{"id":1442,"date":"2010-07-22T13:34:04","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T17:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2010-07-22T14:31:48","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T18:31:48","slug":"surfs-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1442","title":{"rendered":"Surf’s up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been surfing.\u00a0 From the noisey beaches of Deviant Art to the silent shores of guano islands.\u00a0 Every one here’s a gem to me.\u00a0 Each one gleamed in its own way when I saw it.<\/p>\n

Remember this:\u00a0 There are things that can be bought for a few glass beads in the South Seas that can be sold for a king’s ransom back in Amsterdam.\u00a0 But remember this also:\u00a0 there are things that can be bought for a king’s ransom in Amsterdam that are worth nothing more than a few glass beads in the South Seas.<\/p>\n

Click on any of the images to see them full-size and on their original website where you can browse more works by the artists.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Complex by David Makin<\/p><\/div>\n

Dave seems to make a very wide variety of fractal imagery and works almost entirely, I believe, in Ultra Fractal.\u00a0 I’ve never seen anything quite like this.\u00a0 A city of dreidels?\u00a0 The surface texture suggest some old kind of nylon material.\u00a0 There’s a strange vintage radio tube feeling to it.\u00a0 Nice, subtle coloring that reinforces the 20s or 30s Art Deco style (before the time of brightly colored plastics).\u00a0 A rather unique image with a similarly unique style.<\/p>\n

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Daniel White Julia Mode by Bent-Winged Angel<\/p><\/div>\n

Strange electronic vibes and I like strange electronic vibes.\u00a0 Perhaps an unusual image to draw attention to, but who cares about the usual images?\u00a0 I suspect this one was uploaded as part of a Fractalforums.com discussion, but that just adds to it’s exotic allure.\u00a0 Maybe Bent-Winged Angel wasn’t trying to make a piece of art with this one, but she did.\u00a0 It splashes like water but turns into grains of sand around the edges.\u00a0 Far out.<\/p>\n

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Graffiti by Talfrac <\/p><\/div>\n

Talfrac adds that the image was made with Fractal Imaginator<\/a>.\u00a0 This is a program by Terry Gintz that I’ve never tried.\u00a0 I like the clean, solid, silkscreen rendering style that the image has.\u00a0 Sharp, crisp colors.\u00a0 Anyone familiar with fractals will recognize the common organic structure to the image despite it’s very untraditional –vector-like– blocky rendering style.\u00a0 This looks more “art gallery” like than most of the smooth, millions of colors fractal images normally seen.<\/p>\n

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20091226-1 by Samuel Monnier<\/p><\/div>\n

Full color or black and white, a good image is simply a good image.\u00a0 Art’s funny that way.\u00a0 Working with the most advanced and feature rich formats doesn’t guarantee anything.\u00a0 Of course there’s nothing simple or retro about this image here by Samuel Monnier.\u00a0 It’s another example of his sophisticated pattern piling technique that he’s been polishing over the years and developing with Ultra Fractal.\u00a0 Click on the image to go to the original site where you can explore the vast algorithmic world which we are only seeing as a mere thumbnail here.\u00a0 There’s\u00a0 so many interesting things to see in this one.\u00a0 It’s like a table of contents for a large anthology.<\/p>\n

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FRAC-tional Friction by Lenord<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a mandelbox, I’m guessing.\u00a0 Not your average type of mandelbox and not the usual style.\u00a0 Strong design is what makes this one special.\u00a0 Everything lined up and arranged in a careful display of shape, form and symmetry –but with the usual mandelbox variations and complexity to it.\u00a0 Look closely, is it really symmetrical?\u00a0 anywhere?\u00a0 All an artist really does is help us to see the great scenes going on around us that us common folks don’t seem to notice.\u00a0 I think that’s what Lenord’s done with this one: he’s helped us to see the simple shapes and the sophisticated patterns made in the mandelbox by cutting out all the usual distractions of surface texture and wild, vast perspective.\u00a0 Yes, art is complex, but only when you analyze it.\u00a0 Out in the wild it’s natural and instinctive.\u00a0 But that’s why it sneaks past us so easily.<\/p>\n

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Pipe Organ "Klais ' by DeadZero (on Deviant Art)<\/p><\/div>\n

