Random thoughts and art

So I’ve been doing this thing on Imgur called a Fractal a Day Until My Book is Done. The original idea was to post a fractally generated image daily just as a way of keeping my inspiration going for working on my book. It’s really turned into kind of a social experiment.

I found that people seem to like fractal art in general. The reactions varied quite a bit, with some images getting a so-so response and some just going through the roof, though I think most of that has to do with the fact that I am a self-taught artist, so my quality level is admittedly erratic. Still, I think most people have been pretty generous and might give me at least a B+/A- for effort.

The times that really bothered me, though, are when some people would go out of their way to be nasty. It happens most often when I share images where I’ve combined fractals with character portraits or concepts of scenes from my story. Imgur has this irritating system where submissions are “elevated” through upvotes and get exposed to increasingly large audiences. Get enough upvotes and you can make the “front page,” where thousands upon thousands of people will see you.

The trouble is making it through “UserSub,” the dungeons where all the trolls hang out. If you don’t get at least three or more upvotes in the first 20 minutes after submitting, your post will probably die and you’ll garner some really unintelligent comments to boot.

Initially, Imgur seemed like it might be a good way to garner some enthusiasm for my story before it comes out.

I’m giving up on that idea, though. I just don’t need to put up with the negativity.

So I’m just going to focus on this blog and maybe post at a few other sites online from now on. It may not be daily, but it will be a lot more consistent than it’s been. I think I’m basically starting over from zero in terms of audience, but I’m hopeful that will change before too long.

I’m going to keep plugging away at my novel, Earthbound: The Quantum Grail, and my planned art book, but also on fractals, art, my research into American Indian history and culture, and probably several related topics.

Thanks for reading my rantings, and here are some recent images: