My artistic knowledge is basically intuitive. I've never had any "formal" classes neither any kind of art class in school, which is not very common in the schools of my country, Brazil. I've had a few "classes" (read it more like "advices" instead of real classes) "ministrated" by my sister (that also paints and draws), that actually were more like a short introduction to the painting techniques than anything more professional or advanced. I did a few paintings (not many, neither nothing interesting), but as I was being led to a style that didn't interested me (bucolic landscapes, old houses, etc.). I soon lost all the interest after a few months never tried to paint again. 

Then, the computers appeared in my life. A few years after I bought my first computer (around 1991), I discovered the fractals, and immediately fell in love with this kind of art. But what are fractals?

According to Michael Sun (http://msun.org/umich/fractal.htm), a definition of fractals can be:
"A fractal is a mathematical object with a rough or fragmented geometric shape. They are said to be "self similar and 
independent of scale" according to Ermel Stepp. They can be subsdivided into parts, and each smaller part is a image of the original whole. Thus, zooming in on a fractal would lead you to see the same image repeated over and over. This is why is is said to be "self similar" and "independent of scale". Most fractals are generated from a mathematical equation where the results are iterated, that is the results from the equation are fed back into the equation, and this process is continued until the number grows larger and reaches a certain boundary. A "rigorous" mathematical definition of fractals was stated by Benoit Mandlebrot (famous for his Mandlebrot set, rediscoving fractals, and naming these mathematical objects) as "a set for which the Hausdorff Besicovich dimension strictly exceeds the topological dimension".  Stepp cites that this definition is not totally satisfactory for it does exclude some sets that are considered fractals. There are many types of fractals--such as Sierpinski's triangle, the Kock snowflake, the Peano curve, the Mandlebrot Set, and the Lorenz attractor. Factals have also been shown to describe real world objects that don't follow normal Euclidean geometry. Such examples are mountains, coastlines, and clouds."

Fractals are based a lot on mathematical rules and equations, but I've never tried to understand these or how they work. I am afraid that it can make my art become less spontaneous, if I start planning all the images I do, basing on the mathematical knowledge or the equations I use. After dealing with the fractals for some time, I've found how these sometimes "odd shapes" and patterns can be found anywhere, and as stated the text above, some of them reminded me of landscapes or objects. So, instead of painting bucolic landscapes, I start making my own landscapes.

 “And why did you choose fractal art as your main form of digital art?", some might ask. Just because of its diversity (it has infinite possibilities). Some purists can say "it's an artificial form of art" (read: "it's not art"), but at the same time, it can reproduce the shapes of natural objects like a "regular painting". 

To me, if it pleases the eye, it's art.

Marcos Napier