Fall Favorites
I had requests to make this available as a print, and it snuck onto my store sometime last year - but here we are again, celebrating the fall, so I wanted to make sure you knew it was available 🖤
Pro-Art Filter Walk Through
I made a walk through video to answer some of the questions I’ve been getting about using the Pro-Art Filters on Playform. Let’s collaborate through AI!
Playform Pro-Art Filter Release
“Playform is excited to introduce a new selection of artists’s works as part of the release of Playform Art-Filters. Included in this selection of artists are Albert-Abdul Barr Wang, Allan Linder, Andrew Tricaso, Hana Gauër, J Rosenbaum, Jeff Brice, Jen Palmer, and Uli Ap.”
I have been having a lot of fun with these filters, testing which artwork worked best with a variety of images, so now you can go apply them to your art or photographs and get some really beautiful results! I would love to see what you make, so share and tag me on Instagram @jenpalmerart, on Twitter @jen_palmer_, or email to hello@jenpalmer.art
Made with a photograph of a magnolia flower, applying the Brightforms Pro-Art Filter (using the “fine” setting)
Made using the Brightforms Pro-Art Filter, applied to a sketch, using the “fine” filter setting.
These results aren’t upscaled, but if you create something you love and want to print it or up the resolution, you can also do that on Playform!
Creating with AI is wild! Let me know what you think in the comments <3
Wallpapers
I was really into this piece and made a background so I wanted to share, go ahead and save your preferred color!
Simulacra Exhibition at Sulfur Studios
I’ve got four works in this group exhibition at Sulfur Studios in Savannah, GA. If you can’t make the opening reception (masking is required) or don’t feel comfortable doing so, you can view the exhibition images here - though the pieces I made are a level up in person!
I’m excited about participating in this exhibition because it was a perfect fit. The work I make is about radical hope - a concept in which we have acceptance of our current state, and hold certainty for a future state for which we cannot yet understand and does not yet exist. My work holds space and reflects upon ever-shifting forms. Informed by bodily knowledge, using traditional painting and drawing materials, I intuitively create works that give space to these forms to live. To further this exploration and reflection, I enter a body of work into an AI platform that generates new work in my visual language. While I haven't drawn or painted this space, it exists and resonates within me. Its realness is as much as any mental state we may experience.
I hope you get the chance to check it out! Let me know what you think & if you have any questions for me!
HOPE Exhibition at the Roaring Artist Gallery
HOPE is a themed group exhibition, running through October 31st, 2021, at the Roaring Artist Gallery (This amazing virtual gallery run by the lovely and talented Katie Bradford Osborne), benefitting the L-CMD RESEARCH FOUNDATION. You can visit the virtual gallery and view my piece in the show, or view them on the website. “Sureness” is available for purchase through the gallery.
I’m excited to be participating in this exhibition, and that everyone can experience it virtually, I truly appreciate the thoughtful curation.
I hope you take the time to explore and enjoy all the arrangements of beautiful art in this virtual space, and maybe decide to bring a piece into your actual space as well.
VIDA Open Studio
Scarves, bags, masks, and pillows are available at my VIDA Open Studio. The Eco Repreve mask has been popular, and I still use my VIDA masks with the filters daily. Also, if you’re excited about fall being right around the corner, I think you’ll enjoy the tones of some of my new pieces!
Considering Radical Hope
Radical Hope
Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation
by Jonathan Lear
Jonathan Lear considers the role of Radical Hope in the context of the Crow and the cultural devastation that the white man brought upon them. I read this to better understand how to clearly portray what radical hope is.
While this discusses how Radical Hope enabled the survival of the Crow, there are many parallels to our current existence.
When I say, "Radical Hope is a belief in some goodness we can not yet understand", I feel the need to tack on that it is also not "toxic positivity". Radical Hope does not forego acceptance but embraces it. Lear explains that Crow tribe member and eventual leader, Plenty Coups, understands that the way of life is coming to an end. He does not know what is beyond it but is able to commit to the idea that goodness exists for him and his people, beyond his current understanding. Through accepting the unknown, he is able to come up with creative ways to re-interpret cultural ideals. Lear is clear to note that this commitment on the part of Plenty Coups does not mean that there is divine or historical correctness here.
