Light & Illusion – Art by Randall Klopping

Exploring the Small Magellanic Cloud

This will be my final post for some time to come as times are so hard that I will no longer have access to the internet to show and promote my work. I’d like to say goodbye to the friends I’ve made and say thank you to those who have helped by sharing my art with others.

I have no idea when I will be able to afford to start working to rebuild my life again. California is way late with its budget again which always seems to lead to more cuts and they’ve already cuts so much that they robbed me of being able to enter art shows or advertise my work. I will not give up, its just at current time the one friend who was able to help me some financially is unemployed now too so I have no choice right now but to stop working.

Infant Stars in Neighboring Galaxy © 2007

These last two new artworks in this post are inspired by one of my favorite Hubble space telescope captures, “Infant Stars in Neighboring Galaxy” and are imaginations of exploring the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The Hungry Traveler © 2010

This artwork of a black hole entering the outer edge of a nebula is an illusion I’ve been working on for a couple of years now and have been pushing this last week to get it finished before loosing the ability to show it. It is created entirely with fractals, a style I call Fractal Illusion that I have been inventing for the last several years.

Exploring the Small Magellanic Cloud © 2010

This artwork is imagining traveling and exploring a region of the Small Magellanic Cloud. It includes a few of the red stars visible through gaps in the clouds.

Artist note – Because of cuts to assistance to disabled persons like me and this recession I am loosing internet access. I am hoping that people will still find these works that I have gotten up to show and sell prints of. Since I can’t work to promote my own work anymore I would appreciate any help you can give me in sharing my work here with your friends. I know times are hard for many people so any and all purchases and help letting others know about it are very much appreciated!

Darkfire

I was exploring on the far side of the Sombrero galaxy when I heard tale of a beautiful fiery spacial rift near a star known to the locals as Tal Gyver. I spent many weeks visiting local planets and learning what I could of the rift, though most was more legends than facts as most Captains steer well clear of any kind of such phenomena in space. The legends spoke of its creator, a being called Andal Ra who had traveled here from the other side.

Exploring the Rifts of Tal Gyver © 2006, 2010

This artwork is a combination of digital painting and fractal illusion and one that I chose to revisit earlier this year painting out some parts of the original starfield, creating fractal stars and painting enhancements to the ship. It was the inspiration of my Darkfire series, based on a short story that’s been in my head for many years and I wanted it more like I had originally intended as I was just getting adapted to digital art still in 2006.

Atop a volcano mount a beam of energy bursts from a tower amidst the ancient ruins into the heavens above. For years Andal Ra had been banished to this long abandoned continent, not for any crime but for the madness within his artificial brain. Upon discovery of the lab hidden within these ruins he had studied the knowledge of the ancient ones and with their technologies, now called forth the energies of the universe, both dark and light, and hellfire was born above his world.

Darkfire is Born © 2008

This artwork is a combination of digital painting and fractal illusion.

Hellfire has but one true purpose, to tear through the fabric of space and breach the membrane between parallel universes. According to the records Andal Ra had studied, the Ancient’s had never seen the incredible light show their creation cast above their world. They had sought to escape their world before their sun went through a change that would destroy on life on the planet but their predictions of when it would occur had proven incorrect and it happened several years sooner than expected.

Darkfire Rift © 2008, 2010

This artwork is a fractal illusion.

The ancient device worked just as it was designed to, unraveling the fabric of space and weaving within it a new passage from his universe into another. Andal Ra didn’t care where it would take him, only that it would take him away from those who had made him only to fear him. In the years of exile that he’d spent studying the ancient race’s books and records, he’d become quite attracted to the idea of spending the rest of his life exploring the universe this passage would take him to.

Darkfire Passage © 2008

This artwork’s illusion was created with a single fractal.

Artist note – Because of cuts to assistance to disabled persons like me and this recession I am loosing internet access. I am hoping that people will still find these works that I have gotten up to show and sell prints of. Since I can’t work to promote my own work anymore I would appreciate any help you can give me in sharing my work here with your friends. I know times are hard for many people so any and all purchases are very much appreciated!

The Rift of Portraal

“In the history of our intellectual development this will represent the crowning achievement of 2,000 years of investigation into the nature of matter — space and time.” – Dr. Michio Kaku

As far as we have come in our race’s intellectual development we are still only in the early stages of beginning to understand the universe in which we exist. Even the advancements made in telescopes including those such as Hubble, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope are only the beginning of the things that likely await our discovery.

