The Protégé of Jasper Johns, & schooled in the Bauhaus, there were a lot of things my old man wasn't, but being an ARTIST*(all caps)* wasn't one of them. I remember the tortured insanity & long midnights that accompanied his Paintings. & they hang in Galleries all over Europe,.......................... & they hang
in the very prestigious Gallerias de las Insanita d'State (ok...you get it ...right??!!) throughout the North East.

He associated w/the Spiritualists ("a search for the transforming and spiritualizing aspects of art") movement in the middle of the last century...in whose studios i spent a great deal of time when I was very young.

I remember a particular visit to see Maulsby Kimble in up-state N.Y. ... it was raining locusts, I was running around screaming,...they (the ARTISTS) were admiring the miraculous wing structure of these large-w/-bulging-eyes-insects that made a loud-buZZSaw noise as they fell through the air & died!!! CLINGING to your hair....
that was the afternoon of the slightly over-ripe watermelon........ they savored the slightly
fermented flavor.....I decided then that they were crazy.

A particular incident stands out in my mind concerning my old man.

The o-so-elegant-rich-dilettantes of The Town-of-Snobs invited many Artists to show their paintings (w/a
grand prize-type-of-award!) @ a street-fair Gallery show (because the very rich are always looking for
sht to hang on their expensive walls that makes them look relevant&important instead of just obscenely-fkng .......well..........-rich) so my old man submitted a painting called 'The Lord's Prayer'. It could best be described as a series of mandalas....(10 years later w/ that 'new-age' 60s-sht & he would have rocked!!) but/& nobody 'got it'! I had long since grown used to no one 'getting' my Dad's ART but I was NOT prepared for what happened that particular day. The 'Art Critic' strolled by, took a look @ Pop's Painting & declared to the stooges&drooling groupies-in-tow, "THAT! is NOT ART!!"

Which leads into to why you are reading this:

I have no-fkng-idea what ART is or isn't. Personally, i am of the William Rehnquist version of thinkers on such
delicate matters of self-exposure: ''I know it when I see it!" So...when I got a message from Freakether3 about 'Lilwolf ' petitioning support for a group of artist called 'Fractalists' who were going to get the boot from site because a group of self-appointed deciders had DECIDED their's wasn't ART!...I flashed-back into active
vendetta-mode.

W/the advent of multi-cultural-politically-correct-don't-impinge-upon-little-Moonbat's self-esteem-EVERYONE!'s-
an-ARTiST-OK?! HorseSHT...I can understand why this might be an issue...after all, Fractals are computer generated & miracles do happen on photo-Shop....(is what i have been told..... however,... I can't say for
sure as i am a technophobe of the highest order).

Brainstorming w/Smoking Cat & Midnight'sExile, ...we came up w/criteria for judging if something is OR is NOT ART:

~ Artistic Merit - creative ability of the Artist
~ Artistic Value - has to do w/impact on audience
~ when machines make art
~ the Degradation of ART
~ lack of imagination vs. lack of ability
~ if the computer is the 'artist' it is not ART: the 'program' as artist
~ 'Artwork' involves a certain level of authenticity to be called ART- context
~ Art must have 'creative vision'...imagination/ability...technician/artist
~ the end product vs. creative process & point of origin of idea

so....we asked the Fractalists being displayed the following question:
~ Where do you draw the line between 'real creative process' & 'plain-ass-cheating'???????! !

Here is their ARTWORK. Here are their answers. YOU DECIDE for yourself. But please!, support these Artists...because times are tough, &,... a very broken World survives in Glory because of the ARTS, & Artists!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR Y'aLL! from all of us @ the Hotel Broke&UnKnown.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The FRACTALISTS

1.) Space Spikes - by Angel-of-Life
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/angel-.....ace_spikes.jpg

2.) Complexity - by Kamilicious
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/kamili.....complexity.jpg

3.) Orb of Beaks - by kewlhotrod
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/kewlho.....b_of_beaks.jpg

4.) Through fire and space - by lilwolf
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/lilwol.....080526-182.jpg

5.) wormwood - by kingrondo
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/kingro.....l080327-23.jpg

6.) Random Bordem - by Dark_Fetomon
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/darkfe.....background.png

7.) <3 U - by Fyger
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/fyger/.....er_heart_u.jpg

8.) Ngon I - by thoron
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/thoron.....76_shape_1.jpg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the interviews:

Interview w/ Kamilicious
"Where do you draw the line between 'real creative process' & 'plain-ass-cheating'???????! ! "

In my opinion, a real creative process starts with an idea, an image in your head or anything else.
I don't see myself in the position to judge whether something is art or not, but I'm very tolerant concerning 'art'. Some people splash ink against a wall and sell it as art. And while many people think this may not be art, I certainly think it is. It depends on the artist and often it's not the finished artwork that matters, it's the reasoning of the artist and his feelings about the finished artwork.
Expressing feelings belongs to the process of creating art.

