CLINTON MARSTALL CONTEMPORARY ART: Patterns in Nature

These images are inspired by scientific observations of naturally occurring patterns. In Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way it Does, author Philip Ball categorizes patterns into symmetry, fractals, spirals, flow and chaos, waves and dunes, bubbles and foam, arrays and tiling, cracks, spots, and stripes. These categories provide me with unlimited references for abstract compositions.

I draw inspiration from Alan Turing’s 1952 article, The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis, which introduced the reaction-diffusion model describing how self-organized pattern formations arise in biology. I seek to integrate contemporary art and science, much like Ernst Haeckel did in Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature), where Haeckel published scientific illustrations of animals and sea creatures.

More recently, physicist Richard Taylor of the University of Oregon demonstrated through measured studies that observing fractals reduces physiology stress. Fractals, a term coined by Benoit Mandelbrot, can be divided into parts that are reduced copies of the whole. Mandelbrot’s research revealed that chaotic patterns in clouds or shorelines actually exhibit a degree of order.

Similarly, I seek out irregular patterns to reveal the underlying order and simplicity of nature. My intention is to present these organic forms and patterns as a source of comfort and solace.