ARTIST BIO

Jessica K. Sklar (community.plu.edu/~sklarjk, @JessicaKSklar) is a professor of mathematics and the current mathematics chair at Pacific Lutheran University; she also serves on SUMM ’s Programs Committee. Her passions include math and art, math and pop culture, recreational math (the math of games and puzzles), and abstract algebra. She co-edited the book Mathematics and Popular Culture (McFarland, 2012) with Elizabeth S. Sklar, and is a member of the Mathemalchemy team (https://mathemalchemy.org/), creating a large multimedia art installation that celebrates the creativity and beauty of mathematics. She and artist Bronna Butler together make up QED Arts, a mathematical art collaborative.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This 3-dimensional still life is a tribute both to the artist’s dissertation advisor, Frank Wylie Anderson, and to mathematics itself. It features the artist’s beloved copy of Frank’s book Rings and Categories of Modules and a cup of coffee—mathematics grad student fuel. At the center of the piece is a print of Disciple, a love poem for mathematics that was written by the artist and originally published in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. The chalkboard features content from the artist’s dissertation, Binomial Rings and Modules (2001).