An old friend has come to visit again… but this time, he speaks of power instead of beauty. Stronger, a bit darker, with an almost overwhelming presence; challenging me to do more. I hear the sound of his wings as he sweeps by, inviting me to take flight.
(Click on the image to see a larger version)
Look below your shadow, behind the mirror, above the sky. Can you see the path towards other worlds?
Into this fractal garden you can always retreat, surrounding yourself in calm, dim light and listen to the deepest heartbeat of the world, to the rhythm that sweeps you away gently into your own dance, your own ritual; unique yet connected to the steady pounding of this inner core.
This place is real, I can feel it deep within me. So can you, if you only care to listen to the subtle but constant drum that marks this most sacred spot, the very center of the world.
Can you feel the pulse of this force, oldest of all? Contained for so long, waiting to burst out and leave a dent – or a crater – in this world. Can you hear the call to embrace this wild, primal power?
The human spirit is not always gentle, but through awareness, this instinct of chaos and destruction does not need to be violent.
It feels good to be writing again. I usually love the silence, but I was twitching to blog something lately. Some time away from the keyboard and the weekly pressure of posting has been very refreshing, but it’s time to pick up the pace again.
There have been a lot of changes in my life, which have made me think about the direction this blog should be taking, and I have lots of ideas in mind that I’ll be slowly adding to this space.
In the meantime, my artwork has started to show a new light; the energy behind my creations is coming through much clearer and as vibrant as ever. This is the perfect time to make up for a long standing debt, the promise of making (some of) my artwork available as wallpapers.
The elements have been speaking to me again lately, so I thought I’d honor them with an update to this old series. It’s incredible to go back just a little in time and see such a difference in composition and polish between those old fractals and my new work. But you be the judge of that, and let me know your opinion in the comments!
Elementals (2nd series)
Click on each image to see the larger version , then right-click to download.
Air
Fire
Water
Earth
This is the twin sister of another recent piece. It’s funny how two fractals can be literally 15 seconds apart from one another and look so different. The fact that the computer colors and finishes an image in fractions of a second makes experimenting very worthwile. There is no price to making a mistake, and great opportunity lies within the chaos.
Fractals and I somehow just click – it’s like love at first sight. I don’t think I’ll be leaving this medium behind, ever. Maybe I’ll expand, try something new… but my first love in art will always be fractals, just like Tolkien will always be the first writer who really pulled me in deep. Speaking of which, Jeff has put up a great series on Tolkien, fiction and divination, a combo which you definitely don’t want to miss.
Don’t think that fractal art has anything to do with sitting down and creating a piece all by myself. My workflow is better described by the process of finding a combination of pseudo-random parameters that speak to my imagination and tweaking them into a presentable expression.
However, in spite of this seeming randomness, I’m never surprised to see the same themes emerge time and time again. The essence of a concept often seems to find its way into my image by its own will, instead of being depicted deliberately.
An old mythological friend of mine is visiting more frecuently these days, even though I wasn’t particularly looking for him. Of course he’s “just” a symbol, representing something that supposedly doesn’t exist in the physical sense, but let me point out that magic only appears in your life once you start believing in it.
Imagination to image to reality. Might that be the lesson he carries?
The savage beauty of chaos surrounds me. A tale of the elements weaves itself and is whispered to me by the wind, unfailing companion to all who bother to listen.
What is it telling you?
This is my interpretation of the elementals associated to the four classic elements. An elemental is a concentrated manifestation of the energy of a certain element, and is therefore very hard to understand or explain using only human concepts and language. I don’t pretend this to be a thorough description of them; instead I’ll try to come close to the meaning each of these forces has for me in particular.
Air
Air is subtle, spontaneous and light. It has great strength shown in a gentle form. It is unpredictable: One day it blesses us with a caressing breeze, and on the next a storm brews inside it.
Fire
Fire is energy of change, of chemistry or, to be more accurate, of alchemy. It acts in a concentrated form on a single point, waiting for the moment to be suddenly released, triggering the transformation of matter.
Water
Water is a soft but persistent force. It is the flow of life, of time. A continual transformation, tender but powerful, which stands in contrast to the sudden and violent fire.
Earth
Earth is the force that nurtures, the base of everything, the mirror of the universe. It turns inwards, where strong roots are supported, and seeds of possibility are nourished and protected.
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