String Theory (2011) by Ryan Bliss

I experimented heavily with "flame fractals" in the mid 2000s, using a program called "Apophysis" to create 2D images that were amazingly detailed and somewhat 3D like. Others in the series include include "Genesis", "Riven", "Sublimation" and a few others. Fractals look almost natural because reality is also fractal in nature.

Honestly one the the main reasons I made so many of these fractals between around 2008-2010 was because I was very sick from Crohn's during these years and couldn't sit at desk for long stretches. I could only work on a powerful laptop (I named it "Asfaloth" after the swift horse in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" which outran the Nazgul and bore Frodo safely to Rivendell).

By 2011 I was finally getting healthy again and able to do more 3D renders. The flames I created after this were attempts at 3D flora and this was the last purely abstract 2D fractal I've attempted.