Tag Archives: fractals

An Archetypal Image

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I think I have mentioned before how I see many fractals as somewhat archetypal in nature.  We have, in our decorative past, incorporated many motifs that turn out to be quite common in fractal geometry.  The swirls and whorls, the spirals and branches, the radiating patterns… it is like we knew about fractals before we knew about fractals.  But of course we did, didn’t we?  Because fractals are the shapes of nature, and we are a part of nature ourselves, and surrounded by it.  We noticed the regular and irregular natural patterns around us and we appreciated them.  We began to find them beautiful. Then we began to associate them with ideas, and some of them became symbolic.

This particular fractal is one of those ones that seems to be archetypal.  Of course the cross shape, as a symbol, is much more ancient than the Christian religion.  This is more complicated than a simple cross, though.  What other associations does your mind bring to this image?

Symbol. Digital fractal art on metal. Single edition print. 16x16". Lianne Todd

Symbol. Digital fractal art on metal. Single edition print. 16×16″. Artist Lianne Todd. Private Collection.

I hope you’ll come out to my studio this coming weekend during the Oxford Studio Tour to see this piece and more.

New Fractals

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I’m excited to have some new fractal art to show you in a week at the Oxford Studio Tour.

We have thirty-one artists at seventeen locations throughout Oxford County, Ontario, Canada in the heart of the southwestern part of this province.  It will be a fun day trip for anyone in the region – even those coming out from Toronto! (Wouldn’t it be nice to get out of the city for a day or two?)

Here is a preview of one of the fractals.  I have printed it (using Posterjack) on metal, 20×20″ and that is the only print I will do, so it is an original piece.  It is created digitally using the Mandelbulb 3D software.  As I find usual and striking for fractals, it looks very natural. It is pretty obvious what I thought it resembled!  I hope you’ll come and see it.  I think it would make a great piece to gaze at from anywhere in your house, while you consider nature and its mysteries, and it draws you in close, as well – as all fractals do with their self-similarity on smaller and smaller scales.

I call this one Ocean Floor:

Ocean Floor. Digital Fractal Art. Lianne Todd.

Ocean Floor. Digital Fractal Art. Lianne Todd.  This image has now been printed on metal as a single edition. 20×20″. $345.00

 

The scarves are selling!

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I still have my design page on VIDA, where you can purchase the 100% natural Charmeuse silk square scarves with my fractal designs on them.  These are larger (34.5×34.5″) than any of my wall pieces with the added value of being wearable!  VIDA emailed me the other day letting me know traffic to my page has been strong, and in the email they sent a few coupon codes for me to pass along.

Here they are!

5 USD Gift Card off Orders 50 USD+ (use code PMCG3191V3IX)
15 USD Gift Card off Orders 100 USD+ (use code 83PNNJ8ZCUCE)
40 USD Gift Card off Orders 200 USD+ (use code NHJTDLZ2XS7P)

This offer expires on Sunday January 24th at midnight PST.

GroovyPageVIDA

HiggsBosonPageVIDA

ArtifactsPageVIDA

 

Wearable Fractals!

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I am very excited to share with you a new direction I am taking with my fractal art.  I was approached a couple of weeks ago by VIDA, which is a global partnership of co-creators – artists and designers all over the world, makers in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Latin America, and consumers all over the world.  They are backed by, among others, Google Ventures and Universal Music Group. One of the reasons I accepted their proposal is their socially responsible outlook.  The makers receive a living wage, as well as a basic literacy and math education they wouldn’t ordinarily get.  The artists receive ten percent of all sales from their collection, and nothing is made until it is ordered.

I love the idea of my fractal art being worn!  What a great way to show off the natural beauty of the fractals while increasing my exposure as an artist.  I have chosen, at least as a starting point, to only use either my original watercolour fractals as designs, or digital fractals I haven’t printed on metal or acrylic.  My first pieces are silk square scarves, as they worked well with designs I had already created.  One of them has been designed using the software Mandelbulb 3D.  Click on the image below to visit my VIDA collection and shop online!

