Using AI to Draw My Name

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I decided to give a few AI drawing tools a try, just to see what all the fuss was about. Out of curiosity, I just typed in my name, without an image or description, and clicked generate. Here’s what I got…

Site: craiyon.com
Generation term: Adora Myers

Site: craiyon.com
Generation term: Adora

Site: starryai.com
Generation term: Adora Myers
Art style: Pop Art

Site: starryai.com
Generation term: Adora
Art style: In the style of Banksy

Bragging Rights: Publications Referencing AdoraMyers.com

“The concept of craft is present in many aspects of everyday life, even if it is not actively recognized as such. The importance and impact of independent artists studied by this dissertation is depicted in people’s everyday lives through widespread engagement with art. On her blog, Adora Myers offers this explanation, “Fine art transforms a building into a museum… Folk art enters a place, warms the colors, softens the edges, and plays in the yard. It is the tipping point, the key element transforming a house into a home.”9 While Myers is not an art historian, this quote perfectly highlights the commonly understood relationship between fine and folk art and emphasizes the value of folk art through its
existence in our homes and everyday lives.”

Folk Art on the Internet: Artists Building Community and Marketplace on Social Media

Russell, Anna McCrea.Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New YorkProQuest Dissertations Publishing, Degree Year2020. 28264556.

Blog post referenced: Fine Art vs Folk Art | Adora Myers

“How do we go about saving them? American blogger Adora Myers suggests there are several steps we can take, either as individuals or as corporate bodies, government agencies, non-governmental organisations, churches and other charities.

First, those who are fit enough need to find a permanent job that provides them with full benefits and can cover their cost of living. This is especially important for those who have young children. Next, is long-term shelter, but they should not be exploited under these circumstances; that is, do not put them to live in substandard conditions like a backyard shed, or abuse them sexually or otherwise for the rent money”

#BTEditorial – Just another day in Paradise. Amid the homeless.

Barbados Today, July 10, 2019

Updated version of the blog posts referenced: Part 1: How to Help Someone Facing Homelessness | Adora Myers, Part 2: How to Help Someone Facing Homelessness | Adora Myers and Part 3: How to Help Someone Facing Homelessness | Adora Myers

Folk art enters a place, warms the colors, softens the edges, and plays in the yard. It is the tipping point, the key element transforming a house into a home. – Adora Myers”

Banner and Sail: May 2019

Blog post referenced: Fine Art vs Folk Art | Adora Myers

The Secret of Art

“The beauty of life is that you can choose to shape your pain, or let it shape you. Yet here is its secret. That which mars most deeply can be transformed to greatness. The most heinous injury can become beauty! This is the secret of art as I know it.

The Dragon Librarian (Scrolls of Fire Book 1) by Marc Secchia

No Rest For The Creative

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Amazon.com

“When you’re a creative person, you have to create. Retirement isn’t part of that mentality. The mentality is, What is inspiring you next?

The Glitter Plan: How We Started Juicy Couture for $200 and Turned It into a Global Brand by Pamela Skaist-Levy, Gela Nash-Taylor, Booth Moore

From the first chapter:

We just wanted to create something people loved and a work environment that made us happy. That’s our version of the American Dream. That’s the glitter plan.

An Artistic Personality

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Amazon.com

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.  Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is what he is.  It has nothing to do with the fact that other people want what they want.”

They are always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else, or a painter why he does not paint like somebody else, quite oblivious of the fact that if either of them did anything of the kind he would cease to be an artist.

The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.”

The Soul of Man Under Socialism by Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wild)

The Myth of Overnight Success

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Amazon.com

“Overnight success is a myth. Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance. Building a substantial body of work takes a long time—a lifetime, really—but thankfully, you don’t need that time all in one big chunk. So forget about decades, forget about years, and forget about months. Focus on days.”

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon

Getting Started

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Amazon.com

“The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.”

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon

Economy Demands Art

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Amazon.com

“We don’t need to be taught to make art, but sometimes we need permission to do so. Following instructions is overrated…Why Make Art? Because you must. The new connected economy demands it and will reward you for nothing else. Because you can. Art is what it is to be human.”

The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin

Use Your Voice

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Amazon.com

“We’re always being told find your voice. When I was younger, I never really knew what this meant. I used to worry a lot about voice, wondering if I had my own. But now I realize that the only way to find your voice is to use it. It’s hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.”

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon

Cultural Traditions and the Value of Folk Art

Folk art tends to be filled with culture. The design and the purpose is as much about the community surrounding the artist as it is about the technique or relative marketability of the art (artists have to make a living too!). People don’t buy and display garden gnomes because they are excellent examples of artistic form, they buy them because they are good luck charms and fun representations of European mythology and tradition. I love that.

