I’m a Pattern Maker with a Sweet Tooth.

The creation of Archimedes Chocolates was an artistic and therapeutic endeavor.

In need of a healthy distraction following a major life event, my appreciation for the beauty and wisdom of nature led me to study the mathematical principles that serve as the basis of all physical forms in nature. Pi and square roots. The golden ratio. Irrational numbers and repeating fractals.

I began by learning how to work with a compass. Basic stuff: circles and squares and triangles and polygons. Then the flower of life and Metatron’s cube. Eventually I graduated to drawing three-dimensional Archimedean solids like octahedrons and dodecahedrons. Soon I was able to recreate any polyhedron from memory on a computer. Regular and isogonal, noble and uniform, dual and stellated.  

I then invented a mathematical method of making three-dimensional surface patterns. I began experimenting with different materials and spent the first 6 months of the pandemic making copper tiles by hand. I was even commissioned to create a wall of 108 tiles for a yoga studio. But cold cast copper is not a cooperative or forgiving material to work with, and that wall took me 3 months to complete.

Late one night while polishing one of the last tiles in that wall, the thought occurred to make sculpted chocolate bars instead. Yes, I was hungry. Yes, it was a ludicrous thought. Yes, these patterns are beautiful. And yes, chocolate is sweet.

It begs the question: does it matter one little crumb what food looks like? Would you drink that latte if the barista didn’t make a foamy Rosetta? It’s all going to the same place anyway.

Begrudgingly I am aware fewer and fewer simple things seem sacred in our society these days. Sunrises and sunsets were once all the rage. Babies and puppies were enough. The sound of cicadas got me through. Today people are buying real estate on the Metaverse in a race to usher in dystopia, who cares what chocolate looks like? Put it in my mouth and forget it.

Dramatic changes occur to cells simply by altering the environment of the petri dish, and people are a conflagration of cells. Relationships, climate, culture… everything affects us on a deeply cellular, emotional level. It seems our eyes need to see beauty like our bellies need nutrients. Aesthetics do matter, art matters, creativity matters.

We are a product of our environment; what we surround ourselves with functions as a feedback loop in the mind and body. What goes in goes out, and what goes out goes in. Appreciate beauty where it is and make beauty where it isn’t, whatever beauty is to you. Art should never be a means to an end.

Archimedes Chocolates are nutritious and full of antioxidants. So whether it’s a special occasion, a gift, or part of your diet, I encourage you to enjoy eating my patterns and feel really good about it!

Jeff Beaudoin, Ph.D.