Branching out: Fractals emerge when inks mixed with alcohol are applied to a surface coated with a layer of acrylic paint (Courtesy: Akiko Nakayama) Two researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science ...

Researchers in Japan have studied how artists like Akiko Nakayama take advantage of fluid mechanics to create their art. Japanese artist Akiko Nakayama manipulates alcohol and inks to create tree-like ...

Jackson Pollock couldn’t possibly have been thinking of fractals when he started flinging and dripping paint from a stick onto canvas. After all, mathematicians didn’t develop the idea of a fractal ...

Japanese artist Akiko Nakayama manipulates alcohol and inks to create tree-like dendritic patterns during a live painting session. Credit: Akiko Nakayama Japanese artist Akiko Nakayama manipulates ...

In 1949, when Life magazine asked if Jackson Pollock was "the greatest living painter in the United States," the resulting outcry voiced nearly half a century of popular frustration with abstract art.

Introduction Do you ever wonder what mathematicians study—and why? Most of what they do is complex and difficult to understand, but fractal art might give us a glimpse. Mathematicians study fractals, ...