Traditional Garden Gnome on Etsy

Unfortunately, the cultural emphasis has a tendency to devalue some amazing forms of art based on westernized perspectives. For example, European folk art tends to be higher valued (e.g.: more costly) than South American pottery. In an honest apples-to-apples comparison, a European garden gnome, a Mexican terracotta chicken garden planter and an Italian terracota garden planter are on an equal artistic level. They serve similar purposes and require (approximately) similar levels and types of skills to create. Yet, a quick google shopping search for these categories of items returns decorative Italian planters that range from $30 to several hundred, Mexican planters ranging from $10 to about $200, and garden gnomes ranging from $10 to about $200.

Non-traditional garden gnome on Etsy

From a resale perspective, my own experience has shown that good condition garden gnomes will usually fetch a higher price than Mexican pottery – even when the gnomes are clearly factory made and mass marketed. Also, anything officially identified as Italian tends to be automatically placed in a higher price bracket. Why? Several reasons: 1) Average middle-income white Americans view garden gnomes as safe no-offensive gifts and (sometimes) household essentials. 2) The word Italian is associated with things only accessible to the upper class (e.g.: cars, suits, etc). 3) Mexican pottery is associated with low cost tourist mementos.

I will leave the racial, cultural, cultural appropriation and class-system based discussions to another person (or another day). For now, I will move the focus away from garden gnomes and terracotta pots to sand art and clay whistles.

Ocarina Whistle on Wild Raccoon Market

Both sand art and ocarina whistles tend to be attributed to Native American tribes, particularly those living in the southwestern United States.

Ocarina whistles have a history spanning the entire world – Native American flutes look and sound very different.

Sand art is a Navajo tradition. Sandpaintings are amazing. I can’t even imagine how it is done, much less done well. Nationally recognized artists can fetch a good price for their work and I’ve seen a few that are simply stunning.

Sadly, in the used items market, the reality is that sandpaintings tend to be associated with low-cost tourist trinkets and head-shops (read: businesses catering to people who smoke marijuana). Therefore, they can be hard to sell at an appropriate price, in a general marketplace (e.g.: standard flea markets and resale shops).

The most frustrating thing about this is the fact that it’s a matter of (white) cultural perspective – garden gnomes are appropriate for good upstanding families and sandpaintings are displayed by wild teens and college students. When the wild youth settles down and starts a family, the sandpaintings are replaced with garden gnomes.

Navajo Sandpainting on Wild Raccoon Market

I would like to say this is a distinctly Midwestern presumption and attitude, but I have  traveled all of the lower 48 states and lived in every region (time zone) this country has – in the lower 48 (my hopes of visiting Alaska and Hawaii have not yet been realized). In my solitary-person experience with different communities, people and regional used items markets, these perspectives are pretty consistent nation wide.

It’s also an excellent example of a problem that extends to all forms of art: (de)value by ownership association. An amazing painting owned and cared for by person X will be summarily refused by person Y because of the time spent under the care of person X. Sometimes this is because person X has a bad reputation and sometimes it is because person X has a GOOD reputation. Effectively, person Y does not want to be: 1) associated with person X, 2) seen owning person X’s discarded decor and/or 3) known as the person who paid good money for person X’s vacation-find.

If you have ever wondered why some second-hand chain stores (the Goodwill included) will move large quantities of items across country, effectively selling slightly-different versions of the exact same stuff, here’s an explanation: breaking ownership association is one of the many key aspects to making used items easier to sell.

Art rescue is as much about the often perplexing perspectives of human beings and society’s entirely illogical value-system as it is about preventing quality and beauty from experiencing a dreadful and unwarranted death at the local dump.

As an individual actively involved in art rescue and a fan of all forms of folk art, I challenge you to try and divorce the art from the owner. The quality of an object should not be exclusively determined by ownership history…items previously owned by famous or historic people notwithstanding (that is an entirely different conversation).

Respect Artists Tees

Wild Raccoon Press on Zazzle

Also, inappropriate cultural association is something that should be challenged. Thousands of years of Native American tradition cannot be dispensed with because a few (mostly white) people happen to like both sand paintings and recreational drugs. Equally lengthy Mexican traditions also cannot be tossed away simply because American’s habitually take their summer vacations in the area.

Think about it. Comment on it. Blog about it (send me the links). But, whatever you choose to do, respect the art and the artist.

Respect.

Always.