A dragon

I've been trying to find "real" pictures in the Mandelbrot. I find it is like a childhood game (adult too) where you see objects in the clouds. Here is a dragon I found.

Is fractal art real art?

Well, who knew my new hobby would be so controversial! But according to Dr. Charles Vassalo, fractal art could quite well be considered non-art. He argues that "A sunset, as gorgeous as it could be, turns into an artwork only after the interpretation of a talented painter or photographer." Although Dr. Vassalo readily admits that he's no expert in art philosophy, he believes that fractal art is more about discovering pictures that are already there rather than creating "art." Here is the
short version, but I would advise taking the time to learn about fractals and reading the start of longer version.

So, what is the next step? Discover the infinite and possibly create art with fractals!

I do not have a clue

Check before you run

Be careful with Fractal Explorer. My downloaded copy has a trojan in the compiler.

Learning with Wikipedia

I decided I needed to re-learn (actually learn in some cases) some basic math stuff. So, since I do not have instant access to my old math notes from high school and university, I turned to Wikipedia for help. I started out with Mandelbrot set and just clicked around on links that I did not know.

Here is the summary of my time (obviously you can read it for yourself, if you desire).

• Benoit Mandelbrot- The MAN when it comes to fractals. He discovered the Mandelbrot Set.
• Self-Similarity- when an object's whole is similar to its parts.
• Mandelbrot Set- "a set of points in a complex plane, whose boundary is a fractal." And also we have it defined as "the Mandelbrot set can be defined as the set of complex c-values for which the orbit of 0 under iteration of the complex quadratic polynomial x_n+1 = x_n² + c remains bounded."
• That's where it got REALLY complicated for me. So, I had to try to figure out what in the world all this meant.
• I started with complex quadratic polynomial. That required knowing what a quadratic polynomial was as well as a complex number.
• There are real numbers (your basic 1,5,7,34,67,90, to infinity), imaginary numbers (represented by the Greek letter iota and is the sqaure root of -1), and complex numbers (a mixture of real and imaginary numbers).
• Complex numbers can be written as x+iy. "On a Cartesian plane z=complex number and is defined by z=x+iy

By now I am bored and I'm sure you are bored reading all this. So, I am going to give all the technical mess a rest for awhile and concentrate on the visual aspect of all this, and how to run the software. As I go along, I am sure I 'll return to the technical now and again, but this activity of reporting on it, is quite frankly boring and who wants to read about it!

Rough Start: The first 3

I know this probably looks like kiddy scribble. And I would tend to agree. But you have to start somewhere. And one day, maybe we'll all see progress. =)











In this first picture, I was thinking of "cool."
















This one too is classed in the coolness category. The colors make it more psychedelic though.














Psychedelic also but maybe the same feel of coolness.

Starting Programs

I started this journey searching on the Internet for basic information on fractal art.

I found out that you need some computer aid to help do all the calculations. At first this sounded like cheating. Why couldn't I come up with some formula and graph it on my own graph paper and not have to use a computer? Silly me.

(You have to remember I do not know anything about fractals nor fractal art. I am exploring this as a hobby. So, all the pros out there are going to have to be patient with me.)

In theory you could do that, but it would take forever (besides I can't do that now anyway, even if I wanted). So, I found out you need some software to help you.

The first one I found was Fractal Explorer. It is a program that means business. But this was like driving a race car for someone who only has their learner's permit. So, I am still learning what all this thing does and how to manipulate it to produce art. In the meantime, I stumbled on this program Ergerzhour Fraktalioù (obviously in a foreign language put you can click the English flag, though the program itself runs in the foreign language). It's described as "a program to explore Mandelbrot's fractals," so it seemed like something I could use.

I've decided that as I find other links about fractal art I will add them to the link section.

Journey into Fractal Art

This is my blog about making and posting fractal art.

In sixth grade I became interested in math. But having chosen a non-mathematical career, I do not generally encounter complex math problems in daily life.

I've been trying to search for a hobby, but I am not an artist. So, with fractal art I am hoping to combine math and the need to create (art) into one, resulting in a whole brain engagement that integrates both hemispheres.

This blog will be about me re-learning a lot of what I've forgotten from high school and university as well as learning anew math and art.