Milky Way

“Every act of creation begins with an act of destruction.” - Pablo Picasso.

This experimental generative artwork places us in the audience of a painter going through cycles of painting over previous work in a bid to get a perfect finish. It is an exploration of creative destruction as an everyday reality of life, a reality of everyone. Each piece is an attempt to bring the "behind the scenes" to the limelight. To highlight the beautiful and ugly sides of our stories. Life is more about the journey than the destination. The sides of our stories we want to hide are also worthy to tell. Drafts are as worthy of celebration as final products. Rough edges are as meaningful as smooth edges.

"The world is made of creation and destruction, and the act of destruction is as important as the act of creation." - Isabel Allende "Creative destruction is a process of continual reinvention that is the essential companion to creation." - John Weiser Destruction and construction are in perpetual continuum. The interplay of the new and old, and of the old and new. Dancing in chaotic magnificence, to the tune of balance.

Life is a delicate balance. Of peace and conflict. Love and hatred. Confusion and clarity. Glory and shame. Victory and failure. Tears and smiles. Betrayal and loyalty. Spontaneous. Sporadic. Streamlined. Surprises. Life is a Milky Way. Like stars, we explode, disintegrate. From beautiful supernovas, we can form new stars and twinkle through the beautiful nights.

Each piece revolves around circular forms, representing perfection and harmony. This harmony is disrupted by other geometric forms. Then, recovery is attempted through the colors, brush strokes, and textures. Some pieces incite chaos. Others incite cordiality. Some are satisfying, and some are not. Like the fluidity of life, there is not one way to interpret any piece. They will just go with the flow. Partially influenced by some principles of the Dada movement and chance operations, this artwork is meant to be free of any tethers and create unique, including unusual, reactions.

Regarding features...Blend controls how the individual elements in the artwork blends. Chaotic blend emphasizes individuality of the majority of elements. Overlay blend emphasizes harmony and cordiality. Lukewarm blend is the balance between Chaotic and Overlay. Hedges controls the size of each geometric shape in the artwork. A higher value corresponds to a larger size. Dryness determines the overall feel of the piece. The pieces visible look dry or wet. R Layers determines if a piece will contain rectangular layers. Repaints determines the number of painting layers or sessions of repainting for a piece. Chaos Mode determines the color mode of the elements that introduce chaos. Chaos mode can be colored or grayscale, respectively. Collision controls the form of the lines that form the major elements of each piece. By principle, these lines are colliding (or overlapping) and in turn forming the elements of each piece. Finishing controls the grain of the piece, ranging from no grain (watercolor) to sheen (very grainy). Destruction controls the position of the elements that introduce chaos into the art relative to the major elements. They may be slightly shifted from the positions of the major elements (eccentric) or be mirrored (inverted).

This artwork is best approached as a philosophical exploration of creative destruction. It is an experimental artwork, and its core focus is its philosophical underpinning and provocations.