_{Disclaimer: What I consider to be aesthetically pleasing or excellent in nature does not necessarily reflect the opinions held by dA or its members in general. This article is written out of my own perspective, and is one I want to share with others who might enjoy similar types of artwork.}

I have admired the fractal artworks of for several years now - and who hasn't had a good laugh at some of her journals!! Kat agreed to do this interview, and as she has a lot of very important and interesting things to say, I will go straight into it...

Interview with *LaPurr

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

As I’ve stated elsewhere on the site, I’ve been making things of one sort or another literally all my life. I enjoy working with my hands and began by making little things just for me. It grew to include a love of color and form and that eventually led me to photography school. After I graduated, I realized that I wanted to photograph for myself rather than for others, but I did quite a bit of commissioned portrait work, too. I love people’s faces.

I’ve experimented with many mediums over the years besides photography, including jewelry, miniatures (mostly micro minis on the scale of 1/144, which means that one inch equals 12 feet.), paper maché, decoupage, sewing, bookmaking, cooking (I worked in the restaurant business for over 25 years, most of that time as a fine-dining cook), card making, a little painting and a lot of quilting. I don’t know why I feel this overwhelming need to create but it’s an imperative for me: I seem to have no choice. I derive immense satisfaction through the process of creating something.


Do you have any other family members who are artists

I have six siblings and a few dabble in making things but none to the degree that I do. My father was interested in art when he was younger but he became a master carpenter and has used his artistic bent to make some wonderful wood pieces, mainly furniture. Now he’s retired and does some woodcarving. My mother was wonderful with crafty things and had real skill at knitting but that all disappeared as we kids got older because we took up almost all of her time.

No one in my family is musical, though my father had a wonderful singing voice and would lead the singing in my church when I was a child.
So I’m really the only one, though I hesitate to call myself an artist; the word just doesn’t sit well with me.


Do you have any formal training as an artist?

I took art classes all through school, I went to the photography school I mentioned and I took Janet Parke’s classes at the Visual Arts Academy. Aside from that, I’m self-taught; an artistic autodidact, I suppose. I’ve read about color and color theory, composition, how the human eye travels around an image, etc. Mostly I’ve come to trust my eye and my intuition and will break every artistic rule if I feel an image (or whatever) needs it. I think that while rules are a great starting point and that knowing the rules can help anyone learn what looks good and why, people should develop their own sense of what looks right and sometimes the rules have to be thrown out.


How long have you been doing fractal art?

I’ve been making fractals for about four years now. Ultra Fractal was the first fractal program I used and while I’ve tried Apo and a few other programs, I find that UF is the only one which offers me the control and intricacy I want. I was thrilled when I discovered UF, as it offers me the design fun and color play of quilting (to a degree) and it’s much cheaper! I do sometimes miss the tactile qualities of real-world creating, though. Quilting, especially, offers a great deal of tactile fun: smell, sound, touch and sight are all a huge part of fabric art. I find that I often want to touch my fractals.


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

I don’t make a living from art and frankly, I don’t want to. My reasoning is that doing art for a job would change it from something I do to relax and turn it into work. I never want this kind of playtime to feel like work.

I’ve done manual labor of one sort or another all my working life, primarily in restaurants. I discovered restaurant work during the summer I was 16 years old and found that it suited me. I like having my mind free when I work and using my muscles rather than my full brain gives me immense mental freedom: I can think while I work and that’s wonderful. I’m getting older now, though, and I won’t be able to continue doing physical work. I injured my shoulder at work in September and I’m on light duty in an office right now; I think that’s the end of my manual labor jobs and I’ll have to find something else to do.


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

No, not really. I like different artists for different reasons but none have truly influenced me. I’ve been influenced by the journeys of others, not necessarily by their work per se.
I like Ansel Adams’ use of tones and his control over his art. I like Van Gogh’s freedom with color. I like Chuck Close’s forays into what could possibly be considered modern Pointillism. I like the fact that Picasso learned his craft formally and perfected his skills before branching off into Cubism, sculpture and abstract art. The most powerful piece of art I’ve ever seen was Picasso’s painting Guernica, which I saw at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1974 and I was overwhelmed by it. The painting literally made me step back and gasp and I sat down on a bench and just stared at it for almost an hour. Art can move people, though that’s not my intent.

As for fractals themselves, I would go looking for wallpaper for my desktop and kept finding these amazing images. Upon further research, I discovered that they were called ‘fractals’ and that the ones I liked best were made with a program called Ultra Fractal, so I bought the program. I was especially intrigued with the way UF created shapes and light and that’s still my primary focus. I like creating order out of all that fractally chaos, too.


