Fractals

This is excellent. I like fractals and fractal art, and these images are quite compelling and varied. Many would make great wall art! A huge amount of time and computing power must have gone into creating these engaging images. Highly recommended.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

i received a digital copy of this book via NetGalley and was blown away by the pieces of art that the author has created. I have always been fascinated by fractals that are present in abundance all around us in mother nature. So, when I got access to the book, I was keenly looking forward to seeing the art work. 

This is one of those art books that one needs to keep close to the favorite coffee place and relooks at the art work every now and then. Some of the art works presented in the book are so good that i would love to have them hanging in my living room. 

It's sad that the artist has left us already. But kudos to the team who have put together the works and are releasing the book. 

If you love fractals, you will love this book.

Fractals came into my little world long before computers did, through the intense art of MC Escher. His painstaking, extraordinarily detailed woodcuts are a wonder to behold.  The word fractal was invented by Benoit Mandelbrot, who pioneered and promoted the mathematical aspects of fractals. He, more than anyone, is identified with the word fractal.

Jack Cleveland worked in computers, and apparently without knowing the work of Benoit Mandelbrot, leveraged software to produce infinitely repeating patterns – in other words, fractals. His art is very sci-fi looking. A lot of mysterious orbs and highly reflective surfaces. His works are “familiar yet fantastical”.

The way it works is that computer is programed to continuously reiterate an instruction, endlessly rendering the results. It’s not just for pretty graphics, either. Stephen Wolfram is using them to attempt to find the pattern behind the entire universe, from it birth and into the future. He has global contest underway to find that ultimate instruction.

Jack Cleveland died of heart failure early this year, at the age of 47. His mother, Pat, put this coffee table book together to spread his art to all.

David Wineberg

Fractals are frequently considered to be one of the many complexities of the world, oft better left to the mathematicians. It is so easy to forget the role they play in artwork, yet Jack Cleveland's work, pictured in Fractals: Fractal Images forces readers and viewers alike to acknowledge how tightly woven art and math can be. The images within are all computer generated, and yet there is magic to each and every one of them. Something surreal, yet familiar. There is little explanation for Cleveland's work. Instead, the art speaks for itself, becoming something that is rooted in the very foundations of science, and yet still feeling wholly from another world. Cleveland's work follows a brief introduction, one that explains the nature of Fractals, and the reason why there is little notation regarding his work. Mainly, that he is no longer present to speak on it himself. Yet even without those words, his voice resonates strongly here. Cleveland's work showcases a variety of scenes, colors, and styles – providing a in-depth view of fractal art.

This book has some amazing fractals. It would be an excellent coffee table book, and a lot of the images in it would make excellent wall art, as well. I could stare at many of these for a long time. There is a lot to take in, but it’s also easy to pick up and put down as you have time. I would definitely consider this as a gift for friends and family.

This stunning book will offer inspiration to all students of geometric and computer design. The author’s application of color theory makes this volume a gift that can be of use for many, many years. A question I have involves the definition of “fractals” which I understand to be geometric designs of ever-repeating sub-elements. The most common example is the fern: the overall shape is repeated in each smaller segment, which is again repeated in the still smaller units. I have trouble seeing this shape-repeated-within-a-shape in Mr. Cleveland’s gorgeous designs but that may be a failure on my part.

Do you know what a fractal is?⠀
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A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals by Jack Cleveland is a coffee table book of fractal images. The author manipulated abstract mathematical equations to generate fractal images using a software program called Bryce. Bryce used a feedback loop to repeat the pattern. The author’s life-long love of nature and technology has led to this book.⠀
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Looking at the beautiful fractal images in this book made me realize mathematics isn’t just numbers, it can also be made into art. Nature itself has mathematical equations embedded in it and is waiting for us to discover more. ⠀
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A few fractal images made me scream out ‘wow’ in my head. A few of my favorites in the book are Brahman eye, birds of a feather, and moonlight. Looking at the fractal image of moonlight was interesting because I learned that moonlight can be expressed by a mathematical equation.⠀
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Unfortunately, the author has passed away before the book was completed. His mother Pat Cleveland published this book. ⠀
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Fractals is a ‘modern’ coffee table book for the geeky art lover. ⠀
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Thank you to @netgalley and @anamcara.press for the eARC.