From trash to (perspective) treasure

Here's a neat video clip that shows a portrait. Or pile o' trash. You decide.

Arielle Van Wingerden (who took Math of Art with me back in 2009) sent this clip my way. She says,

I really liked this piece because I've always liked the expression "one man's trash is another man's treasure." The pile of stuff seems like nothing from one point of view but from just the right view it is a work of art. Life isn't always easy and sometimes it seems like there's nothing but a pile of garbage in our way, but if you change your perspective just a little bit, you might be able to see the art and beauty in the everyday struggles.

Like Arielle, I also love this piece, which reminds me of the work of Shigeo Fukuda.  But even more, it was good to hear from Arielle.  I first met Arielle in the May of 2008 during our pre-orientation, and we clicked like *that*.  She's had a bunch of trash-to-treasure struggles of her own, including being so sick during what was supposed to be her first year of F&M that we were both devastated that she couldn't be in my seminar that year after all.  Then she rebounded and joined my class in the fall of 2009, and it was like fate had re-united us.  Yay!

Since then, she's done some great work with her family business.  I love that she lets me know of how things are going (she just got her low-pressure boiler certification, and how many F&M students can say that!?!)

So I was especially happy when Arielle sent the video my way, saying "This was shared with me by a woman I refer to as my fairy godmother. It totally ties in with math of art and perspective!"