Fractal quiet

I have been wondering about the current state of fractal art. It seems to me that much of the enthusiasm that used to swirl around it has faded out. I have to be careful though. I don't wonder about my enthusiasm for it. I know that my interest in it is all but gone, so I have to be careful to not confuse my personal world with what is happening in the fractal world.

It's weird for me to say that about fractal art. It's like watching an old, strong friendship fade away. I have put enough into it that I almost feel guilty about letting it slip away, but it is anyway.

I gauge fractal art interest by what I see happening in the community sites and forums. My forum is dead, but that's not saying much. It wasn't super active to begin with. The Fracfan forum also seems quiet to me. I just read that the UF group on DeviantArt is falling apart. There is only a little discussion happening in the Renderosity fractal forum. It just seems like everyone has stopped talking about fractal art.

I am not paying attention to the Apophysis world. It could be that most of the discussion has moved into that. I know that lots of Apophysis images are still being posted on the community sites, so enthusiasm must still be running high for it. That should be expected. It is free and it makes some very cool images. That's a good combination.

Maybe the old issues are settled so they are no longer issues. No one seems to be concerned about fractals as art, post processing and fractal purity, or what the definition of fractal art is. That's good, because that stuff doesn't matter. It never really did matter, but it seemed important at the time.

I wonder if we are in a fractal art recession - that maybe the fractal bubble has burst. Maybe fractal art is fading out. Or maybe it's just me.

Unfair Advantage - Update

The whole "Vote for my Art" situation has not changed that much since yesterday but I learned something quite important today that is relevant.

Turns out that the paper which published the article I was complaining about in my last post acted totally appropriately. In fact, the issue lies with my local newspaper which had access to the same information as the paper from "Out West". Both publications were encouraged to publish news about the competition and the various entries by the competition organisers - only one of them did.

To make matter worse, when I contacted my local rag and asked for their assistance late yesterday, their chief reporter politely informed me that it was too late as Friday's paper has already been "put to bed". You can imagine my frustration when I learned that my local paper had in fact known about the competition for almost a month and, despite being encouraged to report on it, had failed to do so.

The situation is still rather unfair but any blame should be leveled at my local paper which failed to act. At this point I'm wondering why they even have an art reporter.

Of course I still need votes - now more than ever! It will be interesting to see which piece wins as clearly this contest is less about art than exposure - which is a fairly regrettable state of affairs.

Edit: This competition has now closed. The official results will be announced in March to coincide with the publication of the Auckland White Pages. I'll let you all know the result in due course.

Unfair Advantage

In a recent post, I shared how one of my works, Woven Together, which features a fractal background has been selected as a finalist in the Yellow Pages Art Awards.

All was going well until tonight when my dance buddies pointed me in the direction of the article below:



You might notice that my image is conspicuously missing! Worst of all, the voting closes on Friday (NZ time). This means that being able to drum up sufficient support for my image may not be an option.

Is it just me or is publishing information about only two of the finalists in a *free* local newspaper with quite a large circulation inconsistent with the idea of a fair competition open to public voting?

Anyhow, if you want to help balance the scales / right the wrong, feel free to visit the voting page and vote for "Woven Together". Or not. After all if the contest was really fair, you'd be presented with all the options and *hopefully* be left to make up your own mind.

At it Again

After being shortlisted for the YPG Art Awards, I was encouraged to enter another competition. This one involves designing a Cabin bag for Air New Zealand.

The result was incorporated into the wallpaper below:



Just like the last time, I need public support to advance my design in the competition. Here's the link / voting instructions:

1. Go to www.designabag.co.nz
2. Click the register link and fill in all the fields.
3. Once you have registered, click on this link: www.designabag.co.nz/entry/103/Home_Coming
4. You will see a row of stars which is partially coloured in, click on the fifth star so that all the stars are orange
5. Click the submit button

Thanks in advance

Edit: This competition has now closed. Thanks to everyone's support, my design "made it" into the shortlist. Sadly it did not win. Never mind. I do appreciate everyone's votes and have recycled the design into an artwork that will hopefully grace the walls of the new "Middle School Learning Center" at the school where I work.