Creative Community Resource

Courageous Secret Belgian Binding

2011-12-31T17:24:00.000-06:00

Recently my friend Luce Zolna showed me a book binding project that she called 'Secret Belgian Binding' and gave me a link to directions. It intrigued me since it was similar to a Coptic binding, (stitched on the spine and lays open flat - great for sketchbook journals see You Tube instructions here) but had a decorative, covered spine. Earlier this year I was experimenting with some different techniques for the word 'Courage' for a small works exhibit. I had a few versions that I liked parts of but not enough to complete and submit for an exhibit. I needed a new journal for a book called 'Dream Culture' that a friend and I are working through (the author suggested having a journal just for this book) and realized that the word and the size of the paper were perfect for this journal. I like making handmade journals to use everyday and don't necessarily want them to be too thick, so I can use them up and make a new one every so often! This is was a great way to salvage those experiments that had meaning for me and put them to a practical use.

At the same time my (22 yr old) son was taking on an incredibly ambitious Christmas gift project for the love of his life (an illustrated children's story type book, hand bound with leather, no less!) He had never done any kind of bookbinding before, whatsoever, but had a journal I made for him a few years ago that he liked. He liked the look of this Secret Belgian Binding too so we figured we'd try it together. - That was a very interesting Mom-son project, I have to say. - So below are pics of the covers and spines. It took me a bit to figure out the instructions, as I am more a visual person; (a YouTube video would have been quicker for me) but in the end, the process was not too difficult. I also had a book with some instructions in it, so combined I was able to figure it out. I may need to refine my technique (there are always lots of tricks that make things work smoother,) so will ask my friend Luce about her books. Basically, the front and back cover are sort of 'woven' together with the spine and then the sections of folded pages are sewn to it.

My son was using some leather (old samples from a leather furniture store) that was a bit thick, which made the corners a little difficult. He also decided to de-boss a raised image on the cover (R & M), which was an added step, but I think it came out beautifully (especially for the first time!). His girl was super impressed and I am proud of the labor of love that he threw himself into (I don't think I have his permission to show any of the illustrated pages, but they were great.)

I am really happy with mine as well and will try it again. I used a combination of gesso for texture, with walnut ink and acrylic paints on Arches Text Wove; great paper to work with.

Paper Marbling (with people who know what they're doing!)

2011-12-09T11:56:00.004-06:00

This was so much more fun than our previous 'figure it out as we went' attempts to marble paper. HUGE thanks to John & Rita Foltz for sharing what they've learned and walking a few of us through the not-so-painful process last week! It can be quite addicting when you have good results! These images were our first attempts with a few basic pattern techniques, armed with this new information. With some practice you can achieve more consistent and striking results, that can be used for bookbinding, greeting cards and a variety of paper-crafts. I cut some of mine into strips and used them for a ribbon and gift tag for small holiday food gifts. We even experimented with a sheet of Alum-coated Tyvek which worked well and could be a great book cover.

Paper marbling is basically a mono-printmaking process. We found that a few key things severely hindered our previous attempts: not coating our papers with Alum prior to marbling; not using the right paints, diluted to the right consistency (this time we used Marble Art paints and Golden FLUID acrylics, further diluted and we did not mix these two paints together); and not using carrageenan in the water tray, which creates a surface on which the paint can float. (We previously used methyl cellulose or wallpaper paste, which some paper marblers do use).

John recommended a few great resources for information and supplies: The books, "Ultimate Marbling Handbook" and Galen Berry's "The Art of Marbling" which can be found on his website: Marbleartus, (which is full of help and supplies you can order to get started.) Check out Payhembury Marbled Papers and Falkiners for gorgeous examples of hand-marbled papers and other resources as well.

Below is Galen Berry's brief description of the process, taken from his website. I have added some photos from our day and a few italicized notes.

1. Some alum is dissolved in water. This is sponged onto each paper to be marbled, and the paper is allowed to dry. The alum is what will bond the color to the paper.

2. A thick liquid, referred to as the size, is made by blending a type of gelatin (carrageenan) with water.

3. The size is poured into a shallow tray. (We used these disposable trays but something with more square corners would be even more effective.)

