One Fractal Artist's Journey...

While earning my art degree at Cambridge during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, I joined the Cambridge
Arts Lab.

Eventually, I became the head of the Graphics Department.  And in 1971, when the Cambridge
Arts Lab evolved into the Cambridge Center for Contemporary Art, I became the director.

I was a typical early 1970’s contemporary printmaker, producing mixed media prints incorporating all of the "state-of-the-art" graphic technology of the time (photography, serigraphy, & lithography).

At that time, even though my artistic work was modern, technically competent, and well received by the artistic community, it was still very much based on my conventional perceptions of the cosmos.

In 1971, I met Steven Hawking. His understanding and view of the universe was so revolutionary, it overturned every one of my concepts and perceptions of the
universe - and the world upon which I based my art.

For the first time in my artistic career, I conceptualized a vibrant connection between my spiritual yearnings and wonderings about the true nature of the universe and my creative talents.

I began seeking out other mathematicians and physicists who could help me describe this "new universe" in visual terms, then began experimenting with
ways to express this understanding artistically.

In the 1970’s, of course, computers were very primitive and extremely slow. The best a computer could do in those days was provide x/y coordinates (rather like an advanced calculator). Generating an actual image had to be done by hand, using pen and ink. It was a slow and a tedious process. It literally took me months to compose a single image - and many more to create a final piece.

I found my early work motivating and exciting.  Yet, as a working artist (with a horror of the adjective "starving"), I could not afford to invest the massive amounts of time and energy required to create a single work. For many years my growth in this genre languished, due to the technical limitations of the time - and my desire to eat and pay rent.  But great changes were in store!

During the 1980’s and 1990’s, rapid advances in computer and graphics
technology enabled me to produce in a week what had previously taken months
to complete. Finally, I was empowered to express my long-deferred vision - an ecstatic experience for any artist.  Over time, my skill and fluency in what is now known as "Fractal Art" grew and became worthy of sharing with others through public exhibition.

My computer is now my studio, specialized mathematical formulae my paints
and brushes, providing my imagination with tools of which I could only dream several decades ago.  I primarily create with electronics and mathematical algorithms, rather than physical means and processes (although actual
production is, of course, usually physical, depending on the final form of
the piece).

I believe Fractal Art will be one of the first major art movements of the 21st
century - certain to stir up great controversy among the proponents of the “traditional” contemporary art, which dominated the last century.

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