Just for fun, I tried out the new AI image generator on Gab by typing in the words, “I want an image of a desert landscape at sunrise.” After a few seconds, it produced the two images above. Next, I went over to Fotor, inputted the same words, and got the two images below.
I like the colors in all four images, but of course, the images look similar and digitally created. The question is: Do they look like they were artificially created by a non-human? Do they look like they were digitally created by a human? Or is there no difference at all? Does it even matter? Is it really art?
What do you think?
Dawn Pisturino
March 8, 2023
Copyright 2023 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
(Yellow Leg by Francisco Bravo Cabrera, Copyright 2022 Francisco Bravo Cabrera. All Rights Reserved.)
Today, I want to shine the spotlight on a wonderful artist living in Valencia, Spain – Francisco Bravo Cabrera (a.k.a. Bodo Vespaciano). I’m not an art critic or an expert on art – especially abstract art – but I know what I like. I admire the bright colors, bold contrasts, and surreal juxtapositions in his art. The color and life in his artwork make me feel happy. I don’t know what he was thinking or feeling when he painted them, but his paintings reflect a zest for life, a curiosity, and an emotional response to just being and existing in a difficult world. His paintings are hopeful because they capture the energy and vivid brilliance of life itself.
(Acrylic on Canvas by Francisco Bravo Cabrera. Copyright 2022 Francisco Bravo Cabrera. All Rights Reserved.)
Francisco is also a world traveler, writer, poet, art historian, music lover (with a particular emphasis on jazz), and armchair philosopher. His writings appear regularly on Masticadores Spain. For a complete biography, visit his gallery here:
As a member of the Miami art community, Francisco was named “Artist of the Month” and owned his own art studio, Omnia Caelum Studios. You can view his art gallery at Fine Art America here:
On his WordPress blog, Francisco shares his artwork, poems, ruminations about society and life in general, and wonderful short videos about known and little-known artists and their works. He places special emphasis on women artists because their talents have been downplayed and ignored throughout history. If you want to learn more about art, please visit his blog here:
(Digital City – Digital artwork by Phil Perkins. Copyright 2022 Phil Perkins. All Rights Reserved.)
Phil Perkins is an outdoorsman, photographer, poet, music lover, and graphic artist. My friend, Kym Gordon Moore, spotlighted his photography talents; but I want to shine a light on his amazing digital artwork. Much of his artwork is futuristic, such as the example above, Digital City.
But many of his pieces are playful, imaginative, and just plain fun:
(Desert Scene, which employs the point of view of an extinct prehistoric dinosaur. Copyright 2022 Phil Perkins. All Rights Reserved.)
I can’t even imagine the number of hours he devotes to creating these amazing pieces.
Phil’s photography and digital artwork can be found on Pixels, Redbubble, Society 6, ArtPal, Zazzle, Cafepress, TeePublic, ArtFlakes, and Fine Art America.
(Painting by Samantha Tucker. Copyright 2022 Samantha Tucker. All Rights Reserved.)
I want to introduce to you an incredible young artist, my husband’s niece, Samantha Tucker. “Sam,” as she likes to be called, just turned seventeen a few months ago. She paints with a keen eye and emotional depth that even some adults do not possess. I am very proud of her, and I believe we will be seeing more of her work in the future.
You rock, Sam!
Love,
Dawn
(It’s raining hard this morning, and the computer is acting up. Trying to get this posted before the Internet goes down.)
~
Dawn Pisturino
November 9, 2022
Copyright 2022 Samantha Tucker. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
I’ve visited many art galleries and museums, including the De Young Museum in San Francisco, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City, and seen many wonderful and inspiring paintings, but what really stands out in my mind is Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. Its brilliant blue and yellow colors, active night sky, and peaceful ambience (in spite of the strong brush strokes and turbulent sky) provoke speculation, mystery, and fascination, in my mind. What was Van Gogh thinking? What was he feeling? Most importantly, what was he seeing?
It’s well known that he suffered from mental illness and attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He later died of the wound. His death surprised people who believed that he was actually in a more positive frame of mind at the time of his death. But who knew what was really going on in his mind and in his heart?
(People who have decided to kill themselves often appear more positive and energetic because they have made the final decision and no longer feel conflicted about their actions. In fact, people can feel so depressed that they lack the energy to actually harm themselves. Appearances are deceiving, and it’s important to remember this if you are dealing with someone in your life who suffers from depression and suicidal ideation.)
Sometimes, people ask if persons who are mentally ill are more artistic than others. When I worked in mental health, I met scores of patients who were phenomenal artists. Not only did they possess an exceptional natural talent for art, but engaging in art helped them to concentrate their attention, focus their thoughts, freely express their ideas and emotions, make sense of the larger world around them, distract them from troubling thoughts and feelings, and help them to cope with anxiety and depression. (When I worked in Flagstaff, we had an actual art therapist who would come in and do art projects with the patients.) I cannot say that their mental illness made them more artistic. In some cases, their lack of self-esteem and confidence actually caused them to suppress their talent. On the other hand, people who are intimately in touch with their emotions make great artists because they can freely express themselves without regard to social convention and self-constraint. But people who are over-sensitive and cannot manage their own emotions can be more susceptible to mental health issues.
So, it’s a conundrum. Did Vincent Van Gogh’s mental illness make him a great artist – or did his mental illness interfere with his natural artistic talent? I don’t know.
What do you say?
Perhaps Don McLean can answer that question:
(“Vincent” by Don McLean – one of my favorite songs)
Dawn Pisturino
October 10, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
This beautiful painting of the Virgin Mary is part of the Ghent Altarpiece created by the well-known Flemish painter, Jan Van Eyck, in 1432. Rich in exquisite color and detail, the painting shows Mary holding a girdle book and represents her attribution as the “Seat of Wisdom.” Girdle books were popular between the 13th and 16th centuries and worn as accessories. A long piece of leather hanging from the book made it possible to secure the book to a garment by means of looping it over the girdle belt. It was then easy to pick up the book and read it whenever the desire hit the owner. Girdle books were popular among monks, clergymen, and aristocrats. Here, Mary is portrayed as an aristocratic woman and represents her role as “Queen of Heaven.”
The Latin inscription reads: “She is more beautiful than the sun and the army of the stars; compared to the light she is superior. She is truly the reflection of eternal light and a spotless mirror of God.”
Dawn Pisturino
January 20, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
“Censorship — The Assassination of an Idea.” ~Bookmans Entertainment Exchange~
What’s in the raging flame of banned books burning? Knowledge, truth, learning, courage, freedom, yearning. ~Terri Guillemets~
Banned Books Week will be held from September 18 – 24, 2022. But censorship is an everyday concern, especially for writers, poets, artists, journalists, and other creative people. We’re seeing too much of it right now in the current political climate.
We’ve seen authors mobbed on Amazon and other sites and deliberately given poor ratings simply because the content of a book did not conform to the narrative of the people mobbing the book. This is using censorship and harassment (bullying) to create a politically correct environment where creativity is essentially dead. Show me one writer/artist worth his salt who is politically correct! Only sell-outs conform to the mob.
(Berlin book burning, 1933)
The Nazis confiscated and burned any book that they deemed “un-German.” What does that even mean? No more French porn? No Italian cookbooks? No English poetry? Who decided what was “un-German?” And it wasn’t just books that were condemned. Music, architecture, inventions, paintings, sculptures, and even dress fashions had to conform to a certain German aesthetic. Who wants to live like that? Who wants the government deciding what you can eat, read, think, create?
The Bolsheviks did the same thing after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Anything reminiscent of the previous regime was confiscated, suppressed, burned, destroyed, and labeled “too bourgeois.” The great Russian composer, Rachmaninoff, emigrated to America because his music was condemned by the Communist authorities. The great Russian writer, Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago, was censored and suppressed. If his novel had not been smuggled out of Russia, a great piece of literature would have been lost to the world. Doctor Zhivago describes this shameful period in world history.
Chairman Mao did the same thing in China. The Chinese Communist Party is STILL suppressing free speech and writers who speak out against oppression. The CCP STILL controls access to information and the content of that information. American companies like Twitter and Facebook help the CCP censor and control information in China. That’s how they are allowed to do business there.
In the United States, the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment GUARANTEE every American citizen the right of free speech and peaceable assembly to express that free speech. Free speech makes some people uncomfortable. It causes some people to feel threatened. It makes some people close their minds to new ideas. It opens the minds of others. It is divisive, combative, uniting, liberating, threatening, and compromising — all at the same time. Free speech is the basis of CREATIVITY. Free speech is the foundation of FREEDOM. Taking it one step further, FREEDOM is the bedrock on which FREE SPEECH and CREATIVITY stand. If we lose our freedom and submit to totalitarianism, we may as well start looking for another universe to inhabit, because the freedom to CREATE and EXPRESS OURSELVES will be as extinct as the dinosaurs.