4. Several colors of ink or paint are sprinkled onto the surface of the size. They float on the surface because they are lighter than the thickened water. (We used the spatter method of applying the paint to the water but you can use a brush tip or dropper to form more distinct and even patterns of color.)

5. A stick is used to stir the floating colors if desired. Various combs and rakes may also be run through the colors to make more intricate patterns.

6. A sheet of the alum-treated paper is gently laid onto the surface of the size, and it absorbs the floating colors. Only one print can be made.

7. The paper is lifted off, rinsed, and hung up to dry. (The image, above right is a wet sheet just pulled from the tray, before rinsing. You will notice some white spots, some of which are reflection from the camera flash on wet paper. Some white spots are caused by air bubbles trapped between the paper and the surface of the water.) Fabric marbling is done the same way, except for step #1: Instead of sponging the alum onto the cloth, it is soaked in the alum water, then hung up to dry, then ironed flat. After that, it can be marbled just like a sheet of paper.

Large Scale art made from Rubik's Cubes?

2011-11-09T10:55:00.001-06:00

Peter Fecteau's year-long project, “Dream Big” is a mosaic of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. using 4,242 Rubik’s Cubes. (Images from KoiKoiKoi)

Feed your creativity!

2011-10-17T17:43:00.003-05:00

There are a few exhibits in Chicago and Northwest Indiana a that you may want to check out this Fall (Some of these I have been to, some I have not yet):

At the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City through December 18:
An article in Friday's NW IN Times featured a great piece by Melissa Washburn from the Lost and Found exhibit. Also on exhibit at Lubeznik is an installation by sculptor Jozef Sumicrast entitled String Theory; the Indiana Wildlife Artists Twenty-eighth Annual Exhibit (through Jan 6); and Motion and Memory, a photographic exhibit by Larry Chait. Lubeznik is open 10am-5pm Tues-Fri and 11am-4pm Sat & Sun.

At the Chicago Cultural Center, a wonderful photographic exhibit by Art Fox, Up Against the Walls through December 21. The cultural center's admission is free and if you have never been there you'll want to spend some time seeing the incredible decorative architecture such as the Tiffany glass mosaics everywhere and the famous Tiffany dome.

While you are in Chicago, please go to the LUMA gallery, right behind the old water tower off Michigan Ave, and see Inscribing the Divine, the traveling exhibit of works from the St. John's Bible 10-year project led by Donald Jackson.

This is the last week for eight by ten, the Annual All Members Show of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective at the Skokie Library. The show ends Sat. Oct 22.

There was a lot more to Theodore Seuss Geisel than green eggs & ham. Did you know that his career began in editorial cartoons and advertising? Throughout his life he continued to paint in his leisure time, and in recent years his wife gave permission for some of his paintings to be printed for a traveling exhibit that is now known as the Dr. Seuss Secret Art Collection. The Museum of Science & Industry is featuring some of that early work, paintings and other Seuss memorabilia through January 8th in There's Fun To Be Done! Dr. Seuss & The Art of Invention. (Please note that this exhibit is not included in the museum's regular admission price.)

Know of any other current exhibits? Are you exhibiting in one yourself? Please let me know, I'll post the information.

Creative people you should know: Gary Wilson, photographer

2011-09-22T22:43:00.002-05:00

Gary Wilson's daytime job as conductor for the South Shore Railroad just may have been Providence. It was in his long layover gaps between trains that he began looking at Chicago and its people through a camera lens. Gary has an eye to capture scenes and moments full of meaning (hidden and not so hidden) with the click of a shutter. I wanted to share just a few of my favorite images of Gary's and introduce you to him. (I love the textures and movement that he captures: swaying dune grass, melting lollipop, dripping lake water frozen in time) Although a new website is in the works, if you are interested in seeing more of his photography or purchasing prints or cards, you can leave a comment here or find him on Facebook (Gary Wilson, Valparaiso, IN). Enjoy!

Have Some Courage!

