Salon 35 // Lily Kostrzewa, Prïnce Magnølia X St Rivera, Michael Pierre Price

Recording. Hello, my name is Colin Goldberg, and welcome to the Expressionist Salon number 35. And I'd like to welcome you all here. I'm standing in for Davo as moderator today. And we have three or actually four artists in total presenting. Lily Kostrzewa, who's going to be the first artist, and then we have a pair of collaborating artists, Prince Magnolia and S.T. Rivera. And then rounding out our salon today is Michael Pierre Price. So we're going to get started and jump right into the things with Lily. So Lily, if you want to just introduce yourself and, you know, feel free to share your screen and jump right in. And after each artist, what we'll do is do a quick Q&A session and then move on. So we'll move on to the next artist. And if there's time remaining after the artist presentations, we'll kind of open it up for discussion.

Unattributed

And everyone that's on now is welcome to stick around after the recording stops. And that's when we sort of have our after party slash advisory board meeting. We'll have to come up with a better name for that. But basically, when we discuss community building stuff, that'll happen right after the recording ends at four. So welcome, Lily.

Thank you, everybody. Okay. See if possible, I can change back. Okay. My name is Lily Kostrzewa. I came from Taiwan. So today, basically, I want to share is about my art journey with everybody. I think everybody here is artists and almost all your life is artists, just like me. So basically, it's just a humble story, how I learned and how I grew up and how I became an artist. So here you can see, I have a picture from Po Sai Tsang. And probably this is how I started to be an artist. And here I have a quoting from Frank Gehry called Making Art is Making Love to the World.

Lily Kostrzewa

I'm not only an artist, I'm also art critique. So once I wrote an article about Frank Gehry, and it was an interview. And I find out this is such a beautiful quoting, and I find out it's applied for myself. And here you can see my website here. Okay, anyhow, here, the link will go into my website, and my website will have my writing about as an art critique, and all the magazine I was writing about.

Lily Kostrzewa

So, So, it's not an interview, it's an interview. So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one? So the question is, what do you think of this one?

Lily Kostrzewa

Sorry about this. That's okay. Okay, great. Okay, the, the reason I want to talk about the post I sounds painting is because I going up just like everybody, I joined every day, I do. I take all your past and the mixed color things I was ever remember I was always drawing, drawing, drawing. But I didn't know something called artists, I never heard about the thing. So I was nine year old. It's the first time I ever see. Okay, go back.

Lily Kostrzewa

I don't know. I don't know. Okay, great. So, what was now you know I first I ever see the, my father has a magazine, and I going up in a small town really small town of Taiwan. My father has magazine has Lisa whole sentence cover month and Victoria. So I was really surprised how beautiful how gorgeous. So I was really surprised how beautiful how gorgeous. The color can be. I was so excited I started use watercolors started doing all these painting and drawing about science painting, and I kind of gradually copy one by one. And then I heard that say some is the artist. So I heard people can be artists.

Lily Kostrzewa

I. So I asked my sister, I say. So can I be honest. She said, Okay. If you want to be artists you need to go to art school. So that time during that time, one of the best our school in my country is called National Taiwan Normal University College. So I set up my goal to go to the college. So the. So it's not the age 12 my sister find our her teacher is Chinese, our master is why don't you come into lens on Chinese are from my teacher. So I started learning the traditional Chinese on.

Lily Kostrzewa

So, sort of six years before I go into college, I was messed up with Chinese are really good I already have a permanent collection in the one that pop up museum in Taiwan. So I was able to win a many many bigger war. So I realized that you can actually learn the technique, really early age in very, very early age. You can learn that. So, eventually, after six years, I actually went to the college, but in Taiwan college is not like an American everybody can go into college was is like a 4000 calendar gift, our student. They only pick us 30 so basic is less than 1% chance you can gain our college. So by then I finally again a college, I started learning more master artists learning these kind of traditional ski you can see here. So, I started learning more master artists learning these kind of traditional ski you can see here.

