Cel Animata

The Cel Animata series evolved from a conversation with my husband about cellular automata - a mathematical concept that applies a programmed set of rules over time to various states of cells on a grid (see this Wikipedia article for a detailed explanation of cellular automata). What sparked my imagination was an idea from the cellular automata Game of Life -- the game begins with a number of cells within the (mathematical) universe all in the same state, and each cell survives and thrives to the next generation provided it has a sufficient number of neighbors, or dies if its number of neighbors is either too few or two many.

There are many fine examples of cellular automata on the web, but before I had seen them, I imagined this mathematical game of life as applied to human neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries. The paintings I am creating based on this idea are often also animated, to demonstrate the evolution of a group based on its relationship to its neighbors. Some of the paintings have evolved beyond the original concept.

These paintings are done using encaustic wax medium mixed with pigment, with heat applied after each layer is painted to fuse the layers together for permanance. At each stage of 'completion' in the painting's evolutionary process, it is photographed, and after I have gotten the painting to its final state of evolution or completion, I assemble all of the frames digitally to create the animation.

I call this series of paintings Cel Animata, as there's a lot of animation, but not really any automation, involved in my process. Each of the paintings you see now is but the final state as it evolved, a palimpsest of the whole process that's documented in the animation.