( Flowers Foliates & Flourishes in the Formal Decorative Arts) <> Hardcover <> LisaDeLong <> BloomsburyPublishingPLC

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History

58 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2013

Reviews

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

Principles do not constrain creativity: rather they inspire diverse and imaginative echoes of seeds, vines, leaves, flowers and fruit. A designer who works with repetition, alternation, undulation, tessellation, spirals, and symmetry soon discovers the rich variety made possible by working with these simple generative processes.
- Lisa DeLong, Curves



There is a space where geometry, math, art all meet. Lisa DeLong rules that universe (S( or at least one or two of the major curves of that universe )S).

I love mosaics, Islamic art, geometry, math, and literature. So I'm glad I discovered Lisa's art a few years back, and equally glad I discovered this little book. It describes, technically, the Curves used in decorative arts, but like the Yin Yang and the Tree of Life, this type of art expands up to the universe and drives down to electrons spinning.

God, I imagine, is constantly drawing ellipses with his finger across the arches and domes of a spiraling Universe. And Lisa is here with us to pull out a brass compass and draw them, and describe the whole process.

[Douglas Summers-Stay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is in some ways reminiscent of Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction or An Illustrated Dictionary of Ornament but is more artistic in its layout and more theoretical and philosophical in its discussion. The rich black-on-white and white-on-black designs are pleasant to study. My only complaint is that the book is too small (at less than 6 inches square.)