It’s so easy to fold up your lawn chair and go home with all the discouraging forces out there. I keep thinking of disclaimers to put on my website:
· Hand Made!
· Original!
· No AI!
· I am a Human!
· You Will Receive Your Product!
· New Pieces Coming!
· Wonder Why I’m Not On Etsy? Email me!
Obviously, AI is a major creative buzz kill. Artists actually have to say on our work that we are human beings, using our own deeply unfathomable brains to create meaning and connection with anyone who wants to view our scary and wonderful thoughts and visions. It makes me want to cry.
To be fair there is some really lovely AI creative work being made and is in itself a skill, but there is a lot of AI being generated that intentionally simulates and spoofs human-made work, diluting the market until emerging artists (like me) are subatomic and undetectable in this vast ocean of get-rich-quick shit-posts that no one can trust.
One coping strategy I’ve tried on for size is to pretend none of the slings and arrows exist: Artificial Intelligence? PFFT! No one falls for that, right? Look at my website! Trust me! But then in a moment of clarity today I realized that if I were seeking artwork, and actually found my website, and then if I liked a piece enough to want to buy it, I would probably 1. not trust the integrity (or even reality) of the artwork, and/or 2. not trust the security of the payment gateway. (BTW the work is real, and the payment gateway is secure.)
I get the howling fantods just thinking about these things, but I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes the key is to put one foot in front of the other and just persist and be patient.
In the meantime, hand me a tissue, I’m having a moment.
