AI Made Me a Better Artist

I know what you're thinking, 'Patti! What! You've been so vocal about your hatred for AI!".

Well, what if I told you I was wrong?

HA, jk, I'll never admit when I'm wrong.

In all seriousness, though, I don't mean that AI helped me be more creative. I mean that AI pissed me off to the point that I completely rethought how I was being creative. It made me reflect on my processes and what I do to help support my 'inner artist' (Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way).

'I made these!' - evil robot

I started seeing these AI images (we don't call it 'art' around here) that were blatantly plagiarizing artists I loved and looked up to. The images they generated were devoid of uniqueness, devoid of perspective, and devoid of soul. As I realized this, I also came to the understanding that it was going to be up to people like me to push back against the rise of AI, which, made me realize that I was not spending my time wisely.

[just as a little sidebar: if we could find a way to ethically utilize AI in our lives without job/wage/work theft, environmental damage, and offloading of resource costs to communities around data centers I could be more open to it, however, AI should be used to help us perform the menial tasks, not take jobs from creatives. let's find a way for everyone to be able to pursue their passion and live a dignified life, not steal jobs and then say 'well sucks a robot can do it better' and call it a day, okay?]

I am a victim of doom-scrolling and outside distractions to say the least. Talk to most artists and you'll see that passion is not usually the issue, it's time, especially if you are unable to pursue your art full-time. The days can feel short, the weeks shorter, and suddenly it's been a whole year and you have 5 unfinished projects and a lot of guilt (we'll talk about productivity guilt in another post I promise, I have thoughts).

look at me, not that!

Well, I'm here to tell you that in order to keep technology from taking over, we have to stop letting it consume our every waking minute. There is a lot of commentary about this across the interwebs, I'll link some good videos and articles at the bottom of this post, but apps like instagram, tik tok, and facebook are making money off of you being perpetually distracted by them. Free time is scarce these days, don't let it go wasted.

This doesn't mean that in order to be a 'good creative' you need to always be creating, always be working, never take a moment to yourself. On the contrary, I mean, use your free time wisely. Use it to 'feed your inner artist' (Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way). Take that attention span that can scroll through a feed for 4 hours and use just 30 minutes of your day to brain dump into a word document, listen to a musical album, watch something that inspires you, go for a walk, go to the used bookstore, go to the library, go to a coffee shop and people watch, I don't fucking know dude, but do something. Stop waiting for inspiration to strike you and go out and find it!

don't wait for inspiration, go and find it!

There's a reason you often have your best ideas when you're driving or in the shower, that's when your brain finally has some goddamn peace and quiet and can start processing. Social media not only constantly distracts you, but it sucks your time away before you even know it's gone. Please understand, I'm not asking you to never open Tik Tok again, I know that's unrealistic for most people, and honestly there are still great sources of inspiration and plenty of wonderful accounts to keep up with on these apps. But, let's choose when we want to do that, not let it happen to us.

being creative, inspires creativity

The next thing I'm going to share with you might be shocking. Something I've recently come to find is that when I engage my inner artist on a daily basis I find it easier and easier to work with her. I don't have to hunt and search for the drive to make, she comes to me with an idea and pushes me to try it out. If you have a passion for something, just go for it. You never know what sketch, brain-dump, or iphone photo is going to trigger the next idea, which triggers the next, which spirals into, uh-oh, continuous creativity.

So, TLDR: AI pissed me off to the point that I realized I was giving up too much of my free-time to apps that were not serving a purpose and actually stifling my creativity by stealing my time and not allowing my brain to think and process.

Sounds simple right?

I'm sure many of you have had this realization before. Well, try to take it and actually implement changes into your daily life where you can. Here are a few things that have helped me out recently:

1. Delete superfluous apps from your phone.

   
   

I deleted everything but instagram off of my phone (because I often make posts as I work), but I kept Tik Tok and FB on my ipad. This makes it harder to fall into doom-scrolling, In order to get onto those apps I have to make the conscious decision to go and get my ipad, and by the time I do, there's a better chance that I end up just opening up procreate and drawing instead).

