I've been asked about my fractals for almost as long as I've been making them, so I thought I'd give a bit of a background and some information on them.

Fractals are beautiful graphic representations of mathematical formulae; the artist uses these formulae to manipulate the various aspects of the composition.

Long before I entered the scene, people, mostly men, were creating fractals in DOS programs, where they really needed to know some very high-level mathematics in order to achieve the effects they wanted.

Today, one can find fractal programs with easy-to-use GUIs, so that the level of math one needs to know is really nil -- if one knows how to close her eyes and point well. :-) This is basically the technique I use, as I'm functionally illiterate, when it comes to math.

Over time, I've learned which formulae will produce certain effects, and thus have become much more proficient at it. The creation of a fractal is only the beginning, for me.

Once the fractal has been created it is in what I consider to be a 'raw' state (see graphic, below). Each fractal is unique, and I tend to 'see' certain things in each one. It's the foundation for what will come next, which is a trip through Photoshop, where I tweak it until it it matches whatever vision I've had that it will become. Some times I do little to the fractal other than artful cropping and smoothing of the pixels, if needed, and then giving it a frame or environment.

I tend to have many of the same themes in my fractal work: space, the universe, the subconscious, perception and the intuitive state; and because it's so different from the more precise work I try to achieve with my portraits, it's more like playing than anything else and is a supreme pleasure and joy.

I hope you enjoy your visit to the T.C. Design Fractal Gallery, and do stop back by, as I regularly create the fractals as my own form of digital 'finger-painting,' and being a kid again. Important stuff, you know.