(NOTE: violence is not an expression of free speech and is NOT protected by the U.S. Constitution. Devolving into burning, looting, shooting, destroying private and public property, tearing down statues, committing assault and battery, killing police, and threatening people, is just criminal behavior committed by people who have no respect for law and order. These people belong in jail. Furthermore, there is a big difference between exercising free speech and engaging in a two-way debate and just being rude, ill-mannered, and stupid. There was a time when our society valued good manners and intelligent debate.)
(NOTE: Some famous writers banned or partially banned in Nazi Germany: Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, C.S. Lewis, Jack London, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, and Oscar Wilde.)
Thank you for stopping by!
Dawn Pisturino
January 7, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
from St. Joseph’s Indian School, Chamberlain, South Dakota (Lakota Sioux Tribe): Â “Native Americans of the Great Plains believe the air is filled with both good and bad dreams. Historically, dream catchers were hung in the tipi or lodge and on a baby’s cradle board. Â “According to legend, the good dreams pass through the center hole to the sleeping person. The bad dreams are trapped in the web, where they perish in the light of dawn.” Â Visit their website here:Â
(Oraibi Hopi Village, Northern Arizona, now abandoned. Public Domain photo.)
I was blessed with the opportunity to work with the Native American tribes in Northern Arizona when I worked in Flagstaff: Navajo, Hopi, Apache, and Supai. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Not only did I work with them in a medical capacity, but also as a psychiatric nurse. I met a lot of wonderful people, a lot of talented artists, and learned a lot about Native American culture.
Hopi/Tewa artist Duane Koyawena. Photo from Arizona Daily Sun.
Duane was one of my co-workers. He is not only an incredible artist, but a beautiful human being. Here’s an example of his work:
This painting won 1st prize in Fine Arts, Tahisma Art Show.
In 2017, I commissioned Duane to create a painting for my daughter for Christmas, which she loves. If you are interested in Duane’s work, please visit his website:
He also paints fabulous murals for community and corporate interior and exterior design.
A musical tribute to Native Americans all across America: a blend of Native American instruments and voices with western instruments and music. This clip features Gods & Heroes, Dela Dela, and A-La-Ke. Length: 9:55 minutes and worth watching for the music and the artwork.
Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A National Geographic video by Keeley Gould. 700 tribes gathered over 3 days to celebrate Native American cultural heritage. Length: 4:10 minutes and worth watching for the information and dancing.(Havasu Falls, Havasupai Indian Reservation. Photo by M. Quinn)
Dawn Pisturino
November 22, 2021
Copyright 2021 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Sir Simon Marsden (1948-2012) was known as an ethereal British photographer who transported the viewer to a dark and phantasmic world with his eerie photographs. Introduced by his father at a young age to books and stories about the supernatural, Marsden developed a keen interest in the paranormal. He even grew up in two English manors that were allegedly haunted, Panton Hall and Thorpe Hall. Thorpe Hall, in particular, housed the “Green Lady,” the ghost of a woman who committed suicide in the 1600s.
Marsden became a fan of such writers as Arthur Machen, M.R. James, and Edgar Allen Poe. At the age of 21, he received his first camera and embarked on a lifelong love affair with photography. He traveled throughout Britain, France, and the United States, perfecting his signature style, and became known for his haunting images of haunted sites.
A number of books were published featuring his photographs, and his work was exhibited throughout Britain and elsewhere. He was a master in the use of infrared film and printing his own photographs, which gave him control over the quality of his work.
A staunch believer in the supernatural, Marsden described several paranormal encounters that he experienced at ancient haunted sites. At the Rollright Stones in Long Compton, Warwickshire, he was pushed by an invisible force, which knocked the camera out of his grasp. At Woodlawn House in County Gallway, he and director Jason Figgis heard the mournful wailing of a woman who could not be found anywhere on the premises.
Marsden became 4th Baronet in 1997. His collection can be viewed here:
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Dawn Pisturino's Blog 
AI Generated Art
by Dawn PisturinoJust for fun, I tried out the new AI image generator on Gab by typing in the words, “I want an image of a desert landscape at sunrise.” After a few seconds, it produced the two images above. Next, I went over to Fotor, inputted the same words, and got the two images below.
I like the colors in all four images, but of course, the images look similar and digitally created. The question is: Do they look like they were artificially created by a non-human? Do they look like they were digitally created by a human? Or is there no difference at all? Does it even matter? Is it really art?
What do you think?
Dawn Pisturino
March 8, 2023
Copyright 2023 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
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