Why fractals?

I was first introduced to fractals in a general sense, in the form of microcosmic and macrocosmic thinking. I was fascinated. The idea that miniature creatures explored my body the same way I did my own evironment was deliciously interesting.

Groups of them, like the people buzzing about me, diligently fulfilling the variables that govern their existence.

It wasn't until a few years later that I encountered my first julia set. It was hanging in one of those, out of the box, science stores you often find at the mall, and looked very much like the image below.



The collections of toys, geodes and plasma balls could not sway my gaze. It took a few moments, but I realized it was a visual guide of sorts, to one of my greatest fascinations. Shapes, made up of like shapes, made up of like shapes, each with their own slight variation, wandering off to find infinity.

It wasn't until much later that I encountered fractal art. While I find fractals intrinsically beautiful, the concept of making them more so, was still unknown to me.

As our knowledge of fractal mathematics, and the software to manipulate it evolves, the ability to beautify them does as well.

Where once we were limited to a single layer, or single formula, we are no longer. Combining fractals and other elements in accordance to one's vision is not the arduous task it once was. It is now possible to add borders, accents, texture, lighting and other elements.

The possibilities are quite exciting...

..and in a universe literally steeped in recursion, who am I to deny possibility?

-Chris

The (Artistic) Middle Ground

"The middle ground can be pretty far away sometimes."
—our very own Chris



I confess: This article is somewhat of a cop-out. When confronted with the prospect of introducing my own art, I could only come up with two broad statements about my fractal corpus: First, I like texture. Second, my fractals tend to be multicolored—I rarely work in monochrome, or even in duochrome, or even on one side of the color wheel.

Now, those two things hardly constitute a distinct artistic vision. So naturally, I picked the brains of my fellow bloggers in an effort to approach my art with fresh eyes.


At the time of writing, this is my most recent fractal. (Varied palette? Check. Texture? Check.) It is called "Draftsmanship" but any number of alternate names would suit it: Via Appia, Cobblestones, Primes, Crayola Architecture, Sketched, Fibonacci.

I also think that it may end up being a bit of a turning point for me, but it's difficult to explain how and why while the breakthrough is still going on.


This one, I chose because it has many of my "hallmarks" rolled into one image. Again you see the prevalent texture and multicolors—but none are particularly saturated or vibrant. It has some obviously fractal forms, but they are combined with things like ruler-straight stripes and (at the opposite end of the spectrum) distorted, structureless swirls.

That said, this is not entirely representative of my gallery. It's far more technical than average, far less naturalistic and blended, for instance, but I still thought it was an interesting amalgam of some of my artistic tendencies.


And, I occasionally do something that is just wacky. I'm not under the delusion that this is one of my best fractals—I didn't choose these three to be impressive; I meant them to be a representative slice of my explorations, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a significant number of "experiments" like this lying around. Rest assured that the results of the experimentation tend to get incorporated into my more polished work, even if only I am really aware of it.

So, how did Chris, Esin, and Travis characterize my style? The general consensus seemed to be that my fractals look earthy and not-very-computerized. Leafing through my gallery and portfolio, I think that's accurate. I'm no good at artistic self-assessment (luckily for you I'll mostly be assessing other people in this blog) but even I can spot my own predilection for creating a fractal that gives away the human aspects of its creation more than the digital ones.

The quote at the top is yours to puzzle out on your own, though.

An Introduction from the Tree

I consider myself a fractal artist. Not because I work with fractal media but rather because, whatever media I work with, I find myself looking at fractals. Scale variances, self repetition, randomness, order within chaos... As natural as it feels to me right now, though, initially I stumbled upon fractals by mere coincidence while looking at a friend’s drawings on deviantArt. After that, something just kept me going at fractals. I can’t tell what the driving force was, but here I am now, seeing fractals wherever I look.



Fractals are what nature is made of. Now would you dare say this wasn’t fractal art? I can’t. And that is why I feel obliged to include it here, in this blog dedicated to fractal art.
Named On Fractal Grounds Pt. 1, it’s part of a series of photos taken from a plane during a particularly eye-pleasing flight from Istanbul to Montreal.

The following fractal was done in Apophysis, which I used and abused exclusively for more than 3 years. I rarely “plan” my fractals. That is to say, I don’t tend to start out doing a fractal with a particular goal in mind. I feel like Apophysis is the perfect tool for such artistic spontaneity.



This here, Vicissitudes, is a result of one of those sessions of opening up Apophysis, turning on some music (which usually ends up giving my fractals their names) and playing around with forms, colors and textures via numbers until I like what I see. This one took its name from an Esbjorn Svensson Trio song, mostly due to the tidal interactions between the forms and the overall instability. I feel like it deserves its name as the image lends itself to many interpretations from “an imploding galaxy” to the savannah and “dying breath of a caught gazelle” - to quote some of the comments made on it by fellow artists.

This last fractal I want to show you was made in Ultra Fractal, which I started using about a year ago simply because it suddenly became more convenient after switching to a MacBook which would not let me use Apophysis with its full features. Right now, I would say Ultra Fractal is my weapon of choice.



Bloodthirsty is from a time when I was experimenting with sFBM II to see what I could do with a single layer. The title was inspired by Vicarious, from Tool, which was playing in the background as I was looking for the right colors for this grungy fractal.