2011-09-04T15:53:00.006-05:00

by Cathy Feeman

This was a rather spontaneous painting, done last week: Courage. I am working out the best way to incorporate lettering into an acrylic painting. So far it's been a bit of a clunky process, getting the tools coordinated with the right medium. The problem is getting an opaque paint that flows freely and also will adhere to acrylic paint. So far the process ends up being more 'drawn' letters - which not only take (me) a lot more time and clean up, but also limit the tools I can use to get more expression. Obviously fluid acrylics will flow better, but tools are my next question. Traditional calligraphy tools and acrylic paint? I am working out the bugs as I go, but would appreciate comments. This particular canvas ended up being very textured, which I found myself fighting against the whole time. I had bought a small amount of 3 different raw canvases to stretch at Blick and, while I like some texture, this one is too much for me and tends to work against large brush strokes. I also applied the gesso with a roller, and wonder if that may have added to the texture too; not filling in the grooves as much as a brush? Note to self. I will try to re-gesso another similar canvas and see if i can knock the texture down a bit. Anyway, enjoy and take courage!

Encaustic Mono-Prints

2011-08-31T18:53:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago my daughter and I visited Catherine Keebler's studio in Chicago's Fine Arts building and got a crash course in basic encaustic mono-print-making. Catherine is a fine artist with a focus on encaustic techniques, which involve painting with wax and pigment. Click here for a FUSEDChicago Spotlight interview with her. Here are a just a few of her images of her work, be sure to check out Catherine's on-line gallery. for more!

Cell 1; Hollytex and Asian paper

Synapse #1

There are a variety of techniques used in applying the color and wax, but her technique is more of a mono-print making process and I have to say, rather addictive! We had a lot of fun and I'm now trying to find a way to set something basic up in my own studio!

Her palette is a heated anodized aluminum plate (below), to which the pigmented wax (above) is directly applied. The plate heats to around 200 degrees for a good consistency. Kelley adding the pigment sticks (below) to the heated plate. Rubber tools and scrapers can be used to create patterns and move the wax around. Sometimes called 'color shapers' these are tools used for clay sculpture as well as paste-paper painting. More color can be added at any time, since it stays melted while on the plate.

Once the design is set, a sheet of paper is laid right on top of the wax which quickly absorbs the design. A bamboo brayer wrapped with aluminum foil (below) is used to make sure the image fully transfers to the paper. Once the paper is lifted off the plate it cools and is dry almost immediately. The clean up process is also quite simple. A few sprinkles of beeswax or soy pellets are dropped onto the plate and wiped around with a rag to remove the wax/pigment residue. We experimented with a variety of papers, from a very transparent synthetic paper called Hollytex, (resembles dryer sheets), to Asian papers and every day, inexpensive inter-leafing paper. Thinner papers work best. You can add more color by laying the paper back on the plate but you have to be careful to do it quickly, lest you melt and lose your whole original design. Among many other things, you can use inks or Akula Color water based litho inks for a preliminary drawing under the wax technique without being disturbed, thus adding layers to the work. There are a LOT of possibilities not mentioned here!

Below are some of the other things my daughter tried. I think they turned out great and we'll do this again! If you are interested in encaustic techniques, here are a few other inks to resources:
FUSEDChicago, an encaustic artists group who are also offers classes and workshops in the Chicago area.
R & F Handmade Paints which offers supplies and is a great resource for instruction and help.
Paula Roland is an amazing encaustic artist who teaches and offers instructional resources as well

First pull

Second pull (more wax was still on the plate) with extra pigment added on top

Created on a smaller plate to define edges

My favorite. Although it was created as a vertical design, in the end, when turned horizontally, a figure appears on the left that seems to be dancing with streamers! Happy surprises!

Exhibit opening at LUMA Chicago.

