It's Still Life

24 May: dVerse Painting

AI artwork. Man sitting in a chair

To Be A Wolf

To be a wolf
Lying lean and lock-hearted
A blunt scythe
      that will abandon the moon

To be a prowling smile
A crescendo’s fang
A voice that creases and folds

Unapologetic
Unamended
Untraceably dry

To be a wolf, lost as any whistle
To be a wolf who’ll just slip away

Poem inspired by dVerse Poets  “Portrait of Halvor John Schou” painted in 1911 by Thorvald Hellesen (1888 – 1937), and Twiglet #326 To be a Wolf. AI Digital Artwork is my own, created using AI Midjourney. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023.

“Portrait of Halvor John Schou” painted in 1911 by Thorvald Hellesen (1888 – 1937)

Misky

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24 responses to “24 May: dVerse Painting”

  1. lillian avatar
    lillian

    Wow! Just Wow! When I saw the first image, before I scrolled down, I couldn’t imagine you not understanding that you had to use one of the images from the prompt….and then when I saw Hellesen’s image and your explanation….AI is really something else, right? To be a wolf indeed! And creepily, the AI produced image could be Halvor John Schou!

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    1. lillian avatar
      lillian

      Me again…..actually that’s really scarey that AI could create an image, so real looking….as if it’s really painted and haning in a museum somewhere, that looks so much like Schou.

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      1. Misky avatar
        Misky

        Lillian, I’ve debated for a few hours whether to respond to your comments. I think I will.

        The AI digit art that I create, in my opinion, is neither creepy nor scary – it is another style of art, another school of art, where images are created in a way similar to Ekphrastic constraints. Words are used to meticulously describe every ingredient just like a recipe and its method. It doesn’t create beyond the string of words that I give it. It’s not a free-thinker; it needs to be told what to do. The gentleman in the image is most probably Walter Gropius, founder of Bauhaus school in Weimar, rather than Schou, as I referenced his name as the weighted focus. Neither Schou nor Hellesen are mentioned in the word commands that I gave the bot. I think he looks like Christopher Waltz. The entire line of words/prompt that I instructed the AI bot (it’s not a chat bot; it’s a digital art bot) to use are:

        “a painting of a man reclining on an armchair in The Oriental Club, in the style of pointillist dots and dashes pixelated textured wall, European socialist realism, qajar wall art with assemblage of maps, bold use of impasto, in the style of Klaus Wittman, qajar art, Ernest Lawson, ::Walter Gropius::, spatial, ::ref Bauhaus School::, dignified pose –aspect ratio 16:9”

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  2. rxena77 avatar
    rxena77

    AI is indeed creepy but so is all new technology when first created and little understood. Rod Sterling might ask us: when we fully understand, will we be happy with the realization? https://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2023/05/what-makes-us-tick.html

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Oh, Roland. You, too? Creepy? (sigh)

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  3. kim881 avatar
    kim881

    I think your Ai has done a great job of the portrait, Marilyn, to illustrate your poem. I would beware of the ‘prowling smile’ – but what an expression! – and I love the ‘crescendo fang’ and the wordplay in ‘wolf, lost as any whistle’.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Thank you so very much, Kim. I appreciate that a lot.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. Björn Rudberg (brudberg) avatar
    Björn Rudberg (brudberg)

    I think the wolf in the image(s) is really visible now… and it does make me think of the film title “the wolf of Wall street”

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Yes! Gosh, he was a miserable human being.

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  5. Jane Dougherty avatar
    Jane Dougherty

    Schou does look as though he has already slipped away. In fact, more than wolf, I’d say he has a look of the Jesuit about him, ‘unapologetic, unamended’ and coldly dispassionate.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Well spotted.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  6. Jim avatar
    Jim

    Okay for AI. But I am crusading for AI to be against the law, Illegal like Tic Toc soon will be, or strongly regulated. There on TT here is a lot of porn, soliciting, and the like, “so they say”. I haven’t tried, FB and Blogger are my only ones. Even Blogger has an “adult” section, notice is given before entry. Have you tried any of that to the poor AI poetry fellow, or others? I think poets in general won’t like it except for the fun it produces. Like tossing dice except no reward.
    ..

