John Banks - Artist, MFA graduate program director and sometime technology consultant. The work here falls into one or both of the following descriptions or categories.

Part 1 Sparks & Remnants

Sparks are incendiary flashes that rekindle the senses. For me it’s standing by a window, staring at raindrops, frozen like diamonds on the bare trees. It’s pausing with friends in the autumn wind, on the verge of discovery as we pushed deeper into the forest. The scenes trigger a relationship with the other senses, bringing memory into the current moment.

Remnants are traces of experience on the verge of being lost. Again, this is closely tied with memory for me. It’s making a mythology out of an experience. Textures weave into the scenes and leave paths of time. Concurrences between natural shapes and mathematical renderings lock in an understanding of the origins of structure.

The work shows an internal version of reality more than any actual place.

Visualizing the energy in nature is informed by explorations of imaginary worlds and memories of the moment.

Part 2 Exploring the Forest of Math

Many of these images utilize two recent developments in mathematical exploration; the three dimensional Mandelbulb set of fractals (discovered 2010) and the open source Fractal Flame class built by Scott Draves. Taking off from the idea of visualizing the energy of nature, these composites of mathematical renderings paired with natural textures create their own mirror world to the natural world I love. Due to the wonder of having two small children, I do not travel or spend time in the field at this point. The mathematical models create a base scene that may be explored and manipulated in very much the same way a walk in the forest could with a camera. The expressive forms I can create with these tools are an exquisite extension of my earlier composites.