What are those men doing in a fractal?\u00a0 Believe it or not, this is actually a photograph of a very elaborately designed pipe organ somewhere in Spain.\u00a0 Or maybe it really is a fractal and the author cleverly edited the image?\u00a0 Never let your right eye know what your left eye is looking at.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Eye of Silence by Max Ernst (1944)<\/p><\/div>\n

I often feel that fractal art is not really about fractals but is instead about “imaginary” imagery.\u00a0 In that sense, there are many “pre-columbian” fractals out there; meaning they are graphically similar although completely unrelated in terms of the way they were made.\u00a0 Fractals just make it easier to create imaginary imagery.\u00a0 I guess it depends on how you chose to define the art form.\u00a0 The lack of a fractal formula naturally makes it hard to call\u00a0 “fractal”.\u00a0 Well, in the old days fractal artists worked hard.\u00a0 Try doing something like this.<\/p>\n

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Incendia Sketch by Kaeltyk (Deviant Art)<\/p><\/div>\n

This one’s for real.\u00a0 I stumbled on Kaeltyk’s Deviant Art gallery somehow.\u00a0 I forget how.\u00a0 Maybe from a link in someone else’s favorites?\u00a0 Incendia does some nice things, but I’ve never seen such a good combination of 3D and 2D elements like there is in this one by Kaeltyk.\u00a0 And it’s black and white, too.\u00a0 Black and white is a whole new kind of color.\u00a0 The uber-color.\u00a0 It’s often thought of as being being feature-poor as opposed to feature-rich.\u00a0 But all the colors in the world can’t do what black and white does.\u00a0 More strangeness.<\/p>\n

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Tilings II by Kaeltyk<\/p><\/div>\n

This one by Kaeltyk was done in Ultra Fractal.\u00a0 I just like these peaceful drifting snowflakes and the different landscapes they seem to be falling and dissolving into.\u00a0 It’s hard to crop out just the right piece from among such a huge mass of repeating imagery like this, but Kaeltyk did a good job here.\u00a0 Very professional looking.\u00a0 It deserves a classy title and black frame.<\/p>\n

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Shells by Kaeltyk<\/p><\/div>\n

I would have guessed Incendia for this one, but Kaeltyk’s notes for this one indicate it was made with Xenodream.\u00a0 I know these sorts of spirally seashell\/horns are common and perhaps even cliche now, but Kaeltyk has managed to create something interesting and appealing even in such a heavily picked over genre.\u00a0 In Kaeltyk’s own words, “I like how it’s clean and almost carved.”\u00a0 That’s why I like it too.\u00a0 The coloring and surface texture adds a lot as well.<\/p>\n

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Sky by Marco Gervasio (Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

According to notes for this image it was made by “two pictures of the sky that I merged together and then reversed”.\u00a0 I guess the inverting created the yell0w-orange coloring from the natural blue sky tones in the original.\u00a0 I include this because it’s another “mind-bender” that show that when we look at graphical imagery and ignore how it was made, we find “fractals” in places we wouldn’t have expected.\u00a0 Although the shapes and structure of clouds really are a natural form of fractal rendering.\u00a0 I guess that just reinforces my point.<\/p>\n

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Sphere by spanzhang (Renderosity)<\/p><\/div>\n

“FMF + POV-Ray”\u00a0 POV-Ray is a ray-tracing (ultra realistic) program, but I’m not sure what FMF stands for.\u00a0 I like planetoids and this one’s got some cool coloring and texture.\u00a0 Looks like ice cream that’s just about to start dripping.\u00a0 Incidently this was chosen for a Fractal Window Weekly on Renderosity a year and a half ago.\u00a0 I visited cgpad.com<\/a>, the so-called Chinese Fractal Art Society and I think maybe Ferry Man Fractal is the mysterious “FMF”.\u00a0 I’ve never heard of the program, so maybe spanzhang made it himself?<\/p>\n

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Rings and Wires by spanzhang<\/p><\/div>\n

By spanzhang again.\u00a0 He’s got a gallery at span.cgpad.com<\/a>.\u00a0 This one’s made with Apophysis.\u00a0 Nice design with repeating circular elements and good colors.<\/p>\n

