When people first encounter fractal art, they are often amazed to find out that fractal art is created through the use of math, specifically fractal geometry. Using math as an artist's tool seems counterintuitive at first. It seems strange to use a computer the way you would use canvas and paint. But fractal geometry is the mathematical basis for the calculation of lots of shapes found in nature. And many beautiful images can be created in the hands of an artist. Fractal geometry can be used to calculate shorelines or to create simulations of mountains and other landscape features. Most (if not all) of the computer programs used today to create artificial landscapes for movies use a form of fractal geometry. Spiral shapes, shells, trees, flowers are all things that can be mathematically modeled using fractal geometry.
In creating fractal art, the artist uses one or more fractal art computer programs to create works of art. The art is created by choosing a formula, changing various values in the formula, zooming in and out in the image, adding layers (if the program supports this), changing colors and coloring formulas and so forth until the artist finds the image he or she is seeking. Some of this is just a random trying of different possibilities and some is based on knowing how the math works and having a good idea beforehand what the effect of the mathematical changes you introduce is likely to be. For the fractal artist, the computer is an essential tool as millions of mathematical calculations may go into creating one piece.
In some ways fractal art is similar to photography as an art. The art is in knowing when you have a good image and then fine tuning it. Just as most photographers take many photographs in order to get the images that speak to them, most fractal artists try many mathematical combinations to get to the images they want to keep. Once you find the basic shape you like, then you can fine tune it by changing the coloring, cropping, adding light and shadow to add dimensionality and many other techniques.
One of the things that I personally find fascinating about fractal art is that people who are not artists or mathematicians are drawn to the imagery because so many of the shapes resemble things found in nature. But because we are not creating realistic art, there is much room for personal interpretation and I am often amazed by what people see in the imagery that I did not.
I thought I'd take an opportunity to introduce you to range of possibilities in fractal art by showing some of my work. What I am trying to achieve in my work is to make people smile. There's enough hate and anger and fear and upset in the world. It's important in this crazy wolrd we live in to look at art and remember that there is beauty as well as madness, stress, hate, and bad news. I choose to bring art into the world to improve my viewer's day not make it more stressed. So relax and enjoy.
And finally, as a tribute to Benoit Mandelbrot, the founder of fractal mathmatics, my interpretation of the famous Mandelbrot set.