Exactly.AI
I’ve got to share some of these images that I’ve been making with Exactly.AI (Durer.AI)
I was able to train a model on my paintings using about 15 images + a language component (describing the art that I’m uploading for training).
Here are some generations from the first model I trained. It’s kind of fun to play with the prompts as a parameter in regard to generations from my own models. This is something you can do with current LLMs (Large Language Models), where the GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) or CANs (Creative Adversarial Networks) have used no prompting.
I’ll show you more of why this could be fun, but first, this first set of images was prompted using words that were very close to the words that I input for training, making them closer to the actual style of what they were trained on.
This next set is what happens with the subject (above is abstract botanical), when the prompt changes from the original input.
Here, I switched out parts to add different subjects like palm trees, crows, gnarled trees, birch trees, coral, cacti, landscapes, skulls, and cats.
Artists can use this kind of thing as a study to see how one style might transfer to a different subject, or to explore different variations on their work before they set to it with paint.
One subject that this model is really good for is leaves - since so much of the work it was trained on was botanical abstraction. I loved how these came out. The prompts included much of my original text that described the style, material, and colors, plus the description of leaves falling and blowing in the wind.
I trained another model with some newer paintings, and here is what they look like:
Again, I kept the prompts close to the original prompt used when training, and that keeps the results looking like mine.
For me, using AI art tools contributes to a process of reflection, contemplation, and integration.
I’d be curious to hear how other artists who paint intuitively have found the process of training an AI model on one’s own work.
Radical Hope Blooms
It was at least 2 years ago when I digitized a loose collection of my botanical abstract paintings in all kinds of traditional media, and used them for training an artificial intelligence model in Playform. I’ve worked with these images off and on, never really clear on what their outcome would be. Recently, I selected some generations from Playform and blended them in Midjourney, loved what was happening, and then finished them up.
Radical Hope works this way - a trust that a future goodness will exist, despite not knowing how we get to it. 🖤✨
I selected the options available to print these on with a few things in mind - my favorite papers, the acrylic blocks and prints that I’m obsessed with, and some other prints that are more affordable. If you like this series and want to get a print or a few (they look so so good in a grouping!) let me know if I can help you pick out the best options for you.
Dispelling Misinformation
I started using AI in my art practice a few years ago. I came across an article about Playform, and joined their artist studio. I had no idea how much I would love it, I was moving towards a glimmer of something catching the light, to see what it was. It felt reflective and magical, and it fit right into my work.
My affections towards technology are at least partially genetic. When I look at the familial lineup of mechanics, tinkerers, technology enthusiasts, information lovers, and wonder seekers, I shouldn’t be surprised. Many of the people close to me weren’t afraid of technology or people or ideas. And I mention this because it did surprise me when people reacted with fear and suspicion about my use of artificial intelligence in my art. (this was even before 2022 and the text-to-image cultural phenomenon)
As of now, everyone has pretty much heard SOMETHING about creative AI tools - but what they’ve heard is mostly misinformation and clickbaity opinion pieces aimed at getting a reaction. As a trained professional artist with a master’s degree, and with education in art therapy, art history, everything studio art, fine art, design and photography. Traditional media and new media, analog, digital, philosophy of art, ethics… and decades of experience, I’m absolutely qualified to speak on this.
I feel like I’m shouting facts into the wind sometimes, but then someone listens in and gets it, and it’s AWESOME. Because these tools are full of wonder, they are great for exploration, reflection, and I believe they have an immense capacity for healing and moving us forward.
One of the things I’m shouting - creative AI tools don’t “steal” other artists’ work and implement them into a kind of collage. That’s not how the AI tools work at all.
To explain in a relatable manner how they do work, I want you to imagine an art student, going with their class, to a museum, to study impressionist paintings. They look, they make sketches, they study them to figure out what makes them impressionist paintings, how the paintings were made, what they were made with, when they were made… they learn the concepts of what makes up impressionist paintings. Now, all of those students leave the museum and go to a painting studio, where they’re told to paint something in the style of an impressionist painting. Do they pull out paintings and copy them? Do they look at photographs of paintings and copy them? Or do they draw upon the concepts that they learned in order to make choices about color, composition, materials, etc.? When they reference these concepts, are they infringing upon some artist’s rights, living or deceased? No.