VIDApage

You are invited…

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I have the detailed information for the show I told you about a while ago, and I also want to tell you about another show, so please scroll down!

This is a free event, and there will be refreshments served.  The Elm Hurst is a lovely place to dine, and the food is really good, but don’t feel obligated to stay for dinner if you can’t.  The gallery is in the hallway between the lobby and the restaurant.

OCCElmhurst_07_16 lowres

 

On July 19 I will also be participating in a one-day outdoor show at the Quai du Vin Estate Winery, called Off the Wall!…and Off the Vine.  The winery is near Sparta, ON.  My tent will be in the area called “El Prado”.  At this show I will mainly be exhibiting my more traditional watercolours, which you may see more of at my other site, liannetodd.wordpress.com.  I will have some new winery-themed pieces.  Here are the details:

OTW Poster Web

Following the Patterns of Nature

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It is an absolutely beautiful day today in Otterville, full of colour and the patterns of nature, so I plan to spend some time outside.  It was during another beautiful day a few years back, hiking in the woods at Awenda Provincial Park, that I came across many kinds of fungus.  I took a number of photos, and an edited version of one of them ended up as part of this image I am presenting to you today.

On another completely separate occasion, I was creating fractal images and found that, as is often the case, there were distinctly natural and vegetative features recognizable in one.  I saved it, and later on when looking through all of my photos, I noticed how well the features in it mimicked and extrapolated the patterns of growth I had noticed in the fungal photo.  I had even just happened, by whim, to have edited the photo so that its colours matched the ones I had, by chance, used in the fractal creation.

What you see below is a digital collage of the natural and the generated fractal patterns, printed on metal.  Once again nature shows how it is a manifestation of the fractal patterns of the universe.

Following the Patterns. Digital Fractal Art printed on metal, single edition. 16x16". Lianne Todd. $225.00.

Following the Patterns. Digital Fractal Art printed on metal, single edition. 16×16″. Artist Lianne Todd.  SOLD.  Private Collection.

Fractal Machinery

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I just wanted to say thank you to all the studio tourists who took their precious weekend time to drive out my way and visit my studio.  It was a pleasure to meet you or see you again, and I had fun giving brief explanations of fractals and their significance when you showed an interest.  If you want to see some more of them in person, right now there are four on display at the restaurant Sixthirtynine in Woodstock, ON.  A very fine restaurant suitable for a special dinner date!

On the tour weekend I presented a few new fractals.  This is one of them (watermarked):

Pretty Cogs in the Big Machine. Fractal Digital Art printed on metal, single edition. 24x24". $425.00 Lianne Todd

Pretty Cogs in the Big Machine.
Fractal Digital Art printed on metal, single edition. 24×24″.
$450.00 © Lianne Todd

This one doesn’t really reflect the natural world so much as it reflects our complicated man-made world.  It’s not likely that most cogs in our machines are this pretty, but there is definitely a complexity in our modern technology that has beauty.  Some of that complexity, for instance, is contained in the very machine you are viewing this on.  Maybe there are no cogs, but the minutiae of its workings have to rival the intricacy they feature.  The background of this piece could also be compared to the circuitry involved in some of our other more powerful pieces of technology.  For instance, if you have a smart phone, the antenna that makes it all work had to be a fractal, or we simply wouldn’t have smart phones.

For a while I was referring to this image to myself as the steampunk fractal, as I have recently become enamored with all things steampunk.  However, giving it such a title didn’t seem to really fit.  These are far from steampunk-type gears, they aren’t real, and the machinery is not reminiscent of anything very old-fashioned.  This is just a nod to the genre!

 

 

Chaos

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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

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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:

Lianne+Metal PrintsLianne+PaintingsAlso, 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!!

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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!

AFractalUniversegraphicwb