Looking back now, I see myself mostly doing flat, textural abstracts of many kinds. I can’t say my style has converged to a particular standard yet, but I’m not sure I want it to either. I would hate to be predictable.

Finally, if you would like to see my other works, here are the links to my full gallery and my portfolio that has some of my chosen works.

Why "The Platypus"?

So, a good while back, I accidentally picked up the nickname "The Platypus". In the beginning, I was totally baffled by this, but I soon realized that people were just confused by my deviant art handle. Now, I'm totally into it! I love being called the platypus because really, think about the creature itself. It may be a weird lookin' bugger, but it's great because it's made of so many other creatures. Just like I am! I'm so many different things rolled into one artist. I love fractal art, it's such an incredible medium that's full of life and great depth. I also enjoy abstract painting and sometimes writing. I'm a creature of many parts. Ok, yeah, really, enough about me. I'm here for the art!

My first love is Apophysis. It's been labeled as my specialty by some friends and peers and I think I agree.

This is my piece Brutality. It was created using Apophysis ver. 2.09b.
Very often, I name the piece after it's "finished". To me, this felt like some kind of inglorious movement or something harsh and obtrusive.

A little recently, I've started experimenting and using Ultra Fractal. I find it a fascinating program and definitely one worth working with.

My piece Mermaid's Deception created with Ultra Fractal 5.

More often than not, I play and work with a piece until it feels right to me. This can take anywhere from an hour or a few minutes to an afternoon or up to a few days or a week. I have had longer experiences with a piece, but very seldom. This piece actually took quite a while to form and take the shape as you see it now. Because it continually looked beautiful, but lured me in and then disappointed me, it really earned its title.

Not too long ago, my aunt had introduced me to these wonderful inks that she was using to paint dominoes that she would use in her jewelry pieces. Well, after I got my hands on them, you'd never know they were the same thing.

My piece,The Garden Burning, created using Adirondack® alcohol inks on the backs of dominoes.

I love the way these inks work and the stuff I can do with them is pure inspiration in itself. I really don't know what to say about this piece. I was just so inspired to create something that I just went which ever direction the inks went.

So, there we have it, a brief introduction into the art of the Platypus!
Certainly, if wish to see more, you can very well check out my portfolio at Travis's Portfolio.

The Beginning of Some New Iterations

Fractal art. You like to look at it, perhaps you like to make it, but do you like talking about it?

With fractal art growing in popularity, the community surrounding it seems to be as chaotic as the images themselves. Individuals are making fantastic and innovative fractals, but art is about more than just great visuals.

Like anything in it's infancy, it is hard to surmise where fractal art will go and what it will become. The challenge we face, truly, is exploring and growing along with it, and perhaps posing the questions that are hard to ask.

What makes an artist great? What is metaphor? How does mathematical imagery tie into a traditional artistic aesthetic? Are there artistic movements within fractal art as in traditional art? The list is as infinite as fractals themselves.

While we may not have all the answers, we do have perspective. Four unique outlooks into a world as strange and beautiful as any other you could imagine.

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Hello all. My name is Chris Oldfield. I am perhaps better known in the fractal art community by the handle, milleniumsentry. I live a short drive from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and I have been tinkering with mathematical imagery for approximately four years. I enjoy many programs, but my forte lies in Ultra Fractal. I am an incredibly curious being, and most of my time is spent satiating said impulse. Thankfully, fractals are just infinite enough to keep me occupied. When it's time to give my retina a rest, I enjoy studying physics and astronomy, computer programming, logic structures and artificial intelligence.

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Merhaba! Esin, here. Also known as banana-tree by some. I like bananas. I like music. I like neurons. I like spirals. I like the random. I like the mysterious. I like people. I like exceptions. I like underdogs. I like the random. I like contradicting you. I like contradicting myself right thereafter. I like being confused. I like epiphanies that follow. My brain would like to have your brain’s babies.

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About Far: I think the desert is beautiful, but the ocean is overrated. On any given day, you might find me listening to Alice Cooper, then Stravinsky, then 3OH!3. Salty flavors appeal to me more than sweet ones and I am unabashedly enamored of my own handwriting. In addition to my fractal activities, I follow about fifteen webcomics and a blog or three. From this, you can probably infer that I'm one of those people who spend way too time online—but I've also seen bald eagles and a grizzly bear in the wild, so I like to think those things balance each other out. Last but not least, if you think any of Shakespeare's plays are better than King Lear, then don't say so where I can hear. Especially Hamlet. Hamlet can suck it.

A more conventional about me: I'm a twenty-year-old female English major from Montana who's been fractalling for five years. My real name is Jess.

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My name is Travis. 300 years ago, I arose from seafoam. I'm currently on loan from the Louvre. I'm the leader of a ragtag team of war heroes who have become soldiers for hire, working as good-guy vigilantes around the US or the world. My lineage consists of a bottle of Jack and a broken rubber. I love going off the deep end. I swim in the kiddy pool. I'm crudely refined. I'm an acquired taste, at least to those who have had tongue transplants. I paint the thin line between genius and insanity. I drive on a parkway and park where ever the hell I want.

Well, ok, maybe some things aren't true. My name is Travis though. I'm 22 and I like alot of things. My specialty is using Apophysis, though, I've been told I'm getting good at Ultra Fractal too. Folks round these here parts call me the Platypus. It's all good, baby. It's all good.

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And that's the New Iterations team!