What sorts of things inspire your fractal artwork?

I don’t normally try to create anything based on something else, with the exception of my few fractal scenes. I like colors and forms as pure design elements. I like textures. I like the interplay of colors. If I see a great combination of colors, as in a person’s wardrobe choices, for example, I’ll write down the combination of colors which caught my eye and use them in a fractal to see if I can capture the sense of pure visual fun that struck me. When I was quilting, those colors would end up in a quilt rather than a fractal.


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

Yes, as I wrote, I like colors and shapes working together, often with a sense of depth and solidity. I like the tactile quality of some of my images. I happen to love spirals and always have, so the spirals I find in UF are perfect bases for me to build upon and use to show the colors I love. The types of things that grabbed my attention when I was photographing the world around me, i.e., color, light, shadow and depth, are what I seem to make in my fractals. I did sort of the same thing with quilts: I used the colors in fabrics to create lights and darks and shadows and color interactions.


Could you give a brief overview of the techniques you use, including an outline of which software you use mostly?

I use and love Ultra Fractal. I have much yet to learn and one of the reasons I love it is that the challenge doesn’t end. I get frustrated, as we all do, and sometimes the UF muse goes on holiday without informing me first (damn her), but I can’t stay away from it. I admit it: I’m a UF addict.

As for techniques: I start by finding a formula to play with and I have some favorites, my main one being Sweet Brew 03 in tma3.ufm. As I wrote, I love spirals and this one produces some wonderfully clean and ‘schmutz-free’ spirals, which that means that there aren’t lots of extra little iterations everywhere creating a cluttered look. I explore the fractal using the switch mode, find a place I like and then switch to a Julia. Using a formula I know well, usually Doodads II in tma.ucl, I check to see how the spiral looks in terms of tightness and how many ‘arms’ it has. A well-known coloring formula will show me immediately what I have to play with and if I like the look of the new spiral, then it stays. If not, I may try again with the same formula or try something else.

After that, I start opening different coloring formulas and see what they do. I’ll save layer after layer of possible shapes to come back to, to morph, to layer with other shapes, etc. I’ll change parameters, Color Density, Transfer Functions, the gradient editor, anything and everything. I see how the different layers work together, how they interact and fit together and eventually something will strike my eye and I start to refine what I see. I usually end up using the same basic formulas because I like the shapes they produce and because they’re almost limitless in terms of being able to change the parameters to change the shapes. Every once in a while, I go for all brand new stuff and that’s when I make my more unusual images.

I use masking a great deal and isolate parts of the image to create depth. I love textures and often use S.F.B.M. II in sam.ucl with a pixel formula to create my textures. I may use mapping transforms to alter the basic textures and I always play with the parameters to see what will happen.

Janet Parke, in her classes at the Visual Arts Academy, teaches the use of formulas, the gradient editor and masking in ways that never would have occurred to me. I learned a great deal about UF from her and recommend the classes to anyone with a serious interest in Ultra Fractal. No matter how much you think you know about UF, Janet Parke knows more…lots more.


As a fractal artist, do you consider yourself to be a Purist? What does this mean to you?

To me, Purism means using the fractal program to create all of the main elements in an image. My views on purism in fractals are evolving with the image import feature in UF 5 and the new plug-ins in Apo, but I really think that the fractal gallery needs a few new subsets of categories such as Fractal Mixed Media and Fractal Scenes. The other galleries have subcategories, Photography being a great example, and IMO, it’s time for the fractal gallery to reflect the capabilities of the new generation of fractal programs.


Could you pick out 3 of your favourite images from your gallery and explain why you particularly like them?

I’ve mentioned three favorites before so I’ll pick new ones this time:

1. Cottage Window


This is a case of having an idea and bringing it to fruition. I wanted to make a European-type window and I did. It was hard work and took a lot of time and effort and 116 layers but I’m pleased with the way it turned out. The frustration was worth it. I’m particularly happy with the texture of the wall and the shadows.


2. Vibrations


I like the sense of movement, the rich, wood-like colors and the soft light is sort of nice. I used repetition of lines to try and reinforce the idea of movement and I think it succeeded. Vibrations was made as homework for one of Janet Parke’s classes, btw.


3. Subdued


I think this one has a bit of an old-fashioned look to it, something quietly rich and smooth and with what I think are lovely, subdued colors. I like the way the shapes interact and the way they work with the abstract background.



Do you have any advice for aspiring fractal artists?

Study your program.

