Light & Illusion – Art by Randall Klopping

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

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

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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

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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
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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

In the Fires of the Carina Nebula

“There is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.” – Edmund Burke

Part of the reason I chose this quote by Edmund Burke is that living with mental disorders leaves me constantly struggling with emotions. And yet it is through imagination that I escape the chaos of my mind. My passions are heavily influenced by sciences such as astronomy and physics which allows me to create a realistic feel in my work, but it is my imagination that gives life to the illusions I weave.

In the Fires of Carina -2010

Have you ever imagined yourself visiting a place like the Carina Nebula? I cannot but help wonder at what lies within those endless colorful clouds. This is where my Science Fiction artworks come from, studying the universe and imagining what exists out there beyond the capability of our telescopes to see. That is why I tend to call my work SciFi art rather than Space art, because they are based on both science and imagination.

This scene of a ringed planet amidst the fiery red and golden nebula clouds is created primarily with fractals with the ringed gas giant Saturn like world painted in. Here is a zoom view of the outer rings and the distant star to help show the detail that I put into my work. The painting part is not as accurate as I’d like because I have only a trackball to paint with but someday when I’m financially able to afford a professional Wacom, then I will really blow your mind! But I will still do my fractal illusions, just the painted portions of certain works will be done in intricate detail.

In the Fires of Carina -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

Asteroid and Meteor Artworks by Randall Klopping

“”I feel sorry for the newscasters you know? We can turn it off. But that’s their job and they have to read these stories and they’re just coming up on the teleprompter they don’t know what’s coming up. and they have to go through these change of emotions. That.. “There were no survivors…And next Which candybar helps ya lose weight! Still to come! Is an asteroid headed towards earth…But first where to find the cheesiest pizza in town! Also, a disturbing study finds that studies are disturbing… “” – Ellen DeGeneres

Ah, Life never fails to surprise me! I go looking for an asteroid quote to go with this post and low and behold, there is one by Ellen, one of my Favorite comedians… LOL.. I just couldn’t resist!!!

A Mountain in Space -2010
This artwork is pure Fractal Illusion

Art print

An Adolescent World with a View -2009″>
This artwork is a combination of Fractal Illusion and Digital Painting

The Final April Fools -2009
This artwork is a combination of Fractal Illusion and Digital Painting

Endless Journey -2010
This artwork is pure Fractal Illusion – 169 fractals to create this piece.

Endless Journey -Zoom view

In the Heart of Brighid -2010
This artwork is the most recent in my Brighid Nebula art series and is pure Fractal Illusion.

Multiple Impacts on Quamman 5 -2010
Fractal Illusion with a slight bit of Digital Painting

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life.

A Gathering at Syn

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw

A Gathering at Syn -2009

This artwork was inspired by my benefactor that provides me this site. It is a combination of Fractal Illusion with the planet, monstrous asteroid in the distance and 3 of the ships digitally painted.

This artwork is available as an open edition print in sizes starting at 11″ x 16″ up to a colossal 52″ x 78″ (inches). Purchase Art Print of “A Gathering at Syn”

Also available on an Avery Signature 1″ Binder

The artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.

Amidst the Clouds of the Brighid Nebula

This post has been moved / combined with another so that all the artworks for this series are in a single post. The Captivating Brighid Nebula (art series)

The Izanagi Nebula

“Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don’t believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art’s sake.” – E. M. Forster

The Izanagi Nebula -2009

In Japanese legends Izanagi was the primordial god of the sky and the creator of everything good and right. I choose a Japanese god for this nebula artwork because of the dragon shaped cloud in the center right. This artwork pure Fractal Illusion, even the asteroid entering view in the upper right is fractal.

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.”

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

Great Binders for Home, Office & School (Gift Ideas)

Zazzle, the site I sell my art through has recently added a new product I can sell my art on – Eye-catching Avery Custom Signature Binders. I have been working hard to set up a good selection based on my SciFi and Space artworks as gift ideas for the approaching Christmas holiday season to help me earn some money this year.

Superstition by Teknowizard

The space and science fiction artworks that you see here on my blog and on my Visual Artist page at Facebook are my hard work toward contributing to society and earning money to rebuild my life. I offer many of my works as art prints and products such as custom business cards, customizable greeting cards, mugs, shirts, caps, ties and more through my Zazzle Store.