Infinity. Immortality. The idea that there is something beyond what we know, something larger than our existence, yet perhaps something as simple as a single string of code. This is what fascinates me most of all. This is the foundation of my passion for fractals.

Fractals are, to put it simply, a plotted out mathematical equation that infinitely repeats. In the era of technology, programs have been created that allow us to finally test theories that before could only be “guesstimated” by the likes of mathematicians such as Gaston Julia.

There are great freedoms that come along with working in a digital medium, but there is always the common misconception that it is easier because the computer does all of the work. I look at fractal exploration as a journey where I am not the creator of the fractal, but likened to the photographer who finds something phenomenal and takes a snapshot.

Digital artists are on the very brink of being taken seriously by people in the “outside world.” For the past 8 years that I have worked as a digital artist, I have been an advocate for the medium. When I tell people I am an artist, they like to think of me behind a canvas with a paintbrush in my hand because it fits their romantic image of what an artist should be. I don't feel that it is my calling, although I was a traditional artist for years before I became interested in digital art. It’s hard to commit myself solely to the creation of digital art though, because I was trained in the traditional style and I don't want to let those skills get rusty. However, at the same time, I'm so smitten with fractals that I always have a render going on one of my computers. It’s while my computer is rendering that I take the time to do more traditional artwork, as it often takes 8 or more hours to complete a single poster-sized render.

A long time ago, an online friend of mine sent me a link to a fractal application download. It was so primitive that it couldn’t even save an image file. It only allowed you to zoom in and out of the fractal and watch it turn funky bright colors in animated rotation. Since then, software authors have created bigger, better, smarter applications and I’d like to say I’ve played with each and every one of them, but I know there are a few that have slipped past me. My favorite right now is Apophysis. Being a software reviewer, with an interest in free beta software, I was one of the first artists on Deviant Art to use the beta program. There were about three or four of us who became good friends and then a few of us became half a dozen, and then it just kind of exploded. A few of us, (Javier -aka- Batoruco, Russa -aka- OneBadPenny, and I) started a free club for people who wanted to beta test the program. Now here it is a couple years later and we’ve got over 600 members last time I checked. Now it’s snowballed into this enormously popular entity as fractal art has begun to receive more attention. The administrators of apophysis.deviantart.com are a group of established fractal artists who spend a lot of time helping budding artists by providing a chatroom, helpdesk support, tutorials, resources, contests and the like. It's been my pleasure to witness the joy that fractals can bring to the artists who explore them as well as the community that views them.

When I am working in Apophysis and manipulating fractal flames, I inevitably come across something that intrigues me and I am sucked into the digital world. When I see something extraordinary in a fractal, the inherent feeling I get is that it's not mine alone, it's for the world and I must share it with them. You see, the numbers have always been there. The mathematics of fractals has always been with us, we just haven't been able to process it until the computer era. Yet there are some who think, "I saw this great fractal. I rendered it and here it is: my fractal!" My opinion is that even at the completely rendered stage, the fractal is not owned. It's the world’s fractal. The explorer just found it! Surely, a photographer does not claim, “I saw this great forest of trees on a mountain. I took a picture of it, and here it is: my forest of trees on my mountain!” Now that I’ve expounded on this idea somewhat, you might understand the dilemma I have with fractal art. When does a fractal fall under ownership? Is it the application of scripts chosen by the artist? Is it an artist’s choice in gradient? Is it the moment a title has been slapped on it? At what point in the fractal exploration process can one call the fractal truly their own? This question has plagued me from the beginning. This is why I insist on altering a fractal render in some way to make it truly mine. Unless I have manipulated it in order to make it my own artistic statement, I do not feel right putting my name on it.

My theory is that enlightenment can be obtained through the introspective exploration of fractals. What can be truer than the fundamentals of mathematics? We know that we can add and multiply, subtract and divide for infinity and aren’t these the basic fundamental laws that hold reality as we know it together at the seams? We can see the principles of polarity at work in fractal mathematics, positives and negatives work together, not in opposition or conflict, but a united whole. This is a concept that Eastern cultures have been able to grasp for ages and it is the simplicity of this balance that inspires me when creating fractals. Through studying fractals, we can better understand our state of existence in a physical world in which infinity can be explained and explored, yet exist just within the realms of our mental grasp. Some theorists question the existence of infinity. After all, we can’t prove that it does exist because it is completely unobtainable to us as individuals, but maybe through generations and generations of individuals it can be realized. Think of it this way, a Mandelbrot fractal contains smaller generations of self-similar Mandelbrot patterns, but the entire lot is considered one entity, the Mandelbrot set. Isn’t it also true of humanity? In this way, fractals have caused me to open my eyes to the “oneness” of the human race. Will we, as a race continue forever in the infinite fractal loop? We could mutate, meld, learn and expand, continuing to form miniature near replicas of ourselves from generation to generation (well, unless we blow ourselves up, of course, but that's another subject entirely). In the end, though we are all unique in our individuality, we are all a part of the same entity. The human race.

In the interest of progression, I never worry about giving away parameters in flame packs. I know that every artist will come up with something unique if given the same starting point. I’m not really giving something away. Remember, it wasn’t truly mine to begin with. I am sharing with the world what I find beautiful, and that is the true artist’s nature. I firmly believe that by engaging in free sharing of information, knowledge and expertise, a community can grow collectively in leaps and bounds. We see this happening already in our Apophysis community at deviantArt. Multiply this by infinity, and you might get a glimpse of how quickly humanity could progress if only everyone engaged in these activities.

It’s important to point out that Apophysis is Open Source software and the scripts written for the program are all given to the communty of fractal artists freely by their authors. That is the zen of fractal art.