The Iron Diva: Artistic Chat Bots: The Weekly Digest

Looking out the window....

Despite the crispier-than-normal summer we're having here in Colorado, blooms like this goldenrod are thriving. The lavender is also flourishing. I saw many flower beds loaded with lavender on my drive back from church on Sunday but couldn't take any pictures (safety first). Stunning!

A cool experience...

My birthday celebration bled over into summer. Emily and her family took me to see Gaelic Storm at the Arvada Center's amphitheater. The band and their opener Jigjam are (for a lack of a better way to describe it) sort of Irish Bluegrass. It was such a wonderful experience. I cackled at the humor embedded in some of the songs (one solo included the melody to Axel F from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack for example). The talent of the musicians was mind blowing.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

Prayer is like an automobile: you do not have to understand anything about the inner workings for it to get you somewhere. - Richard J. Foster, Devotional Classics, p. 113.

There are some who believe that when we turn to God we ought to leave our brains behind us. True, they will soon be left behind by necessity if we go far on the road towards God who is above all reason and all knowledge, for the Spirit swiftly overpasses these imperfect instruments. But those whose feet are still firmly planted upon earth gain nothing by anticipating this moment when reason is left behind; they will not attain the depths of prayer by the mere annihilation of their intelligence. - Evelyn Underhill, qtd. in Devotional Classics, p. 96.

I'm thinking about...

Etsy: I've been asked by several people why I don't sell my art on Etsy. Here's my answer. I tried selling on the website years ago when the listing and selling fees were reasonable. However, because I could only produce a few different items at a time rather than being able to produce in bulk, I sold nothing and my shop gained no traction. In other words, because my items were actually handmade and took time, neither Etsy nor its buyers were interested.

Fast forward to current day, and it's worse....

So now not only are the fees higher, but Etsy promotes the use of AI to "create" art rather than real human artists.

I just can't...and I won't.

In all honesty, those who keep suggesting I use Etsy don't purchase my art in the first place. So they have no idea (or don't care) what goes into the creative process and that buying directly from me is cheaper in the long run.

I'm not going to go into a rant about AI, but I will say this. AI is a vitamin, not pure food. In other words, there are ethical ways to use AI to SUPPLEMENT your own work, but there is no ethical way to use it to REPLACE your own work.

What I've read since my last digest...