Rabbit Reaper (8"x10") oil and 24 karat gold leaf. I really like how it turned out! I've got lots more psychopomps and shinigami planned for this year. 🖤
ALSO in other good news, this piece has been selected by the jury to be part of Arch Enemy Arts show in March called Spotlight Showcase!
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Normally I’m a private person, it’s not easy for me to share personal things. There is something I’d like to share with you and it’s about grief and love.
This year marks 10 years since my mother passed away and 20 years for my dad. That even looks crazy to me as I typed it but here we are. My parents weren’t perfect but I loved them and I deeply miss them, some days are harder than others. In fact I have one brother and a few cousins out there and that’s it- everyone else has passed on. So trust me when I say I know a lot about grief.
Some of you out there have recently lost someone and I see you. The year of firsts without them is going to be hard in ways I can’t describe, but the first year is the worst. It does get a little easier though. So please take care of yourself and reach out to friends and family when you need them. Grief totally sucks but it’s a normal part of living. It does not last forever though!
Can I tell you a secret? The best way I have found to fight back against grief is to recognize who and what I love. To renew those bonds in my own heart. To love deeply to the point of recognizing them as family. Yes, that includes pets too, they are family for me.
So that’s it. Love is what we can fight grief with. If your loss is recent you may have to wait a bit before the bonds of other love keep you from falling into that pit of despair, but eventually it will help. You’ll see.
Oh and while I’m here- those of you who feel the need to tell everyone on Mothers Day that you hate it when people claim non-human animals as family? I don’t need to be recognized as a “Fur mom” or anything like that BUT know you are hurting people like me who are already trying to fight grief. This year was particularly bad. It’s also not lost on me that they choose Mother’s Day and not some other holiday to police women’s feelings.
Take care of yourselves and be nice to others out there. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
*pic of Persephone for internet tax, she is just lovely.
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Another small Yokai painting I’m working on is a tengu. They are bird like, humanoid, and mischievous. I wanted to try a different look than the traditional sources. Would you hang out with this guy? 😁
More progress on the little monster cat. Did you know that in Japanese folklore some bakeneko can shapeshift and even manipulate corpses like puppets?! So cool!
It’s kinda old school but sometimes I use lighter fluid with powdered graphite. Apply with a brush and instant shading. I could use water based graphite these days but meh, this works for me. Dries fast too.
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The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI
People have until October 18th to comment.
American friends! The US Copyright Office (which we know exerts huuuge influence in how these things are treated elsewhere) wants to hear opinions on copyright and AI.
"The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI and copyright issues beginning August 30th as the agency figures out how to approach the subject."
We can assume that the opposing side will definitely be using all of their lobbying power towards widespread AI use, so this is a very good chance to let them know your thoughts on AI and how art and creative content of all kinds should be protected.
One of the things they’re asking for comment on is the use of copyrighted works to train AI. The Copyright Office really will read what you write. If lots of people write in that they oppose allowing generative AI to train on copyrighted works, that could encourage the Copyright Office to also find that using copyrighted works to train AI engines should not be allowed. Courts routinely look at Copyright Office publications while interpreting the Copyright Act, so this is an opportunity to actually have a say in the issue.
You might be wondering how you should express that letting AI train on people’s copyrighted works is bad in a way that the Copyright Office will take seriously. The simple answer is: Be polite and be honest. If you’ve been a victim, you can share how you felt when you discovered your work had been used to train AI without your permission. If you think authors and artists deserve not to have their work used without their permission, you can say that. Be truthful. Don’t present something as a fact if it is not. Avoid hyperbole, inflammatory accusations, and foul language. It is okay to say you are upset, concerned, and/or hurt, but do it without calling someone else a “fucker.”
If you have no idea what to say, but want to comment, I've got some suggestions on how to write a comment under the cut.
Part One - Thank the Copyright Office for seeking public comment:
Thank you for opening these important questions up for public comment.
Or
I appreciate the Office’s interest in this topic and its request for public feedback.
