Melanie Jordan

Statement

I’ve been exploring a fractal of birds that appears to me whenever I stare at an object or scene. My work is my attempt to communicate what I’m seeing in a way that I otherwise struggle to share effectively. Although I work in several different mediums, this last year I used Procreate to build new art over photos of my other art. I’m trying to create more depth in my fractal interpretations and I find digital art applications are an efficient way to experiment with that. Overall, I hope to help the viewer get lost in the illusions of this fractal bird world I exist in and start a conversation about what constitutes a fractal and what the math and geometry of a bird is.

Artworks

This fractal bird piece was created on Procreate using a photo of oyster shells as a base to build upon. I trace light and shadow, focusing on the typical shapes of a bird and from there I build up the larger birds. This piece is meant to be viewed from multiple directions with the viewer noticing how isolating one bird within the fractal eliminates your eye’s ability to hold onto any other birds you see. Most obvious are the rooster and its opposite, the duck stretching its wings, but there are hundreds of species to find. I was inspired by the work of MC Escher and attempted to find some of the depth of field his work capture so well.