{"id":677,"date":"2010-01-07T13:53:13","date_gmt":"2010-01-07T18:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=677"},"modified":"2010-01-08T12:04:32","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T17:04:32","slug":"fractal-land-has-seen-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=677","title":{"rendered":"Fractal Land has seen the Light!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here at Orbit Trap we’ve been accused by some of being too “preachy”.\u00a0 Maybe it’s true.\u00a0 Consider this:\u00a0 A recent reader and veteran fractal artist, Marcos Napier, has credited Orbit Trap with helping him to usher in “A New Era<\/a>” for his fractal artwork and his website, Fractalland.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Somehow inspired by things like what has been said in this post<\/a> (and many others) at the Orbit Traps Blog (“Make the art that pleases you rather than the art you think other \u201cgood\u201d artists want to see.”), I decided it’s time for a facelift here and to go back to the fractals. For a while, the galleries will stay as they are now but they will change soon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, Orbit Trap helped him get straightened out and see things more clearly.\u00a0 Especially to see those “good artists” more clearly.\u00a0 Now he’s back on track and excited about fractal art again, thinking for himself instead of looking to the “great artists” for inspiration.\u00a0 Marcos isn’t about to retreat into a life of narcissistic, self-admiration, though.\u00a0 In fact, Marcos, I would say, has embarked on a much more exacting and professional approach to making fractal art than he did in his previous “life” where he devoted himself to the imitation of “good artists”\u00a0 –the false gods of fractal land<\/em>.\u00a0 Imitation is hard because it’s unnatural.\u00a0 It does offer some comfort, however.\u00a0 One can feel content and confident about their work when they’ve managed to replicate the style and substance of the “good artists” –because everyone will say so<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Doing your own thing, that is, being creative, has no such comforting herd of admirers to make you feel good and give you a false sense of accomplishment.<\/a> In fact, the fractal art world today is a rather hostile place for creative people.<\/p>\n

…unless you’ve developed the self-discipline required to judge your own work<\/em>.\u00a0 Only then will you be truly independent and free to pursue the art that excites you.\u00a0 To do that though, you need to know yourself well enough so that you can avoid the tempting lure of self-deception that makes one think that everything they make is great.\u00a0 Some serious self-reflection and careful analysis of one’s opinions about their own work will soon educate you enough so that you will not be fooled by the tricks and constant flattery your ego keeps filling your mind with.\u00a0 Focus on the art, not who made it.\u00a0 That at least is a start.<\/p>\n

After that I started to update my fractal pages not really often or thinking to keep a “fractal gallery” always active but according to whatever good work I thought I was making. At some point, I found UltraFractal, and even though I didn’t like it much at first (I was a Fractint addict!) I started using it and started to produce things like mad with the new possibilities. Soon… the first invitation to an exhibition happened. I started to look at things more “professionally” so to speak. And this is what made me stop, after some time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes!\u00a0 Did you see that?\u00a0 Critical acclaim destroyed him.\u00a0 Or rather, destroyed his creativity<\/em>.\u00a0 Marcos though he ought to act differently and work differently once he had attracted an audience even though, ironically, it was his previous, freewheeling attitude and approach which had probably attracted his audience to begin with!\u00a0 It’s probably a very natural reaction to the attention of others: we shift our attention to the audience forming around us and away from our art.\u00a0 Naturally, the art suffers and the audience either drifts away or becomes populated with people who like what “good artists” and “professionals” make.\u00a0 But for the artist, they’ve alienated the only fan they most desperately need.\u00a0 I’m not talking about your Mom, I’m talking about you –the artist.\u00a0 When you lose your own interest, your work withers and so do you.<\/p>\n

As time went by, I started making fractals like crazy, zillions every day. And I started to look at my images with a different approach than when I started making them. It was no longer fun – I guess I was trapped in the Guild (or by the Guild?). I started to get more and more frustrated with what I was doing, thinking everything was boring and ugly (and it was!) and that I would never be able to make such good art as these people from Renderosity (that was the hit of the moment). Despite having 1200 images posted here, I was not interested even in looking at them again. Then… suddenly I stopped making fractals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, Renderosity and Deviant Art are good places to become disillusioned with fractal art.\u00a0 You know you’ve hit rock-bottom when you’ve piled up a big collection on Renderosity or Deviant Art like some drunken vagrant lying in a pile of garbage in a dark alleyway.\u00a0 Trapped in the Guild?\u00a0 That’s the Ultra Fractal Guild<\/a>, as any avid reader of Orbit Trap will know.<\/p>\n