Part Two - Who you are and why do you care?
I am an author/artist whose living depends on my being able to monetize my work
or
I am a supporter of authors and artists, and recognize that it is important in a democratic society to support the creation of art.
or
I am an author/artist whose work appears on my website.
Part Three - there is a strong public policy in granting authors the exclusive right to their works for a limited time (ie during the copyright period)
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution requires Congress pass laws “ To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Permitting generative AI to train on copyrighted works without fairly compensating Authors for the Right to their Writings is inconsistent with the Constitution.
Or
There is a strong policy to promote art by allowing authors exclusive rights in their creative works during a set period of time. While a work is under copyright, therefore, it should not be used without the author’s consent to train generative AI. To do so would violate the author’s exclusive rights to control their work while copyright applies.
Or
The Copyright Act places time limits on when an author has exclusive rights in their creative works. This balances allowing the author to promote their work and recover for their efforts against the public’s ability to use the work. Applying this system to generative AI is fair - generative AI may be trained on materials in the public domain, but it would be a violation of an author’s exclusive rights in their works to train generative AI on the author’s work while it is under copyright.
Part Four - what do you want?
The Copyright Office should adopt positions finding that training generative AI on copyrighted works without the consent of the authors of those works violates the Copyright Act.
or
The Copyright Office should adopt positions that copyright infringement includes training generative AI on copyrighted works when it is done without the permission of the authors whose works are being used in the training.
Part Five - Thank you again for your time.
Thank you for considering these comments.
or
Thank you for your time and consideration in this important matter.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! Please take a moment out of your day, on behalf of all authors, artists, and terrible bosses looking to replace human creativity with ultra-cheap good-enough alternatives to comment. And I don't generally ask for reblogs, but yeah. Do that too. But the most important part is commenting. Doesn't have to be perfect, just copy and paste from above if you want to, or write a heartfelt two-sentence "artists and writers should give consent and receive compensation to be included in a training set, and images and writing resulting from AI should not be eligible for copyright without significant further human manipulation/improvement of the generated image." Which is my own current stance on this issue.
I've seen two links floating on the reblogs for where to comment officially at, which is confusing
At regulations.gov: here
At the copyright office: here
BOTH OF THESE ULTIMATELY LINK TO THE SAME COMMENT FORM (on regulations.gov), so just to preemptively clear up that confusion, follow either link they're both fine
While I think there are potentially useful applications of learned language model text and model-generated artwork, I think the current models built on unethically sourced content, in clear violation of the copyrights held by the original creators of the works, is the "poison pill" that destroys any utility these models might have had. Until models are ethically built, and the use of them a required disclosure (for example, articles must say "llms have been used to generate part or all of this text"), and the acknowledgement made that these model-generated creations are not art, cannot be copyrighted as art, and have no place being treated as a replacement for art (but rather as a supplement), there's no way llms and art generators can be allowed to grow. It's my opinion that the current existing models need to be destroyed, and replaced by models built using ethically sourced datasets.
We CAN have an influence on policy. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI
People have until October 18th to comment.
American friends! The US Copyright Office (which we know exerts huuuge influence in how these things are treated elsewhere) wants to hear opinions on copyright and AI.
"The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI and copyright issues beginning August 30th as the agency figures out how to approach the subject."
We can assume that the opposing side will definitely be using all of their lobbying power towards widespread AI use, so this is a very good chance to let them know your thoughts on AI and how art and creative content of all kinds should be protected.
I paint in glazes with my oils and some of the base layers are so extra it always makes me say “what have I done”. Oh boy. More work to be done from this point!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
More progress on my Anubis painting. My line work is all done with a liner brush, oil paint, and a small ruler when necessary.
The scene behind Anubis is from the Egyptian Book of The Dead, it speaks of his role in the weighing of the heart against Ma’ats feather of truth. It sounds pretty harsh but really if you’ve got a good defense then he would go easy on you. That’s what I’ve heard anyway.