As a fractal artist I often hear there's no process, since everything is automatically generated and I certainly do not disagree on that. But it's not like I don't put effort in my work. I've been an active fractal artist for about a year, I'm still not fully capable to create something great, because the program I use isn't as easy to handle as it's often displayed. Of course, there's the possibility to let the program create random images and you can pick the fractals you like best, render them and claim you did something awesome and call yourself artist. This is what I'd call 'cheating', because there's NOTHING the 'artist' did, no effort was put into the work.
Personally, I do not render random fractals, I create them. I start with a blank fractal, like other artists would start with a blank piece of paper. And no, I don't want to compare myself with traditional artists, because I can't, I'm not a traditional artist.

So the difference between 'real creative process' and 'cheating' is a matter of effort. I'd like to say that, just because the program generates the fractals it doesn't mean there's no effort on the creator's side. The program is not easy to use, it took me a great deal of time to get the hang of the program, what specific values do, how to determine the look of your fractal etc. Creating a really good fractal is not a 5 minutes matter.
Moreover I don't think 'generated' pictures do not affect artistic values. Due to the fact that fractals have similarities to abstract art, I find many people trying to interpret my works, so I think for many people it's the end product that matters, not the way it was created.

Drawing a line between 'bad' and 'good' fractals is difficult since many people do not have criteria or have never used a fractal program. Whether something is good or bad is of course in the eye of the beholder, but whether a fractal was just randomly rendered or created with effort and intention can be defined in my opinion. It already starts with the name/title of the fractal. Does it have a
name? And more importantly, can the viewer somehow understand why the artist has chosen that particular name? If not, can the artist explain why? It seems to me that many fractal artists have a wide imagination and they write down their feeling/thoughts to the fractal,
in my opinion this indicates that effort was put into the work. I know fractal artists that simply number their works, like 'fractal #1, fractal #2 ... '. This is certainly different, it's kind of ' heartless'.
This would be an easy case to draw a line between.

I call myself artist, because I can express myself through fractals, I put effort in them, I don't treat my works as 'heartless' images. I often look at my fractals, some of them remember me of special events or something else. I hope some people would stop saying 'fractals aren't art' or 'it's just an easy way to create something and claim you're great afterward'. I don't do fractals because they are 'easy', I needed time to be capable to do the stuff I do today, and I could have invested the time in learning to draw traditionally, but I haven't, because fractals are my way to express myself, and this is what art should be made for.

So, in conclusion, I think it's not the end product that matters, everything behind the picture is way more important and a real creative process contains 'heart' and 'mind'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interview w/ kingrondo:
the real creative processes concerning fractalists abilities starts with their ability to see what they want from the fractal before it BECOMES.
its like a sculptor at his block...you need to visualize WHAT you want before you can make it.

for me anyway, i try to make the fractals give a... certain emotion or feeling with each. take for example the fractal named "Angel Star".
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1848419/
i wanted to give the impression of flying, gracefulness, or serenity...usually, this works better than simply MAKING.

its rather easy to spot those that have not the talent to make fractals and are simply cheating though their art seems random, if symmetrical, have blocks or spots that shouldn't be there thus making it easy to spot when "machines make the art"

art in my opinion isn't degrading.
its at its high point.
more and more people are getting interested in art, in making, in viewing, in becoming, it's never been this grand a period in artistic history, save for the Renaissance and Baroque periods(possibly).

as with the last criterion, imagination is at its high point.
we're experimenting more with different art styles and medium and pressing the physical bounds of art and imagination as we know it.

the program is just the medium for art, just like paint is to a painter, or block to a sculptor, or a colorist to photoshop

when you're good at art, you should immediately know what is yours and what is his, or hers.
its its own calling card.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2-B-CONTINUED