The original Strange Zone set was published in 2021. It arose from work I was doing with fractals. The underlying formulas were very complex. In was not something any sane mathematician would study.

The functions involved complex exponentiation, which is a multi-valued (in fact infinitely valued) function. So there is a "pick one" step that creates effects that do not happen with well-behaved functions.

The present series tries to resurrect the feeling of the original. But with the techniques of my recent work, rather than strange fractal formulas.

Strange Zone II

Dream or nightmare landscapes. The inter/hyper-dimensional space in a science fiction story.

The "series rules" are much looser here. Just anything that gives me a feeling remotely related to the theme.

This one is getting close to the right recipe. More colors, especially the addition of black and white distributes the viewer's focus. The storm centers suggest something interesting, but are too small make out the details. (Thus sidestepping my problem of providing the detail.)

At the time, I was feeling the need for more violence and chaos. See View Near Vortex #2. So I added more broken pieces, with more and darker colors and started on The View Near the Vortex.

Looking at this one now, it could be the starting point for a series. I like the colors, and while there is a lot going on, it is not as crowded and broken as the Vortex series. I might return to it next year.

The next two experiment with different scales. I was trying to make the "eye of the storm" more interesting than a simple circle. It turned out to be kind of self-destructive. Viewer focus moves to the storm center, which is not that interesting and kind of disappointing. The interesting features away from the storm center are missed.

Here is another variation, trying to introduce some circular motion.

I added another color, and reduced the size of the smallest features. I liked how the thin lines suggested motion.

Vortex Origins

Here are a few images that I created before the The View Near the Vortex and Strange Architecture series. Normally I just dispose of the preliminary work like this. In this case I thought it would be interesting to show some of the background steps.

This image was the result of undirected experimentation. I was not thrilled by it, but I liked it enough to try some variations.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

Today's image was created while I was finishing up this series. It does not fit well with the rest of the series. Different colors, much less chaos, and corduroy patches. I thought about using this as a starting point for a new series. However, I have a plan in place for the next month or so of posts, and I am eager to get started on that. So it goes into the current series for now, perhaps it will become a "corduroy patches" series next year.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

The previous images were removed from The View Near the Vortex to start this series. This piece and the next few I put together specifically for Strange Architecture.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.

See Strange Architecture #1 for a brief description of the series.