Soapstone Duck by Taiviti Makimmaq (Maybe)

This carving belonged to Mom and Dad, and as far as I can recall they obtained it sometime in the 1970s; at least, I remember it being around our homes for at least that long. I've always been quite fond of the look and feel of this soapstone bird, and now I'm its caretaker. 

According to the Inuit Disc Number and Inuktuk symbols carved into the bottom of the sculpture, it appears that Taiviti Makimmaq (AKA David Makimmaq) of northern Quebec made this. But that's something that Gemini spouted, and my own non-AI searches for the disc number or either version of the artist's purported name have failed to corroborate Gemini's guess. So who knows, really. 

Whoever the artist really was, I'm happy to give this a home. 
 

Twin Peaks Shadow Box

 Tonight I filled a shadow box with a few of the Twin Peaks items I've collected over the years. 

Give Yourself a Present

A few years ago, Sean gave me this Twin Peaks print for Christmas or my birthday; I don't remember which. It was created by an Albertan artist, and it captures an iconic moment from Twin Peaks, one of my very favourite works of art. Last month, I finally took it in to have it framed. I picked it up yesterday and hung it on my wall today, and I think it looks gorgeous. 
 

How Much for Just the Painting?

In John M. Ford's How Much for Just the Planet?, one of my favourite media tie-in novels, Kirk and a Klingon get involved in a slapstick chase. At one point, Kirk escapes through a window in the bathroom, and the Klingon pursuing him attempts to follow. Unfortunately, the Klingon is too heavy for the toilet seat to support, so the lid shatters and the Klingon winds up getting his foot stuck in the toilet. Because I have the sense of humour of a two-year-old, I still find this scene uproariously funny. 

That's why, a few weeks ago, I tried to recreate the scene with Gemini. Alas, it appears my prompt was insufficient to the task. I should have commissioned Jeff to paint it for me. Maybe that can be a birthday present to myself someday. 
 

Yes, Lois!

Somewhere on one of the endless parallel Earths, Roy Lichtenstein painted Yes, Lois! He released the piece to great fanfare (and puzzlement) in 1964, a few months after reading Action Comics #296, in which Superman exposes himself to Red Kryptonite so that he can communicate with the space ants who kidnapped Lois Lane. Considering the effects of Red K on Kryptonians are generally unpredictable, Superman was taking quite a risk here, but it paid off. It turns out the space ants were just misunderstood. Once again, Superman uses brains and compassion instead of brute force to resolve conflict. Way to go, Man of Steel! Oh, and nice homage, Roy. 
 

Facebook Art 'Twere It Done by Great Masters

Back in the early days, when Facebook, though evil, could still be fun. Facebook Graffiti was one of my favourite features, and Sean and I and others sent some terrible drawings back and forth.

As you can see here, Jeff and Andrea also contributed. 

I asked Gemini to "reinterpret these works as if they were oil paintings created by great masters." 

The results: 

Caspian Fiasco and Delgard Darvish

I'll say this about generative AI tools; if nothing else, they're handy for creating portraits of Dungeons & Dragons characters. Pete is starting an online D&D campaign next month, and I'm trying to decide between the rich, spoiled swashbuckler above or the taciturn wanderer in exile below. I simply ask the engine to create an oil painting in a particular style, describe the character's appearance based on my character sheet's ability statistics and their list of equipment. 

That being said, these works appear pretty lifeless to me and can't capture the spirit of what a talented human artist can achieve--artists that the AI engines have frankly, ripped off without compensation, because I don't think the fair use doctrine really applies here. Once again, as technology advances, we come closer and closer to the day when no one will be able to work. We desperately need mechanisms to redistribute the wealth that's come from all these productivity gains so that even more people aren't starving in our streets. That could be a role 90% of us could be playing sooner than we think. 
 

Still Almost Maybe Nearly Famous

Every once in a while, I search "Earl J. Woods" on the Internet to gauge my level of infamy. Fortunately, my infamy remains low, but just a few minutes ago I discovered a new hit: my name appeared on a long list of people associated with something called the Western Front. 