Another example - If you handed a group of people all some crayons and asked them to draw an apple, they could probably do it. Some might be red, some green, some more round, or some with spots, but everyone understands the concept of an apple. No one draws a bird or even another fruit. Those things are not part of the concept of “apple”, and the concept of an apple is so well trained in our minds that we don’t need an apple to be present to draw one.
Training isn’t stealing, and the original pieces of information that were studied are no longer present after training.
Enchanted AI Art
I’m excited to announce that the Visionary AI Art Learning Collective is LIVE!
Wait, the what what?
Okay. So I met these two fabulous women who were as excited about using AI to create as I have been, and we talked, and IDEAS! They had launched Magical Stock Art, and had been getting requests from people who wanted to learn how to make art this way themselves. …So I’ve been teaching AI for Fine Artists and AI for Creative Expression, and we’ve been testing and figuring things out. It’s been awesome to see people get inspired by the process of creating with AI art tools!
There is also a LOT of hate towards AI art tools being used right now. So let me dispatch it - with the many, many, many conversations I’ve been having, it comes down to fear, misinformation, and systemic issues.
As women, we are legendary at transforming fear into love through creativity and community.
THIS IS THE VIBE!
After I did a residency with a big community component in September, I knew I wanted to teach people how to use AI art tools, and I was already doing it as part of explaining how the heck I make my art. I believe I can make this a little less scary for people! - I genuinely LOVE people, and my enthusiasm for what others are creating is deep and authentic. I also think it’s important for womxn to pick up these tools and show up in this space because it’s crucial that we influence it!
So, I’m leading the Visionary AI Art Learning Membership! And you can join me there!
ON::VIEW Revue
CELEBRATING THE ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE OF 2022
On display: January 13th - February 18th, 2023
Reception: Friday, February 3rd from 5 - 9PM
From Sulfur Studios:
Sulfur Studios is pleased to present ON::View Revue, our Annual Exhibition featuring Artists-in-Residence from the past year. 2022 was a record year for the ON::View Residency Program, bringing artists from around the world to Savannah thanks to the new 5th Dimension Apartment just blocks from the studio.
We welcomed conceptual artist Jon Field from England; printmaker, illustrator and book artist Kazumi Wilds from Japan; rising star painter Tiara Unique Francois from Dallas; Cuban-born conceptual artist Carlos Estevez from Miami. Timothy Harding of Fort Worth, TX challenged traditional conceptions of painting and sculpture with his site-specific painting in the round, and Sue Carrie Drummond of Jackson, MS developed a pop-up artist book focused on issues of domesticity and gender. Artists engaged with the public like never before – from Stephanie Barber’s poetic video dialogues filmed with participants all over the city, to Field’s site-specific merzbau inviting collaborators of all ages. Savannah local Gabrielle Torres took on a giant weaving alive with invasive plants and interpersonal histories, and nomadic artists Monica Jane Frisell & Adam Scher captured Savannahians through storytelling and portraits developed in their mobile darkroom, The Nomadic Photo Ark. From Kazumi Wilds’ centuries-old suminagashi paper-marbling techniques to Jen Palmer’s cutting-edge collaborations with artificial intelligence, ON::View Revue brings together a diverse range of thoughtful, impactful work by each artist made within the past year, as well as providing opportunities for deeper learning through artist talks, studio visits and field trips with students of all ages from schools across Savannah.
AI Art School
Curious about AI in art? Want to learn how to use AI in your established art practice, or to use AI for creative expression with no prior skills required? Join me…
I’ve started teaching classes about how to use AI in your creative practice! I’m really excited about this, because I want to share the magic that I sensed with AI in my own art practice with other artists, and develop the use of creative AI as a tool for reflective practice for anyone.