Lear brings forth the virtue of courage as a means through which one is able to make such a commitment to something they can not yet understand. The points coming from Aristotle:
1) a courageous person has a proper orientation toward what is shameful and what is fearful
2) courage aims towards what is fine
3) a courageous person must grasp the situation he or she is in and, through experience, exercise good judgement
4) courage paradigmatically involves the risk of serious loss and enduring certain pains
This part was particularly helpful to me in explaining why radical hope is NOT toxic positivity. The difference is this definition of courage. There is an awareness present in radical hope, that is willful ignorance in toxic positivity. "Bold acts that derive merely from optimism are not courageous".
To have radical hope, a person must know what is good and aim towards that. They must be able to accept the current circumstance, and act upon sound judgement. They must be able to be vulnerable.
Lear goes on to discuss this dream that Plenty Coups had, and how it was a manifestation of radical hope (thus courage) , and that "radical hope can not just be psychologically advantageous, but a legitimate response even to a world catastrophe". This brings me to think about how, given current world circumstances, we, if nothing else, have this resource of radical hope. We can be the "poets" of our time, using this resource to imagine new ways of being, of processing, of bringing ourselves into the future good.
In being a psychological resource, radical hope creates the capacity to respond well to reality. If we lack this resource, if we fall into despair, or toxic positivity/ wishful optimism. If we lack this capacity, we lack the flexibility required to travel through devastation.
Lear considers the cultural ego-ideal, which informs the way one strives to live a rewarding life. Without this ideal, it is hard to understand what one lives for. Loss of this ego-ideal is devastation in itself. Radical hope holds a space in which this ego-ideal can be in flux. What the Crow tribe went through did not allow them to pass on traditional ideals, which is why it became a necessary resource to hold the ideal of being in flux. This allowed the Crow to "endure a loss of concepts".
When one does not know how to live a good life, despair seems inevitable. The concepts for what should equal happiness are gone, so how would one even continue to strive for that or experience that state of being?
Our lives are full of changes, not so constantly large as total cultural devastation, but how might the idea of radical hope enable us to adapt to those changes? How might it give us necessary resources to address current cultural failings and envision new ways of being that are infinitely more "fine"? How can we be vulnerable to allow this process? How must we embrace our sense of yearning for the good, so that we are clear-eyed and mindful of the current reality?
I believe that ideas like defunding the police, effective climate crisis action, and giving land back to native peoples come from the space held by radical hope. These ideas are courageous, mindful, aware, and strive to create a new culturally informed ego-ideal.
When I ask how some people can see, and some people can't, I largely end up back on the fact that some people can not accept - the history, the truth of current circumstance, the shift of ego-ideal. They are still living in magical optimism space, where something Jesus-like (or Trump-like) will come and save them (their way of living and believing). There are alternately those who have chosen despair. They are also unable to see, because the space they exist in is another sort of extreme, where nothing matters. It is interesting to me that they create these spaces too, unwittingly, and how important mindfulness is to the concept of radical hope.
I’m going to continue my reading and writing about this concept, and I would love to hear your thoughts too.
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!
Marsha P. Johnson
I’m not as far along with my portrait project as I had planned, but “pay it no mind”… here’s Marsha, available in print form, just in time for PRIDE month! If you’re interested in learning about who Marsha was, I recommend watching “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson”, available on Netflix.
“I love you, and I’m sorry”
OKAY. A lot has changed since my last post! It’s been a whirlwind and today is the first sort of day to myself, to just focus on my stuff, and I almost don’t know where to even start.
THE CHANGES - Vaccinations! Moved to GA! Quit my day job!
Whoa, right? That’s a lot in 3 months. Which is why my husband just kept repeating the phrase, “ I love you, and I’m sorry”, ha ha. The plans all started when he decided to “put out feelers” to see if there were any better options for him in another job. WELL - the response was immediate, and everything went really fast, and here we are!
