Sienna Morris is a dexterous and blessed artist who invented this wonderful technique called 'Numberism'. Based in Portland, Oregon, she has been a painter and designer for most of her life. But in summer of 2008, she started creating drawings with the numbers of the clock 1-12. The idea behind using the numbers is quite interesting. For Sienna, her creations are a medium to appreciate the present and it is the only chance to do so.

Morris's incredible artworks are always drawn using the numbers of the clock, which is the most fascinating aspect of her Art.

Sienna Morris drew a hand-drawn Numberism portrait of Stephen Colbert for the Colbert Portrait Challenge which is drawn entirely with numbers and no lines. Catch the video below at the end of this article. But before that, see what Sienna herself has to share everything about her artistic journey:


Sienna, let's start with a brief introduction of yours.

I'm a big geek. I'm also an artist. It's no surprise these two aspects of me have found a way to work with each other. My artwork is drawn entirely with numbers. I call the technique Numberism. As far as I know, I am the first Numberism artist. My newest series focuses on drawing the subjects with the data that makes them function, like Hz frequencies, chemical formulas, the speed of light or Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. I do this to help in my learning process and to show the real beauty and creative potential of math and science.






























What influences the artist within you?

I'm pretty sure it's the same thing that inspires all of us. I have a very short time on this planet. It's a complex and amazing place and I desperately want to understand it and appreciate it fully. My work helps me do that. The work reminds me to be present and to explore as much as I can while I'm here. When I see the initial beauty of fireflies pulsing green light, I want to push myself to look deeper so I can then be amazed by the brilliance of the reactions that create the  glow I see on the surface. I think the longer I look and the more I see through scientific and artistic study, the closer I will get to seeing the actual beauty that is there, like an underlying kernel of truth running underneath the surface of everything that strikes us, inspires us and confounds us. We know it's there: more. I think I'll find it in numbers.





























Have you always wanted to become an artist?

I grew up not knowing my father, and as a child I desperately wanted to. He was a great mystery to me, and  I decided that it was this fatherly influence that would have changed everything, that knowing him would make me great. I'm not sure where that reasoning came in, but as a kid I was certain he had all the secrets I didn't have access to, and just by knowing him I would somehow be smarter, stronger and possibly cooler. The only thing I really knew about him was that he was a painter. I remember at age 7 thinking that if I became a talented artist, when we met each other again, even if he didn't recognize me as his daughter, he would recognize me as a kindred spirit through my art. So I took on drawing pretty heavily rather young. I didn't have much for official training other than a few school art classes here and there, so I tended to study art I loved in books or museums and picked the mind of any artist I met. Later on, in my teens, I picked the mind of my father.

I've pretty consistently wanted to be an artist all my life. I can't remember a time when I wanted to do something else. I had other interests, but they usually lead back to art. I'm an artist, there's not really anyway to get away from that.






















Enlighten us with this wonderful technique that you use to create drawings 'Numberism'.

I started this technique in 2008. As far as I know, I was the first one to do this, though there are many techniques very similar to this, such as pointillism or typography, which is done in the computer or with a typewriter. My pieces are hand drawn with pencil, pen or as an etching entirely with numbers and formulas.

I think it's easiest to explain this with the work itself. This etching, “Midnight” is a scratch board etching. To make it, I used an exacto blade to scratch out very small numbers to create the gradients you see. Every single mark on the piece is a number. There are no lines whatsoever. This piece is drawn with the numbers of the clock, 1 – 12, to signify time fleeting in this wonderful moment.

Here is a close up of the same image:

Midnight

This piece, “Fibonacci's Snail”  which is from my new series, is drawn with the Fibonacci's Sequence to represent mathematically the Golden Spiral seen in the Snail's shell. The sequence starts in the center with “0” and continues along the shape of the spiral. 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610...

Fibonacci's Snail

“Schrödinger's Cat” is drawn with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Schrödinger's Cat

I read that you accidentally created this technique. What was that accident?

The accident was that I needed numberism. It was the only way I had to bring myself back to living my life. I was in a rut, my husband and I had recently come back to America from three years living in China and found ourselves back at square one, with no money, no place of our own and no direction to go.  Our time in China had been pretty enjoyable, where we had the freedom to make art, movies and music on pretty much our schedule. Back in the states in 2008 with the economy going downhill, we had very little  ability to get back to life as usual. My husband, Tab and I were both hit with serious depression. We were full of regret and trepidation and both of us got an ego hit by having to stay with family while we tried to get back on our feet.

During this, I found myself reflecting on my life. I am very self critical, so this is not a wise thing to do. From the perspective I was in, my life was a list of failures and missed opportunities. With perfect hindsight, I saw everything I could have done differently and was paralyzed with the fear that I would continue that pattern for the rest of my life. Was it too late? Was there any chance of getting back on track? If I did, could I trust myself to take advantage of it or would I let more opportunities pass me by?

One day, I had a little moment of realization. I sort of saw life as the 4 dimensional experience it is, moments passing in ways that were entirely unrepeatable. Once they were gone, there was nothing to be done about it. The moments ahead of you were intangible probabilities. Trying to change either of them was an exercise in futility. This realization was both terrifying and calming. I realized that my only chance was to do as much as I could with the present, knowing that this temporary moment was precious and singular. I also knew I would forget this bit of insight as soon as I had to deal with daily life, so I needed to keep a reminder with me.

