I'm not sure that what I have is a one-track mind or what, but when I get involved with something I sure hate to quit. I've been known to stay up until the wee hours to finish a good book. When I was doing a lot of acrylic painting, I preferred to have a whole day and a half at least to work, ignoring everything else (or as nearly as possible considering that I had 4 kids.) If I stopped and came back later, nothing went right, the new set of colors were not right and the inspiration was gone.
Aging hasn't changed that. I can get lost in playing with my computer graphics or designing a quilt or dyeing fabric or playing with polymer clay or writing lessons. Now that I am alone (after 39 years of marriage) I find that I can indulge that tendency--but once in a while, the outside world intrudes... I'm taking off this afternoon to make hospital calls.
I've just spent the last few days playing with a new version of a fractal program, wmPHoto. This program is unusual in that it uses your own photos for the coloring of the fractal shapes created by the program. That makes for a lot of experimenting, but when everything comes together, the results can be both unusual and exhilerating. I have a multitude of photos, a jillion or so fractal images made in the program Apophysis and a couple jillion of those that were post-processed through Kaleider. I've only begun to explore all these in wmPHoto. I think I need at least a couple more lifetimes!
In this wmPHoto image you can probably recognize a photo of a dandelion and perhaps the other one which is just a single dried leaf hanging from a twig. Why use a computer? I probably would never have thought of this combination of shapes and colors on my own. But it still takes an artist's eye to recognize and modify to get an artist's image. My computer is a tool that makes exploration of ideas and possibilities a true adventure.
I guess it is no wonder that one gets involved when you come across a set of shapes and colors that are not only satisfying, but infinitely variable. But then, isn't that what this whole art thing is about?
Oh yes, before you ask, you can find the wmPHoto fractal program here in the files section: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wmPHoto/messages
Kaleider here: http://www.whizical.com
And Apophysis here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=127736
and Apo tutorials here: http://www.thefractalfarm.net/
Just a word of warning--fractals are highly addictive!
