Its life Jim but not as we know it!

 

'Its life Jim but not as we know it'
- surreal digital imagery - George Roberts April 2024

I really should stop messing around with fractals and astronomy in the digital domain. 

This year, I must get back to doing some serious analogue drawing, printing and painting because once I get the turps out I really enjoy it.. The modern world is just so full of easy-peasy distractions!  Having said that I reckon Max Ernst would have loved Mandel Bulb software and 'pooters' in general.

Rhino on the Square

 

'Rhino on the Square' - digital art - George Roberts, April 2024
Credit: Incendia Next software and Affinity Photo2

" No Rhinos were endangered in the making of this surreal fractal work" - Sir David Attenborough.

Under the water under the sea how many Nautilus can you see?

 

'Captain Nemo dives again' -digital art George Roberts March 2024.

The Nautilus both extant and extinct, are characterized by involute or more or less convolute shells that are generally smooth, with compressed or depressed whorl sections, straight to sinuous sutures, and a tubular, generally central siphuncle. Having survived relatively unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, nautiluses represent the only living members of the subclass Nautiloidea, and are often considered "living fossils" -Wikipedia

The shells follow the mathematics of a logarithmic curve. All but one of the above were generated as fractals created in the software INCENDIA. 

Spring

 

'Spring' digital art by George Roberts
 March 2024 INCENDIA software.

I have become digitally obsessed by the magic of fractals and recursive algorithms. They are literally a force of nature. I will need to join a support group - 'Fractals Anonymous'

"Thorns and briars grow around the Castle, and soon it is almost invisible and nearly forgotten. A passing Prince, and his father the King hear of the legend of “The Sleeping Beauty”, and Prince Florimond declares he will rescue her from her sleep"

Ferntastic fractals

 

'Seeds and ferns' - digital painting by George Roberts
 using INCENDIA fractal software and Affinity Photo2

The infinitely recursive universe of fractals, provides a multiplicity of brushes, colours, textures and lighting for the digital artist to explore. This is such a surprising journey full of wonderful artistic and unconsidered events at all possible scales.

The ancient dragon swallows it’s scary, scaly tail

between

two mirrors parallel and recursive bound.

The artist daubs a painterly fairy tale,

between

 two dimensions and with marks on gesso ground.

All protagonists and time

await an unexpected and infrequent visitation,

 which in itself will announce an act of creation.

George Roberts

 

The fractal universe in a nutshell.

 

'Fractal blossom' - digital painting George Roberts March 2024

'Tardigrade' digital painting - George Roberts March 2024

'It's life Jim but not as we know it' - digital painting George Roberts March 2024

These images were constructed and rendered using the mathematics of fractals and the excellent and powerful freeware INCENDIA and Mandelbulb 3d. Many thanks to Prof GP for recommending this software. The above images were finally composed using Affinity Photo 2 software.

All fractals show some self-similarity. If you look ever closer into the details of a fractal, you observe multiple replicas of the whole.

Fractals can often be seen in nature. A fern is a classic example, with each of the branches coming off the main stem being similar to the entire frond. They are self-similar to the original but on a smaller scale.

These self-similar patterns are the result of a simple equation or mathematical statement. You create  a fractal algorithm by repeating this equation through a feedback loop. This process is called iteration  with the results of one iteration forming the input value for the next.

The patterns created by these algorithms often have fractal dimensions that are not whole numbers. Fractal dimension is a measure of shape complexity. Fractals are also recursive irrespective of scale - repeating themselves endlessly.

What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.

 

'Salvador Dali in the 3rd Person'
digital painting by George Roberts March 2024
The image was created using
Mandelbulb 3d and Affinity Photo 2 software. 

In memory of my university flat mate Paul, who had tea with Dali in his surreal garden with the giraffe in Spain many moons ago.

The longer I live the more surreal the world in which I live becomes - here's to you Paul and Salvador!

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”

― Salvador Dalí

.

A Goat by moonlight in a fractal landscape

 

'A goat by moonlight in a fractal landscape' by George Roberts digital art . Credit:: Mandelbulb 3d software

Thanks to the excellent Greg P for bringing 'Mandelbulbs' to my attention. Credit to the brilliant freeware Mandelbulb.3D, which was used to create this fractal landscape. Mathematics is the digital artist's infinitely flexible brush and medium. 

"On a bluff, on a bluff, on a bluff stood billy-goat Gruff"

Cake and Chiaroscuro

 

.Josephine Wright portrays her grandson's Birthday Party - Oils on Canvas - Josephine Wright of Derby 1736-1800.

