Simplicity of Design

Fractals remind us all the time that the most fascinating, complex things always have a core of pure elegance , outmatching even the most sophisticated techniques. It’s the ultimate lesson in design.

Passion or Balance?

So-called insanity occasionally takes over my life, and I’m quite proud of that fact. One of the latest creative bursts I had involved Python swallowing me whole for a couple of weekends, capturing me with its intricacy until the break of dawn. While I don’t know exactly what will come out of my newfound ability to write hacky code, fractals have already been thrown into the mix - as a prime ingredient no less.

The point this ultimately brings me to is one of passion: Truly great things never happen without it. They don’t happen when there’s a clearly defined plan, when everything is laid out. They don’t happen at a relaxed pace, or even a 9-5 hectic one. No, what we need is something entirely different. Something which can’t be forced.

Letting my mind wander for no apparent purpose, having the opportunity to explore things I’m curious about (just because), gives me the chance to refill my creative well and let it spill out over all areas of my life. Even if its practical applications were not clear from the beginning, finally being able to program a bit is actually a childhood dream come true. Isn’t that what we life for, after all? And it might just be the secret to make things happen.

Incubation Remade

I guess painters must really wish to have Ctrl+Z or File->Load as part of their artistic tools sometimes. Fortunately, I don’t have to wonder the same, and am free to explore diferent angles of a piece, to remake it without risk of harming the original. The above is one such modification, where small changes add up to create a completely different feel than the original.

Linking to something 6 months old really makes me realize how far along technique can come in so little time.

Burst of Life

(Click image for larger version)

Life bursts out of every cell of my being. The world around me becomes alive as I share my own life with it.

I have been experiencing this state of matters for over 23 years now, but it still manages to amaze me every day. That is what life is.

More Colors

Free of their intellectual confinement, it seems that playful colors are more eager than ever to sling themselves onto this virtual canvas, without the slightest consideration for order or even the classic rules of composition. It’s just more fun this way, they say.

Purple Moon

I just can’t bring myself to see the moon as a pale white or yellow entity. For me, it has a very full, deep, red-and-blue feel to it.

Except for the few times it does humor me on this point of contention, I am forced to recur to my artistic tools to make that fanciful vision just a tad more real. Makes you wonder what “real” ultimately means, doesn’t it?

Self Censorship

Learning how and when to censor yourself is very important when developing any artistic skill. The way you go at this process can have a huge impact in your skill. I try to keep my learning curve steady and steep, in a way that actually makes it enjoyable and worthwhile. In that sense, it’s important to allow myself to go in different directions, and knowing when an experiment is proving worthwhile.

I see a lot of people telling themselves that their work is not good enough. Most of the time, that’s just not true. There is always something worthwile to be found, even if it’s hard to spot at first. True skill lies in laying that something bare, stripping it of all fat and needless filler, and be confident enough to put it out into the world. That skill is what makes true artists.

Bizarre Worlds

(Click image to get the wallpaper version)

Our world doesn’t look nearly as fanciful as this on the surface, but isn’t it just as bizarre?

Path of Spirit

Do you often focus on your goals, your target, imagining the life you want to be living? I know I lose myself that way from time to time - that’s why I’m writing this piece right now. I’m tired of running in circles, chasing ill defined measures of “success”.

The path of spirit is not as straight as your mind would have you believe.

Lately I’ve started challenging all the definitions and preconceptions floating around in my head, and they have slowly given rise to some very interesting questions: Do I even need to define a destination, and end to my path? Isn’t that besides the point of living, isn’t every step along the way a worthy place to reach?

Why does the notion of already being where we need to be sound so absurd to the logical mind? Why are we unable to just stop and look around?

If you narrow your own view to the point where you can only see straight ahead it can surely turn you into an efficient machine, but it also makes you miss all the beauty present in life. This world is surprisingly malleable - whenever you’re not sure where you’re going, all you have to do is to set one foot before the other with intention, and a new way will form itself before you.

Never be afraid of straying a bit. When you walk all paths of life as if they were only one, you will never get lost.

Just… Colors

Sometimes, structuring everything in complex forms prevent the natural beauty of colors from coming out. Colors are an expansive, soft energy, and don’t always benefit from structure. This is just another experiment in that direction. As I’ve said before, the work I post here is never truly done, so expect to see more of this style in the future.