Chaos

Quote

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Lianne Todd (artist)

In the mind’s eye, a fractal is a way of seeing infinity. – James Gleick

I just finished reading a really good book called “Chaos – Making a New Science” by James Gleick. It was recommended to me by the London Free Press photographer who took photos at my The Fractal Nature of Our Universe exhibit last summer. (Don’t forget the reprisal of that show, A Fractal Universe, is currently at the Station Arts Centre in Tillsonburg until April 7!)

It was a really interesting read, full of insight into the difficulties scientists and mathematicians have had in the past, with certain problems they encountered. Most of them involved non-linear dynamical systems – the kind you often find in nature. They were so troublesome that these problems would be put aside, ignored, deemed unsolvable. So many different kinds of scientists and mathematicians in the late 1960s and 1970s were separately converging on the same theories to solve these problems at the same time, while the tools (computers) to more freely explore these theories were also developing, one can truly say it was a science whose time had come. That didn’t mean that it didn’t meet with resistance! Sometimes even those who were essentially promoting the same ideas refused to acknowledge each other.

Fractals are a large part of Chaos Theory.

Wherever chaos led, Mandelbrot had some basis to claim that he had been there first. – James Gleick

However, there was much to discover even after Mandelbrot had provided this language for describing nature. Scientists wanted to know the “why” – and they still do. I am not sure how many scientists today are attempting to use chaos theory and the language of fractals to interpret systems from the smallest to the largest of scales. Certainly many ecologists, medical researchers, economists, meteorologists, and some astronomers are. But there is still some resistance.

Will those who are looking to complete a Grand Unified Theory give full consideration to Chaos Theory and Fractal Geometry? I hope so. Time will tell, and these are exciting times indeed.

Pics of the current show

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Lianne Todd (artist)

The Station Arts Centre has turned out to be a great location for my original series of fractal art. Their new lighting system really shows off the metal prints well, and the one wall was the perfect length to show off the larger paintings all together. Much better than crowding them into my home gallery, that’s for sure!

Here I am with a few of the pieces, on the night of the opening:

Also, the Station Arts Centre took a few photos on the night of the opening and posted them on their Facebook page. You can view them here.

The show runs until April 7.

Show Reprisal!!

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Lianne Todd (artist)

I haven’t written in a little while but I now have some great news for followers in the area who haven’t had a chance to see my fractals in person yet. I am showing those that are left (31 pieces) at the Station Arts Centre in Tillsonburg for the month of March. The show opens March 6 (this Friday) at 7-9 pm. It runs until April 7. The show is called, this time, A Fractal Universe. Come land in it!

Welcoming tourists!

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Lianne Todd (artist)

Welcoming tourists!.

via Welcoming tourists!.

Open Studio/Gallery

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Lianne Todd (artist)

On the third weekend in November, every year, we hold a studio tour in my town. Otterville is a historic town located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. This will be our 18th annual studio tour – we call it Welcome Back to Otterville – and every year the stops on the tour change slightly as the artists in town do. This year, there are eight stops on the tour, so it will be really easy to drive out, see all the stops, and return home if you live in, say, London, Kitchener/Waterloo, Stratford, or the western part of greater Toronto. It takes me less than an hour to drive to London, and about two hours to downtown Toronto, exactly an hour to Stratford. We aren’t on any major highway, but if you want directions please contact me and I’ll be happy to provide them.

If anyone reading this has been to my studio before, you will find this year quite different as I will be featuring my fractal work prominently. In fact, in the next few weeks I’ll be taking down all the art in my gallery at the rear of my house, and completely rearranging the walls to maximize the display. I always serve a lovely hot spiced cranberry punch during the tour, and I’m looking forward to the taste of it myself!

My gallery and studio are actually open all year to anyone who calls ahead or happens by on an afternoon when I’m home. I’ve just put a new sign out front (the old one suffered from weather damage) so you can easily find my location which is right on the Main Street downtown, just a few houses away from the historic mill and waterfall. Look for the yellow flags when you get here and use the map on the postcards (available at each stop) to help.

Here is some information for the tour, and a few photos.

If you find our Facebook page and “Like” us, or any of our posts, we would really appreciate the extra advertising and traffic that provides us – as you can imagine we are on a limited budget and every bit helps!

The Photographs

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Lianne Todd (artist)

It isn’t difficult to spot natural fractals all around you, if you know what you’re looking for. It’s quite probable that you just don’t recognize them because you haven’t looked at enough computer generated fractals, at enough scales, to realize that even if something in nature doesn’t look like a whole fractal, i.e., you don’t really see the repetition of a pattern on smaller and smaller scales, it will look like part of one.

Before Benoit Mandelbrot came along, nature was regarded as a rather chaotically influenced version of Euclidian geometry. The artist Paul Cezanne said as instruction to young painters: “Everything in Nature can be viewed in terms of cones, cylinders, and spheres.” But Mandelbrot’s famous quote “Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line” contradicts this, and rings very true.

Some mathematical experts are able to generate entire landscapes, or, small parts of nature like a fern leaf, just using fractal formulas. Benoit Mandelbrot gave a few examples of these in his book, The Fractal Geometry of Nature. Indeed, the generation of natural looking landscapes, textures, etc. using fractals is quite common, in video games. Ever wondered how the game manages to keep up the appearance of the surrounding landscape the character is travelling through? That’s how. They are also used in movies, creating alien landscapes.

Some examples of fractals in nature are depicted in the photographs that were part of my exhibit this summer. The patterns of ice crystal formation, mountain ranges, clouds, branching patterns of trees, growth patterns of mosses and lichens, flower structure, butterfly wings and their coloration, fur growth and patterning… on every scale you can recognize fractals, not just on earth but in the entire solar system and universe. (More about that later). For now, have a look at these, and look at the world in a new way the next time you go outside.

Top to Bottom, Left to Right:
Freezing; Mountains & Vapour; Mossy Branches; Reiterated Beauty; Nature’s Drapery; All the Markings of a Bandit. Digital Photography. 10×10″ Prints, framed $125.00

As they appeared in the exhibit at The ARTS Project. Thanks again to the Ontario Arts Council!

Publicity!

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Lianne Todd (artist)

I made the news today – and while an actual review would have been nice, I will take free advertising without complaint! This article appeared on the front page of the Today section in The London Free Press, and I am grateful to them! Nice to be featured with these other excellent artists as well.

I have decided to post my own watermarked photo of the featured painting they chose for the article – it will give you a better idea of the colour. This is one of the five watercolours on gesso that are in the exhibit, and it’s called Colourfest. Like the others, it began as a digitally generated fractal, and developed from there.

Colourfest, 20x20", Watercolour on Gessoed Paper. Lianne Todd

Colourfest, 20×20″, Watercolour on Gessoed Paper. Lianne Todd

Another item of publicity is this video made by The ARTS Project. It was the end of the day we hung the show, so I hope I am not rambling too much in it. You can see Colourfest hanging behind me!