Symmetry attracts us. Studies comparing people’s reactions to different faces have shown, for example, that they find highly symmetrical faces more attractive than less symmetrical faces. The symmetry of faces is simple and bilateral, but other three-dimensional objects can be symmetric in complex ways, leading to different kinds of beauty.
Bathsheba Grossman, a sculptor in Santa Cruz, California, mines subtle forms of symmetry for inspiration. Her results are swirling and proportional. They may be simple or complex, but they always come together into a precise, intriguingly symmetrical pattern.