Lily Kostrzewa

So I started learning more master artists learning these kind of traditional ski you can see here. During my college years was doing the Chinese painting and then traditional style. So it's a lot of mountain landscaping I do a lot of flower birds. And I'm able to actually master really well about all the traditional style. But I started asking myself a major question. Why want to be an artist, I was inspired by science painting, because the freedom, the cover. But I started asking myself a major question why want to be an artist, I was inspired by science painting, because the freedom, the cover. But not because I like to manipulate the technique or learning the technique so well, not because I just want to copy somebody or follow the tradition. So I feel like that is not my calling to do.

Lily Kostrzewa

So during that time was very confused time for me. So then after graduating, I became a high school art teacher. I start thinking about if one day possible, I want to go to America to learn something like contemporary art, something I how to be a just be an artist, you can fully express yourself and you can express yourself in any kind of situation almost like art can be like making a movie is in 2D situation you're making a movie, and you can express your feeling. So, I!

Lily Kostrzewa

So, so then I come into college, I, because I was not able to speak English. So I come into college in America, I find out, allow me to survive. I had to learn something called computer or computer graphics. So instead of doing a painting, I choose to do design computer graphics. And that was a blessing because this allow me to survive in America for another three decades, because your computer you always find a job in the computer in computer in IT field, you will never lack of a job.

Lily Kostrzewa

So, but during my study in the computer graphics. I took one class called history of contemporary art. I started learning the postmodern I learned all these contemporary artists. Then my teacher started encouraging me so why don't you just try use a bamboo brush. And the rice paper to do something about contemporary art. So this is my first attempt, you can see here. I started doing all these paintings, still painting in traditional Chinese rice paper, I still use the Chinese ink. But I am able to fully express my feeling. And the left corner you will see this banana princess I still have a lot of traditional skill but I'm able to handle this Disney princess was this Chinese complete. It was Chinese style almost like a pop art style. Now on the right hand side. I can actually talk about my own feeling as a girl.

Lily Kostrzewa

A girl growing up for the paintings called growing pain is that the girl growing up how you look at the shadow you growing up, but then you kind of wandering about yourself you have a lot of issue you had to deal with it. And so I was able to use the traditional skill. Skill plus the contemporary thought to kind of create my art. And that one actually win a really good big award during that time. So then after I graduated from getting my master's degree, I soon get a really good job in Dallas working as a computer artist, graphic designer.

Lily Kostrzewa

And then I soon get a good job in Chicago as an art director. So during that also I accepted offer to be an artist in residence in Queens, Austria. Queens, Austria is a place have more than 1000 years old history. So basically I'm going there doing the oil painting and doing these trainings. And then I also got a job in the oil painting landscape. I was really good about. So I do the show in Queens, Austria. During that time, I went to a lot of runer and castle.

Lily Kostrzewa

And the runer I saw a fight goats dancing around right next to me. I was so attracted by those goats. I feel like it's something I was connected with the animal. I feel like that's something I want to express. Something about animal freely expressed, dancing around. They can be any kind of color. They can have a freedom to talk about their own story.

Lily Kostrzewa

So coming back, I started doing the painting like this type of painting you see here. So during that time, my original school, I was graduate with a MA degree invited me coming back to be a full-time teacher. So teaching the graphic design, teaching the computer art. So during that time I was able to get a free tuition to get a MFA degree in painting.

Lily Kostrzewa

You know that was my first goal coming to United States to get a painting degree but I was not able to do it in the in the because I don't have the money also. I don't think painting I can get any job as a painter. So during my MFA study my teacher is, my advisor is from the Palestinian is actually growing up in Detroit.

Lily Kostrzewa

He's a Palestinian Christian artist, very interesting. He just he treated me so nice. It's like I have a really good teacher. So I told my teacher like I really don't know what should I do because I was coming from the Chinese painting background. I really don't know too much about Western art. So I really don't know where to study with the MFA.