2011-08-26T12:33:00.000-05:00

Inscribing the Divine: The Saint John's Bible

August 20 – October 23, 2011

For the first fifteen hundred years of its production, every copy of the Bible was handwritten—some magnificently illuminated with gold leaf and paint. Contemporary calligrapher and illuminator Donald Jackson revived the tradition beginning in 2000 to produce a new bible for the Benedictine monks of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. He has brought a modernist aesthetic to a medieval practice. As he finishes its last pages, LUMA will exhibit thirteen bifolia from the books of Pentateuch and Psalms, including the illumination of the seven days of Creation, a modern masterpiece. Interwoven across the page of Psalms are voice prints of Benedictine chants as well as chants from other choral traditions, such as Buddhist monks and Native Americans. Shortly, the bifolia will be bound and the Bible will become a liturgical object at St. John’s Abbey.

Image: Creation, Donald Jackson with contribution by Chris Tomlin, Copyright 2003, The Saint John’s Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA.

The Loyola University Museum of Art is located at 820 North Michigan Ave in Chicago

http://www.luc.edu/luma/visit/

Contact: 312-915-7600, luma@luc.edu,

GULP: world's largest scale stop-action video

2011-08-10T11:24:00.001-05:00

Watch this video on how the creators of GULP spent 5 days shooting the world's largest stop-action video using 3 Nokia camera phones mounted onto a crane on the beach. The results are on the second YouTube link. Pretty impressive feat!

Now, for the finished product!

Lydia Mallison-Jones and Audio Silk

2011-08-04T01:59:00.001-05:00

I met Lydia Mallison-Jones at an international arts and food festival in Redding, CA in May of 2010. She didn't have a huge number of pieces with her, but I was instantly drawn to her art. The colors were so rich and the texture she created on silk stretched over a frame was incredible. (I actually just stood there staring for some time!) She has recently relocated with her husband and four children from the UK to Kansas City. I have extracted some bits of info from her website, (below) but please visit it yourself to see what she's been doing and to read more about her and her vision for Audio Silk.

Audio Silk is a fledgling art & design company. Lydia qualified as an Architect in 1998 having studied at the Welsh School of Architecture, University of Wales College of Cardiff. After experiencing restoration and healing after having suffered the ravages of chronic pain and manic depression for just over three years, Lydia has been inspired to produce artwork that speaks of hope to others who are suffering or have suffered sickness or injustice.

Currently she paints using water, dyes, rock salt, sea salt, silver leaf, zinc solder, bread, wine, crushed pomegranate seeds, flour glue, honey, ash from charred timber and vinegar on her silks. She then frames the fabrics on fir stretcher bars. The results are stunning, and even more so in person. In addition to wall art, she is now creating wearable art from these fabrics. (Can't wait to see that!)

Store House

Tears

Tears, detail

Hold On, detail

Hold On

Freedom 2

Dry Bones Dancing

Crystal Sea & Emerald Rainbow

Crystal Sea & Emerald Rainbow, detail

Increase

Chicago Calligraphy Collective - South Side Study Group

2011-07-13T19:01:00.003-05:00

A study group is what we call a monthly (typically) gathering of artists (in this case members of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective) that meet for the purpose of sharing ideas, techniques & recent projects. It's a combination of food, friendship, discussion and actually doing some fun creative things together. We learn a lot from one another! The South side group recently started up again after some time on hold, and with some new members! We thought we'd start off with a project we can all do together: an alphabet book. For those who don't know what might mean, each member of the group was assigned 4 or 5 letters, numbers and signs (@&?!) and took a few months to experiment with fun ways to interpret them. We used unusual and also traditional tools and in the end had to come with 9 copies of each page of our assigned characters (below).

The second part of this project was to create a book to keep them all. We had done a book using a simple Japanese stab binding a few years ago and, having just experienced my first go a Coptic binding, I suggested we use that. Coptic binding allows the book to open flat, and as we planned to use these books for reference, it seemed like a good idea. (Also great books to use for journals and sketchbooks!) Another advantage of Coptic binding is that you can literally use anything for the covers, as long as you can drill holes through it for stitching.

