Ersi has been a member of *Ultra-Fractal for some time now, and over this period, it has been an enormous pleasure to witness her immensely creative talent and beautifully thought-out Ultra Fractal works of art.

On top of this, Ersi has recently been interviewed by a Spanish Television Company, and this will be released on Monday 18 February by TV2, the Spanish National Television's 2nd Channel, at 07:00 am!

Ersi Samara is our TV Star!! Read on...

The Interview

* How long have you been doing fractal-art and who or what got you started?

I started making fractals four years ago, in January 2004. I knew nothing about this form of art and discovered it quite by chance. I was surfing the net searching for abstracts and I came upon Janet Parke’s gallery. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had my first contact with fractal art through her! I was mesmerized and couldn’t stop viewing her creations again and again. In her site there was a link to the Ultra Fractal web address and that was that. I bought the programme that same day!

* Do you have any other family members who are artists (in any form)?

Not professional artists. My mother used to paint and she was very good at it. I keep all her paintings and watercolours. She passed away in 1990 and her works are her emotional portraits to my eyes. I also had an uncle who painted seascapes and another who wrote plays and that’s about it, I’m afraid.

* Do you have any formal training in this sphere, or as an artist in general?

I studied graphic design and decoration years ago –and I mean years ago!- and went on to study painting but never got a degree in art. I also took courses in photography and I have thousands of slides taken before the digital cameras came along. I also studied literature and creative writing, and some of my short stories were actually published in Spanish literary magazines some time ago. But I have had no formal training in fractals. Everything I know I learned experimenting with the programme and occasionally copying the parameters other fractalists were generous enough to post on the net. I’m not in the Ultra Fractal mailing list because mailing lists are too much for me. Just sorting through the messages to find the ones that may really interest me is an enormous, time-devouring task. On two occasions I decided to take the Visual Arts Academy’s courses on fractals but they were complete each time! I’ll try again this spring.

* Is art your means of earning a living, or do you have another type of job - if so what do you do?

I do earn money selling my art but not enough to make a living with it. I also work as a translator –always freelancing. I normally translate literature and essays from English to Spanish and sometimes from Greek to Spanish. Working at home gives me lots of freedom to organize my activities. Lots of self-discipline is required but I’ve never been able to cope with fixed work hours so this is really what I’m comfortable with.

* Do you feel that any particular artists have influenced your work?

Most certainly. Many different artists and artistic styles. From Byzantine Art and the Romanic to the Twentieth-century vanguards. Velazquez, Goya, Botticelli, Bosch, Turner, the Impressionists, Kandinsky, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, George Braque, André Masson, Willem de Kooning, Georgia O’Keefe… This is getting too long. I’d like to add that I love the current Pop-Surrealism or Lowbrow style.

* What sort of things inspire the fractal-art you do?

First and foremost, my frame of mind. My emotions. To open the fractal programme and start working (I should say playing) I need the impulse of an emotion. I’m not a cerebral artist though strangely enough, once a fractal is well under way and I start looking for a title, I realize my creations end up being concepts. Concept art.

* Do you have a preference for the type of fractal pictures you like to create?

I do. The fractals I like most are the less popular ones, at least here in dA.

“Japanese Dish”, for instance, is one of my absolute favourites. It barely has sixty-something viewings in over a year. If I had to choose my two best creations, they would be “Taurus” and “Japanese Dish”.

- "Taurus".

I like sober images, works that invite you to contemplate and reflect. I like the exercise of eliminating all the superficial elements and keeping the essentials. The accumulation of elements does not necessarily increase the artistic quality of an image. The truth is though that I have given in to the frilly side of fractals too many times.

* Could you give a brief overview of the techniques you use when creating a fractal?

I cannot give a very interesting answer to this question. My technique is based on patience and experimenting. I focus mainly on the composition –it’s extremely important to me, a good composition can turn an otherwise poor image into a work of art- and the meaning of each particular creation. My fractals are not technically complicated. I rarely use more than 10 layers and some of my most popular pieces are 3-layer fractals. Technique is very important but what is really essential is the intention of the creator.

* Do you have any advice for aspiring fractal-artists?

The same as for artists aspiring to any artistic discipline, I guess. We need to know the tool we work with, the programme, in this case. We need patience to learn and to develop a personal relationship with that tool. The fact that it is a computer program being used does not eliminate the human factor from the equation. It’s not easy to achieve a personal style, fractals that cry out “so-and-so made me!” even if the image is not signed by the author. We need to know ourselves to be able to reflect our personal universe in our art. It takes some thinking, some self-analysis. And we must also know the world we live in, I think. Art is not something separate from life and life is not just love and beautiful sunsets. It’s also troubles, wars, hunger and injustice. If we bring all the hues and contradictions into our art, it will be so much the richer.

* Is there any other form of art that you'd like to explore in the future?

I recently went back to drawing and painting. The results are not worth sharing with a public just yet but I needed to work with physical materials again!

* Is there anything else you'd like to add about what you do?

I’d really like to say something more about fractal art...

I’m afraid it’s being limited to a very narrow field. Let’s consider our options when we upload a fractal to dA. There is only one place we can go: Digital Art – Fractal Art. The sequence ends there. No sub-categories to fractals, no additional areas, styles and meanings. As if fractal artists had no intention whatsoever when they created their piece. We cannot choose “Fractal Art – Surreal” or “Minimal” or “Emotive”, etc. Fractals are fractals and nothing more? How can the artists express their deeper intention? Did they have none while they worked? Fractal art can contain a message. It can affect the viewer in many different ways, make them feel and think. Aesthetic satisfaction is fine but it’s not enough. Art is much more than aesthetics if we want it to be alive.

I have felt deeply frustrated as a fractal artist on too many occasions. This is still a little-known artistic area and there are many misconceptions and prejudices to overcome. Especially in Spain, where digital art in general is regarded as a minor genre, the “ poor cousin ” of painting, etc. I persevered because I find it hard to let go of an artform that is a genuine means of expression for me. I got some good results recently. An art gallery interested in exhibiting my work –though unwilling to offer a contract!- a couple of exhibitions –the works are selling, by the way, though not at the speed of light- the TV interview (mentioned above), etc. I hope the trend will continue.


I’d like to thank =AnnaKirsten for her interest and the time she invested in preparing this interview. All the questions were interesting and very important, you can tell she knows what she’s asking about in art!

I would also like to thank the *Ultra-Fractal Group for considering my work worth discussing, they are doing a difficult job to promote fractal art in the dA community.

And I thank all the readers who clicked on the link and read all the way down to here. Love you all!

Sampling from Ersi's Gallery

<sub>Do please take a look at Ersi's wonderful selection of fractal art - each one has that "something" within that speaks deeply to the inner-being! If you haven't already done so, we would like to encourage you to add her to your

This interview was carried out on behalf of *Ultra-Fractal by


*Ultra-Fractal Consultant.</sub>