{"id":326,"date":"2008-07-04T12:08:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-04T16:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=326"},"modified":"2008-07-04T12:08:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-04T16:08:00","slug":"mark-townsend-son-of-pollock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=326","title":{"rendered":"Mark Townsend: Son of Pollock!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fractaldimentia.com\/recent\/emergence.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/20\/emergence.png?w=545\"><\/a><br \/><i>Emergence<\/i> by Mark Townsend 2006<\/center><\/p>\n<p>While writing a recent posting, I was Googling to find Mark Townsend&#8217;s orbit trap works done using the image importer, <i>Sprite<\/i>, and I surfed head first into a coral reef of Neo-Pollockian Artworks at his gallery site, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fractaldimentia.com\/galleries.html\"><i>Fractal Dimentia<\/i><\/a>.  Like Odysseus from the old Greek stories, lost again on his journey, I exclaimed, &#8220;Truly this is the very temple of Pollock!&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But seriously, I&#8217;ve chosen these images of Mark&#8217;s for Image of the Week because I quite like them, although I&#8217;m sure there are many who won&#8217;t care for this sort of style, just as there are still many who don&#8217;t care for the classic drip-paintings of Jackson Pollock that now sell for an awful lot of money and receive lofty critical praise.  Actually, I prefer Mark&#8217;s &#8220;paintings&#8221; to those of Pollock&#8217;s, but that&#8217;s just my personal opinion.  (Perhaps, art investors should start buying up some of these at today&#8217;s, undiscovered, prices.)<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fractaldimentia.com\/200712\/20071218f-untitled.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/20\/untitled.png?w=545\"><\/a><br \/><i>Untitled<\/i> by Mark Townsend 2007<\/center><\/p>\n<p>I think imagery like this deserves it&#8217;s own category and I would suggest the term, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Special:Search?search=granularism&#038;go=Go\">&#8220;Granularism&#8221;<\/a>.  You won&#8217;t find that term anywhere else; I just coined it.  I say &#8220;granular&#8221; because it&#8217;s a large assemblage of smaller, micro-images that form granules or smaller, independent parts.  (It wasn&#8217;t made that way, but it to me it has that appearance.)<\/p>\n<p>One could simply shrug off work like this as nothing more than elaborate &#8220;textures&#8221;, but that&#8217;s the sort of thing that separates the artists from the tourists in the world of art.  It&#8217;s the skilled or talented eye of an artist that sees something noteworthy or substantial in imagery like this and pursues it and refines it.<\/p>\n<p>Mark&#8217;s been pursuing work like this I&#8217;d say for several years as shown by some of his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fractaldimentia.com\/200009\/dream.html\">earlier work<\/a> which is just as interesting.  One can see the development and refinement of this image style by viewing his entire gallery chronologically (older to newer).<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fractaldimentia.com\/recent\/imperator.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/20\/imperator.png?w=545\"><\/a><br \/><i>Imperator<\/i> by Mark Townsend 2006<\/center><\/p>\n<p>In terms of Fractal Art&#8230;  <i>Is it Fractal Art?<\/i>  I don&#8217;t know.  But it&#8217;s certainly generated as opposed to hand made.  But even if it was hand drawn or whatever-drawn it shouldn&#8217;t really matter &#8212; there it is, make what you like of it.  Scientists are still studying Jackson Pollock&#8217;s work (yes, scientists!) and have discovered patterns suggesting that Pollock inadvertently created <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chaos_theory\">chaotic systems<\/a> while working with his drip apparatus of dripping paint cans suspended on ropes which Pollock struck with a stick to induce vibrations.  Some have suggested that Pollock&#8217;s drip paintings have fractal qualities to them.  How&#8217;s that for extending the boundaries of Fractal Art?<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ibiblio.org\/wm\/paint\/auth\/pollock\/pollock.number-8.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/20\/pollock_number-8.png?w=545\"><\/a><br \/>Fooled ya.  This is one&#8217;s by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/wm\/paint\/auth\/pollock\/\">Pollock<\/a>.<\/center><\/p>\n<p>Anyhow, in terms of Fractal Art, these <i>granularism<\/i> works are good examples of how one can produce interesting work without focusing on the usual things &#8212; major structures like spirals or mandelbrot figures or other &#8220;macro&#8221; forms &#8212; and instead pursue the internal qualities of fractals &#8212; the minutiae &#8212; the dust of art, where diamonds lay.  I&#8217;d like to see more of this type of work but it&#8217;s not the sort of thing that is commonly produced.  As for Mark though, I&#8217;m sure we haven&#8217;t seen the end of his exploration of this type of imagery.  In fact, I think he&#8217;s just getting started and there&#8217;s even better stuff to come.