Quilted landscapes in homage to the desert. 51% of the minting sales proceeds from Patchwork Saguaros will be donated to the Nancy Rockland-Miller Scholarship fund, held by The Kent State University Foundation. To learn more, please check out my introduction blog post for the project: https://bit.ly/3tGPVd3

Patchwork Saguaros

***"Ode to Untitled"***  is a culmination of inspiration from the color field and minimalist painters of the 20th century.  While my medium has changed from disc golf discs, to canvas, to digital canvas, to digital photography, and finally to code editor - the inspiration and output has remained abstract.  Seeing the works of Clyfford Still, Morris Louis, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, and Kenneth Noland (among others - hi Roy) seeded my desire to create visual art.

What many of these artists have in common, sometimes for differing reasons, was a fondness for naming their works *"Untitled"*.  Clyfford Still was entirely dedicated to this practice, while others came and went.  When other titles were used, often they were nondescript cataloging values or a rote description of the colors or shapes found in the work.  And, of course, abstract art history in general, and our current day, is littered with *"Untitled"* works.  Whether a desire to leave interpretation open to the viewer, not wanting to sully their visual work with words, a dedication to minimalism, or laziness - it's all fine with me.

While "Ode to Untitled" is not a direct reflection of any particular works, you will see influences shining through:  zips of color streaking across the canvas, an appreciation of the simple square and grids, a focus on texture, large fields of color, and a love of minimalism.  This one goes out to all the *"Untitled"* works.

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Ode to Untitled

Exploring the interaction of four parent colors.

Color Study

**Dendro** is a generative art project inspired by the beauty of tree rings. Each year, trees add a new ring to their trunks, recording their growth and responding to the changing seasons and environmental conditions. These rings tell a story of the tree's life. By replicating these patterns, the project captures the rhythmic and organic qualities of nature.

In this project, I wanted to explore the aesthetic and conceptual possibilities of tree rings through code-based art. I used a generative algorithm to simulate the growth of virtual trees, generating patterns that resemble the annual rings of real trees, but with a twist. Instead of using traditional circular or oval shapes, I experimented with different geometric forms and noise. I also played with colors and instead of using earthy and realistic colours, the palettes are inspired by the richness and diversity of the natural world.

The algorithm works by starting with the outer most ring, which over time grows towards an arbitrary chose center according to certain rules and parameters. Each iteration adds a new layer of shapes inside the previous one, mimicking the accumulation of tree rings. I introduced random mutations and variations, which introduce unexpected and unpredictable outputs, evoking the unpredictability of natural processes.

Each artwork is inviting the viewer to contemplate the complexity and diversity of nature. I hope that this project will inspire others to explore the wonders of nature and to experiment with code-based art as a means of expression and exploration.

Dendro

```
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
  ___ _  _____ _   _  ___  __  __  ___  ___ ___ _  _ ___ 
 / __| |/ / __| | | |/ _ \|  \/  |/ _ \| _ \ _ \ || / __|
 \__ \ ' <| _|| |_| | (_) | |\/| | (_) |   /  _/ __ \__ \
 |___/_|\_\___|\___/ \___/|_|  |_|\___/|_|_\_| |_||_|___/

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

```

A skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were necessary in the original. They are used widely in architecture, product design, and perhaps most familiarly in user interfaces. Think: desktop icons like trash cans or notepads. SKEUOMORPHS is a meditation on this digital tradition. 

SKEUOMORPHS picks up where RASTER left off as an another exploration of the materiality of pixels and rasterized imagery. Here the study of pixels narrows in on the shallow depth of on-screen interfaces and the play of low-res figure-ground effects. Moments of skeuomorphism where the 2-dimensional plane of the screen becomes slightly 3-dimensional through beveling or drop-shadows are extracted and used as abstract painterly details. These elements that are typically used to make computation and interfaces more familiar become unfamiliar on the canvas, suggesting the possibility of an aesthetic between abstraction and realism.

SKEUOMORPHS employs recurring themes and techniques from my art practice: limited color palettes, low-res chunky pixels, dithering, and physics simulation. It uses a specific kind of dithering called R-sequence dither developed by Martin Roberts. Like traditional Bayer matrix-based dithering, this technique produces a patterned image akin to retro video games and early computer screens. In this project, the R-dither pattern results in a woven textile-like texture, which recalls the long relationship between computing and weaving. The canvas negotiates two scales simultaneously: that of the dithered pixel (rendered at 1/1024th of the canvas height) and the simulated particle that acts as a brush stroke (rendered at 1/256th of the canvas height). The two resolutions work together to produce a cohesive texture that is neither pretending to be a retrograde screen nor an analog material but something in between. Similar to RASTER, the goal is to investigate new avenues for digital aesthetics that rely on a combination of historical techniques and innovative practices.

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Collectors will be eligible to receive a signed archival giclée print of their mint.

Art Blocks Presents

Patchwork Saguaros #8

Jake Rockland

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