Joseph's lesser known younger sister Josephine, painted more domestic scenes than her older and more famous artist brother. Some art connoisseurs have argued that Joseph couldn't hold a candle to his sister when it came to chiaroscuro, baking birthday cakes and making a good 'Sunday Roast'. - John Ruskin.

The Man with Two Brains

 

The Cowboy Angel and the Gates of Eden

 

'The Cowboy Angel and the Gates of Eden' - Mixed media digital and otherwise - printed, painted and arranged on canvas and board.- George Roberts January  2024.

Eventually finalised what was originally a digital image /sketch - see 'Fermi Paradox' post. When I got around to making a submission for the Royal Academy Summer Show they had already reached their self imposed limits for registration (165,000 submissions). Anyway, I was reasonably pleased with the completed collage, which differs in a number of ways from the original idea in addition to the title. The new name for this collage alludes to a Bob Dylan song 'Gates of Eden', which I used to sing way back in the late 1960's. Since then full internet access to and from millions of personal mobile phones has industrialised  the movement of information, sanctified money and generated a multiplicity of affordable 'keys' to the Gates of Eden.  We have collectively made gods of celebrity and created heroes from rogues. We have mixed the truth, lies, science and faith to such an extent that we struggle to  make decisions in our collective best interests. Perception of the Universe is now so corrupted by our shared beliefs that evidential reality has become subjective. Why is Paradise  perceived  as somewhere else, ever something to be gained or lost but always locked away and gated beyond our current reach? Beats the shit out of me!

"Of war and peace the truth just twists

Its curfew gull just glides

Upon four-legged forest clouds

The cowboy angel rides

With his candle lit into the sun

Though its glow is waxed in black

All except when ’neath the trees of Eden"

Mr and Mrs Briggs go Paddlin' - 2023

 

Mr &Mrs Briggs go Paddlin'  by courtesy of Mr &Mrs Briggs
- traditional watercolour on NOT paper - George Roberts 2023 

Eynsford, Kent - a nice summer's day by the river to remember with friends. It's re-mailed and on its way folks! 

I always wanted to be a sculptor

 

'Red Kites' a mobile by George Roberts November 2023

With apologies to Alexander Calder and with the kind permission of Mr and Mrs Boon behold the wonder of 'Red Kites' a mobile constructed from mild steel.

The Fermi Paradox - a digital collage of my astro-imagery and mark making

 

'The Fermi Paradox and fake views'  - digital collage - January 2024, George Roberts

This piece of work started off  in my head when I read on line that the Royal Academy had made a call for 'entries' for their 2024 Summer Exhibition. The theme for this year is "to explore the idea of making space, whether giving space or taking space. This can be interpreted in various ways: to make space can mean openness – making space for something or someone, also making space between things". Clearly the RA were not looking for a "one step for man one giant leap for mankind" sort of thing but hey that's where I like to go. My 'day job' experience of  'Architectural Competitions' might well be summed up by " No one ever won a coconut by observing the rules of competition". So I ploughed on with the ideas whirling in my small brain (or 'filbert' as it's known in the South) mindful that I might buck the RA's rules and astound them with my conceptual insight and brilliance.

So what is the Fermi Paradox? Well the gist of it is: 

• Space  is mindbogglingly large and contains trillions of galaxies each containing billions of stars and countless more planets, therefore there must be very many many places in the Universe suitable for life to occur and flourish.
• The Universe is very very old so consequently there has been more than sufficient time for civilisations in multiplicity to advance beyond our comprehension.
• So if this is the case "Where are they and why haven't we heard from them?"

The bleak answer probably can be surmised from the comments section of all social media platforms where even intelligent folk can vehemently deny demonstrable facts and scientific proofs because they don't conform to their own particular world view. Sadly, this is not a reference to the UFO debate but directly related to the average lemmings liking for dangerous sports and precipitous cliffs.

My collage is all about the experience of  'space, time and light'  which appear to be wrapped up tight and filtered through the optic of a Proscenium Arch. I sometimes wonder if there are audiences on both sides and whether we are all watching the same play?

I shall not be submitting this to the RA as a digital collage would appear to break their rules concerning unique copies. On the plus side I've saved myself the £40 entrance fee and still had the fun of making the marks. I have some board, glue, a photocopier and  a ink jet printer, so will probably convert the digital into the real sometime soon.

A day in the life of ‘Waterfront’ the Penguin No2

 

Gone fishing’

Get tanked up with Syd Carp no3

 

“It’s important to keep the fish in your tank happy! Clean water makes for happy fish, so once a week I change a third of the water in the aquarium. Look how happy this Yo-yo loach is ! Bless his little Cotten fins!” Syd 

Glass and steel sculpture

 

'Poppies' by Anita and George Roberts - fused glass and
stainless steel bar and fixings.