My last day at my day job was Friday! So today is the first official day of work, just for myself!
Crossing off secret item #3!
I got to cross off one of my secret items on my 21 for 2021 list!
What was it?
We expanded our family!
Juliet, a two year old terrier mix is now a Palmer! It was one of those things that I just didn’t want to share until it all came through, and I’m so excited to share the news! You can check out my other post to see what else is on my 21 for 2021 list, and let me know in the comments what kind of dog you think Juliet looks like!
21 for 2021
As if I needed another thing to want to do - I just discovered this: https://thepeoplesinauguration.org Which is rad, and of course it sounds like something I would totally love to facilitate within a women’s group. So maybe I will? I have a day-ish.
In the spirit of doing a ridiculous number of things - I couldn’t quite fit my 21 things for 2021 into one list, so I made two lists!
I’m going to borrow a page from a dear friend’s book and be a bit of a tease about this - I’m not sharing a few of my items this year until they’re crossed off!
First up - here’s my personal 2021 goal list of 21 things:
1) Get Vaccinated (I’m on the list!)
2) TOP SECRET INFO
3) ALSO NOT TELLING YET
4) walk more
5) write more (Started going through The Artist’s Way with my friend Jess = morning pages with accountability!)
6) organize my addresses
7) buy more art with my husband
8) get a great quality long necklace chain
9) learn about shipping options (this could go on my other list, but it didn’t)
10) use curable (bought it for the year, have done some meditation and writing exercises so far)
11) unsubscribe (I get too many emails, and it overwhelms me)
12) take my vitamins
13) stay hydrated (found DripDrop - tried it, it helps, and I ordered more!)
14) Protein (I’m supposed to eat as much protein as a young male athlete - and have it every 2-3 hours - it’s difficult to remember to get this into my body)
15) EMDR (continue weekly sessions)
16) Check up - check in with Dr. about Fibro-status/treatment/support (had my appt. last week. Update in 6 mos)
17) Get Eye Exam (figure out if Dr. is seeing people yet? RE: COVID)
18) Get new glasses!
19) Dance more - I’m so missing all the time with my family and our spontaneous dance parties.
20) have more mom/sister/friend/family dates
21) Plan something fun for our 40ths! (yes, the hubs and I both turn 40 this year - GASP!)
Artist 21 for 2021:
1) Write about my art
2) Update statements
3) Send a newsletter every month
4) Grow my email list (See Above!)
5) make a 2021 + beyond vision board (a physical one to put up where I can see it every day - it’s currently digital)
6) make a visual resonance vision board (a physical one to put up… it’s currently digital)
7) Do a digital portrait series (I have my first few people in mind, and have these divided up to do 1/month)
8) Learn more about using Adobe Fresco on my iPad
9) Learn more about using Adobe Illustrator on my iPad
10) Learn more about using Procreate on my iPad
11) Make stickers (sigils)
12) Make photographs
13) Explore digital collage
14) Use Pinterest to promote my art and interact
15) Get artist photos done (headshots and styled)
16) Participate in THRIVE
17) Participate in YAH Women In Art
18) Update my VIDA shop at least quarterly with new designs
19) Do projects with materials from Oh, Scrap!
20) Meet most of my quarterly goals
21) Collaborate
My word of the year this year is Resilient - and in that spirit, I’m choosing these things as part of my growth and flexibility. It’s been insightful to note my lists over the past few years, and my word/phrase of the year. I can see how I’ve progressed and how things have grown and changed. I often think about the practice of gratitude and our culture that teaches us to desire so much. There’s a quote somewhere about remembering, what you have today is what you wished for in the past. I find it worth remembering that, reflecting on what those things were, and remembering all that you have and have done… I’m driving again. I found community. I’ve dedicated myself to doing the work of healing. …I love goal setting when it’s from the heart and for the highest good. I love when my friends and family share their goals with me so I know how I can support them. I enjoy when we are vulnerable enough to share our dreams with each other, and support each other in achieving them, even the silly ones - especially the silly ones.
If you want to join me this year, I’d love to hear your goals!