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"technoratitag\">Technorati Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/+Fractal+Art\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag:  Fractal Art\"> Fractal Art,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Digital+Art\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Digital Art\">Digital Art,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Mark+Townsend\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Mark Townsend\">Mark Townsend,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Jackson+Pollock\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Jackson Pollock\">Jackson Pollock,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Granularism\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Granularism\">Granularism,<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emergence by Mark Townsend 2006 While writing a recent posting, I was Googling to find Mark Townsend&#8217;s orbit trap works done using the image importer, Sprite, and I surfed head first into a coral reef of Neo-Pollockian Artworks at his gallery site, Fractal Dimentia. Like Odysseus from the old Greek stories, lost again on his &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=326\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":410,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=410","url_meta":{"origin":326,"position":0},"title":"Losers imitate winners","author":"Tim","date":"14 September, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One of these is from the Museum of Bad ArtIt occurred to me while browsing some of the greatest art of the 20th century to ask this question: Why don't we see more art like this today?For instance, it ought to be very easy to imitate the famous drip paintings\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":406,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=406","url_meta":{"origin":326,"position":1},"title":"Fractal Art, Phase Two","author":"Tim","date":"3 September, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What? You didn't know even know there was a Phase One? Well, let me begin there, then. At the dawn of fractal art.Phase One, the first stage of fractal art, has been oriented around software. The big developments in fractal art came from developments in the software that made it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=406#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/25\/phase2.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":304,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=304","url_meta":{"origin":326,"position":2},"title":"Geomo de la Fyre","author":"Tim","date":"21 April, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Fyre embedded parameter fileLately I've begun to seriously question whether using the term, \"abstract\" to describe any piece of artwork can be realistically used. I think the term abstract is itself an abstraction and is hopelessly inseparable from the world of realistic forms and imagery.I think abstract is another way\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=21","url_meta":{"origin":326,"position":3},"title":"Eye of the Beholder?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"10 August, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It may now be said that an object becomes, or fails to become, a work of art in direct response to the inclination of the perceiver to assume an appreciative role.--Victor Burgin, \"Situational Aesthetics\"Who among us hasn't wondered why fractal art cannot seem to crack the glass ceiling of broader\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 15 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 15 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=21#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fractal Columns","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/EgyptianColumn.jpg?fit=382%2C454&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3324,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3324","url_meta":{"origin":326,"position":4},"title":"Why the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2011 Won&#8217;t Work","author":"Tim","date":"21 October, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Or: Why the Offline Promotion of Fractal Art is a Waste of Time Here are 6 reasons: There is no such thing as \"Great\" Fractal Art This is the key problem, really.\u00a0 I didn't understand this myself until just this past year.\u00a0 Fractal art is a limited medium and it\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3324#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Capture01.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":273,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=273","url_meta":{"origin":326,"position":5},"title":"Art Without an Audience","author":"Tim","date":"12 February, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Fyre 1.0.1 embedded parameter fileWhen Orbit Trap was started, back in August of 2006, it had always been foremost in my mind that it would be a positive contribution to the fractal art world.What does that mean?To me it means that it would encourage the creation of exciting new artwork.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=273#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","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=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}