We took one month and tried a technique using a Modeling Paste medium on top of cardboard and then used various tools and textured items to create texture and pattern in the paste. Once dried, acrylic paints can be washed or rubbed over the dried medium for fabulous effects. For our July meeting, we brought our covers and pages and assembled them. A few of our members were leery of the process, but everyone did a great job and produced some beautiful books. Some even want to explore bookbinding further! So do I! (I wish I had close ups of books other than mine. I had to take mine outside in the sun on another day to get a better image that shows details.) We decided to bind blank page signatures and adhere our pages with scrap-booking adhesive. This way we are able to have blank pages to add letters that inspire us in the future.

Below is a close-up of the front cover of the book I made.

back cover, below

Chicago Area Art Events: Greening of the Arts: Artists' Studio Tours

2011-07-10T17:20:00.000-05:00

Greening of the Arts: Artists' Studio Tours & Reception

Saturday, July 16, 2011
Environmental Education Center, 2405 Calumet Ave, Hammond, IN

Entertainment
5:30 p.m. Ken Czulno, vocalist and guitarist, and Mary Kuzniar, keyboardist

Welcome
6 p.m. Dr. Dennis Nyberg, president

Guest Speaker
6:30 p.m. TBD
7:00 p.m. Acknowledgments of
Volunteers, Donors in 2011

Raffle
7:20 p.m. Raffle winners announced

Tours:

Depart 9 am From:
Environmental Education Center
2405 Calumet Avenue, Hammond, IN

9 - 10 am
SideCar Gallery
411 Huehn, Hammond, IN

10:30 - 11:30 am
Warehouse Studio
150th Street & Calumet Avenue, Hammond, IN

Noon - 1 pm
Paul Henry Gallery
416 Sibley Avenue, Hammond, IN

1:30 - 2:30 pm
Quentin Foreman Studio
212 Mason Street, Calumet City, IL

3-4 pm
Bill Duckett Studio
6746 Illinois Street, Hammond, IN

5:30 pm Reception
Environmental Education Center
2405 Calumet Avenue, Hammond, IN

Rosie Martindale - Martindale Art Ventures

2011-06-08T14:39:00.001-05:00

I recently was introduced to Rosie Martindale's work, as I spent the afternoon with one of her sisters, talking about art and life. (It was a really nice time!) It's a large and incredibly creative family; in fact 5 of the 7 children are girls and held a '5 Lundmark Sisters Art Exhibit' in Danville, IL earlier this Spring. (Her 4 sisters were blessed to receive art classes from Rosie as they grew up!) Rosie loves to work in miniature watercolors and mixed media. I mean miniature, as in 2"x3", or even 1" x 1". What I found fascinating was the way she incorporates these tiny gems into 3-dimensional, sculptural works of art using a variety of found objects. I am told that her father loves to collect and salvage, which is a great resource for these creations.Her work is rich in symbolism and meaning, not just randomly paired elements.

Please visit her site, Martindale Art Ventures to see more of her work and read more detail about what's behind these creations. The following are excerpts from her Artist's Statement:

When I am not working on a commission or writing, I house realistic miniature watercolor or acrylic paintings in mixed media/ found object constructions. I use family members as models, incorporate nature and derive most of my themes from my devotional life. The result is a sculptural, always contemplative and sometimes manually interactive one-of-a-kind work of art.

The Miniatures are divided into four categories: Ideals, Reflections, Imprints and Illuminations. Each category represents moments when our temporal existence brings eternal things to mind. (more on website)

Front

Front, detail

Back

Back, detail

Front View

Rear View

Pae White's 'Metafoil'

2011-05-23T23:59:00.001-05:00

I have recently come across a few articles referring to unusual developments for Opera; specifically, Paul McCartney writing music for operas, and revolutionary modern stage curtains like this one recently posted in FeelGuide.

L.A. based artist Pae White's revolutionary main stage curtain design for the Oslo Opera House is turning some heads. Metafoil was created by scanning images of crumpled aluminum foil which were then sent through a computer numerically-controlled loom which transformed the pixels into a massive tapestry of cotton, wool, and polyester. And, it is truly massive. (See photos below!) The individual threads are only visible from a few feet away, so the audience gets the full, suspended belief effect of a giant 3-dimensional sheet of crumpled foil.

