I got the invite to use Dall E 2, it is one of the latest text-to image generators that uses Artificial Intelligence. While sitting in front of my painting, I wondered if I could generate a similar image of the painting by prompting the AI correctly. I thought this would be a novel idea, because my Beso series is really a digital piece. The reference image was a digital photograph and the lips is from a screen shot from a VR experience – conceived using photoshop as reference image to paint. I was acting like a biological printer for my digital work.
The painting comments on our current existence living in an Augmented Reality. We are experiencing our reality with the aid of our smart devices. We shop online, we talk via txt, our memories are stored in the clouds, we share stories with Social Media.
I love exploring digital ideas with analog mediums.. This analog medium pushes my abilities of observation. I use a glazing technique that relies on layering paint in a certain sequence to build depth, color, and texture.
During the pandemic I found a deep appreciation for processes that take a lot of time, and painting certainly takes a lot of that. This first painting took me several months to complete. The energy, time, thoughts, and memory are laid out clearly of everyone to see.
What I am trying to describe by going back and forth between, digital, analog, AI, hand painted, versions is an exercise to find my style. Using lips as part of that style is a bit of a hack, but so far I have been really happy where that has led me so far.