Lily Kostrzewa

So he suggested me to study because he was really into the Auguste Marquis. He's a German expressionist. So he said why don't you start with Auguste Marquis. So I do a lot of study research on history, study the German expressionist. So during that time I found a friend's mom. A friend's mom died in World War I. But then he did a lot of painting about animals and how the animal can express humans suffering through the war. So on the right hand side you can see I started doing those random drawing during my MFA study. I started to feel like I can actually do a drawing, combine my Chinese brush ink and with this German expressionist and with this Frank Marx kind of art. It became like an animal and the landscaping.

Lily Kostrzewa

And also during that time I took an art criticism class. And I saw art criticism you can never make anything with art criticism. But I fell in love with art criticism. My teacher Dr. Smoke was really teaching me a lot of stuff about art criticism. And that really gave me the chance to really write about art criticism. And that really gave me the chance to really write about Frank's mark. I started writing about Frank's mark. I used him as a model for me to start art criticism writing about his art. And eventually later on in my life I met another guy called Derek Gruth. Derek, he was the founder of New York Examiner magazine. And he needed somebody to help him to revival the magazine and push the magazine. It can cover the Europe. And I became a person to able to sue many years to help the magazine actually expanding the border from America to the Europe.

Lily Kostrzewa

And allow me to not only to learn art criticism, also learning how to write as art critique. So that was a serendipity. It was something I never thought about would happen in my life. As a foreigner coming to America, never know any English, doesn't even know how to write. I was just a little bit of a stranger. I was just a little bit of a stranger. I was just a listener or speak able to actually tap in be a writer to write art critique. So next thing I want to introduce. So unfortunately during my MFA study, my beloved teacher died of brain cancer. It was shock because he's such a wonderful teacher to me.

Lily Kostrzewa

One day he said, Oh, I had to go to the hospital, get some exam. He never come back. He just died in a brain cancer. So I have a wish is like I have a somewhere I can memory about, about him and my style actually turned to become a really spiritual. And I want to one day I can able to go back to children or have a place to go to the place he came from. And able to meet with all the Palestinian artists. So eventually, 2012, I was able to go back to a Palestinian to meet with all the artists, to visit all the artists and able to really learn about their art. So, so through the my, because the transition, my advisor passed away, so I, my painting, switch to me, became the on the whole series. So I just say, go to the place you came from, and go to the place you came from, and able to meet with all the Palestinian artists.

Lily Kostrzewa

So eventually, 2012, I was able to go back to a Palestinian to meet with all the artists, to visit all the artists, and able to really learn about their art. So, so through the my, because the transition, my advisor passed away, so I, my painting, switch to me, new in my graduation, became all about spiritual, about how the touch by angels is my thing.

Lily Kostrzewa

And eventually in the future also continue, I became too many involved, many painting involved in the spiritual ring. So then after I graduate from my MFA degree, I became a professor. You know, a person never know how to speak English, never know how to, it was a really surprise because during that time I graduated, I have a computer degree and I have my painting MFA degree. And I was able to get many, many interviews from many universities because they needed somebody to able to teach computer art. So I was tapped into becoming a professor. And I was able to get a job in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And I always wanted to be nearby New York City. So I'm able to see museums.

Lily Kostrzewa

But however, that the professorship was not less a long time because my parents really want me to get married. They feel like I was in 30 some years old. I need to get married to have children. So eventually I am out to quit my job to become a stay home mother, to raise three children. So during the motherhood, I was first seven years I basically just changed diapers for straight seven years. And then one day I just feel like my inner self is calling me I need to go back to art. So I rent a small studio.

Lily Kostrzewa

I started painting by idea and know how to do it. So I said okay maybe I'm starting painting on canvas and connect all my learning in Chinese art. So that's how I started painting on canvas and connect all my learning in Chinese art. So I started doing this mixed medium, oil painting, and I have the rice paper on the canvas and writing the Chinese choreography and do some abstract pop art. It's kind of basic. It's like all my contemporary art, history, learning, I kind of merge them to my canvas. So that was the start when I was a mother trying to figure out. And so very fortunately, I received many invitations. I started showing my art in many different countries during that time. So let me just see if that's okay.

