One of the gifts AI has given real artists

One of the gifts AI has given real artists, is the ability to see our art more clearly.

Before generative tools existed, we just thought of art as the whole thing - the process, the product, the person, all kind of mixed together. We never questions the component parts, or their relation to one another. Why would we?

But now generative tools exist, widely rejected as artists in favor of “making our own art”, we get to question what exactly it is that we’re rejecting.

When generative tools can produce finished pieces, flawed as they are, we say “that’s not art”. And we don’t say that because it puts six fingers on a hand. That’s not why it’s not art. I’ve drawn most of my characters with four fingers for decades, as a style choice. That doesn’t make my art “not art”.

So it’s not “not art” on technicalities. It’s “not art” for deeper reasons that, prior to generative tools, we may have missed entirely.

Why do we connect with “real” art, and feel so empty when looking at generated images?

Lots of reasons. The knowing that someone toiled at it. The knowing that someone had a lived experience that brought them to a moment where that art needed to be made, by them, at that time. The knowing that someone’s process is developing, and this is part of their journey that we got to share with them. The knowing we can go and look up that artist and learn more about their journey.

Art is a conversation without words, a bonding, a relationship. Generated images is an output, a decoy, with no relationship possible.

Even when brands deploy art in their marketing materials, the same is true there. Real art lets us converse with the brand — and the artist who represented it — without words, letting us bond and relate with both identities. It’s communal. When brands generate images instead, all that disappears.

We used to try to grow as artists by merely improving our output. Thanks to AI, we can now see that growth as artists is about having better conversations through our work.

I’m thankful for that realization.