Mark Brady is a developer and manager at a financial lending firm in Long Island, USA, who has been producing fractal artwork as a sideline for more than five years. Modestly exhibiting his work on deviantART alone, Brady has created hundreds of these images, which absorb the viewer in a manner reminiscent of Magic Eye images.

Fractal artwork has grown progressively more popular since the ‘80s, following on from iconic works such as the Mandelbrot Set. A genre predominantly created digitally, the evolution of appropriate software has spurred the availability, and in turn, popularity of the artwork itself. “My original inspirations are from images of fractal art I saw when I was younger,” Brady responds, when pressed for where these images began. “I always had a desire to make my own pieces, but computers were too slow back then.” This kind of artwork can be produced on a number of programs, Brady favouring Incendia and Ultrafractal, amongst others.

In countless hues and shades, and a sprawling expanse of patterns, what’s really astounding about Brady’s artwork is the depth that each image boasts. “The process requires a lot of experimentation and patience,” he admits. “My images typically take an hour or less to design, and then anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours to render.”

The endless quality of Brady’s art, both in the images themselves and the sheer number of individual pieces displayed online, liken rifling through his profile to falling down a rabbit hole. The fact that each one is so different from the last suggests that the infinite nature of fractal artwork applies to the artist’s imagination, too.

www.aureliuscat.deviantart.com