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Onceinalifetimesingle by Anonymous<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, people used to dream of such imaginary, fractal-like imagery way back in the 70s.\u00a0 But it’s not merely once in a lifetime today; it’s everyday and all the time.\u00a0 Music’s gotten a lot cheaper now too.\u00a0 Hasn’t it?\u00a0 And who needs to pay to get great artwork for their album covers nowadays with all this computer made stuff around?\u00a0 “And you may ask yourself…”<\/em> how come nobody sings about having mental breakdowns and emotional decay anymore?<\/p>\n

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Seed Bead Fractals by Shala Kerrigan<\/p><\/div>\n

Check out the nice set of instructions<\/a> Shala has made to go with this example of Fractal Earrings.\u00a0 “Fractals are geometric patterns that show self-similarity, they can be very complex and really beautiful.”\u00a0 Doesn’t that statement by Shala answer the proverbial, “What are fractals?” question quite nicely?<\/p>\n

You can also bead fractals. This is a pair of earrings that uses a very simple fractal pattern to create a delicate fringe or tassel that resembles some of the fractals you can see in nature like trees or the veins in your body.
\nThe shape I used was 3 lines. Each time you add another set of 3 lines to the ends of the lines, that’s called an iteration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For folks like myself such descriptions are more enlightening than those of the more technical type.\u00a0 You’d think by now I’d know what a fractal is.\u00a0 But I keep finding fractals that don’t fit the formulas.\u00a0 Never let your left brain know what you’re right brain is thinking.<\/em><\/p>\n

You’ll only end up slapping yourself in the face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been surfing. From the noisey beaches of Deviant Art to the silent shores of guano islands. Every one here’s a gem to me. Each one gleamed in its own way when I saw it. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/The_Complex_by_MakinMagic.jpg?fit=500%2C667","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3542,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3542","url_meta":{"origin":1442,"position":0},"title":"Apophysis + Deviant Art = Flaming Piles of Garbage","author":"Tim","date":"30 November, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's just jump to the heart of the matter:\u00a0 Why is Deviant Art such a garbage dump?\u00a0 What is it about fractal art, and especially the flame fractal category in particular that leads to the creation of these huge online wastelands of worthlessness? It's not all bad Oh yes, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3542#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/image01.jpeg?fit=500%2C339&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":362,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=362","url_meta":{"origin":1442,"position":1},"title":"Fractal Woodburning","author":"Tim","date":"28 January, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not making this up.\u00a0 I went surfing about to see what I could find in the fractal world and lo and behold at Flickr, a couple of pages into a search on the term \"fractal\", I saw wires, boards and strange, curly burn patterns.photo by AetherPhoto caption from Aether's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3371,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3371","url_meta":{"origin":1442,"position":2},"title":"Hello Everybody!","author":"Tim","date":"26 October, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes I just like to share interesting things that I find online that I think will be of interest to Orbit Trap readers who are \"on the same wavelength\" as me.\u00a0 Perhaps that's only one or two people but so be it. Lindelokse, an established Deviant-artist decided to join the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3371#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/hello-everybody.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6259,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=6259","url_meta":{"origin":1442,"position":3},"title":"Fractal art LIVES!","author":"Tim","date":"4 February, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Why does it still live? What makes fractal art so exciting it doesn't need anything except itself to keep it going? I guess then, the question is: what is exciting about fractal art? I haven't posted anything for 7 years.\u00a0 Maybe 8 years.\u00a0 I'm not sure. So I've sort of\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=6259#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mandelmix_ii_by_hypex2772.jpg?fit=500%2C281&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3510,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3510","url_meta":{"origin":1442,"position":4},"title":"Flame Fractals: Get the Fire Extinguisher!","author":"Tim","date":"22 November, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My continuing Odyssey in the seas of Deviant Art has brought me to what I shall refer to as the island of Apophysis, that being the great flame fractal program created by Mark Townsend which utilizes the \"flame algorithms\" discovered or invented by Scott Draves, the author of Electric Sheep,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3510#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/image2.jpg?fit=440%2C305&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4027,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4027","url_meta":{"origin":1442,"position":5},"title":"Brother, can you spare $58?","author":"Tim","date":"31 October, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Fractalforums.com's owner, Christian Kleinhuis (aka Trifox) is attempting to put out another fractal art calendar this year.\u00a0 I reviewed last year's and called it, \"The Best Fractal Calendar Ever!\". I hope that review scored me enough points over there with the Fractalforums.com folks to cover this year's review. Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4027#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/58.jpg?fit=402%2C326&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}