Sunday, 31 March 2024

MARCH SUMMARY -- 2024

March 2024 was a big month with 27 blog posts -- as I made more progress with life drawings, prints and AI Art.  Plus I posted a lot of WebAR (Augmented Reality) links, and had ChatGPT write a few simple art programs.

LIFE DRAWINGS

Of course my main goal is to improve my figure drawings:



My favorite drawings this month were sparse and sketchier:











I also started to draw with Conte Crayon in order to get darker:



PRINTMAKING

Printmaking thawed out in March 2024. I laser engraved a lot of linocuts to make AI relief prints.  We printed those during Henry Morales' opening at the Sanitary Tortilla Factory on March 8th, 2024 in Albuquerque.  Virgil Velasco, Ellie Weadock and Henry Morales made a lot of progress on their BIG INK print collaboration.  And I went to the Panel Discussion at the El Paso Museum of Art for the NEXOS ENTRE RAICES exhibition:


I used PhotoMosh to convert and massage my AI images into black-and-white images ready for the laser engraver:

Then we printed and framed five laser engraved linocuts to hang at Quelab:




We also made great progress on the BIG INK collaborative print:



Virgil's section of the BIG INK woodcut


Ellie's BIG INK section
ready to proof


On March 23rd I saw the NEXOS ENTRE RAICES exhibition and panel talk at the El Paso Museum of Art:



John Tollett laser engraved one of my drawings into linoleum at Make Santa Fe, and printed it in two colors:




COMPUTER ART

ChatGPT3 Programs

Bob at Quelab helped me write SIMPLE ART PROGRAMS with ChatGPT 3.5, which can be used online:



The Online PROGRAMS (refresh browser for new image):
WebAR

I crafted some Augmented Reality figures that one can experience with their smartphone -- WITHOUT downloading any apps -- using WebAR:



I uploaded some of my 3D AI figures to Southwest Cyberport with WinSCP, to host my AR experiences:
I got back into Midjourney on March 1, 2024:



"--cref" followed by the URL of the source image



At first I was having a hard time getting anything I liked out of Midjourney -- but then I generated a lot of desert scenes in the style of Moebius:


However I was most pleased with the ROPE IMAGES that Midjourney generated. Moreover unlike what Adam Savage asserts, I think my AI ROPE generations "smell of a strong point-of-view!"

SPECIFICALY I "blended" this particular rope image below with other drawings and images, to get the best results:

This particular rope image
gives me the best results
when "blended" in Midjourney








I converted 25  ROPE images -- into diptychs with depth maps (using RGB-Depthify) -- so that they can be seen as hologram after uploading them to the Looking Glass Portrait Display:

DOWNLOAD:  240315__Rope_holograms.ZIP (6.5 MB)
25 images to be seen as Holograms








LEONARDO.AI continues to add new features (and I can't keep up):

HAIPER

HAIPER is a new AI program that allows me to generate two seconds of video for free:



Adric writes:  scaniverse now supports gaussian splatting:

Saturday, 30 March 2024

March 30, 2024

We drew at the Edith Bunker in Albuquerque, with Monty SingerBrian Gonzales, and Cody Kamrowski:




Andy collected my print













Cody Kamrowski moved into the Edith Bunker studio, and built a French Cleat wall for painting. He hangs his panels on the wall with Velcro:




Cody Kamrowski is exhibiting in England this summer at the Hampstead Art Society.

Cody gave me some music links:

I love the dad rock that they play during the drawing session, but it is nice to get to hear something a little more contemporary.




EL Paso -- March 2024

I was in El Paso from March 21st to March 29th, 2024:

NEXO ENTRE RAICES
Print Exhibition

The NEXO ENTRE RAICES exhibition was exhibiting on the first floor of the El Paso Museum of Art, from March 22 to July 21, 2024:







The PANELISTS

There was a panel discussion for the NEXOS ENTRE RAICES exhibition Saturday, March 23rd, 2023:

The Panel Discussion






















Marco Sanchez put together the NEXOS ENTRE RAICES print show, which was a HUGE effort.  Thank you, Marco:









GALLERY

The crowd in the gallery
before the Panel Discussion










The Artists




The Studios







The NEXOS ENTRE RAICES print exhibition had previously shown at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, from April 21st to September 10th, 2023:




Below is a YouTube video of the previous NEXO ENTRE RAICES exhibition at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque in 2023:


    • Meanwhile Joe Marshall and Pavel Acevedo were making prints in Tucson on the same day at the Panel Discussion at the El Paso Museum of Art (March 23, 2024)

2024 Border Biennial

The El Paso Museum of Art was featuring the 2024 BORDER BIENNIAL in the main gallery, and written up in Texas Monthly:







I'm standing between
two paintings by George Strasburger of Tucson


Tino Ortega of El Paso
 and Alejandro Macias of Tucson


Adrian Aguirre of Las Cruces




Gil Rocha of Laredo


MURALS

I spotted some new murals in downtown El Paso:

An old mural


By Cimi






"SOPA" punctuating this mural
at the far right


"SOPA" means the El Paso Art District
"South of Paisano"


Meanwhile there was an AR Alien Javelina invasion in Hueco Tanks: