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That local art fair in Portland changed how I feel about AI prints
I went to the Alberta Street Fair last June and saw a booth where a guy was selling AI generated landscapes for $20 a pop. Three artists nearby were selling original watercolors for twice that and barely anyone stopped at their tables. Has anyone else seen this kind of thing at local shows where AI work just swallows up the attention?
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the_brian7d ago
OH man this hits hard. I saw the same thing at a craft market in my town last fall and it made me feel some type of way. It's like how people would rather buy a cheap $8 print of Van Gogh's Starry Night from Target than pay $50 for a local painter who actually stood in the cold for three hours capturing that exact sunset view. We've ALL gotten used to getting art for basically free on our phones so paying real money for something handmade feels weird now. The hard truth is most people just want something that looks kinda cool on their wall and don't care who or what made it. It's a bummer but it's also just how things are going with everything being so automated and cheap these days.
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miasanchez7d ago
Yeah the_brian you're spot on with that Starry Night comparison. I actually read an article a few months back about how people's brains literally process AI art and mass produced prints the same way they do handmade stuff now, just pure "does this look nice" without any thought to the process behind it. It's wild because I grew up around craft fairs where my mom would drag me around and we'd actually talk to the artists, learn about their materials, hear the stories. Now it feels like people just want the end result without any of that connection. Your mileage may vary but I honestly think the whole "art on your phone" thing rewired our expectations way more than we realize. We see thousands of images a day for free so paying someone for their time and skill feels foreign. It really is a bummer but I don't see it changing anytime soon, especially with how fast everything is moving toward instant and cheap.
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My wallet relates to those watercolor artists, I can barely afford my own overpriced coffee.
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