Fractal fairy tales?

Science News,  April 28, 2007  by Steve Johnson,  Bruce McIntosh

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Fractal characteristics associated with Jackson Pollack's paintings are interesting ("Fractal or Fake?" SN: 2/24/07, p. 122), but to determine authenticity, it would seem that two propositions would have to be proved: first, that Pollack's paintings always had fractal character; and second, that only Pollack's paintings had fractal character. Both seem highly dubious.

STEVE JOHNSON, PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KAN.

In doing drip or splash painting, the artist defines the overall upper-level structure of the image, but the higher-magnification patterns are the result of the physics of liquids falling on a solid surface, only slightly affected by the artist's intention. Any drip painting that looks like a Pollack overall will look in details like one as well.

BRUCE MCINTOSH, MADRID, N.M.

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