Lily Kostrzewa

Okay. So, okay. Okay. So this is my, okay, I hope we can see this better. Okay. This is my red series, Oriental Red. During that time, I tried to explain to my American friends what is more, what's the main red color in Chinese culture. I said red color. I came from Taiwan and Taiwan is, everything is rooted in Chinese culture. So we celebrate the Chinese New Year. So we have everything as a red envelope. Everything's red color. And red symbolize the fortune, lucky, and all the, it's just, it's a lot of things about red. So, but in the Western culture, red is like murder. It's like, it's not really as such as like a lucky place and kind of color. So I tried to have some kind of dialogue with my American friends, explain to them why we use red color. Red color is to symbolize everything good in Chinese culture.

Lily Kostrzewa

In the new year, we should have a red color. So because this reason I was invited to in the headquarter of Pure Michigan to have this show called Oriental Red to allow people in Michigan to understand what is in red color. And also, when I produced this red series, I was able to win the international award in Paris. In Paris. The salon, when the only woman, Asian woman ever just came to the award, get this bigger, bigger salon attention to this, this whole series. So basically in this series, I just have a bigger, like this is a 56 inch wide canvas. I do a lot of textual with kind of Chinese red color. I also bring a lot of sand, color sand. So all of here, you see a lot of red. Pink color, yellow color. Here a lot of yellow color, gold color. Those are same, basically just colored sand. So I started playing with color sand in my, as material to my canvas.

Lily Kostrzewa

And still using the Chinese ink as a primary inference. And I try to bring this cross-cultural kind of art to marry to this modern, modern kind of like a contemporary art. So, I'm going to show you a little bit of the work. So, during that time, also I started notice about climate change. Because I heard from CNN, like about China has this smog problem. People had to cover themselves with a mask after mask. Just like today in the COVID time, we have this N95.

Lily Kostrzewa

But during that time, everybody had to wear mask because they can hardly breathing because the air pollution was so bad. So, I was really passionate and very sad about the whole story. So, I started doing this climate change art. I used the sand, I still use the red color as the sky. And talking about the pollution. And I use a lot of color sand to produce this kind of, the smoke. Almost like you can see the air pollution with urban environment.

Lily Kostrzewa

You see a lot of big structural. Yeah. Just like we saw in the picture of China in Beijing, in Shanghai, they have a lot of urban environment. But the crowds is dark and the people has breathing this toxic, the air. So, because this whole series of climate change is more like a social, about social justice, about the environment issue. So, I was able to invite in many city hall and Grand Rapids, Michigan, the government. To show all these art to tell people and kind of educational to the kids involved in this whole series about how the environmental will affect our life. How we able to continue to use art to talking about environment.

Lily Kostrzewa

So. Okay. So, that was the continuation. So, I'm going to continue as the red color as the background. And my artwork is talking about my life. My life is not like about the space basically as a diary about my life and the recording about how I feel the light. So through the process, I was having a major surgery.

Lily Kostrzewa

And I know it's not unable to work for a long time. I basically had to train myself. How to. You cannot like a normal person to work again. So that was a major shock. And it's kind of like a huge transition. Allow me to understand life is such. Life is such like a show. For artists, if you are able to recording everything you will life. Maybe that's it. So I'm trying to say goodbye to my red color. I tried to think about it. Whatever. Or any social topics. And looking inwards in myself. I want to talk about anything. Maybe I want to use animal just like a friend's mark. Just like a lot of Chinese artists doing the Ming dynasty, Song dynasty. When the dynasty changed, the country changed into another different dynasty. A lot of people that use the animal use words to talking about the emotion.