Along with this, make sure you're curating your feed! I love brainrot as much as the next person, but you can easily seek out that content, it's actually harder to see the other side of the app. Engage with the accounts you want to see, not only will it help you, but it will help them! Even if you end up doom-scrolling you might find something from another artist that speaks to you, and then what do you know, you've been stimulated and are suddenly in a creative mode.

2. Take yourself on an artist's date once a week.

   
   

This one is completely stolen from Julia Cameron in the Artist's Way, but essentially, go on an art date with yourself (emphasis on yourself). I already gave some examples of 'feeding your inner artist' earlier on in the post, but essentially do something that will encourage your artist in a way you don't get from regular day-to-day life. You'll be surprised what inspires you!

This can be accomplished with free activities, no spending required!

3. Take just 15-30 minutes out of your day to work on your creative endeavor.

Find a low-energy activity that correlates to your craft and try to implement it into your day (example: some days I journal in the morning if I can sense that my brain is going to be crowded that day, some mornings while I drink my coffee I open up the current project I'm working on and just give it a little bit of attention, some days I flip through an art book I haven't looked at in awhile. It doesn't need to be a big production!)

Little side note on starting your day off right: Whatever you start your day off with your brain will start to crave more of it. You know how nutritionists say not to start with a sugary cereal, because then throughout the day you end up eating more sugar than normal? (if you didn't know that, now you do) Your brain acts the same way! Starting off the day with overstimulated scrolling will encourage you to do it more often! When I start the day with sketching I find that when I have a pocket of free-time throughout the day I am drawn (hah) to sketching again. Trick your brain.

4. Find other creatives to be around

First of all, this doesn't mean dump your current friends, actually I bet your current friends all have hobbies or crafts that they wish they were more committed to. Start talking about them! Organize a craft night where everyone brings a project to work on. Parallel play/body doubling works in more than just video games, laundry, and homework.

If your friends aren't quite the type, or maybe just aren't ready yet, find people online and join a discord to send work into and get feedback. I know that might be horrifying for some (and I would love to have another post about cringe culture and how it's killing our ability to be bad at things and learn/grow), but unfortunately, my dude, you just have to be cringe sometimes.

I find that having an array of options to engage my inner artist helps me stay engaged. Some days I want to write (hence this new blog), some days I want to draw, others, just a nice book goes a long way. You don't have to pigeon hole yourself. They say 'variety is the spice of life' and honestly I couldn't agree more. If it helps keep you engaged and consistent, what's the harm?

start small and grow your practice as it becomes consistent

[of course there's another parenthesis here. I do want to clarify that I am not encouraging temporary hyper-focuses here. I don't want you spending money to buy all the materials for a new craft every time you get bored with your current one. I mean, find low-cost, low-entry ways to engage your artist. If you are really passionate about a craft you'll be able to grow and get better with the most basic tools and materials - only once you have a consistent practice should you look to start upgrading your setup] <-- you all know who you are.

Well, that's it for my first blog post. I know I ramble, I jump topics, I make a lot of fucking lists (love a list), and I have to use parenthesis for secondary thoughts a lot, but I hope that you found some value. I've linked a few resources below to help you find the desire to make some valuable changes to your day to day life and take back your humanity. I, too, am always learning and growing from my mistakes and missteps. The important thing is to not dwell too long on them. Once you become aware of a problem the best thing you can do is make the necessary changes to better yourself and your overall happiness.

Feel free to drop questions and comments below, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the article and how you have engaged your inner artist recently!

Links to videos, articles, and books that might help!

'The Gap' by Ira Glass

'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron (this is a recording of one part of the book, but arguably the easiest way to start out, and if you like it I would highly recommend purchasing the entire book!)

'Technology is Secretly Stealing Your Time. Here's How to Get it Back' by Ruth Ogden, Joanna Witowska, Vanda Cernhorska & the Conversation US

'No Thoughts, No Problem! There's an App For That!' by Ashely Embers (if you know me, you know I love a commentary youtube channel, Ashley is one of my favorites right now and this is a great introduction to what phone addiction is and what it does to your brain)