The Idea Box Journal

Here’s a new painting about animal companionship 🌟

The Beautiful Bond
Oil & digital

New Netrunner illustration 🌟
Engolo

With a sweeping kick embodied in the form of a zebra, this hacker program is inspired by the ritual combat of engolo from Southwestern Africa.

From Null Signal Games

AI & the Deception of Style

To use these AI programs like NightCafe, Dall-E2, and Midjourney, the user simply types in a string of descriptive pictorial keywords and usually steers it in their preferred direction with “Edward Hopper style,” or “style of Disney.”

When people ask about my work I tell them about my interests and what I’m trying to communicate through images. If I could conjure my artwork inside their mind’s eye, why paint? Art speaks in the ineffable language of meaning. What we call “style” in art is really a convenient shorthand that’s become the norm. Try not using the word in your next conversation and you’ll be surprised by how much texture and flavor enrich your description. What we typically ascribe to “style” grew out of cultural traditions, has been the result of paradigm shifting movements, and blossomed out of hearts nearly lost in the darkness.

All of my life’s experiences and influences inform my paintings. My work is made from my strengths as well as my weaknesses. Art is as much about vulnerability as it is about confidence. Every time I paint I learn in the process. That’s the point. The struggle and the flow are essential to bringing the work to life. Style forgets that struggle exists.

Art is the visual manifestation of exploration, intention, and understanding. Art is the language of meaning that shows us we’re not alone. Artists need people to know their work matters. People need art to be reminded that life is inspiring. Artists find their voice through the difficult and ultimately enlightening process of making their work, not by plucking a style off the shelf like a box of cereal.

So why talk about the shortcomings of one word when the larger argument is about the threat of AI? Because in order to grasp why this new industry of art theft is eroding the foundations of our society’s most sacred discipline, we have to trace the roots to our own language. The next time it comes up, try communicating art without “style,” and I think you’ll discover more humanity in the process. We’re in this together 🧡

New Painting 🌟

The Light We Share
Oil & digital

Won’t you be my Valentine?

The Valentine’s Day Collection

When roses are burned black
And violets are too tame
Give one of these Valentine’s cards
To hearts with a darker flame 🔥

All framed and ready to go! Now that they’re secure in their protective frames, they’re so sturdy and sheek they look like they belong in a museum! Please share with anyone you think may be interested. I’d love for them find a home as a complete set

Now showing online with WOW x WOW Gallery

About the work

The Regeneration series comes from a place of pure inspiration. Each piece was pulled from the light held deep within, serving to transcend the clutter of daily life. The source is vital energy, reverberating with renewal, with desire, and with enchantment. Made by the hands of one human being for another, these paintings are imbued with the most powerful of forces; intention.

Painted over a year ago as part of my Forest Spirit series, it just recently occurred to me to add leaves to the Green Maiden of Bailieborough. Now the lovely lady’s branches are lush with ivy 😊🌱

Curing the wintertime blues with vibrant greens. For sale on Etsy

Bookshelves are sacred spaces to me. I alone tend to my library. Yesterday though, my girlfriend surprised me with this miniature book nook she had secretly assembled and snuck onto the shelf. I have to admit, it’s pretty charming, capturing as it does the idea of books as passageways into other worlds. For now, I think we can leave it 📚

Ethereal Orchard exhibition now on view at WOW x WOW Gallery