authorJDTailor

It's been a very long time since I logged into this platform. No, nothing bad happened, and things are going fine for me. I basically just took some time to think long and hard about what I'm aiming to achieve as an artist and how I'm attempting to monetize my work and grow my artistic ability. My membership in the Pinellas Park Art Society has also been extremely fruitful. I've met many new artists and learned many new techniques, and I've claimed two Honorable Mention merit awards in our monthly judged shows at the Pinellas Park Public Library. So, on the art side of things, I'm doing very well.........with one lone exception. ...Artificial intelligence. I know many of you have probably read the articles lately; AI companies are starting to win lawsuits against artists, and our livelihood is coming under threat. In particular, this platform has done nothing to curtail its promotion of AI and its greed in monetizing it. Frankly, I find it disgusting. A recent case involving a

It's been a very long time, but I'm still here. A lot of things have happened during the past year, but to make a very long story short, I took a very long hiatus. Nothing major happened. There was no family catastrophe. I just took a really long art and internet break. I kind of just threw myself into my new crossing guard job and spent the end of the school year and summer - we had all of the month of July off - relaxing, recharging, and painting and reading.... I had a LOT of catch up reading to do, and I did a LOT of it. I've been playing around with different painting techniques and have been spending a lot of my free time at Open Studio days at the Pinellas Park Art Society, trying to learn everything I can from the totally amazing artists who are members there. Joining up was one of the best creative decisions I ever made, and I've learned so much from everyone there. I haven't been out with my camera very much because as I'm sure a lot of you know, this summer has just been

Hi everyone! :wave: Apologies for a very long extended absence! I took a long time to myself, getting used to the new crossing guard job and just getting in a good long break from the internet in general. And it was much needed. I spent a lot of time with my friends here locally, and also a lot of time getting to know the people I'm working with in the police department and around the city of Pinellas Park. I've lived here for so long that it surprised me how few people who work for the city I actually knew or how little I knew about the city operations. But the job has been great! :D I really didn't realize just how important daily routine can be for mental health. But getting up at the same time every morning and having something to do right out of bed has actually been a great help to me. And the job isn't overwhelming either; it's not a tremendous amount of hours which is a good thing, but at the same time it's engaging enough that I don't ever feel bored or like I'm not