Under the ice -

"Sleet"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
fractal flame & digital collage by Mick Mather

This post was influenced by the transitional weather we experienced here in Central New York during the month of December, 2007 - before and after it all turned into a lot of snow. We had a bit of freezing rain but, mostly, it was sleet. Driving in that sort of mixed precipitation can be a bit on the wild side although not such a big deal when you take road conditions into consideration. Anyway, we had one day with gusting winds that made the view ahead look a lot like this for a time. Oh, the introductory title above the image is one of the songs on an album by Todd Rundgren's 1960's pop group, Nazz.

Have I tricked anyone but myself?

"The Amazing Elizabethan Cloak"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
digital collage by Mick Mather

I continue my experiments with fractals and attempts to wed some very interesting flames to my photography or digital drawing. At the same time, I'm continually aware of being seduced by the technology of mathematical sets that make the work possible. I've mentioned this before in relation to ending up with a sci-fi look to the work - perfectly fine in that realm - and fractals can be very, very beautiful all by themselves. There are a lot of artists who do little more than enter a mathematical formula and wait to see what the fractal generating software provides. While I have no problem with it as a legitimate creative process using tools that are another flight up the technogeek high rise, it's my own way of working that's at risk some of the time. This post might be a good example ... have I allowed myself to succumb to said seduction? Am I only fooling myself by referencing an English Queen and the habiliment from two centuries ago?

Stretching again -

"The Waiter Brought A Tray"
$50 Unframed - LUCAS GALLERY
digital collage by Mick Mather

As some of you may have noticed, I've taken a sharp right turn into fractals recently. While I've been generating quite a number of lovely flames, the real fun for me is to find ways to incorporate them into the usual work. Sometimes it works, most of the time not, but I'm making progress. In this post I've used a photograph, a digital drawing and two very different flames to create an image that I can't explain other than the fact that it "appeals to me". The usual array of filters and manipulators were also pressed into service here at the Secret Visual Laboratory. In the end, as I sat contemplating a title for quite some time, one of Keith Reid's lyrics from "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is what finally came to me.