Read help files, work the tutorials, experiment, play and learn. There’s simply no substitute for knowing what your program of choice can actually do. Be willing to invest the time, lots of time, if you want to improve. Many people have spent time putting together tutorials to teach you what they know but it’s up to you to use the resources available and do the work, figure it out. If you want even more information, try the Visual Arts Academy for classes on UF and Apo. If you’re a casual hobbyist rather than a serious fractalist, you may just want to make pretty pictures and interact with people here or on other sites and that’s fine, too. You may find your skills improving over time without even noticing.

Study color.

There are books on color theory and color use that are easily available to anyone, as well as online articles. Do a search on ‘color theory’ and see how many hits you get. Look around you, notice what colors nature uses, the way they’re used and in what proportions. Nature is never wrong. Look at fabrics, advertisements and room decor. Designers are paid big money to create pleasing color combinations; try using their choices and see what happens. Color is all around you; be inspired from what you see.

Study other art.

Look at art: paintings, drawings, sculpture, anything and everything. Try to figure out what the artist did to draw your attention, how they used shapes, light and colors to create focal points and to spark your interest or your emotions. Practice what you saw or think you saw. If it works, great; if not, try something else. Find your style. Find many styles.

Play.

Art can be fun. Make what pleases you. Don’t worry about popularity or favs or attention. If you’re good, people will notice; trust me.

These are a few tips I’d like to give to newbies:

• If you want to improve, ask where the resources are to be found and use them. Many people have written down some of their tips and tricks for you to learn. If there are chat rooms for your program of choice, go in and see what’s going on. There may be a tutorial scheduled on some technique you were wondering about, as in a recent UF group chat on masking.


• Unless you take a class or are in a chat room tutorial, don’t expect anyone to walk you through the programs and hold your hand while you learn (though you may get lucky and someone will do just that), you have to do the work yourself. That’s how you’re going to learn. It’s the only way, imo. It can be fun and it will be frustrating and we all understand. We were all newbies once.


• You can ask for a critique or advice, but then don’t get upset when you receive it. If you ask, people will sometimes actually give you their opinions. But remember: they’re only opinions. You don’t have to take the advice, after all, and hopefully the critiques will be given with sincerity and a measure of kindness. And always remember that we each see things differently; no two people will ever agree completely about something as subjective as art.


• Don’t go around asking for parameters.
  
  In UF, where there are sometimes many layers and techniques used, the artist worked possibly for many years to learn what they know. They built knowledge upon knowledge and each new thing they learned created their foundation of skills. They don’t usually like giving away their tricks to someone they may not even know and therefore can’t trust yet. Art theft is a big deal to all of us.
  
  In Apo, the artists have also worked long and hard to learn what they know and their skills with the program are probably based on years of working with the program. The difference is that with Apo, many people have created scripts, plug-ins and gradients to play with. Go for it and play to your heart’s content. You can learn from the scripts and plug-ins and that’s why they’re there.
  
  No matter what program you use, the artists you may admire started from scratch, just like you, and learned. Do the same for yourself and give them the same respect you’d like if you were in their position. Learning takes time. Be patient and enjoy the process.

If someone asks me what formulas I used to make something, I always tell them; I see no reason not to. Knowing which formulas I used and knowing what I did with the formulas are two very different things, after all. I made some parameters available recently, too, but that’s not common. Once in a while, someone will post a UF image along with its parameters. Use the parameters. Tweak them. Even post the resulting image. The only thing the artists usually ask is that you be honest and give them credit for the original params.

If you really want to see others’ UF parameters, join the UF mailing list. There are always parameters for you to see and learn from, though you have to follow the rules of the list.


Do you have any future plans for diversifying your artwork?

I’d like to play more with abstracts but abstracts aren’t easy for me; I’m a literal person and I tend to make literal types of images. I venture into abstracts occasionally but I’m not very comfortable with them. I’d like to explore that type of image more.


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

I get immensely annoyed when people say that ‘the computer did all the work’. Once you know what you’re doing with a fractal program, that’s completely false. The computer and the software don’t do anything other than what the artist tells them to do. Open UF and see what the software does all by itself: absolutely nothing.

I enjoy making fractals, though inspiration waxes and wanes for me, as I’m sure it does for everyone. I like posting my fractals here. I like dA for the community it offers and for some of the people I’ve met here as a result. I like being in contact with others who do what I do: sitting at our computers, hour after hour, bending a piece of software to our will, forcing it to create what we see in our mind’s eye.

Here are just a few of my personal favourites from Kat's Gallery

<sub>I have carried out a series of interviews and biographies here, all of which are available as links from my journals - please click on to see the full list.

Here is a stamp which I would be very pleased for anyone who has been interviewed by me to use in their journal or shoutboard...



Thank you</sub>