Lois Blood Bennett is an artist whose work is based on “fractal flames,” a mathematical construct capable of creating great complexity from relatively simple equations. Fractal flames are a kind of hyper-complex variant on the fractal concept. Where ordinary fractals tend to replicate their “self-similar” patterns in a relatively straightforward way, fractal frames can be much less symmetrical and predictable. Some of Lois’s designs are quite geometric in nature, others are much more free-flowing, but all of them seemingly organic or naturalistic, suggesting objects seen through the microscope or telescope, radial diatoms, sprawling nebulae, shells, splash patterns, abstractions that draw the eye deeper into themselves. This compelling organic quality is part of the fascination and beauty of the works, based as it is upon the mathematics that appears to underlie the shapes of nature itself.