I’ll be teaching these first classes with a newly formed AI Art School, and if you’re interested in learning, there are two courses right now - one for fine artists, who already have a body of work, and one for anyone who wants to learn to use AI as a tool for creative expression. These are beginner level courses, so if you’re totally confused, or curious but don’t know where or how to start, these are for you!
The link below will take you to Rebecca Tolk’s website for further information and check out, don’t be alarmed, this is correct! I’m teaching the evening cohort of the AI for Creative Expression course, so click on that sign-up link to learn with me as your guide!
ON::VIEW Residency Finale
I’m so grateful for having been able to spend the past month in residence ON::VIEW at Sulfur Studios! Connecting with people, sharing my process, and how I use artificial intelligence in my work has been a great experience. Everyone comes at this with a different perspective, so I’ve gotten a lot of practice talking about the work and bringing people into my process from where they are.
During the residency, I held open studio hours, inviting people in to participate by painting with me. Participants were given the option of learning a little about how waves are physiologically calming, and creating a waveform painting, or doing a meditative prompt about body awareness and creating an intuitive abstract painting. With 30+ paintings in each series, the works were digitized and used to train two separate artificial intelligence models. These models then generate more work, that is a combination of everything it learned from that dataset. I comb through thousands of resulting images, and work with them further to create a final collection of images and video clips.
Here are some of the intuitive abstract results:
Here are some of the waveform series results:
It was cool to see people come back in for the finale reveal that had worked on the project with me, or checked up on its progress over time. I really liked having all the work hung from the walls as it built up, and still on display with the video pieces being shown on screens in the same space. It really gave a sense of the entire project.
The month flew by! I was too engaged in conversation all evening to get photos with people in them, so here’s one last shot of the studio before I moved out.
There is an NFT to collect for free from the project, and I’ll be sharing more from it going forward. You can collect those here: https://jenpalmerart.cent.co
I’ll also be making more prints available from this work, make sure you’re subscribed to get updates when those become available.
Thanks! 🖤
In Residence…
I’m liking the cyclical rhythm that the Thrive Together Network is creating. Previously, in the Red Tent, we talked a lot about these things, how the seasons affect us, and how we can use that information to our benefit. I have needed more of this in my life! The entire community just came off of a general sabbatical and into planning for the virtual residency, which started or starts for most of us this week. Coincidentally, I was offered the opportunity to be in residence at Sulfur Studios, pretty much the same as the virtual residency - I’ll get to check in with the TTN community the whole time☺ For the virtual residency, I just figured in all the other things I’m also working on during this time - like the storm drain awareness painting project with the city, reading, and keeping up with my research and applications. So I get an extra layer of accountability (Hello, Obligers), and support 🖤
The ON::View Artist Residency Program at Sulfur Studios interested me when I heard about it, because I was seeking opportunities to work in a more public setting, with community, and for this, the whole point is that it’s ON VIEW. I’m thrilled to have the support of Playform going into this as well, so I can share my methods and do more demonstrations of the process. Read more about the ON::View Residency below, subscribe to my newsletter, and follow on the socials if you don’t already 🖤
“What are the possibilities for NFT’s beyond Bored Apes and Pudgy Penguins? Will artificial intelligence turn on us - their human creators - and create a dystopian future of Terminator cyborgs controlled by Elon Musk and Skynet? Jen Palmer may have an answer to these important questions!
Jen Palmer moves beyond the tired stereotypes of NFT’s and AI (artificial intelligence) to explore the possibilities that this nascent technology holds for the intrepid artist. Palmer combines meditative reflection, traditional media and technology in her art practice. During her Residency, she will be working with mixed media and inviting the public to participate using simple meditative prompts as a guide. The works created will become part of a dataset of images to train AI. From that output, Palmer will develop a set of images and create short videos that will be shared through projection on-location in the Residency space, and as freely collected NFTs. Through the window, passersby will be able to view the work being made from the datasets, as well as the projections of work created collaboratively with artificial intelligence.
Hailing from rural Southwestern Pennsylvania, Jen Palmer currently lives and works in Savannah, Georgia. She works across various mediums, using her artistic process to hold space, make connections, and create expressions of radical hope.
