Artist

Vera Molnár

En 4 Couleurs, D’un Seul Trait **| Pencil – 2001

AS: Perhaps one of my favorite illustrations of your creative process is the evolution of your relationship with Montagne Sainte-Victoire. Could you describe how it became such a prominent symbol in your work?

VM: I was at a point in my life where I had had enough of the square, the circle, the rectangle, square, circle, rectangle, square, circle, on and on. [It was in this library] that I stumbled upon Gauss’s curve, and I told myself, “I could like this Gauss’s curve, with its symmetry and touch of disorder.” I liked the combination of classical straightness with a drop of madness.

I made a pile of drawings and was content with the sentiment that I had fallen on the year’s best idea: no more circles, no more ellipses, no more squares. I wrapped my pile of drawings in a towel. Then, on our last night in the U.S., we stayed in a hotel in Philadelphia, where someone stole the towel. There was nothing of value inside — no money or plane tickets — only two months’ worth of work by my husband and me. All of my Gaussian curves. I was furious, and so I said, “I will go back to squares and rectangles, and I don’t want anything to do with Gaussian curves.”

Ten years passed, fifteen maybe, and I had an exhibition in Aix-en-Provence. I opened my shutters, and what do I see? The Gaussian curve through Mont Sainte-Victoire. For once in my life, I had no pencil or drawing pad — which usually I always do — but for once I had nothing. I found a piece of scrap and scribbled it down, I might even still have the original somewhere. I have baptized the curve “the Sainte-Victoire Curve,” and people understood that I was referring to [Cézanne’s] Mont Sainte-Victoire. It does not have that much to do with Cézanne, though maybe it is that I saw it on all his paintings that represent the mountain. I’m not sure, but in any case, it has remained one of my favorite subjects.

BPR Interviews: Vera Molnár - Brown Political Review

Process

Tracing the bezier curve on Figma to get the coordinates. Use randomGaussian() to dictate the randomness and draw the curves. Randomized the colours at each call of draw. Reduce smoothness within the bezier curves by reducing the resolution via bezierDetail().

Using p5.js

// SETTINGS
const maxLineCount = 15;
const drawRate = 130; // milliseconds

var linesDrawn = 0;
var drawNextLineAt = 0; // millis epoch
//var p = 3; // bezierDetail
var t = 0; // RGB noise

function setup() {
  createCanvas(998, 1024, WEBGL);
  background('#F7F7F7');
  noFill();
}

function draw() {

  if (linesDrawn > maxLineCount) {
    return;
  }

  if (millis() > drawNextLineAt) {
    drawLine();
    drawNextLineAt = millis() + drawRate;
    linesDrawn++;
  }
}

function drawLine() {
  // Get a gaussian random number w/ mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.0
  let val = randomGaussian();

  let sdx = randomGaussian() * 60; // Define a standard deviation
  let sdy = randomGaussian() * 100; // Define a standard deviation

  let anchor1 = { x: 124 - width/2, y: val * sdy + 574 - height/2, z: 0 };
  let control1 = { x: val * sdx + 285 - width/2, y: val * sdy + 70 - height/2, z: 0 };

  let anchor2 = { x: 877 - width/2, y: 715 - height/2, z: 0 };
  let control2 = { x: val * sdx + 189 - width/2, y: val * sdy + 662 - height/2, z: 0 };

  var r = 255 * noise(t + 2);
  var g = 255 * noise(t + 4);
  var b = 255 * noise(t + 1);
  var resolution = random(6, 15);
  console.log(`resolution: ${resolution}`);
  stroke(r, g, b);
  strokeWeight(2.5);
  bezierDetail(resolution);
  bezier(
    anchor1.x, anchor1.y, anchor1.z,
    control1.x, control1.y, control1.z,
    control2.x, control2.y, control2.z,
    anchor2.x, anchor2.y, anchor2.z,
  );
  t = t + 10;

  stroke('#ABAAA8');
  strokeWeight(1);
  rect(124-width/2, 120-height/2, 750, 783);
}

Images

Live Demo

VM-gauss.mov

Next Steps

• Tighten the range for colours