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WILTON, Conn. The right side of your brain controls creativity while the left side encompasses logic, but a former artist-in-residence at Wilton's Weir Farm uses both halves to create one unique style of photography.
Xiomaro, pronounced see-oh-MAH-ro, incorporates scientific and mathematical theories in the field of fractal geometry to focus his camera on the small, abstract patterns that appear in natural settings as well as city landscapes.
His show, titled FractalScapes, runs through the end of the month at The Cup Coffeehouse on Long Island. It's made up of a dozen pieces, including three photographs he made during his stay at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Wilton this past March.
"During this gift of time and solitude, I was able to appreciate the intricate beauty of the woods and the ponds even at the smallest scale. As a result, some of the photos I created at Weir Farm highlight the elegance of small, abstract, iterative patterns appearing in nature," said Xiomaro. "For me, the flow of these ephemeral shapes and tones evokes a spiritual sense of otherworldliness."
These patterns can be explained through fractal geometry and Benoit Mandelbrot's mathematical theories, said Xiomaro. Mandelbrot explains the shapes that repeat at every scale from clouds to mountains down to trees and soil in a way that traditional Euclidian geometry with its emphasis on lines and angles cannot.
"I'm not a scientist, so I certainly don't claim to fully understand these theories," said Xiomaro. "But there is an elegance and artistic sense to them. I understood enough of that that it has informed the way I see things now. My photographs try to capture nuances in everyday vistas that are easily overlooked."
As artist-in-residence at Weir Farm, Xiomaro said he used the same surroundings that inspired American Impressionist J. Alden Weir. "For an entire month, I drew inspiration from the same surroundings that not only inspired Weir, but the many painter friends that visited him artists like John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam and Albert Pinkham Ryder," said Xiomaro.
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