Tag Archives: Art

AI Generated Images – The New Frontier?

AI Pumpkins — Ghostly Pumpkins – AI Generated

AI warship — Warships headed to sea AI Generated

I was reading a short article in Wired magazine about Artificial Intelligence generated images. There are programs out there that have learned gazillions of photographs and their captions and will take text prompts to generate images. This has caused lots of anger among digital artists. So of course I had to try it.

It looks like almost all of these image generators are very robust and won’t run on a laptop. So being cheap I found a website “FreeImageGenerator.Com” that will do the job for you. You enter a prompt and it generates an image that you can use however you like. It will even polish your text prompt for you to make it better. It generates png images and you are limited to 15 per hour or something like that.

So I tried various things and got various results. The two images above were the ones I liked the best. I have to say that I find the technology absolutely fascinating. I have no idea about it’s affect on the art world. But you know you cannot put toothpaste back in the tube. I suspect that artists will be fine. They will end up using such tools that leave the rest of us way behind.

Have you ever heard of AI generated Art? Have you tried it out? What do you think.

Our World – Philbrook Flowers and Reflections

The tempietto at Philbrook has to be the most photographed thing in town. I’ve taken a bunch myself. Back when the Waite Phillips family lived here way back when, the pond was a swimming pool and supposedly there was a changing room underneath the tempietto.

The pond makes for some nice reflections.

I love all the flowers at Philbrook.

On another water body, Crow Creek, which winds through the property, there are lots of turtles.

And another flowers.

An invitation to look for a stone flower.

There it is!!

Stumbled upon the secret garden. The restaurant at Philbrook uses it for growing herbs and such.

It was too early to catch the change of color in the trees. Almost as good is this installation. “Oklahoma Autumn” by Eric Baker. It’s my favorite sculpture in the garden. There are two other pieces of this off to the right.

They got a lot of stuff in the 25 acres of gardens. Over 1200 trees and fifteen sculptures. I wonder if somebody is in charge of the tree count?

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Give it a try!

Shadowy Philbrook Gardens

Friday, I visited the Philbrook Art Museum in Tulsa. My MIL buys us a membership every year and I love that she does that. I don’t need any more stuff, a museum membership is a gift that keeps on giving. This trip I spent it all outside. I walked two miles in the gardens. Pretty good workout. And of course I took lots of photographs in my wanderings.

I came upon this sculpture. I like the shadow pattern on it.

I love these blue chairs. They are at the top of the hill and have a grand view of the grounds.

They even have swings now.

I actually swang a little (or maybe I swinged). Do you like the tan I got on my legs from ten days sitting on the beach recently? It had been raining just before I got there and I didn’t notice that the seat was yet so my rear end was soaked after this. Oh well, things dry right?

One of my favorite sculptures in the gardens is “Oklahoma Autumn” by Eric Baker. It was too early to catch leaves turning at Philbrook but I will be back.

I had the GPS on my watch turned on during my walking and here is my map. One hour to do two miles? Yep I was in major wibble wobbling mode. Do you know that they used to have a geocache on the grounds. Yes they did and I found it eleven years ago. Read about it.

I am linking with ShadowShot Sunday II – go check it out!!

Skywatch Friday – Electric Lights!

Our skies have gone from looking like this every day.

To about as blue as you can get. I’ve taken a couple of bike rides and they have been grueling in the heat.

Even on Flag Day. Not too many people celebrate Flag Day any longer.

While going to the library the other day I checked out this installation nearby.

I love fun stuff like this.

I don’t know who made or who paid for it but I’ll take it.

And a shot from the past,

From the past!! This is (was) the the River West Amphitheater on the west bank of the Arkansas River in Tulsa. Back in the day there were all sorts of concerts, local and touring bands and orchestras, rock, country, anything. It is now all gone. I never saw an event there but the performers were on this stage out floating in the water and everybody else was on the bank. I took lots of photos of it on my after work runs.

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections – The End of the Trail

The End of the Trail is a monumental sculpture by James Earle Fraser and is the entry hall centerpiece at the fabulous National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

The sculpture over the years as come to mean all sorts of things by all sorts of people. The museum has a short video that has one take on it.

I’m linking with Weekend Reflections

Slumgullion (The Venerate Outpost) by Karl Unnasch at Philbrook

Philbrook Cabin — Have you ever seen a cabin shingled in tshirts? Neither have I until now.

I suscribe to Philbrook Museum‘s instagram feed and for weeks they have been posting images of a new “Installation” in the gardens at Philbrook of a 19th century cabin shingled with plasticized clothes and a fireplace made out of books. So I have been muttering to myself this whole time, “What are they up to now??? a cabin shingled with t shirts???” Them crazy artist types at it again.

So I ventured over there last week. We have a family membership thanks to Nana, the world’s greatest MIL. So I can check on those artist types whenever I want.

And yep, it is true. Philbrook has built a cabin out in the back 40 of their acreage and it has plastisized tshirts for shingles on the roof, and chinking in the logs, along with some LED lights. And a fireplace made out of books.

And they have some beautiful stained glass windows and some great many lights in the ceiling made out of found glass.
And you know what it all works. It was a dark, overcast day outside but inside it was bright and sunny and just plain wonderful. My iphone pics do not do it justice. It was a very bright happy place. Light was coming in everywhere but the floor!!

The artist behind all this is Karl Unnasch, who specializes in stained glass and all things considered with light.

This whole”Installation” thing is something new to me and it seems that Philbrook is doing more of these. They seem to be temporary and not meant to last forever and you know somehow it works for me. So I guess that I approve of this cabin and what the artist types are up to.

