Thank you for stopping by last week as I shared a bit of visual inspiration.

If you’ve been following along for a while, you know that one of the ways I “decompress” is by picking up my camera (or phone) and shooting whatever speaks to me in the moment. I also wind down by playing around with photos in PhotoShop or various iPhone apps. This means I end up with far too many “interpretations” of the same image, and as much as I send out into the world or share here on Pics and Posts, way more than most never, ever have a life outside my computer or the cloud [I’m working on changing that].

The app I find most relaxing is Frax. My blogging friend Laurie of Color Poems introduced me to the app through fractals images she posted on her own blog just before Christmas a couple of years ago.

Even before I downloaded the app, I was hooked. The app uses mathematics to create beautiful, beautiful images. [Sorry I can’t be more eloquent, but math is eh…math]. Laurie explains it much better, so check out her post. I just want to unload (err…share) some of my “fractals.”

With Frax, users can play around with “already fraxed” images in the app library or they can use their own photos. I always use my own because I’m intrigued by the way photos transform. There are infinite possibilities in a single photo, and the motion of the artwork as it morphs in various ways is mesmerizing.

You can play around with texture and colors to get different effects for the same image/pattern, like the two below.

Or you can play around until your favorite color combination(s) jump out at you.

Purple, of course!

Sometimes, the image really surprises, like the heart I shared on Valentine’s Day this year.

I will be sharing fractals in my remaining two (or three) posts for the week. Be sure to stop by!

About the Images: Most of these were done almost two years ago, so my memory is not as sharp. If I am not mistaken, the first two images started out as roses (doesn’t the second one remind you of a perfectly ripened watermelon?); the third image started out as a sunflower; the fourth and fifth images started out as a Christmas ornament. I have no recollection of the final two images’ origins. I should probably do a better job at keeping up with my frax art. Probably.

Until next time…enjoy!