Helena Kauppila

The sky is full of splendor, and even during a thunderstorm, a rainbow reminds us of how sunlight divides into countless different colors. The edge of the rainbow can be seen as a fold catastrophe, a boundary where the behavior of light shifts abruptly. I find the idea poetic, because the rainbow is beautiful and full of hope. A mathematical catastrophe, then, refers to something remarkable and intriguing. In the painting, I bring out this splendor of color through structure—the grid is partly mathematical, yet at the same time flexible and alive.