Creation

I just want to mention that I've just completed my series of oil painting instruction videos. This series is called Oil Painting Mastery check it out.

Lots of people become artists for lots of different reasons. In my case I always had an affinity for art and music. I became proficient at creating artwork after deciding that it would be a good career for me when I was very young. From that point forward I dedicated myself to drawing and learning more about art on a regular basis until eventually I was employed as an artist.

The Road West 4x6

Regarding music, I had the same sort of affinity for sound and music that I did for visual art but when I was a kid I did not see music as a good way to make a living. Still, I felt music deeply, to the core of my being. I knew I had musical talent and ability but it wasn't until 2002 that I started composing and creating music on a regular basis as I do to this day.

I often harp on creating work regularly as the real foundation to becoming masterful at painting. I say painting but could be drawing or sculpture or any other form of visual art. The reason for this is, in the absence of experience what you are able to create is very limited or necessarily a derivative of the work of other artists.

I have been watching the rise of AI art with interest. Apparently the way these programs work is that they scan and collate billions of images and then mix up the results and when stimulated with text prompts or actual images these programs produce a new image. In some cases the works that the AI programs produce are incredibly derivative of the work of actual artists but the AI programs can create original images as well.

I've written some of my thoughts about AI here. It was interesting for me to watch a video recently where the presenter made a similar point to the one I had made in my blog post. The point he that made was that the AI has no experience of the world. No comprehension or understanding of what the things are that it is rendering.

Imagine communicating about a world that you were unable to live in or even perceive. This is a major problem for the AI. BTW I have a idea about this that may seem somewhat conspiratorial.

You may or may not be aware of the concept of a virtual version of yourself being created by the major tech corporations that is assembled from all of your preferences, purchases, comments and other online activities. I don't know for fact if this is actually occurring but if we assume that it is, it seems to me that this is a world that that the AI could inhabit and learn from. In other words it can learn about the real world by inhabiting a virtual one that is modeled on this one.

A T-shirt design of mine from 2001

Many modern philosophers and physicists have made the case that reality as we experience it is indeed virtual. While I think this idea is plausible I don't spend too much time thinking about it because it doesn't actually matter. The proof of this is that we automatically measure what we think is true against our experiences in this reality. Example; If you go to sleep and dream that you won $1 million and are basking in the glow of good fortune, the million dollars is not going to make it into the real world with you when you wake up.

Back to the idea of creation. I think that every human being is creative to a greater or lesser degree. A strong argument could be made for the case that human beings are designed to create. Some of us are more creative than others but all of us create.

As human beings, every one of our creations is indelibly stamped with our personas. There is absolutely no escaping it. This is in stark contrast to the AI art programs which have no persona at all. This is why unless prompted with the name of an actual human artist they tend to produce work that feels plasticy and has that samey AI quality.

This may change, no doubt it will. A lot of human artists are not very happy about their work being scanned and collated by the AI programs only to be spit out as derivative works. Perhaps something will be done about this. I don't know.

I was speaking with a artist at the art center where I have my studio the other day and he was mentioning a program that you can use to watermark all of your images so the AI will not be able to correctly discern your work. I imagine some artists who have their work online have utilized this process. I might do as well if it was easy or effortless to somehow do it to the thousands of images of my art that I have put on the Internet.

I have not put my name into an AI art prompt and it's probably better if I don't since ignorance is bliss. I am reminded of one of my brief forays onto Instagram. I typed in the word Tonalism one day. And discovered somebody had made a copy of one of my paintings with no attribution. I sent this person a private message and they did give me credit.

This could be happening on a regular basis. I've been sharing my art and my process online since 2014 so it would not be difficult to look at one of my videos and make your own version of one of my paintings then present it to the world as your original creation. I have little doubt that many have done so.

While I do not like the idea of somebody profiting off of my original artwork, I am not so bothered by it that I am going to spend valuable time tracking people down and demanding attribution or compensation. That is time that I would not be able to spend creating new paintings.

Which gets us to the point of this essay. In my opinion creating just about anything is one of the most meaningful and satisfying activities that one can engage in. Not only will you become increasingly more proficient and adept at creating beautiful work as you consistently create but you have a definite feeling of well-being and fulfillment as you regularly engage in creation as an activity.

If we are honest , there's not much in life that people attribute meaning to where that meaning cannot be disassembled, deconstructed or destroyed. Creation is (for the most part) an exception to this rule because even if no one ever sees what you created and even if what you created is bad you still made something. You engaged with life and made something. That's intrinsically meaningful.

Take care and stay out of trouble.

Mike