Gallery With A Cause • Located in the New Mexico Cancer Center • Benefitting the NMCC Foundation
Please call gallery director Regina Held to arrange a private gallery tour, make a purchase, or ask any questions.
Biography
Collin holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering but has always been an artist at heart. As a native of Kansas, he studied photography and composition, along with electronics and software, often merging the fields by building electrical contraptions to assist in new photographic techniques.
He created his first fractal images while studying engineering to learn new data visualization techniques. What started as a simple implementation of the classic Mandelbrot Set fractal evolved into alternative and more complex methods of fractal rendering. That led to eventually producing an image that prompted a realization that he had created a work of art, not just an experiment in plotting complex data.
After completing his graduate degree, Collin moved to New Mexico, where his mathematical art advanced to the next level, incorporating other algorithmic methods beyond what are typically considered fractals. He is an active member and former president of the Sandia Heights Artists organization and continues to work as both an engineer and an artist. He finds that creating art makes him a more effective engineer, and practicing engineering opens new possibilities for creating art.
Artist Statement
My images are drawn by algorithms and mathematical equations I create in computer code. By carefully constructing algorithms to realize my artistic vision — and implementing the equations as computer code — the code becomes the canvas on which I draw. The algorithm converts my instructions into the patterns, shapes, and colors of each image, revealing beauty hidden in the world of mathematics. The software is all my own creation, as I find commercial fractal software too limiting of the creative process, and it is fully built upon free and open-source tools. There is no hand-painting or "photoshopping" done on my artwork; every aspect of the image is controlled by adjusting parameters and functions within the algorithm.
My work blends inspiration from the natural world, especially scenery and color of the American Southwest, with ideas drawn from my work in engineering and statistics, to blur the boundaries between science, mathematics, art, and nature.