At first, this alarmed me. In an instant, I thought: "Western Front? Either people think I'm a crazed militia member, or I'm on an enemies list of a crazed militia." 

Neither is true. As their website states, "Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver." Whew! My apologies, Western Front. 

As I'm turned out, I'm listed on the site because in 2010 I attended an exhibit put on by my cousin, artist Keith Langergraber, and brought along "Finger Puppet Star Trek" for exhibition, the first and only public showing of a movie I made with some friends from the University of Alberta Star Trek Club. Note that "Finger Puppet Star Trek" was not made in 2009, as claimed above; it was actually made sometime in 1991 or 1992. 

Aunt Jean's Chaplin

Our Aunt Jean--second-youngest of the four Etsell sisters--is a painter, and she's generously shared her paintings with family. This portrait of Chaplin has lived in Mom and Dad's house for several years, and now it'll live in our theatre room for a while. I hung the painting a few days ago, and just now I added a couple of shelves to host my collection of Chaplin films (along with a few others from the golden age of comedy). 

Thanks so much, Aunt Jean. 

Newton Place Knicknacks

I didn't live in Newton Place for long, but it's where I watched the last season or so of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I remember hardly anything about the layout of the apartment, and I have very few photos of my time there. This is one of them. 
 

The Talented Ms Highsmith

Sylvia and I finished RIPLEY (2024) on Netflix last night, and we both quite enjoyed it. In the spirit of the show, I asked Bing to create an image of Tom Ripley meeting Patricia Highsmith in Rome as Carvaggio might have painted such a meeting. 
 

What We Found There

 

Smithsonian Open Access

 

This beautiful image of civil rights hero Frederick Douglass is just one of millions of files now freely available to the public at Smithsonian Open Access! What a wonderful resource for artists, historians, graphic designers, or anyone who has the urge to create. 

Captain Kirk of Earth-2022

AI art is getting wackier/scarier/more amazing by the day, it seems. My prompt for this was "Captain Kirk goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel, oil painting in the style of DaVinci." This result is not at all what I had in mind, and yet it's somehow arresting. (Interpret that adjective however you see fit.) Made with Stable Diffusion's DreamStudio. 
 

Double Dungeon Door Display

Here are two more finished dungeon doors from one of the Dungeons & Lasers terrain Kickstarters I backed. Not bad! 
 

Little Buddha

Painting this tiny Buddha statue was simple, but the results are nonetheless pleasing. A couple of thin coats of different shades of bronze and gold followed by an ink wash did the job. 
 

Blonde Vault Girl

Here's the Vault Girl that printed correctly, with her sledgehammer in hand. This one's a blonde to help differentiate her from her brunette counterpart. I probably should have added something to the base, too; but I can do that later. 

Vault 11 represent! 

Misguided Blonde Biker

In pulp fiction Nazis make excellent villains, and so I have a handful of Nazi figures for use as bad guys in games like Villains & Vigilantes. Even so, painting these guys makes me uncomfortable, partly because there's a danger in trivializing one of the greatest horrors of the 20th century (or perhaps any century), and partly because fascism is on the rise once again right now. On the other hand, popular culture is a powerful force, and casting Nazis as the most despicable characters could possibly be one of the best means to remind people that their ideology is one of the most noxious ever created. 

I don't know. History and politics aside, I like the way the paint job turned out. And as Steve suggested, if this range of figures winds up leaving me too disconcerted to use, I can always recast them as 1970s biker gangs (only slightly less problematic, perhaps). 
 

Brunette Fallout Girl

Jeff 3D-printed Vault Girl for me--twice. This is the first. It's still a perfectly good mini, but her sledgehammer failed to print. So I used this one for practice. I think she turned out fairly well, given my trouble painting human beings at this scale. I like how the little pile of bottlecaps and the teeny-weeny lunch box turned out. 

Another T-60

Here's another wasteland wanderer who's lucky enough to have secured a suit of power armor. In this case, though, I applied an ink wash in an effort to create additional depth and detail. I can't decide which result I prefer.