The Rift of Portraal © 2010

The setting for this artwork is just outside our own Milky Way Galaxy, a place our current level of space telescope technology would not likely yet be able to detect such a phenomena.

In our neighbor, the Small Magellanic Cloud, hidden within the clouds of a nebula lies a rather peculiar phenomenon. A pair of wormholes existing in virtually the same region, have torn the very fabric of space. The resulting spacial rift was suspended between the mouths of the wormholes which have remained open for thousands of years. According to the space faring races of the SMC, the passages lead not just to another place , but each into a different parallel universe.

“The Rift of Portraal” was originally just a simple fractal illusion artwork I had created several years ago that was inspired by a discussion in a physics forum about spacial rifts (aka – a tear in the fabric of space) and wormholes. It was much like this zoom view below except with no clouds and only two starships.

Rift of Portraal – zoom view

Now that I’ve developed my concept of creating illusions with fractals to a much greater extent, I recently decided to revisit this one. I began from the beginning, redesigning the color pallet for the rift / twin wormholes fractal itself. I then began weaving the scene of the nebula around it (I think of fractal design as weaving light). Much more in the manner of how I’d imagined it before I’d developed the techniques to create things like fractal clouds.

Rift of Portraal – zoom view

So now there are only three questions:

1- Can two wormholes exist in the same space?
2- When will it be discovered?
3- What size art print to get?

Fine art prints may be purchased framed, unframed or on canvas
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“I may be disabled and stuck in a bed but I make the Universe my playground! My hope is that my work will find a home on your walls and inspire your imagination.”

If you’d like to ask a question or follow my work, visit me on Twitter or on my Visual Artist page at Facebook

Planet Killers

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” – Jack London

Planet Killer © 2008, 2010

What would inspire an artist to create a work about such destruction? For me it is about the science, the reality that this could potentially happen to the Earth again someday. As discussed in the “This Week in Space” episode video below, the danger is a real one and proper funding is important if we are to protect our world.

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If we do not properly tackle the task, this could very possibly be our fate!

The Final April Fools © 2009

This armageddon artwork was originally intended to go with a little short story I had running around in my head a few years ago when all the talk about whether Apophis was going to hit Earth. Essentially the plot of the story was as all eyes were on the approaching Apophis, due April 13, 2036, a small string of large asteroids approaching from the direction of the sun strike the Earth on April 1st instead.

After all, there are millions of space rocks out there that the Universe could potentially throw at us.

Endless Journey © 2010

More artworks involving asteroids and space available in my prints store at Imagekind.

“I may be disabled and stuck in a bed but I make the Universe my playground! My hope is that my work will find a home on your walls and inspire your imagination.”

If you’d like to ask a question or follow my work, visit me on Twitter or on my Visual Artist page at Facebook

Barinthus – Guide of Souls

“Other world! There is no other world! Here or nowhere is the whole fact.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Barinthus © 2010

Barinthus – (Manannán mac Lir) A Celtic god of the sea and is associated with the mists between the worlds. In Irish mythology he is often referred to as a psychopomp, a “guide of souls” to the Otherworld.

Is there an after-life? A heaven, hell, Other world, a dimension outside of our own where our energy essence travels to after our physical body gives up our ghost? Even in science there are theories of dimensions (parallel universes) beyond the four we can perceive.

“I may be disabled and stuck in a bed but I make the Universe my playground! My hope is that my work will find a home on your walls and inspire your imagination.”

Due to spammers I generally keep the comments disabled here. If you’d like to comment, ask a question or follow my work, visit me on Twitter or on my Visual Artist page at Facebook

The Syn Nebula (art series)

“Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living things in that enormous immensity.” – Wernher von Braun

In the Viking legends of Scandinavia, Syn (Old Norse “refusal”) was a goddess of the Æsir, one of the principal groups of gods in Norse Mythology. A handmaiden of FRIGG, her duties included guarding the door of Frigg’s palace to prevent the unworthy from entering, and also hindering men from bearing false witness in courts of law. In ancient times defendants in a trial often invoked her name in courts.

The Syn Nebula © 2009

The first artwork is a fractal illusion of the outer regions as my ship approached this beautiful fiery nebula.

