Vincent J. Matsko

Statement

Color, texture, geometry: these drive my work. Pure structure and color are clean, beautiful; playing with structure and color engages the eye and activates the mind. My computer-generated work is inspired by two questions: How would I have developed older ideas if I had a computer rather than just paper, pencil, pen? What is computer art? (That is, what effects can be created with a computer which would be virtually impossible to create otherwise?) Randomness is key: tens or hundreds of thousands of closely related objects combine to create textures difficult to produce otherwise. The challenge? Art as structured randomness.

Artworks

Random Walk 4.8.8 is based on an Archimedean tiling of the plane where a square and two octagons meet at each vertex. The image is based on a random walk on the vertices of this tiling. The walk here contains 1100 nodes; as the nodes are traversed, layers of circles with randomly generated colors, opacities, radii, and thicknesses are layered on top of the background. Nodes visited more frequently are brighter, as more circles are overlaid. To balance the random walk, squares and octagons of the tiling are added, with randomly generated structures in their interiors.

Random Walk 4.6.12 is based on an Archimedean tiling of the plane where a square, a hexagon, and a dodecagon meet at each vertex. The object - reminiscent of a bear - is based on a random walk on the vertices of this tiling. The walk here contains over 1200 nodes; as the nodes are traversed, layers of circles with randomly generated colors, opacities, radii, and thicknesses are layered on top of the background. Nodes visited more frequently are brighter, as more circles are overlaid. Over 100 images were examined before one was found which suggested an organic form.