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      I don’t use AI for writing, and have no interest in doing so. I use it to illustrate my poetry. I don’t use tictoc, I don’t want to. No interest in adult sections of anything either. Good luck with your crusade, Jim.

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  7. Rob Kistner avatar
    Rob Kistner

    Great poem Misky! OK, I have done digital art for years, the old fashion way — WACOM tablet, and support apps, like Photosop, to refine the image. With the arthritis in my hands, I can no longer really manipulate the way calm tablet very well anymore, so I’ve pretty much abandoned, doing digital art, just as I have had to abandon doing my mix media art. My fingers are gnarled and don’t react very well anymore. I’m to the point now that I’m writing my poetry. Using Siri on my iPad, and then going back and editing all of that type of us just doing a single midfle finger, ipoint-and-click technique. It saves me a lot of wear and tear on my arthritic fingers. Now my final question — will this AI Midjourney work,on my iPad. I abandoned my Apple Laptop several years ago. It would be a dream to be able to create visual work again, simply using vocal commands.. I mean — what an amazing dream that would be.

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Hi Rob. In a word: Yes. I do it myself from time to time, using Safari. First, you’ll need a user account with Discord because Midjourney uses their servers. Go to https://discord.com and sign up. Discord also has their own app where you “search” for Midjourney’s channel, and join. It’s a monthly subscription of US$10/month. Midjourney is also in its final Beta phase, so it occasionally goes wonky but the team behind the scene are quick to fix it. Every once in a while, Midjourney releases a new version, and we all have fun trying out the new things it can do. Anyway, moving on … last night I tried to experiment with how well using your iPad’s microphone will work. You’ll need your poking finger to start a command line which includes a / (forward slash) on your keyboard, plus a poke at the next command line which includes stuff like /Imagine or /Blend or /info or /Settings or other commands from a list that appears when you poke the / (forward slash key). After that, the mic works perfectly well in transcribing voice to words, although you’ll need to think out the sequence of words in advance because word order is crucial. Midjourney used to give a few hours of free time to learn the basics, but I’m not sure that they’re still offering that. My single piece of advice is browse how other users are phrasing and constructing command lines before you start burning your hours. I created a cheatsheet from phrases and styles that others have used to great effect, and then tweaked them for my own use. I tell you, Rob, I’ve not had such creative fun since playing with animation software or photoshop. I hope it works for you, and I hope you let me know if you decide to try it out. If you have any questions, just pop a reply here, and I’ll try to assist.

      Liked by 1 person

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  8. Grace avatar
    Grace

    Fascinating and amazing AI digital artwork Misky. Admiring the strong character you drew up – wolf is a powerful image of an animal.

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Thank you so much, Grace. I think Bjorn pegged Hellesen’s painting right with “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

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  9. The Sicilian Storyteller avatar
    The Sicilian Storyteller

    Now this is a commanding presence!
    I’d like to share a drink with him,
    hear the story of his life.

    Brava, cara!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. sgeoil avatar
    sgeoil

    I like this!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Thanks. I’m glad you like it.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. sgeoil avatar
        sgeoil

        You’re welcome.

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  11. Spira avatar
    Spira

    Humans ( not all of them) fear what they do not understand.
    And usually, anthropomorphize it to get some illusion of safety.

    👏, M

    (Double 👏 for being so helpful in your AI guidance)

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Misky avatar
      Misky

      Not to mention that AI recently discovered an antibiotic that kills off super-bug Acinetobacter baumannii, which can infect wounds and cause pneumonia. It’s become antibiotic resistant. AI rattled through many thousands of possibilities that would’ve taken researchers several decades to discover.

      Liked by 1 person

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  12. abigfatcanofworms avatar
    abigfatcanofworms

    Fabulous 👌

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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