Lily Kostrzewa

So I will try to use that. Maybe I need to go back to animal painting. To talk about my life. To talk about how I come as an artist. I wanted to continue the dream. Dream alone, dream path is my next series talking about art. So this series is that during the surgery I saw from my window, I see all the sunset. I can see the sun. I can see the pine tree on my backyard. The pine tree with the sunset as background or the red color. So I transition into two kind of different symbolized about from the real tree to just eventually become just geometric. And this is probably the end of my red period. The red earth.

Lily Kostrzewa

So next one is my dream alone, dream path. Here is. The animal road trip. So I used the animal. I want this animal is a dream like animal. So it's basically is a could be a deer could be a horse could be a symbol life of human. So this animal doesn't need to have to be a real animal ship can be some kind of like a just a symbol as a symbol about a creature, a creature talking about a life. So during this series I also used a lot of Chinese characters and ancient characters. I tried to create this dreamlike kind of life, ancient characters.

Lily Kostrzewa

And also I continued to use the same white, different color, same on my canvas. On the right hand side you can see in Michigan has a lot of snow just like you see maybe in Boston, Massachusetts, anywhere in the East Coast. Basically, it's whatever I saw from my window, the snow, a lot of snow. So I'm painting the snow with these animals.

Lily Kostrzewa

So here you can see on the left. I have the same art with the fall season, winter, spring, summer, fall, about even color, the same as the animal. On the right-hand side I started doing that because during the spring you see a lot of flower, pink flower blossom everywhere, cherry blossom everywhere. So I feel like I want to have a tribute to Franz Marc and the bull rider, the bull horse. So I started doing the whole series called Pink Blossom and the Bull Horse. So basically it's a lot of bull rider, bull horse on the background. So I was able to get invited to Hamburg, Germany to do this show to show my tribute. So I feel like I was really lucky in my life.

Lily Kostrzewa

Art is part of my life and able to talking about art and able to send a tribute to many, many artists I really enjoy their art and they influenced my life. No matter going to the festival or going to the festival, I always remember that I'm going to Germany. I feel like that's the combination about my journey of life. Also the art journey I'm going through. So next one is, so from there I started kind of wonder about what my next going to do with my animal painting.

Lily Kostrzewa

And I really also because a lot of show I was doing in a foreign country, I find out like a, I'm going to do the same art the same art was not. I had to I took the canvas or rolling in the role. I find a lot of thing I was not able able to transport during traveling. So I decided to say maybe I need to go back to watercolor or canvas, not going to have a thing as a material. So during that time, my girlfriend said here, I'm going to do a piano concert.

Lily Kostrzewa

She's a professor teaching the piano. She I want to invite you to do a PowerPoint kind of like a film. So while I'm playing on piano with a... Music, I'm able to put your painting according to my music. So that time we have a one song called her boy's song. And so we are able to do the process. I kind of just kind of share really quick about.

Lily Kostrzewa

So basically I do the eight piece watercolor, not able to play with these. So you can see this is a Chinese composer, the Chinese music playing piano. Now I'm able to, according to the piano, to decide the color of the painting. And then I can see the, the shape of boys try to ship all these. Not seeing it playing on my end. I don't know if anyone else is seeing the YouTube logo, but just the black screen.

Lily Kostrzewa

But maybe if you could paste a link to it into the chat. Okay. Let me see. Okay. Okay. Here. Wilted or something. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, I need to share again, for some reason. Okay, here, let's go. So on the right hand side, you can see here, you can see here, I started doing this from the, because of this combination with music and watercolor, I come out of inspiration doing a lot of different, my new painting about the animal as a group, and it was really cute, a lot of cute animal, a lot of different color combination. So it's on the right hand side, you can see. Okay.

Lily Kostrzewa

Then from there, during the 2017 and 2018, I lost my parents. 2017, my father passed away and 2018, my mother passed away. It really affected me. As an artist, you are very sensitive about your environment and your feeling. So I feel like I was lost in the ship. So I started, because if you know about the Bible has a story about a hundred ship, a lot of ship. So I feel like that was me. I'm the one wandering around. And I was, I don't know how to deal with my parents.

