Polycircles collection

I can't remember when I first saw Sonia Delaunay's work. It might have been in the only occasion I visited the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg (I remember that was indeed the first time I saw Kandinsky's works). I guess it's unlikely since they only have this work in their collection (a piece from 1913... I see much art nowadays that has arrived to a similar aesthetic, it's always so interesting to dig a bit into art history and so interesting to think that human minds come to invent similar things over time and across geographies)

It could also have been, some years earlier, in the inauguration of the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. My mother brought my father and me to Madrid for the opening, and I distinctively remember the baron himself walking through his collection (we were at the Impressionism section). The Thyssen collection has a couple of works of hers too. Or when I first visited the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Whenever it was, it left a profound mark in my inner workings. To me  her works are full of energy, vibrant with some dynamic frequencies that resonate with my intimate self. Some kind of communion between me and her work. I'm sorry I can't really describe very well the effect it has on me, but that is what's so great about art, the ability it has to go further than any other means of expression.

Fast forward some years, and in the middle of the pandemic and initial lockdown I started building a system that had been in the back of my mind for some years. I wanted to recreate the impact that her work has on me, learning from the composition, shapes, etc. and then expanding it using technology. I wrote some time ago about the total space of possibilities of any given system; that is the concept that is guiding my artistic practice (as well as what I do in other fields). So I began by coding a system inspired by Sonia Delaunay, some Processing programs that would help me draw what I call polycircles, essentially concentric rings that overlap among each other yielding on the intersections what I call polykurtos shapes (from greek κῠρτός• - kurtós -, "curved", shapes with various curves).
The collection of polycircles spans many large total cognitive spaces. Changing parameters in the code, altering the rules, trying out different palettes... it yields a wide artistic expression range. It feels somewhat similar to endless sketching, colouring, trying out new ideas on paper... There seems to exist some reward mechanism in our brains that is tied to the act of creation, to seeing things emerge from your activity, fully medium-and-technique-agnostic. Our internal circuitry is such a fascinating mystery.

As I evolve the practice of this paint system I will keep publishing here the different explorations.

Current works in the series

On Hicetnunc

Differences:

A series of pieces connected to this article where I talk about the need for difference and friction, and how certain approaches of mass market production, product personalization and business models might be reevaluated.

differences i, 3600x3600 px (1/1, sold)

differences ii, 3600x3600 px (1/1, sold)

differences iii, 3600x3600 px (1/1, sold)

differences iv, 3600x3600 px (10/10, 10 xtz each, some still available)

Polycircle composition collection:

polycircle composition #7153429.5, generated and minted to celebrate Hic Et Nunc contract v2, priced at 1 XTZ to allow for everyone to get it (some available)

Polycircle broken ensembles collection: an exploration of colour and relations between large ring clusters and small ring clusters.

polycircle broken ensemble i (1/1, sold)

polycircle broken ensemble ii (1/1, sold)

polycircle broken ensemble iii (1/1, sold)

polycircle broken ensemble iv (1/1, sold)

Polycircle color studies collection

With relatively narrow changes in parameters, I explore different colour combinations investigating how similar shapes, compositions and arrangements with only varying colour palettes yield different responses in the viewer.

polycircle color study i (2/10 left, 10 XTZ each)

polycircle color study ii (5/10 left, 10 XTZ each)

polycircle color study iii (sold out)

polycircle colour study à la sjr

A piece created with a color palette selected by Sally J Rhudy, as a thank-you note for all her curatorial work and dissemination of the appreciation of art that she conducts with the Instagram accounts nft_fineart and sj_art_contemporary

polycircle color study, #objkt4objkt edition (sold out, you may find some available in the secondary market)

The 4 seasons in polycircle space collection

This is an experiment I undertook to create richer textures by combining several outputs of the Processing paint system in different layers, stacking them and changing the blend mode in Gimp. I then created images of selected details, reworking the colours / blend modes to achieve expanded expressive colour ranges and combinations. The full season is a 12000x12000 pixel image (enough to print at 1m x 1m at 300 dpi), the details are 3500 x 3500 pixel images.

Spring: the full work 12000x12000 px (1/1 available, 70 XTZ).

Spring, detail i 3500x3500 px (sold)

Spring, detail ii 3500x3500 px (sold)

Spring, detail iii 3500x3500 px (sold)

Summer: the full work 12000x12000 px (1/1 available, 70 XTZ)

Summer, detail i 3500x3500 px (sold)

Summer, detail ii 3500x3500 px (1/1 available, 50 XTZ)

Summer, detail iii (1/1 available, 50 XTZ)

Autumn: the full work 12000x12000 px (1/1 available, 70 XTZ)

Autumn, detail i 3500x3500 px (sold)

Autumn, detail ii (1/1 available, 50 XTZ)

Autumn, detail iii (1/1 available, 50 XTZ)

Winter: the full work 12000x12000 px (sold)

Winter, detail i 3500x3500 px (sold)

Winter, detail ii  3500x3500 px (1/1 available, 50 XTZ)

Winter, detail iii 3500x3500 px (1/1 available, 50 XTZ)

Single works

Swirling thoughts from an emotions vortex i 6000x3000 px (5/5 available, 15 XTZ each)

polycircle composition, unnumbered 6000x3000 px (3/3 available, 20 XTZ each).

A couple of details of the work:

On OpenSea

When I first delved into NFTs, Hicetnunc was still not there and OpenSea had the option to create NFTs using the less possible energy and fees. I minted these works there, and switched over to Hicetnunc as soon as it started working as an art marketplace. These have not been unlisted since it also takes fees and energy. Hopefully Ethereum evolves soon and its current energy footprint is reduced to negligible levels, to stir these works up a bit in the market (if you are ok with the ETH market, I won't be disturbed if you'd buy these today, obviously).

Single works

Polycircle Universe I (1/1 available, 0.7 ETH)

Polycircle composition, unnumbered iv (1/1 available, 0.7 ETH)

Polycircle composition iii, genesis upending