Will Opera patrons find it a distraction? I will admit that I have never been to an opera, so have nothing to compare it to. I do think it's a wonderful work of art-technology (it makes clear that the possibilities of this technology are really endless), and I imagine I would be a bit mesmerized by it!

Upcoming area classes and workshops

2011-05-03T12:30:00.000-05:00

If you are interested in Calligraphy, (The Art of Beautiful Writing) but perhaps are intimidated, there are a few opportunities to be inspired and begin to learn a wonderful art-form. First, check out Exploration 2011, the annual juried exhibition of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective (CCC), On display at the Newberry Library in Chicago through June 25. Today's calligraphy includes a wonderful variety of styles and techniques.

If you'd like to learn more about this unique and expressive art-form, CCC member Julie Wildman will be offering some classes for beginners, below. Visit her blog for more information. The CCC also offers a variety of classes and workshops throughout the year in the Chicago area.

Can You Pray With Paint?

2011-02-19T01:45:00.005-06:00

What do you think, can you pray with paint? How about pencil, clay, or fabric? If prayer is communication, are words the only valid vehicle? After all, the visual and performing arts are powerful means of communication. If you could not speak, would that mean you could not pray? Does God only have one language, (i.e, the spoken word) and if He created us all differently in the way we relate to one another and the world around us, would He not also want to communicate with us in the way we were made? Things to ponder.

Recently I have begun to step out into these unchartered waters (unchartered for me, that is; it's not a new concept) and have had the opportunity to paint during the worship service in the church I attend. While I feel these are baby steps for me, it is a journey that I am excited to explore and develop in. Some pieces are purely abstract while some will be more representational. I am more and more convinced that art is not just a means to express our own views, opinions and feelings, but can also be a medium to release prayers for the world around us, and this does not need to happen in a 'church'. What's more, it's my opinion that God hears them the same as he hears our spoken words. I have even heard accounts where where art was created as a prayer for healing and, in fact, many healings were reported and documented as a result of viewing what was painted. That blows me away. But, then, if we start from the same point of believing in an all powerful God (which maybe you don't) then why not?

Anyway, these are a few of my first attempts. They were created relatively quickly, and express specific dynamics of the worship that was happening at the time, and what was my heart cry during that time. Some Sundays I work on a large canvas mural (an ongoing project, I'll show that later) and sometimes I, or other artists will work on individual canvasses on an easel near the worship band just off stage. These first 2 were done on small 8" x 10" canvases, in a less public setting (thus the size). I don't have any dramatic stories at this point, although some people have been blessed by what I've attempted so far. I'll continue the journey and see where it goes!

This painting, below, 24" x 30", was done during a women's conference at the church.

The following paintings were created on Sunday mornings, during worship, similar dimensions as the painting above. (This one, just below, was done on illustration board, because I didn't have a canvas handy!)

This last painting is not quite finished. I will add some writing to the vertical white light. I'll post that when it is finished.

Beauty in the eyes of the beholder; blizzards, construction sites and mathematic equations!

2011-02-03T01:49:00.056-06:00

Having just been inundated with 20+ inches of snow in a furious 24 hour blizzard (that most of the nation experienced in some way), I am surrounded by the inconvenient beauty of snow and ice covered windows, huge, swirling drifts and unplowed roads. I realize that some do not enjoy winter or snow, but who could argue with the utter beauty left behind a snowfall? Not certain of the actual snowfall in our area, there are 4-5 foot drifts virtually everywhere. Just as my husband cleared a path of the huge drifts that consumed our drive way, the snow started again and left what looked like another 7 inches! The town we live in was at a standstill, roads remained mainly un-drivable 12 hours later, but thankfully we experienced no power outages or major problems. We just stayed inside for a snow day. I took the photo below of our patio from out the back window. Since first posting this, I went outside in the sun today and took a few more photos but the pristine snow drifts were mostly replaced by shoveled and plowed banks. Our neighbor's yard is still mostly untouched, as the snow is past their children's heads!

