Well, i didn't wait, fixed and tested the problem.
You should now be able to download and save these files
If you should still encounter problems, please let me know

Have a GREAT day

Dirk

Hi Manny, 

thanks for pointing that out. I'm gonna upload them again tonight,
to see what happens.
You can use the last file already, that one should work.

Dirk

Snow turning bright red
Verdun comes under attack
Humanity died

Dirk

Kids ignored, gun culture, Columbine High.

More drugs, less life, nightmares abound.

Dirk

Dance around your soul
Tonight I will lose myself
A feast of colours

Dirk

Catholic priest, too "friendly", agression followed

Dirk

Warmth melted away
Ice penetrated my heart
Spring will never come

thought i might jump in ;-)
Dirk

Thanks everyone and a big congrats to Nadita and Jock, and of course for Keith, this was a very cool challenge you came up with!!

No problem, Nick. A good thing is always worth the wait.

Like Yvonne said, thank you both so much for all your work in the past 12 months! Can't wait to see (or read?) your surprise :-)) Have a great 2006!! Dirk

When I wrote my list, i did not number my points. This is not a list where you go, 1:check, 2:check, it is just a small number of the numorous questions that any artist may or may not ask him or herself while working on a project. This means, thinking about what you are doing, why you are doing it, what you learned or dicovered and how you can use it in any future work. This goes for any artist and in any style he or she chooses to work. Abstract art is not mindlessly throwing paint on a canvas, Jazz is not blowing any note without any structure at all. And fractal art can never be just clicking away. Tim you are right by saying that "fractal software is my paint, my instrument, my camera....". It realy is. This is the central point of making art with fractals. But if it is our paint, our instrument and camera then we better learn to control them, to make them perform as WE want and not wait for beautiful accidents to happen. Now, I am an artist, I had six full years of academy and a degree that tells me so. It's been about 13 years since I first became interested in fractals, but it is only for about 3 years that I am trying to use this medium as my only art tool, and it's the hardest medium I ever worked with. Why is that? Working with a medium like fractals is working with what Keith calls "patterns and shapes". He is absolutely right about that. The hard part is that there are so many patterns, so many shapes to discover, in so many formula, so many flame parameters, so many colour algorhytms etc.. This is why, even MORE than in traditional art media, we need to document, register and learn from every trip into fractalia we make. To learn which patterns, landscapes are possible, you must first discover them. And this is the fascinating and almost spiritual trip we are having, walking through out-of-this-world landscapes. We stop and click our digital camera. Later on, we are not merely satisfied with the landscape or pattern and go about re-arranging them, giving them new colours. We are now on our way, we think, to become fractal artists. But are we? I would suggest that at this stage, we are still subjected to being passengers on a fractaltrain with an unknown direction. Sure, we can stop the train when we see something beautiful, record it, change it to our liking, but when that work is done, back we go on the train looking for another spot of interest. And without knowing it, this medium has become the art itself. No longer are we out to control our fractals, we have fallen for the trap filled with ready and instant beauty. Now we are converts to the fractal religion, a religion, like all religions, where non-believers and questions are frowned upon, where conventional art-skills and rules don't apply, where the work itself is resting in an intellectual vacuum. I still believe that there is a big future for fractal art. I know that when I see how Keith and Rick are working on it, I see it in the works of Harmen and Kurt (Rumple), I see it in the work of Jos and so many others. But if we realy want to bring fractal-art into mainstream art, then we have, in my humble opinion, a long way to go. A road we better not ride on high horses... Dirk

Let's take our latest work and ask ourselves some questions : - what is the size of your (digital) canvas you have used and why have you chosen those measurements ? - did you have any idea, before starting your work, which or what image you were trying to achieve ? - When starting your work did you have a mental image of the stages, formulas, tasks you were going to apply ? - How did you decide on the composition ? - When composing the image, through how many different versions did you go before settling on the final placing of objects/fractals/flames ? - At what stage did you took a decision on the use of your colours ? - Did you pick your own colours, made your own gradients, your own lighting ? - Do you know why you have chosen those colours, or the mood they represent ? - is there a concept to the work you created ? - is the work recognisable as your own work or even style ? - have you noted the post-production steps in your technical diary ? - have you documented the discoveries you made while working on this project, in your daily diary ? These are just some of the questions you may ask yourself while working on your fractals, but believe me there are many more... Now, answering those questions and acting upon them wont make you an artist overnight, but you will at least know what you are doing and that is the first step towards becoming an artist. Neglecting all of this on the other hand means that it is the software that decides the image, and that is NOT art, your image is just a pretty coincidence and the software becomes the artist... Dirk

Hey, that was nice! BIG congratulations to Linda and Jock, and thanks to the people who selected my image. And Rick, this was a pretty cool challenge, with very beautiful and interesting results from everyone!! Dirk

Message edited on: 09/09/2005 15:44

Congrats Joseph!! I agree with everyone here, this is a very serious candidate for frac of the year!! Dirk