Talent Tuesdays: She's Got a LOT On Her Mind (Fractal Art Self-Portrait)

A portion of a fractal made in Apophysis 2.09, mirrored and overlaid to get this shocking result!

Hello to the community at Free Compliments! My name is Deeann D. Mathews, and I was invited to the community by Hive account@justclickindiva quite some time ago -- finally made it!

I've been looking through community posts and reading about what this community is about, from the fun to the super deep ... from Taco and Talent Tuesday to how to help to save lives. As someone who gives a lot of support to people in my life, and is seeking to be in spaces that are also supportive, I realized this was the place to be!

I am a person with heavy responsibility. My aging parents know I have their back, and so do a lot of other seniors, so, I have a lot on my mind, and when this fractal came up that was part of what came to mind.

But also, I minister to the present and following two generations ... my students are bringing me their little ones now, making me a "grand-teacher" at a mere 44 years old ... so already, I see the work I have been given to do blooming across 4-5 generations. This is a blessing ... a lot to think about, but a blessing!

But also, I am a major creative -- fractal art is one aspect of the creative work I do, and I have been blessed in the last few years to be quite prolific.

For those new to the art (but on Talent Tuesdays, you get to see Hive account@justclickindiva, a mistress of the art, at work quite often), fractal geometry is the geometry of life itself. It is how every snowflake and every daisy is completely different, but comfortably familiar: self-similarity is the principle by which life never repeats itself, but stays within its patterns while producing constant variety. Human bodies, too, are self-similar -- age and condition add variation with time, but the way the human skull and skeleton is made is also built after a fractal pattern, and all the parts of it are similar to every other variation.

What this also means is that, in working with fractal art, sometimes straight out of the fractal in Apophysis 2.09, and sometimes in mirroring said fractal to create a symmetry, the strong suggestion human-like faces and bodies will come out of the fractal (and weekly in Alien Art Hive community, you can see things I create that sometimes are eerily familiar to things on Earth we know, yet alien, because the math is just a little different than it is in real life).

But sometimes, the math hits just right in a portion of a fractal, and there is the resemblance of a human almost dead-on, somewhere in the symmetry ... the portion above is where mirroring this fractal instantly showed the figure.

You can actually see half the body at the bottom, in hindsight, but I did not realize ... I was aiming for some great alien tree in its spring, blooming. Imagine my surprise when THIS happened!

But then I thought about it... she's a woman of color, CLEARLY, with the top of her reminiscent of what the hair of African American women is capable of doing ... but also, all those blooming tiers, extended back and then extending on every side, too.

It took me a few months for me to realize ... she is me, in fractal self-portrait ... a creative mind seeking to bloom and bless in all directions, mentored by three generations (I knew and was taught briefly by the last of my grandmother's teachers), blessing the 2.5 still living behind me (up to the century mark) along with my peers, my students, and their students now with me.

I do have a lot on my mind ... sometimes it is close to too much, which is why I am seeking supportive community on Hive and elsewhere ... but it is a blessing to have what I have, and the beauty of this piece of art reflects that. It is also a nice way to introduce myself here as who I am.

This picture also epitomizes the loving, multi-tiered brilliance and multi-generational blessing work of Hive account@justclickindiva, and of African American women in history ... we have carried heavy loads upon our minds as well as our bodies in order to bless all around, to make ways for our own families and many others. If we are walking in the knowledge of who we are as women of African descent, out of the lineage of the African woman who literally is known to be the mother of all humanity, we know this "fractal" can be seen to go back much further in time, and is mirrored in many women with us to this day! There is a through line from the last of my grandmother's teachers to me that extends to the peers and students who now trust their children with me, and that line goes back a LONG way before Amerigo Vespucci got his name on two new continents!

Brilliant in order to be a blessing to generations ... the pattern of women of African descent does hold despite the struggles there have been, throughout history. I am just one of many!