Now available…
Just finished uploading new pieces to the website that are available for purchase! Some of them are below, and you can view them all here. Which one is your favorite?
2020 Reflections
I keep thinking I should have known - I sliced my hand open at midnight last year trying to open a bottle of sparkling cider and was trying to bandage myself up in the bathroom while everyone else toasted to the new year. What a metaphor, right?
2020 was a mess of complicated intersections. I’ll just say that I’m grateful for my husband, my family, friends, my art community, and of course, my therapist.
My 20 for 2020 list was revamped and shifted. I got a few things started, and am adding their continuation to my 2021 list. I also did a lot of things that weren’t on my list, that ended up being important. Like, my boundary-setting skills got a ton of practice, haha. I got to manage an experimental collaborative community art project. My husband and I had a lot of fun playing Animal Crossing together.
I described my experience of a lot of this past year as “having low bandwidth” - this was sort of something I’ve been building up for the past 5 years, and the pandemic + my day job + all the intersections really pulled that back again. I’m hoping to gain some more of that bandwidth back this year. This is why my word/phrase of the year for 2021 is going to be resilience. I thought about how cliche that is, given 2020, but for me, it’s much more than just a superficial come back to like, eating inside a restaurant… Resilience is built into my 21 for 2021 list, and in my 2021 business plans, so it seemed like the perfect word to guide this year overall.
Punk is forever.
Recent research has shown that the music you listen to as a teen and young adult will shape you - forever. Think about what you were listening to then. How do you think it affected you? I certainly know not all of us were listening to songs about unity, freeing political prisoners, and human rights in general. Since I grew up in pre-internet times in rural PA, I didn’t have a lot of access to anything beyond. I was hungry for art and music and community. One of the main things my friends and I connected over was music - we cherished our traded mixtapes, CDs, and eventually digital playlists. We went to shows, to gather, to meet other people who felt like us, to feel accepted. Pittsburgh has its own breed of punk rock, too. It’s deeply planted in our local history as part of the rust belt and worker’s rights. I think about the determination of a bunch of kids, to get to a freezing cold fire hall in the middle of a snowstorm in Johnstown (before we even had GPS), just to sing along to a few of our favorite songs, and how that determination has shown itself in the years since - to challenge the systems, to refuse to accept the damages of our society, to talk to each other, to organize, to act.
This year has been especially challenging. I reflect on who we are, as individuals of this community, and how we’re doing in 2020. We are making art and music. We are spreading knowledge and supporting each other. We are raising money for others. We are feeding others. We are making masks and donating them to people who need them. We are setting up testing stations. We are marching in the streets. We are speaking out, making calls, organizing to educate voters. We are trying to keep our families and workplaces safe. We are demanding better wages. We are calling for justice. For healthcare. For education, For freedom from debt and capitalism. We are (virtually) holding each other’s hands, reminding each other to rest.
I have known that this group of people is bright and passionate, but this year, the way everyone has responded, makes me love them all the more.
What Radicalized You?
This question comes from a conversation I’ve had with my brother numerous times. He’s asked people this, stating, ”I know what radicalized me. Do you know what radicalized you?” It’s an important point, when we live in a society where everything is so extreme, and we’re taught to be reactive against anything “other”. Knowing what radicalized you is about self-reflection and being able to know that you chose the path you were on, vs. having just absorbed all the information that has been given to you without question. An unfathomable amount of money is spent to make us think and feel the way certain parties want us to. Their agenda can become our agenda, even to our own demise, unless we question it and make a conscious decision.
If you haven’t ever thought about it, if you hold an extreme opinion or feeling about something, it can only help to be curious about why.
I look at my own history, and know certain things that were given to me, and how some fit, and some didn’t, and some I outright rejected. My radicalization is deeply tied to the idea of social justice. I can see the points at which I chose this path. My radicalization is full of love, acceptance, and hope.
What is yours full of?
Right now, there is a radical necropolitical agenda being pushed forth. It outright accepts the death of human beings in it’s quest for profit and domination. Would you choose this if you knew you were?
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