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Exploring the Syn Nebula © 2009

As I made my way into the interior of the Syn Nebula I spotted two ships ahead in the distance. If the second hadn’t been moving I might not have noticed it at all for it seemed to have a hull that transformed to camouflage it with the background. This artwork is almost pure fractal illusion with the exception of one of the ships is painted in, the other is a fractal.

A Gathering at Syn © 2009

Hidden deep within the folds of the Syn Nebula lies Synsnotra, an Earth like planet orbiting a yellow sun amidst the fiery red and gold clouds. Ships begin to gather to form an alliance to fight the invaders of their domain, for here a rare radioactive element within the clouds reeks havoc with the technology of their enemy and denies them access. It is the world from which their race set forth to explore the heavens and so home they return to make their stand.

“It would be a pity if, frustrated by the price of travel, we elected to become a society that never made contact, that never gave SETI a fair chance.” Barney Oliver

We Know Not Where © 2009

As I lazily cruised about exploring and enjoying the beauty of this new found wonder of nature, my ship’s sensors began to pick up a weak radio signal. Finding no path around the immense clouds of hydrogen before me I built up a little momentum, cut the thrusters and drifted through the cloud in the direction of the source. Just as I emerged through it a hole in the outer wall of the nebula revealed a most beautiful sight, an Earth-like planet orbiting a delightful blue star. Many sets of lights on the night side revealed this world to be one inhabited by intelligent life.

Each artist has their influences that inspire their work and I am no different. Mine are often inspired by things in the science world that I study and read about. In recent months I have been visiting the SETI Institute’s site from time to time as I can squeeze a few minutes out of my days for reading/studying up on one of my favorite passions. I’ve been enjoying catching up on the fields in which SETI has expanded into such as searching for planets and even a part of locating and tracking near-Earth asteroids.

Being that I live in constant pain and am forced to spend most of my time laying on my left side (the only comfortable position for me) I spend much of my time studying science and working on art. They are the two things that can keep my mind occupied and off the pain. I think projects such as SETI are important and one of my goals in my art is to inspire young minds, to awaken within them the desire to learn and understand our world and the universe in which we all live.

Art is an excellent means by which to awaken the imagination of others and it is through our imaginations that our curiosity and a desire to learn is often awakened. It is why I think of Imagination as the first step onto the path of enlightenment and a key element to the advancement of knowledge. Visual artists are among the most ancient forms of story telling, dating back to the days before written languages came to be and the stories were told upon the walls of caves.

The Heart of Syn © 2010

“I may be disabled and stuck in a bed but I make the Universe my playground! My hope is that my work will find a home on your walls and inspire your imagination.”

Due to spammers I generally keep the comments disabled here. If you’d like to comment, ask a question or follow my work, visit me on Twitter or on my Visual Artist page at Facebook

An Adolescent Mars

“The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.” – John Glenn

Though Mars is roughly one half the size of the Earth it has volcanoes that far exceed the largest here. In fact Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest known volcano in our solar system. It is 374 miles in diameter (approximately the size of Arizona) and 16 miles high, roughly 100 times larger than that of Mauna Loa (the largest volcano on Earth).

Olympus Mons compared to the state of Arizona
(image courtesy of NASA/JPL Mars Program)

What a spectacular sight it would have been to watch such a volcano erupt. From a safe distance of course.

“The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive.. it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this.” – Albert Schweitzer

I’ve been wanting to do an artwork of an ancient Martian landscape in my new fractal illusion style for quite a while now. However it has taken a good bit of thought figuring out how to mathematically alter fractals to create the illusion of lava flows.

An Adolescent Mars © Randall Klopping -2010

Two of the main reasons Mars had such spectacular volcanoes was because of the lower gravity and that her crust didn’t move like Earth’s crustal plates do. With no plate movement the eruptions of Martian volcanoes would have occurred in the same locations and over time they grew larger with each. And in the lower gravity of Mars the lava flows traveled much greater distances than those here on Earth.

An Adolescent Mars -zoom view

Art prints may be purchased framed, unframed or on canvas
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“I may be disabled and stuck in a bed but I make the Universe my playground! My hope is that my work will find a home on your walls and inspire your imagination.”

