pibou

its freakin streamtime!!!!

helllll yes these are so sick!!!!

Reef the shark sitting atop an exposed lookout tower in the desert at night. A dim orange lamp shines down on him, illuminating his outfit and equipment. He is wearing a dirty white and blue jumpsuit with orange accents, and is carrying a backpack radio transmitter while holding a handheld microphone/speaker. He stares out into the distance with a tired expression, hating the job he's been given as lookout. A set of futuristic buildings stretches up in the distance, contrasting the isolation felt by Reef as he is tied to this outpost all by himself.

Here's probably my favorite piece I've commissioned yet, a digital painting from @pibbbou.bsky.social of Reef in an 80's mecha pilot style of outfit.

I'm so pleased with the way this came out, Pib is such a great artist to work with and he absolutely nailed every part of this piece.

anyway sorry if you're waiting for an email from me or anything, clearly the brain worms have been extremely active this month. sketch slots open for the stream this week or whatever, regulars you know where to find me etc

but the long and short of it is that if you want to resist AI, you have to resist the behaviors that make you a good consumer. and people trying to defend their jobs in creative industries do not really want you to do that, bc then our industry would shrink

i'm so glad to hear a musician talk about it bc frankly music fans appreciate craft in a way that visual artists already do not. there are a lot of reasons for that which i do not have room to go into on bsky, maybe i will finish that essay abt it eventually

illustrators are generally bad at talking abt art or defending its value bc we have to simultaneously defend the creative industries that employ us, which means we cannot admit that these industries were an enemy to art + viciously exploitative long before AI came around

i keep asking questions about art because i've been trying to think my way around the fact that illustrators & digital art hobbyists keep trying to decry AI, but in this way that is completely ignorant of the way that art & creative industries treat art as a commodity

YouTube video by Adam Neely Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future

hey since i was talking about art & AI last couple weeks: adam neely put out a video about the effect of music generators on the music industry and on music as an art form, and its like the only genuinely good take on AI i've seen www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8dc...

and i don't mean that as a "buy my art" self-promo ad-- i think its far cooler to find a local craft fair or small gallery and show up, talk to people about what they're making even if you can't buy stuff. get to know and care about the folks within arm's reach more than internet randos like me

if you simply prefer bespoke slop, there are a fuckload of un/under employed artists out there ~like me~ who are not beholden to algorithms or markets and are at least Trying to make Real Art. find some way to habitually give money to these people. divert your attention from industries that hate you

tl;dr: if you say you care about "art" but won't crack open an art theory book, won't engage w/ art that requires you to get off the couch, etc then i'm sorry but i dont believe you. if what you want is to save creative industries from AI, simply invent a time machine and unionize them c1970-90

they have the white-collar upper-middle-class brain worm fantasy: im successful bc my work is intrinsically valuable. i have a job bc i deserve it, not bc i am a convenient tool to my employer. i've no good reason to think abt how my industry treats those outside of it bc i am not one of them etc

the thought leaders in this arena are largely people who don't understand their own position as artists OR as workers. they don't get that the industry was rotten before AI and my solidarity ~as an artist~ would only mean anything real if i was also employed and in a union with them

but i see many others trying to fill that gap with vibes rather than education. and its making me insane. im out here trying to make sense of our situation & how to respond to it by reading books from the '70s & ppl w/ salaried jobs & huge audiences are like, "guess i'll just riff! solidarity pls?🥺"

its not a moral failure for artists or audiences to be the product of our circumstances but i feel strongly that i have been denied the tools to understand art or many opportunities to seriously engage with it-- to really be able to differentiate between "art" and "slop" by any consistent standard.

i keep switching btwn but tbc im in this group! as a commission artist i'm 100% in the surplus labor pool for creative industries, aka Real Jobs. i'm also part of the millennial generation that grew up after decades of defunding arts education, public art projects, galleries & institutions, etc.

so we keep going off about AI as if it is a creative scourge rather than a labor issue, and it isn't working! bc ppl already love slop and don't care if its ~bespoke~ or not. we are unequipped to convince anyone to love art more than convenience, bc we ourselves already don't act or think that way

i think this is bc the most authoritative voices criticizing AI are mostly digital illustrators who care about "art" only as far as it affects their career. their idea of art is entirely contained in creative industry products-- cartoons, instagram posts, their own portfolios, etc.

i would love for this to be an opportunity for people to get curious about what exactly makes a painting or a sculpture into Great Art. aesthetic philosophy is really fascinating! but that is not happening and its making me insane lmfao

we really want to square the fact that we hate AI, but the nature of machine learning is that AI learned it by watching us. we keep looking for some artistic justification for hating it bc the most obvious conclusion is that it makes slop bc it was trained on slop

btw i was asking about art last week bc it seems like. we are in a difficult moment where an increasing number of ppl feel surrounded by "slop," but we also want to hold onto the idea that anything made by human hands is "art." you gotta square that circle somehow

An adorable illustration of my dog, Roman, as a furry character as drawn by pibbbou. He's a mostly white puppy dog with an orangish mask wearing playful winter clothes: a long sweater, bright puffy vest, loose pants, boots, and a funky laplander hat. He's getting ready to hurl a snowball at an unseen target.

turning my dog into a furry to collect artwork of him is the best thing i've ever done. look at this GOOF!!! thank you @pibbbou.bsky.social for all your hard work, he's perfect 😍

thats a good point

you could write MEAT VAPE on your knuckles

how do we feel about: meat vape. like as a concept. savory flavors for fine inhalables

So last week was my 31st birthday.

And for that I was planning on getting myself some art with my darlings Fox, Allen but once he found out, he refused to let me pay for it myself since it was birthday.
Which honestly made me kinda weap like an idiot because of that.

Art by @pibbbou.bsky.social

Enby deer carefully checking on her hanging, viney Pothos and ever expanding angel wing Begonia with a watering can in her hand.

@pibbbou.bsky.social Pib is a master at capturing a moment 💚 Green thumb time, good ol' Pothos thrives on neglect, while my fav begonia plans her world domination one room at a time.

Lucas (The deer) and Reef (The shark) laying down and cuddling while in their underwear. Lucas lays on his side as he faces Reef, with a hand on the shark’s shoulder as Reef looks at him with sparkles around his head. Reef leans on an elbow as he looks at Lucas with a smile. Both of them are smiling as well.

A colored sketch that @5dchess.bsky.social and I commissioned from @pibbbou.bsky.social a couple of weeks ago of our goobers Reef and Lucas cuddling. Honestly love how this turned out and was fun to watch it being sketched live.

Reef the shark belongs to 5dchess
Lucas the deer belongs to me