I had initially simply incorporated the numbers of the clock, 1 – 12 in my line drawings, illustrating the anxiety I had about it's passage. There were two drawings like this. My third drawing with numbers was “Falling To Pieces”. It is a drawing of a moment that I was fully and completely present. It is my favorite moment. It's a long story, but it was the moment I first saw my husband again after being separated by one year and half a world back in 2004. I decided that I could capture the moment in it's entirety by representing the 3 dimensions of space with the figures and the fourth dimension of time with the numbers of the clock, 1 - 12. To illustrate how fleeting it was, I sent the numbers flying like sand being blown across a page.  The image looked to me like the moment felt, in flux, more like a sigh than a real solid thing. Drawing this piece helped me realize the value of being present, in spite and despite the past or unknown future. I did not know this technique of drawing with numbers didn't exist. That was not the point. The point was to get me living life again.

Falling To Pieces

Would you like to describe in brief your creative work process?

My new series, that I started last year deals with illustrating our world through the math and science that makes it function. Each piece requires anywhere from a day to a year of research. Each piece generally takes me about 2 – 6 weeks to draw (drawing for about 8 hours a day), though I am drawing faster with each piece. My inspiration for these pieces comes from all over the place; from something that strikes me as beautiful like the fireflies in my “Bioluminescence” piece, or something complex and fascinating like “Schrödinger's Cat” which initially confounded me. My husband and I study and discuss science on a daily basis. My learning experience found it's way into my art and doing so has been very beneficial for both sides of this process. It helps solidify the study and serves as a constant reminder of what I learned and the endless potential of it and everything else I have yet to study (which is quite a lot really).

Bioluminescence

The pieces themselves are either pencil or pen on paper or scratch board etchings, in which I use an exacto blade to scratch off the numbers. The color I lay in with water color wash. I try not to draw a piece until I feel I have a fairly good understanding of the data I'm drawing it with.

Your own so many wonderful creations made by you. Which one is your favorite?

My favorite changes now and then, but currently, it is one I no longer own. “A Cello” was a custom piece that offered me quite a bit of learning experience as well as challenge in the drawing process itself. It is my most detailed piece, with the finest gradients and the most precise number placement. For the strings, I graphed out the possible Hz frequencies of each note and matched it with the finger placement along the strings. This took the most time and the most attention to detail. I've been told that I looked like a mad woman while doing it. Apparently I was whispering to myself the percentage along the string and the corresponding frequency so as not to loose my place.
































The disembodied hands were also my influence in this piece.  JB originally wanted an etching of a Cello all on it's own. I insisted that there needed to be a person in the piece to give it life. In the end, we compromised on just the arms. I love these arms. To me, these are the ghostly arms of a long dead musician seemingly playing with you when you hear their old record, as though they decided to come back just to play that song. I guess it's my way of thinking that while we will eventually die, if we create powerful and beautiful enough art, it at least will live on.




 Share the best compliment you've ever received for your work.

A family came to my booth at Portland Saturday Market and purchased a few of my prints. I explained the pieces to them, one of which was “Fibonacci's Snail” from above. That piece was picked out by the 11 year old boy in the family. He was very excited about the piece and left the booth chattering about it. Two weeks later, he came back to my booth just to show me the book he had purchased. It was about the Golden Ratio in relation to music, art and architecture. He said “I started studying the Golden Spiral. It is so cool!” As far as I know, he hadn't been overly interested in math before.  Inspiring this young man to study math with such vigor might be the best thing I've ever done, and I did so with my art. Math is a tough thing to get into, especially for young people who are not predisposed to it. It could very well be the best place for them, and they could find endless inspiration and benefit from it, but how could they know if it's only ever presented to them in the stuffy atmosphere of ROTE learning? I needed something like this earlier on, and am endlessly happy that I was able to show him that there was more to math than formulas in a book.


Do you have any dream project?

I have a few, and they keep changing. Firstly, I would like to combine my art with science and math education. I have plans for  this, and am trying to start a charity for just this purpose, though it is slow going with my other focuses on the art itself and running a small business. I hope to get it going next year. The idea would be to show high school students the potential of math and science through performing and visual arts. It would focus on being interactive and independent, and hopefully would give a few students the bug to get into a field they may not have known was an option for them. Cross your fingers.

Also, I very much want to do numberism cover art for Batman. I imagine Batman coming up from his grave, numbers spilling off of him like iron fillings. How cool would that be? Don't you think it'd be great, DC? ;) There are other characters I would love to draw as well. Brainiac and Dr. Manhattan are obvious candidates with my math and science work. Comic book art was a major part of my learning experience with drawing as a kid, as well as wonderful escape that I continue to enjoy. Beyond that, comics and sci fi seems to be brimming with the big ideas that keep us wondering. I know it's a bit odd, but I think a lot of our accomplishments in applied sciences come from places like comics and sci fi. It's where we first dream about our next exploration or achievement. Later on, we get down to business with the the R & D, but first we need the inspiration to wonder about it before we get started.


Many other artists and our readers would draw inspiration from you. What message do you have for them?


Hmm, well if were to think back to when I was starting a career as an artist, I guess what would be most helpful to hear is to be persistent, to draw from an honest perspective and to realize that there is much more to an artist than just the work. We often limit ourselves to the realm of the creative world in very definitive terms. I wish someone had told me that there was a challenging and fruitful place for me in math and science, in applied sciences and the patterns of music and form. I guess I would remind myself to look for inspiration outside of the predictable places. To study and expand my horizons as much as possible. Science and math, for instance is a wonderful place for a creative mind. The farther into it you go, the easier it is to see that what is really needed for scientific advancement is a new creative perspective, to take what is  there and make something from it completely unexpected. From exploring fields outside of your scope, you can probably bring something back to your work that will challenge and reward you and your art.

 

Sienna, thank you for sparing time to talk to us. I am big fan of your art now and I truly believe that it will be loved by the whole world very soon. All the best and keep up the good work!

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