PRO | CESS
I'm an artist that likes to think and hope the art should speak for itself but know that in this rapid-fire age of social media & attention economy, it might not be best to rely on that for sharing my story and mission as an artist. I will be sharing my evolution below and including thoughts behind using certain tools.
For those that don't know much about my background, I've been a lifelong artist (now 45) and have done a bit of everything art-wise since I was a child. From illustrations to design, sculptures, photography and now known for my abstracts, it's who I've always been and not a switch I can just turn off. Attracted to abstracts since a teen as an art lover but when entering into web3, it truly sparked the aha moment when the ethos of crypto matched the art intent and where I feel most at home.
Once that spark turned into a wild fire, the journey began to find how to best create my abstract pieces and explored fractals as an option. As a graphic designer, symmetry has always been super important to me but feel it has no real place in my art, I want it to be as free as possible to be pure in its message. The repeated nature of fractals is why many love it but the intent was to use it against itself to create landscapes at first and now self-expression with motion like flow while being static without relying on the very thing it was known for. As a tech lover, extremely fascinated with the possibilities to do things digitally that were not possible before as an artist, so I took the execution of fractals and chose to break it apart in order to create forms that deviate from its repeated nature while expressing what I wanted to see or how I felt. You can hear more about the mental process behind my work on my interview on The Outer Realm.
The decision was to take something reliable like fractals and make it as free as possible while not looking like just another export from Frax. Once I came to that conclusion, I started to look for programs that lent itself to how I'd like to create. Since formally trained in art, there was a huge desire for it to feel as natural as possible while being digitally native. From Mandelbulber to Chaotica, it all felt wrong or off but then stumbled upon Fractal Labs by Tom Beddard. He created an OpenGL Fractal browser explorer that I’ve been using since 2019, it is extremely limiting in all aspects and at any moment can disappear, there’s been zero updates or support but I fell in love with it. It was the right amount of digital limitation needed to challenge myself at the moment. A “get in the box to then find a way out of the box” moment.
As soon as it felt comfortable using the explorer, a few pieces were minted on Editional in 2019 and we were off to the races. After a few years of using Fractal Labs to create alien-like landscapes and color theory pieces, the dive into self expression began and it radically changed the look and feel of my art. It went from places I’d like to experience to societal opinions and emotions that came from within, feeling free at last.
Where am I now? Still breaking apart fractals and obsessed with creating depth that has intent through visual immersion. Think of it as diving into my thoughts and exploring the universe created for the sole purpose to make sense of life and what we go through, a meditative aspect to abstract work that begs you to look in deeper into the art and yourself. Currently working on a way for the viewer to walk around and through my art for an experience that they can be a part of virtually and hopeful for in person as well.
Having said all of that… again no limits, so where is all of this exploring headed in the near future? I’m starting to pick up where I left off with photography and illustration then incorporating my learnings thoughtfully for even more experiences that touch upon human expression with visual conversation. Getting back to my roots so while still abstract, you’ll start to see a new era begin very soon (Nothing But Hello) which has me extremely excited.
Will I ever stop using fractals? Maybe. Part of my artistic mission is also believing an artist should challenge themselves once they start feeling fully comfortable (or complacent) with whatever medium they use, I believe I might be approaching that intersection sooner than later.
On to the next chapter of my journey!
WG