Open Studio Hours: Thurs - Sun, 12 - 5 PM - Pre-registration via calendly is encouraged!”
Aestival
I’m back from a little summer trip to PA , and wanted to share another free NFT. It reminds me of strawberry banana bubble gum and flowers in the sun. Aestival means belonging to or appearing in summer. I hope you’re doing what you can to enjoy this time 🖤
To collect this NFT, visit my Cent page at https://jenpalmerart.cent.co/
If you’re not already subscribed, you click the subscribe button, then click collect. If this is your first time collecting on the platform, Cent asks for your email and creates an account for you, where you can access your NFT.
Remain subscribed to get notified of future releases and news 🖤
NFTs on Cent
I’ve been having fun sharing NFTs and connecting with people through my Cent page jenpalmerart.cent.co
To collect a free NFT, you click the subscribe button and then the collect button under the artwork. If you stay subscribed, you’ll get notified when I release a new NFT.
Since my work is about radical hope, and we need all of that we can get, I’m glad to have my work collected 🖤 I’m glad it’s resonating with others, and will be sharing more on this platform soon.
If you want to check out some of the other creators on the platform too, Cent has this list here. Have fun and go collect some free NFTs!
OBSERVANCE
Review of my recent exhibition: OBSERVANCE
OBSERVANCE was held in conjunction with over 60 other exhibitions taking place in the month of May as part of the inaugural Taking. Up. Space. Initiative. After the opening, I was honored to speak with the Thrive Together Network about the exhibition and the work. I also held a live Q & A session on Instagram discussing my process, working with artificial intelligence, and creating a virtual exhibition. There were over 200 individual visitors to the exhibition, and I’m grateful to each of you who spent time in this space.🖤
“During a month-long residency, I practiced holding space for myself using mindfulness and creative expression using traditional materials. This practice has been developed through my studies in art therapy and personal trauma recovery work, with the phenomenological knowledge that these expressions are tied to our bodies. We can not create anything that does not come from within us. AI is the same, it can only give us back what we teach it. I use it as a tool for reflection in meditative practice, where I observe the AI rendered images with curiosity and non-judgment. The works that come from this practice serve as reminders to the viewer, of self-acceptance, of acceptance of others, and that we can create these spaces for ourselves and each other.”
The exhibition consisted of work available as editions of one, in print format, or for the video work, as an NFT.
This next series of images is presented as a slide show to demonstrate the placement of still and video works together. In the exhibition, as you “approached” the video pieces, they would start playing, and loop continuously.
Below are some more screenshots of the exhibition space. During the exhibition, you could navigate the rooms using the arrows, your mouse, clicking on a piece to view it up close, or by using the menu to tour piece by piece or travel to a specific artwork. Clicking on an image would take you up close, and the works could be purchased from that screen.
Thanks for taking a look at OBSERVANCE. If you want to make sure you get notified about my next exhibition, sign up for my newsletter here.
NFT
My first NFT art is available as part of the REMIX exhibition with Playform Studio, on Rarible!
REMIX
REMIX Exhibition promotional by Playform
I’m excited to be participating in REMIX an exhibition by Playform, exclusively on Rarible. The NFT art works will be available on Aug. 9th, and some of the artists, including myself, will be participating in an artist talk. If you want to hear more about making work with no code AI, NFTs, discussion on mashup, and new technologies, here’s the link:
About REMIX
Appropriating, amalgamating and collaging have been prevalent artistic methods throughout history. Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain '' and Warhol’s “Botticelli” are some examples of re-contextualizing throughout the art historical canon. Inspired by the artistic concepts of sampling and mashup, Playform Studio presents a Studio group exhibition, “REMIX.”
Defining new ways of creating in the age of AI, “REMIX” explores the ever-emerging relationship between technology and art. Works from “REMIX” will also be available as NFTs, exclusively on Rarible.
Featured artists include:
Carla Gannis, Chris Trueman, Andrew Tricaso, Trygve Skogrand, Jen Palmer, Nathaniel Stern, Albert Abdul-Barr Wang, Roxy Savage, Katya Grokhovsky, Irina Raicu, Michael Pierre Price, Yeli Rodriguez, and Witold Riedel.
