FractalRock

I am really behind again.  I'm looking at my dashboard on DeviantArt and I have 1 Notices, 10,158 Deviations, 11,924 Watches, 623 Feedback and 2 Notes.  That's because I've been away again while I recover.  I'll try to get to some of them.  I haven't made any fractals in a while and I don't plan to for the time being.  I think in an effort to get me out into the great outdoors my dad bought me a Nikon camera that has been converted to shoot infrared photos.  I haven't spent time outdoors in over a year.  So, yesterday I went to a state park and took some photos.  I'm working on these in Photoshop and Darktable because raw infrared photos don't look very nice until they've had some post-processing done on them.  I will post these photos after I've worked on them, so it might take me a while.  If anyone knows anything about infrared photography, I'd love advice.

I'm very interested in art therapy for mental health, like depression and anxiety.  As you know, I usually make fractals as my form of therapy, but photography is also a form of art and can be used the same way.  So, get out there and create.

Here is a link to an article that talks about art therapy:  www.rtor.org/2018/07/10/benefi…

I found a nice article that talks about the link between art and depression.  I am reminded of Vincent van Gogh, the great painter who cut off his own ear.  (Don't worry....I'm not going to cut off my ear!)  Rob Blair of the Creative Writing Guild put it this way, “Some studies have shown that creativity and depression are linked, but correlation doesn’t equal cause. We know depression and creativity co-exist, but it’s like this: If you have severe depression, you have to get pretty damn creative to survive it.”  ...and so, all my life, art has been there for me.  When I was in high-school I was in the art club.  I have never thought I was a good artist, but a Congressman awarded me with an award my senior year for one of my chalk drawings.  Unfortunately, after high-school, I gave up art.  Then, in 2005 I started to make fractals.  Ever since 2005, I have been making them and it has been therapy for me.  I would like to get others involved in making fractals.  I have also been making some kaleidoscopes with my fractals and other fractal manipulations.  One thing that I'm about to start doing is turning my fractals into paintings with Dynamic Auto Painter Pro.  I also like to use filters on my fractals.  Another creative endeavor that I'm about to start is making mandalas.  I have Corel Painter Essentials on my tablet/laptop with a pen so I should be able to get some practice in and learn how to do this.  So, I may not be the best painter or drawer, but I have fractals and the many things I can do with them as my creative outlet.  Art is great therapy.

genesight.com/art-and-depressi…

www.mediachance.com/dap/ - a link to Dynamic Auto Painter 6, the software I will be trying

This has been going on since 2005.  I'll go through a couple of weeks of making fractals like crazy...burning like a candle on both ends.  I'll output tons of fractals.  I'll think I'm better for good.  Then depression comes back and I don't feel like making fractals or enjoying life.  Each time it seems like I'm better.  But the depression always comes back.  I'm sorry to keep complaining.  I'm tired of fighting the depression.  I know it's my MS that causes it but knowing the cause does not make it any easier.  I have no energy for anything.  In addition to the usual depression, I have added depression over the fact that MS has taken away my long-term and short-term memory.  I have to take medication for Alzheimer's disease.  I was diagnosed with dementia.  I don't like watching myself fall apart at only 40 years of age.  My sister is 38 and she has MS, too.  Strangely, they say MS is not genetic.  The worst part of MS for me has been losing my memory and cognitive abilities.  I was good at mathematics my whole life.  I majored in math in college and minored in computer science.  I worked in the math lab at college tutoring other students in math and I worked in the computer lab tutoring people on computers.  I made straight As in math all through my school years.  I made excellent grades in my other classes, too.  Now, I can't even do basic math, like multiplication.  I have essentially become stupid.

So, please continue to put-up with me as I come and go from Deviant Art.  I know I disappear sometimes for months or years but I always come back.  I appreciate all my friends here.