My son often sends me odd but interesting creative links, for which I am grateful. I have used a few of them in this blog and I hope you enjoy the variety. Several months ago he sent a YouTube clip of a guy supposedly creating a picture of the Mona Lisa with a nail gun, from about 10 feet away. Although it was a clever production, the construction experts in our home agree that it wasn't real! This Nail Art, below, IS actually created by hand, however, with roofing nails (on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood!). While I wish the artist had used his skill to create an original image, rather than using a Leonardo Da Vinci drawing (just the teacher in me), this amazing, innovative 3-dimensional art creates shading with nails set at various heights. Cool medium and technique. I don't know anything about the man who created this work of art, and I'd really like to see more of his work. (I wonder where the idea originated? Did he spend time as a roofer?) Below are just a few of the images, click here for more pictures.

NOW, on a completely different, very left-brained note, the video clip below was sent to me by Edwin L. Kerr, Ph. D. in Theoretical Physics; I just met Edwin last week. He had visited my blog through a link from another site and our conversation was about the beauty of creation, even in unsuspected areas, such as mathematic equations; specifically, the beauty of fractals. (Yes, I said fractals.) Among many other things, he has worked on projects for NASA and is confronted with the beauty hidden in math and science on a regular basis. He noted that while calculating mathematic equations may not lend itself to public exhibition and appreciation, he was able to utilize both right and left brains to create this 1 minute 45 second graphic interpretation of what is known as the Mandelbrot Set, which he finds creative in nature and its beauty causes him to worship the Creator of it all. It is a mathematical equation I cannot hope to explain, so I will let Edwin explain in his own words, below. The point is, however, that you don't have to understand the mathematics to appreciate its beauty (although it does have a bit of psychedelic feel, doesn't it!). I am always astounded to see creativity expressed in new places (new to me anyway!). Thanks for sharing!

Edwin Kerr's explanation:

Benoit Mandelbrot found a way of expressing graphically the beauty hidden in a simple mathematical equation. The equation defines what is now known as the Mandelbrot set.

The set is a black cardioid shaped object at the center of the screen. It has various bulbs (roughly circular black spots) attached. From these bulbs emanate a set of black filaments, usually too fine to see. Along the branches there sometimes appear small satellite Mandelbrot sets. The filaments have many branches. I have discovered a way of localizing the tips of the branches.

One could think of the Mandelbrot set as a very spiky iron object that needs paint. The first coat of paint becomes very thin at the tips of the points but it collects and thickens where the branches join each other or join the bulbs. This makes the painted object smoother than the original. Successive coats of paint are smoother still because the underlying coats have rounded the points and filled in the joints. The outermost coat is a circle that encloses everything.

In the movie the view zooms in on one of the points. At first the point seems like a little protrusion on one of the bulbs, but on closer examination one sees that the inner filament is a stem that branches into a star with six arms, arms of various lengths. As the movie continues to zoom in on the tip of the shortest arm one sees that the arm ends in another, smaller star, also with six arms, and that the arm we are focusing on is really the shortest arm of the smaller star. The process of zooming in continues, revealing more and more stars in the arms of stars, with no known limit. One can see that the arms curve around because the general picture revolves around the center as the movie zooms in. The movie only shows the first 180 of the outer coats of paint. Eventually when it runs out of colors it shows the outside of the next layer as a black skeleton embedded in the stars. The skeleton shows where the filament lies, still supposedly coated with an infinite number of other layers of paint that can’t be pictured without letting the computer run too long.

It took about four days of running time to make this movie. That time is short compared to the five months I have heard quoted for comparable movies. Mandelbrot computed the Mandelbrot set by taking differences of numbers that are nearly equal. Zooming in to greater magnifications has until now meant computing the numbers with greater and greater precision, and that has meant letting the computer run for a long time. I discovered a way of working with the differences directly and don’t need high precision. My method stays centered on the tip even when the magnification becomes much greater than the precision with which the tip’s location is specified.

I have discovered about 1500 of these points but naturally have not been able to explore them all. I have made only four or five movies of this type so far.

People say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, the creation story shows that beauty exists objectively, independently of what people think. The Bible says “And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.(Gen 2:9)” The trees were both useful and beautiful. Their beauty is objective because God made them that way.