YOU CAN PLAY TOO!
Play with REMIX Artwork in Playform Stylize
The exhibition release is in affiliation with Playform’s Stylize feature which offers Playform users to apply the style of their favorite artists onto any photo, image or sketch. The final works featured in the exhibition are options of “Pre-Defined Style” within the Stylize feature. Playform users are invited to "remix" their own images with these new styles!
Here are some of the images I've remixed with my own Pro Art Filter! (click to view them in the lightbox)
Screenshot of Playform, featuring an image with my REMIX Pro-Art Filter applied
Screenshot of the Playform Stylize Interface.
You can use Playform from a mobile device or computer. You select your style, then upload your image. You can choose which process, and how much style and composition affect the result. Just go to https://playform.io/jen to check it out! Oh, and share your stylized images with me on Instagram or via email!
Pinspiration Project
I started taking screenshots of my Pinterest feed a while back. I'm not sure what I was even going to do with them, I just was interested in the way the algorithm shows me things that I like, but also creates some sort of connections between the images it's showing me. A black bird. A tattoo of a bird and berries. A berry cobbler recipe. A lady with short hair. A drapey layered outfit in shades of black. An abstract painting with blotches of purple. There is something similar that the algorithm is picking up on. These connections somehow relate to my taste. What is it? What does it say about me? What can I learn from this information?
I've used Pinterest since it came out, finding it a positive space to explore ideas. Using boards to pin my project inspiration, plan parties, collect quotes, connect with people who liked these niche things, or experienced chronic illness.
For this project, I took the screenshots where I found interesting connections, and I separated the images so that the software doesn't implement the grid form of Pinterest - I'm interested in what happens between the concepts of these images.
I fed these 200+ images to the Playform platform, and am currently waiting to see what happens!
Can machine interpretation give us useful information about ourselves? Will it reflect something of my values back to me? My tastes? My interests? What form will these take? ...
Let me tell you about my new romance…
I joined the virtual studio at Playform, and am currently working on a project based on recent collected works. I was truly excited to discover this platform for creating AI art, and maybe have previously underestimated my love for all things digital?
In thinking about it, I realized that I can trace my digital art-making back to my video painter, and maybe back to those days in kindergarten when we had computer class, and got to make art on the Macs? I'm one of those millennials who didn't have to be tech-savvy - we didn't have the internet until around when I went to college. I didn't even know I was tech-savvy until somewhere in my 30's and I realized I was giving out a lot of help, and it was surprising to me that people didn't understand it. Now, I would definitely consider myself an early adopter. It makes sense that I am because I feel ridiculously excited about the potential I see. Partially because exploring that potential gives me such a sense of joy. I think this is deeply related to radical hope. It's not something that exists here yet, but I can feel its existence. I noted that same sense of joy was frequently present when editing photographs, playing with texture and color, layers, versions...
These explorations are my way of studying, understanding something more. It feels like a word I can't recall, a place I can't remember my way to - It is so strong, but it is also emptiness. The matter is in the relationship, in the space between. The Playform platform is a tool to help me explore this space!
How does it work? There are computers that the platform is connected to, and I uploaded around 50 of my works of art. The computers essentially then learn those images, the forms, lines, colors, etc., and create renderings of new work. Those renderings can be further developed, mixed, and used in ways I haven't even discovered all of yet.
Developing models on Playform
I'm (obviously) enthusiastic about this new digital tool, and how it truly fits into my work.
Case in point - The other day, I was just sitting in my studio, smiling to myself thinking about Arthur Batut and his ideas on virtuality.
"To reproduce with the help of photography a figure whose material reality does not exist anywhere, an unreal being whose constituent elements are scattered over a certain number of individuals and which can only be conceived virtually, is it not a dream?" - Arthur Batut (translated from French)
Ah, so thrilling! Did I mention Batut lived from 1846 to 1918? What would he even think of something like Playform? We can't know the answer, but I'd love to hear yours!
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