Why is this still occupying my mind

Well, I will try not to think too much about the complaints of others. If nothing else, it maybe counts as a slight change from the endless

Fractal Universe Calendar Kvetching



. . .

Right. Time to go do something else for a while.

Low-hanging fruit

Hey cool, the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2009 is happening. I am filled with anticipation.

I note (with a small sigh and a derisive shake of the head) that the usual complaints are already making an appearance. I suppose it must be frustrating to have photoshop-filter art so continually ignored in fractal-art contests.

However, this has given me an idea for a quick illustration of an old story.

Sour


Perhaps, if the grapes are stomped into the ground hard enough, they'll turn into a fine whine with which to drown one's sorrows.

Ok, you're a cab

Some months ago on the Ultra Fractal mailing list, Kerry Mitchell posted a lovely example of phyllotaxis patterns around a minibrot. I've had the idea for this image rattling around my head ever since.

Phyllo Taxis



Or should that be "File o' Taxis"?

Cue the Sousa march

Yeah, I have too much time on my hands these days. This is really not much of an effort; the lighting on the hardware is all wrong, but I need to stop tweaking it and go do something more productive.

A Political Fractal



By way of technical notes, I will merely say that it's all about the Orbit Traps.

Enough already

Arrgh, brain, will you stop generating this kind of stuff already. What's up with that?

untitled [emotional roller coaster]

Oh maybe just one more

Too late now for Valentine's Day, but I have this one last silly heart image I wanted to upload. I spent an awful lot of time trying to get a better heart-shape using the various new knob-twiddles available in orbit traps coloring. There have been a couple of heart-shaped traps in the standard formula library for ages, but I always think they look a little clunky. So now I've proved to myself that I can get the kind of reflexive curve I'd rather have, if I'm willing to waste an hour or so on it.

untitled [cardioneon]

None for you

I'm in the middle of moving into a new apartment right now, and today I took a break and looked at some various fractals online, by way of a distraction. A bit of orderly chaos, as a change from the disorderly chaos of boxes around me.

I should have realized, though, that it would only make me all frustrated, because of course looking at fractals makes me want to go exploring, and make pictures of my own, but the computer with all the fractal-rendering programs isn't available right now, and isn't going to be available for another several days at least. Arrgh.

Instead, I've dug through the folders on my (faithful, old, slow) laptop, and found this one, which seemed somewhat appropriate.

Temptation



It's related to several of the ones I've posted in the last weeks. Those spirals are down there, all right, curling slowly in the smoky beam of the spotlight. But I can't have them right now. Grr.

Back off, peppermint-breath

Ahh, Thanksgiving is over, and now we're into the downhill slide of the year, when the world fills up with horrible plastic things that light up, or inflate, or blink, or play canned music at you incessantly, all with the intention of forcing you to experience some kind of artificial cheer. It's as though the year was some sort of elderly and formerly dignified relative, who upon reaching a certain advanced age, begins to wear hideous red-and-green plaid pants and maybe a revolving bow tie, and who tends to burst into loud embarrassing song at inappropriate moments.

It's disappointing, when the season itself has so much potential, so many evergreen symbols of rebirth and hope and new light in this dark time. Winter seems like a good time for rest and quiet contemplation, and I hate to see it get all clogged up with manic enforced jolliness.

Ah well.

Another Year Down the Christmas-Hole

And I'm an idiot

The effect of art school (and too much internet-reading) on the fractalist.

Grinding fish and scratching metal

Things are really pretty grim at school lately, but I'm trying to press on and get something done, and wait until later to worry about whether I like it or not. So I've been etching plates, and today I got as far as proofing two of them.

insomnia (2-plate proof)



Hard-ground etching from two fractal layers (Perforated Julia, circle trap and pythagorean triple), 9" x 7".

I took some pictures of the plates, too, just because I like how they look.

And so it begins

Arrgh, I have two stressful project proposals to give tomorrow. I do not feel in any way prepared for either of them.

This soothing placid image I made a couple of days ago is not likely to be any help.

untitled (nacreous)

Stumble the light

It seems as though the new department chair has some interest in digital printmaking, and the teacher of my printmaking class perhaps also. It may therefore be easier than I had thought, this business of doing fractals and school at the same time. Can I be brave enough to do it?

In the meantime, I'm experimenting with a newly-published coloring method with an entertaining name: Trap the Light Fantastic. I'm finding it frustrating, though. It seems potentially capable of making some interesting shapes, but there are vastly too many options, and no way of telling which of them will do anything worthwhile. So far I've spent an awful lot of hours just turning things into hideous static, passing through one or two almost-good effects on the way, and finally giving up without even saving the parameters.

I think I'm just somebody who likes to have really tight control over my tools all the time, and I don't enjoy the blindly-blundering-into-things approach. Perhaps I should try to lighten up, instead of always wanting to know exactly what is going to happen when I push the button. Or maybe it's just too big and unwieldy a coloring after all.

Anyway, here's one of the few things I did save.

City in a Bubble



Julia, with four layers of Trap the Light Fantastic.