It has been some time since I last created digital art. Today, I found myself reconnecting with a part of me I had neglected for far too long.
I stepped away from digital art after becoming disillusioned with the rise of AI and, more specifically, the endless social media comments dismissing artwork with the words, “Oh, this is AI.” The constant negativity and uninformed criticism eventually drove me away from those platforms altogether.
Defiance was created in spite of all that. It is a return to the process I have always enjoyed: cutting fragments from different images, bringing them together, and transforming them into something entirely new. A process of deconstruction and reconstruction, where separate pieces become a single, cohesive work.
I do use AI-generated imagery on this website from time to time to accompany my writing. But Defiance is something different. It represents my own creative process and, perhaps more importantly, my refusal to let the noise drown it out.
In essence, Defiance is me raising my middle finger to the countless armchair critics who inhabit social media, ridiculing others and passing judgement on anything and everything. These are the people who have helped poison online art communities and, increasingly, those beyond the digital world.
AI is not the enemy of art. It is a tool. Like any tool, what matters is how it is used. The real threat comes from those who appoint themselves gatekeepers of creativity, people who contribute little or nothing themselves yet feel entitled to dictate what others can create, how they should create it, and whether their work deserves to exist.
Defiance is my reminder to myself that I should never have walked away from something I love because of them. And I won’t be letting them drive me away again.
