Painting and Mathematics and The Founding of Carthage
Image from the article on iso-perimetry given at the end* Worth posting again. In 2019, a mathematician, painter and long-time friend, Joel Spruck, from my Courant Institute days, proved a historic conjecture that is a generalization of the Dido's conjecture: find the shape enclosed by a given 'string' with the largest area. I just reread the article and wanted to highlight the last part on painting and doing math: For Spruck, doing math is similar to painting—he experiences both as a form of meditation. Two of his own canvases adorn his office. "You get in a certain space," he says. "When you're really thinking about things, it's like being in a meditative state. Hours and hours go by and you don't even realize it. "You take a blank canvas, you have certain fundamental rules, but it's all open. And the other thing that's like with painting, or anything else, is to love the challenges. It's not whether you succeed in the momen