Paul McGuire (ptmcg)

I create my abstract images using a computer program that I originally wrote back in the early 1980's. This program creates an abstract image using a fractal mesh, a process that takes an ordinary shape, and repeatedly applies a random warp or deformation, breaking it into smaller shapes. Each successive generation further deforms the sub-shapes, and an overall 3-dimensional effect emerges.

The randomness of the fractal mesh creates images that are similar to many patterns in nature: - the path of lightning through the air - the shaping of a coastline, or of a mountain ridge - the billowing of clouds in a storm, or smoke from a fire - the flow of water as it erodes and shapes a hillside

I use a second process to add color to this mesh, so that images can be vivid and colorful or muted and pastel, and the generated pattern still evokes the patterns and forms of nature. The colorful patterns draw the viewer back again and again - often to discover a new shape or texture in the patterns of the fractal mesh.

People invariably find one or two of my images that they find especially appealing, and I believe this is because the flow of color and shape in my images evoke the same flow of shape we see every day in the natural world. Just as we by nature are drawn to watch the embers of a fire, or the flow over a waterfall, or lightning across the sky, my images compel and draw in the viewer, to consider the complexity and beauty that emerges from simple natural processes and effects.

The prints shown here are magnifications of the fractal mesh, deep in the image that began as a simple shape. Creating them is a combined process of growth, discovery, composition, and finishing.