Due to spammers I generally keep the comments disabled here. If you’d like to comment, ask a question or follow my work, visit me on Twitter or on my Visual Artist page at Facebook

The Brighid Nebula (art series)

“The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive.. it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this.” Albert Schweitzer

I like to do science fiction art because with SciFi I get to mix all my favorite passions. Art, science, space, physics and imagination. One of my favorite quotes is by Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

I often like to name my SciFi / space artworks like the ancient astronomers did, after gods, goddesses and heroes from legends (mythology) of various cultures.

The Brighid Nebula –2009

In Irish Celtic legends, Brighid and her two sisters (also called Brighid) , were typically treated as three aspects of a single deity, making her a classic Celtic triple goddess. I chose to represent this trinity in this nebula artwork with three brilliant blue sister stars. She was the patron of poets and bards, as well as healers and magicians. Brighid was in charge of Water as well as Fire and so this became the color theme of this nebula art series.

The Brighid Nebula – zoom view

Art prints may be purchased framed, unframed or on canvas
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Each of these artwork in this post is a Fractal Illusion. With the exception of the planet in “Amidst the Clouds of Brighid” (which is painted in), these artworks are created by mathematically altering the fractal designs so as to imitate both the chaos and order found in the universe. It is like inventing a puzzle piece by piece rather than taking an image and cutting out pieces.

Within the Brighid Nebula -2009

Brighid – Fire and Water -2009

Amidst the Clouds of Brighid -2009

In the Heart of Brighid -2009

Art prints may be purchased framed, unframed or on canvas
30 Day money back Guarantee

“I may be disabled and stuck in a bed but I make the Universe my playground! My hope is that my work will find a home on your walls and inspire your imagination.”

Due to spammers I generally keep the comments disabled here. If you’d like to comment, ask a question or follow my work, visit me on Twitter or on my Visual Artist page at Facebook

Departure (SciFi Art)

“I don’t mind UFO’s and ghost stories, it’s just that I tend to give value to the storyteller rather than to the story itself.” – Robert Stack (Actor & host of Unsolved Mysteries)

I sometimes get people assuming that because I do science fiction art that I am a UFO believer/enthusiast. I’m not really but as someone who loves to study our universe through sciences such as astronomy and physics, I do try to keep an open mind and consider that such are within the realm of possibilities. SciFi art is just that, explorations through both science and imagination of the possibilities that could perhaps be. I sometimes wonder if Earth might have indeed been visited in the past by another civilization and if a few of the UFO sightings might not be some sort of probe similar to those we launch into space as part of our own space exploration programs.

Departure – 2010

This painting I have been working on for several years. In the old days before my accident I often painted scenes with the aurora borealis in them, especially in air brush works, but digitally painting it with only a trackball to work with proved quite a challenge. I had finally finished it a few days ago and it still seemed a bit too plain. This morning I got the idea to add in one of the fractal starships that I had designed a short while back.

zoom view of the starship

This artwork is an open edition piece so that as many people can enjoy it on their wall as would like to purchase it. It is available in sizes from 16″ x 11″ up to a colossal 78″ x 52″ art print. It is also available as a Computer Mousepad and a variety of Coffie Mugs.

Zazzle, the company that all my open edition prints and products are sold through, does offer discounts for bulk orders so if you are a company looking for products for your store(s) just scroll down to the bottom of each product page in my Zazzle Store to see the volume discounts on bulk rates.

All purchases are very much appreciated as my goal is to someday earn my own way and support myself fully once again despite multiple disabilities and being stuck in my bed.

Quantum Modulation

All these fifty years of conscious brooding have brought me no nearer to the answer to the question, ‘What are light quanta?’ Nowadays every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks he knows it, but he is mistaken.” – Albert Einstein

Quantum Modulation -2010

Quantum modulation is a term that comes from particle physics and quantum mechanics. When studying such things I often like to play with the concept visually in art, such as in this abstract representation of the tunneling and scattering effect of the beam.

This artwork was designed over a year ago and in the chaos of my life had been forgotten until last week an email conversation reminded me of it and I decided to render it.

This science artwork is available as:

Customizable Art Poster available up to 78″ x 52″ and can be customized with your text if you need to promote a business or science event.

Customizable Business Cards – just add your info and order.

Customizable Mouse Pad for your computer.

Customizable Coffee Mugs – available in a variety of mug styles.

Shop my store at Zazzle to purchase prints and products based on my work. This is how I work to earn money and rebuild my life despite multiple disabilities and being stuck in a bed.

More of my work including Space & Science Fiction artworks can be viewed on my blog, Light and Illusion.