FRACTALS ON PAPER by Susan G Holland
[Revised from original version published on Cowbird]
FRACTALS DIGITALLY DESIGNED. This has been a week of experiments. Well maybe a month in a lifetime of experiments. My nice moleskin sketch book is busy these days with dabbings and drizzlings of my new waterbased gouaches.
Myself, “How do these paints work together? What is the consistency, and how good is the layering power? How opaque or how transparent can I make them? How does added water affect them and how to they work with black calligraphy ink? When wet? When dry? AND, ESPECIALLY… when undisturbed, i.e., left to themselves to form their own shapes?”
Then the camera: (a simple little Kodak handheld digital camera with a pretty good little league lens.) The camera is my third eye in the studio. I can be the observer when I see my work on the screen. It’s not personal..it’s just image once it’s on the screen.
Then the playful little program (free!) paint.net to invert colors, tilt, shake, sharpen, skew, push around. I learn much from my little camera and program. It has no opinion…just shows the truth and the possible fiction of my work.
Next, —two outtakes from a fascinating book I’m reading: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, (about randomness and the unexpected, among other really important sociological and political subjects.)
ADDENDUM: Jean Claude has kindly commented with this amazing visual example of the Mandelbrot set. Thank you, Jean Claude! My eyes are going bonkers!
Originally published at cowbird.com.