This installation is called “Slumgullion (The Venerate Outpost)” If you know what that means, please let us know. Or at least let me know since everybody but me seems to think it makes perfect sense.

Check out Philbrook’s web site. They got all sorts of info on hours and what they are doing, which is considerable. You know they have two sites now, right?

It I am linking with Our World Tuesday.

Day of the Dead – 2018

_DSC0326 — Skulls and skeletons are significant symbols of both the dead and the living. Underneath we are all skeletons.

Heather and I ventured to Living Arts of Tulsa Friday evening for their Day of the Dead event.

National Geographic has some information on the Day of the Dead. First off it is not a Mexican version of Halloween.

_DSC0328 — I loved this Star Trek themed Day of the Dead mural.

They claim that it originated thousands of years ago when the Aztecs and other ancient cultures. They believed that death was on the same continuum as life and that their ancestors should be honored.

_DSC0330 — This mural is for those of us who love our pets. They just do not live very long.

Over time the ancient traditions merged with Christian beliefs and now the Day of the Dead occurs November 1 and 2, All Souls Day and All Saints Day.

A big part of the Day are the ofrenda’s or altars to the dead that can be installed in homes or graveyards.

They are meant to honor the dead and make them part of the holiday. Photos and other rembrances are displayed and favorite food and drink is offered.

The Ofrendas at Living Arts are for real. They are built by people for their loved ones.

They are really powerful and they speak to me of the power of family, love, tradition, remembrance and mourning.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – An Afternoon at Philbrook Museum of Art

Sunday morning the family got up and Logan had breakfast and we dropped him off at his job at the Neighborhood Walmart and Heather and I went to have breakfast. Afterward we headed out to Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art to check out their newest exhibit “Innovative Expressions” which turned out to be very academic but interesting. It showcased the printmaking art of Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro. I learned some things that I didn’t know before. I didn’t take any photos though. Check it out if you are in town. It is open until September 9.

After the exhibit we toured the three levels of galleries. It doesn’t take us long as we have been there many times before so seeing the art is like meeting old friends. Philbrook does a good job of swapping things out and so we always see things we hadn’t seen before. I love Thomas Moran’s “Grand Canyon” (above).

And this one is a favorite of mine. I am from New Mexico and too me nothing beats snow on adobe like this, “Tesuque (Dark Houses)” by Theordore Van Soelen. It is also special because when I was born my family was living the Tesuque Ranger Station.

This is one that I don’t remember seeing but Heather told me that it has been on display before. So meet my new friend, “Bridge over the Stour” by Childe Hassam. I love it.

Next we went to the gardens of the museum. It had been raining earlier but then settled into a very light sprinkle. The tempietto in the background may be the most photographed item in Tulsa. I think it is beautiful. I’m always trying to think of something new so here I focused on the flowers which caused the tempietto to soften. You can tell there is a person on the other side of the pond who is way out of focus.

It is my lovely wife, Heather. The gardens at Philbrook are especially lush this time of year. Their gardening staff really works hard keeping things tidy and green.

I spotted a purple coneflower.

Another area of the gardens that I liked.

We had a great leisurely couple of hours at Philbrook. It is a great place to get away from it all for a short time. If you plan on visiting check their web site for all sorts of information for days and hours of operation, special exhibits, events and all sorts of other information.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World -The Prairie Schooners of Tulsa

We have something new in downtown Tulsa. Stickwork artist Patrick Dougherty, with a lot of help, installed “Prairie Schooners” at Tulsa’s least used park, Chapman Centennial Green on the south edge of downtown. The project was sponsored by the Urban Core Art Project.

It is made up of branches and sticks from trail cleanup and tree trimming projects here in Tulsa. They are in there very good. The day I took these photos there was a gale blowing downtown and the structures were not going anywhere. The tops were waving about fairly well. I don’t know how they rooted the structures in but they in good.

Prairie Schooners is what the covered wagons that the pioneers used to go west and steal land from the Native Americans. I can see the resemblance to that. It also looks like sailboats out ocean.

The structures bend and wave in the strong wind and seem almost alive, they way they move. They look ghostly.

An example of the complex and very strong weaving of the natural materials used to make the structures.

They are very complex and make little rooms and there are no “Do not touch” signs anywhere. The place invites touching. It’s a very happy place.

It is due to be installed for a year, until March 2019, so you got some time to check it out yourself.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday.

Kehinde Wiley’s new Painting at Philbrook

I was running around at lunch Thursday and decided to pop in to the Philbrook Museum to check out their new acquisition of Kehinde Wiley’s “Equestrian Portrait of King Philip IV.” I’ve seen several photographs of it but you know, with paintings you really have to be be there.

The painting is huge. It takes up a whole wall. It shows a black man in a modern urban camo outfit atop a horse in a classic pose, complete with a sword. The rest of the painting could have come from a few hundred years ago. It is obvious that the painter is skilled and I didn’t have the “Are you kidding me” reaction I get sometimes with modern art. Wiley has been chosen to paint President Obama’s portrait to be unveiled this year.

The subject in the painting is very engaging. He is kind of half glancing at the room and that has changes the tone from your usual painting. And the painting’s colors are vivid and the paint seems so fresh it sparkles. It is a striking work. And yet I worry about how this work will age. Will it still be on display in 50 years or will it be stuck in storage somewhere. I know it is modern art, and nobody knows how modern art is going to “age.” So I am glad that they went got this instead of something “safer.”

I highly recommend that you check this painting out for yourself. Like I said it is a very striking work of art.

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world