Early Light

Early

Light

is

an

example

of

the

fusioneering

pathway

and

constant

personal

evolution.

Its

inception

was

marked

by

a

period

of

thoughtful

exploration

and

experimentation

following

the

completion

of

the

painting,

Meditation

Upon

Death.

As

Paul

pursued

various

ideas

for

his

next

piece,

he

found

himself

drawn

to

the

soft,

sublime

beauty

of

the

growing

pre-dawn

light.

Early

each

morning

in

the

pre-dawn

light,

while

sitting

by

a

window

facing

east

and

fueled

by

a

cup

of

coffee,

Paul

would

be

lost

in

that

creative

space

exploring

ideas

for

his

next

painting.

Days

and

weeks

would

pass

by.

While

probing

and

developing

numerous

ideas

and

accumulating

dozens

of

sketches

and

notes,

he

found

himself

marveling

at

the

coming

dawn’s

changing

hues,

and

soft,

quiet,

sublime

beauty.

Inspired

by

these

moments,

he

wondered

if

it

would

be

possible

to

capture

their

essence

in

a

robot-created

painting?

With

this

aspiration,

Paul

realized

he

would

need

to

evolve

his

use

of

color,

brushwork,

and

design

to

higher

levels

of

artistry.

Color

It

turns

out

developing

this

palette

of

soft,

subtle

colors

was

unlike

anything

he’d

done

before

and

presented

a

unique

challenge.

This

struggle

is

well

documented

in

the

video

“Paint

Room.”

available

in

the

accompanying

VR

tour

of

his

studio

and

galleries

of

paintings.

Brushwork

As

David

Leffel

taught

Paul

years

ago,

the

brushstroke

is

“the

heart

and

soul

of

painting.”

Thus,

to

capture

the

essence

of

“that

moment”

in

a

painting,

entirely

new

mathematical

brushstroke

algorithms

needed

to

be

developed

in

collaboration

with

Dulcinea.

Notice

their

resulting

softness

and

delicate

interplay

of

color

as

the

paint

reaches

the

canvas.

Design

To

fulfill

his

vision

for

this

painting,

Paul

needed

a

new

“tool”

to

capture

and

express

the

design

for

this

pre-dawn

first

light.

He

likened

this

need

to

those

of

Newton,

Maxwell,

J.R.R.

Tolkien,

and

musical

composers.

Newton

needed

a

new

tool

to

help

him

develop

his

ideas

in

physics,

so

he

invented

calculus.

Maxwell

needed

a

better

expression

of

calculus

for

his

theories

and

so

developed

differential

calculus.

Tolkien

needed

a

world

in

which

to

ground

his

linguistic

experiments,

and

so

created

Middle

Earth.

Just

as

these

men

created

a

means

to

express

their

visions,

and

just

as

a

composer

can

write

music

first

on

a

page,

Paul

would

need

a

new

way

to

express

his

vision

to

Dulcinea.

Paul

conceived

a

fusion

of

tools:

a

new

programming

language

to

capture

the

essence

of

a

painting,

akin

to

music

notation

representing

a

symphony.

Through

extensive

programming

and

experimentation,

his

concept

took

shape.

Paul

developed

a

language

where

each

“note”

represented

a

brushstroke

of

paint

on

a

canvas.

Seeking

to

bring

greater

spontaneity

and

creative

excitement

to

the

process,

Paul

introduced

colonies

of

AI

agent

“ants”

to

orchestrate

the

spatial

arrangement

of

the

musical

chords

that

would

become

Dulcinea’s

brushstrokes.

After

the

observation

of

hundreds

of

sunrises

and

countless

developmental

iterations,

each

press

of

the

program’s

run

button

produced

a

new

simulation

of

the

ant

colonies

arranging

progressions

and

chords

of

notes,

but

in

this

case

the

notes

were

expressed

as

brushstrokes.

The

result

of

this

fusion

of

efforts

was

a

soft,

quiet

display

of

luminous,

sublime

beauty.

Start Tour

Sitemap

OUR POLICY

SOCIALS

Be the Person You Were Meant to Be

Take the Assessment →

Keep up with our latest articles

Back to the top