I’ve decided to send the images I didn’t like to the fractal heaven, and some images are now gone. I’ve kept those that really interest me, who cares if it’s a simple spiral, or a 256-colour image made in Fractint? I am the first person that must like my work. I don’t work for the masses, I don’t work expecting public admiration (although I must say it’s quite nice when you’re invited for an exhibition at the Lincoln Center as I was…), I don’t make fractals based on how many comments they will get at some community site. I just do this to please me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How many of you out there have the guts to make 256-color<\/a> images!\u00a0 I’ve included a link to the Wikipedia article for those of you who don’t know what that is.\u00a0 Art is a funny thing; sometimes simpler methods have more sophisticated results.\u00a0 But you won’t find that out by following the herd or clinging to your membership in the Guild.\u00a0 You’ll have to experiment.<\/p>\n

But, take heart, unlike imitation, experimentation is a natural thing.\u00a0 That is, it’s natural for people like Marcos who love art more than they love online socializing<\/a> and a false sense of accomplishment.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at Orbit Trap we’ve been accused by some of being too “preachy”.\u00a0 Maybe it’s true.\u00a0 Consider this:\u00a0 A recent reader and veteran fractal artist, Marcos Napier, has credited Orbit Trap with helping him to usher in “A New Era” for his fractal artwork and his website, Fractalland.com. Somehow inspired by things like what has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678,"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-677","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\/01\/marcos.png?fit=472%2C485","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":387,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=387","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":0},"title":"The Blog that Drove the Universe out of Town","author":"Tim","date":"6 June, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I love the smell of blog posts in the morning\"It's been almost three years since Orbit Trap appeared in August of 2006. Initially, I had expected it to have an enormous influence on fractal art simply by virtue of being a collective venue ready to showcase and demonstrate new ideas\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=387#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3930,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3930","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":1},"title":"Orbit Trap v2.0: A Kinder, Gentler Fractal Blog","author":"Tim","date":"16 October, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey!\u00a0 Wasn't Orbit Trap supposed to be closed down?\u00a0 Wasn't Orbit Trap supposed to be finished with and over and all that sort of thing? Well, let me explain.\u00a0 In short, I got tired of blogging every week and after six years decided it was time to give it a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/return01.jpg?fit=400%2C414&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2369,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2369","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":2},"title":"An Internet Fractal Gallery","author":"Tim","date":"21 January, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mona Lisa is the most popular artwork in the Louvre, the most famous art collection in the world.\u00a0 It measures 77 x 53 cm (30 x 21 in).\u00a0 That's the size of a high-end computer monitor, today. The world has the Louvre, and the the Louvre has the Mona\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2369#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/monolith.jpg?fit=503%2C370&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=207","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":3},"title":"An Open Call for New Contributors","author":"Tim","date":"18 July, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"As Orbit Trap rolls towards its first anniversary, Tim and I are looking back -- and also looking forward.Initially, we used a by-invitation-only process for selecting contributors to Orbit Trap. We have decided to change that policy in order to hopefully allow broader and more vigorous participation in the blog.To\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3773,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3773","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":4},"title":"So long, and thanks for all the fish","author":"Tim","date":"14 February, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Orbit Trap is closing down.\u00a0 This is the last and final post you will be reading here. No, this is not a joke. After almost 6 years of continuous weekly and sometimes daily (hourly?) publishing, we, the co-editors of Orbit Trap, Tim Hodkinson and Terry Wright have decided that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 14 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 14 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3773#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/1.jpg?fit=480%2C360&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":320,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=320","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":5},"title":"Disappeared Art","author":"cruelanimal","date":"16 June, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Disappearing should be an art form, a seductive way of leaving the world. I believe that part of disappearing is to disappear before you die, to disappear before you have run dry, while you still have something to say...--Jean Baudrillard As Tim noted yesterday, the online images for the 2009\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"No Art Is Better Than Bad Art","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/blankjan2010.jpg?fit=450%2C583&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\/677","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=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}