Art From Steel

Got an email a few days ago from a rather cool website, Art From Steel.  They're based in Thailand and make sculptures from scrap metal, including a lot of SF related things, like Aliens, Predators, Terminators and more.  Pieces range in price from $15 to $5000, depending on the size and complexity of the sculpture.  Here are a few examples:

Fractal Fantasy

Fractal Fantasy from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.

I created this video using 4 of the fractals from the Fractal Lab library (fractal.io). The music is "The Goya Discovery" Written and Performed by: Derek R. Audette - ©MMX Derek R. Audette (SOCAN) (derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/​music.php).

(For some reason the video player makes the film choppier than the original. Feel free to download it from Vimeo to see it at a much higher frame rate.)

From the Fractal Lab website:

"Fractal Lab is a WebGL based fractal explorer allowing you to explore 2D and 2D fractal. The fractals are rendered using the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) to enable real-time interactivity.

WARNING: it is possible to create GLSL fractal shaders that will lock up your GPU requiring a hard reboot if pushed too hard. Use at your own risk!"

Heed the warning. I crashed my laptop twice using the program, but it was worth it. You can play with colours, fog density and other parameters. Just remember to save your fractal, because it's very hard to recreate one you liked. Play with your fractal in preview mode, but don't forget to click the box and end preview before taking photos or video clips. For the sake of this video I only zoomed in. On the website you can change the camera angles and move in different directions. And you have use a browser that supports OpenGL (so Google Chrome).

You can create some nifty space and fantasy art with the fractals.  The first was done by my husband, the other two by me. 

Spray Paint Sci-Fi Art

Looking for some more artistic inspiration for your writing? Check out this unique but fascinating art form by Brandon McConnell.

His website: Space Paintings

And check out "Spray Paint Art #3" on youtube to see how he does it.