Art has always been a passion of mine all my life, but I've never had the kind of talent for free-hand drawing that amounts to what I'd call marginally good.
Because of that, I devoted most of my time to playing saxophone & singing with my ex in his daddy's band, The Papa Smurf Band. Yes, Papa Smurf. Poppie looked a lot like Papa Smurf, except he wasn't little, & he wasn't blue. Rest in peace, Poppie.
After leaving my ex & moving back near my home town in the late fall of 1995 I bought my first computer, & a new world opened up to me. However, it wasn't until 1999 that I finally discovered fractals on the internet. They more than fascinated me. I was amazed that they were created using mathematical equations.
Math had never been my strongest subject in school, but I did finally make a "B" in algebra the second year I took it in high school & again in college. But that was so many years ago, & I'd forgotten so much. Oh, how I wished I could create the kind of beauty that those fractal artists had done.
I thought those artists had to be super smart to know how to create art using mathematical equations. Even when I discovered they used what was called a fractal generator I had no idea how it was done, but I wanted to find out. I'd tried the Paint program that came with my computer & failed miserably to create anything that looked even moderately pleasing to the eye. So, how in the world would I be able to use even a fractal generator?
After finding & downloading a couple of the free fractal generators from the net, I gave them a try. It wasn't as difficult as I'd thought! The equations were already there, & all I had to do was punch in numbers or choose among the different options to modify the images. Well... Simplicity can be deceiving sometimes. The images were oh, so-so. Some were fairly decent, but in no way came close to those I'd seen on the net. 'Course, I figured I'd get better in time.
It took me a year or two before I actually got moderately good at creating fractal images. Finally, I downloaded a trial copy of Ultra Fractal & fell in love with it. It is now the fractal program I use the most.
Twice my computer crashed, & I lost everything. Some images I'd given to friends to use as desktop backgrounds, so those were recovered. There were several years I didn't create any fractals because I'd moved & had no room for much of my furniture or even my pc, so it all went into storage. Much of it is still in storage today, but I did recover my pc once I moved to a larger place.
Today I have a new pc & am still having a fun time creating fractal images. I've learned a lot about digital art as well. There are still loads I have to learn, but I don't worry about that. It will come eventually as I keep working with my images.
Unlike many fractal artists out there, most of my images are symmetrical. There are only a few that aren't - other than the spirals. I've seen some great work by other artists that were asymmetrical, I've just not been satisfied enough with the ones I've done.
I started working with spirals this past fall (2008). Even though the spirals I've done are fairly nice, I've not achieved the effect I've been striving for. Just as with anything else, it takes practice, & I'm getting plenty of that. Even if I don't achieve the effect I want, I'll still have some suitable images.
I hope you will enjoy viewing my images. Perhaps you'll like one or more enough to make a purchase. If not, perhaps you'll leave a comment. Comments & constructive criticisms are always appreciated. No matter what you decide, thank-you for visiting, viewing, & reading.