Lily Kostrzewa

It was such a strong impact in my life. So I started doing all these paintings on the left hand side. And a lot of drawing and a lot of confused. Then you can see the outline. The ship as a, as me. I'm searching for something. And then gradually I come out of the situation. So I painted on the gradually became the right hand side. If you go to my website, you can see all the process from this painting, became that painting.

Lily Kostrzewa

And then eventually I finished this right hand side. This painting was able to, The Yale university. Was very touched by my home. So they saw my right hand painting. Posing there. Medical school. Publication. They use the two page introducing my. 100 ship. I think it is a healing. It's appealing process. So I can understand why they choose these piece of painting. And I think it's a very powerful. They feel like. It's an inspiration.

Lily Kostrzewa

And they want to use my art to become a healing power for people to go through my, my whole. The same kind of situation. So. Then continue. And after my parents passed away, I, I just decided I want to go to Cuba and Iceland. I'm going to Cuba. Because I always loved them. And I feel like. I feel like. I feel like going to Cuba. I can. I face the. The ocean and Rudy to understand Ernest. The home way. How, how he write the story. So maybe I can get inspiration to continue going as an artist. So coming back from Cuba, I created. The. The older ship is like a Cuban style with a lot of color. The ocean. And I also. A year later, my, my, my mother passed away. I went to. Iceland.

Lily Kostrzewa

Because the, you know, mother, her mother. That's important to any kids. So my mother passed away. It was such, such emotional impact. In my life. And I feel like I need to go into. Iceland to find a Northern lie. To really feel how lonely. Home. To feel like I need to go to. To see. To see. You know, Iceland, the rock. That volcano. The isolation. The.

Lily Kostrzewa

Destitution. Oh, some kind of, I feel like I need that. They kind of feeling. To feel like I'm so close to the. So close to something. Really understand. Myself. So, so. But do you coming back? I produced a whole series. Iceland. So continue. The Iceland series. And. And I feel like. After so many decades. After Iceland. I really feel like. If.

Lily Kostrzewa

Life is so short. If anything I want to pursue. I may be needed to do it. I don't need to wait for too late. So by then. It's like. I haven't spent a 20 years to raise my. My three children. They are growing up. So. I feel like I may be. I need to go into New York city. So I starting applying for a job to New York city.

Lily Kostrzewa

You know, I, then I was. Okay. I'm going to the New York city. So. By the time I think about going to New York city, I saw already. I'm already past the 55 years old. I'm an old lady. I just think that nobody will offer me a job. In New York city. But however, because I have a computer degree. So as an IT person, I was very lucky. Fortunately. As I said before, you have a. Computer art degree. You always find a job. So I was able to get the job in New York city right away after. Thinking about going to New York city. So I was able to survive to pay the really. How expensive was the rent? Living in Manhattan, everything.

Lily Kostrzewa

Now, two weeks after. I moved to New York city. COVID happened. The whole New York city locked down. New York city locked down is like a. Basic everybody locked inside your tiny, tiny apartment. And you will have to work from home. The things that the people die. Around you every day. So basically 24 hours, the ambulance. Sirens was 24 hours. I was living in a fear. I was not able to go out, even do grocery. I remember I stay inside my house for 45 days without going outside. So only time I ever go outside. When to get a grocery and I have to kind of spray myself with a. Was all grocery. It was like, everybody remember those days. On the.

Lily Kostrzewa

2020. March house Gary. And in New York city was like a. People basically died and they don't even have a funeral home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like a big care of the home. And that's like. It's like. It's like. It's like. It's like. Torture animal. So my inside was full of tears and all my paintings talking about death, about people dying. And before we have a vaccination, I just don't see any hope.

Lily Kostrzewa

I don't see that we can ever come out of the tunnel. So I continued doing this painting for until finally 2021, since the start of doing change, like New York City no longer locked down people, they started inviting people, everybody coming back to New York City. So 2021 to 2022, I was able to go to Brooklyn Botanical Garden again and again. And during the springtime, I was able to see all the beautiful cherry blossoms. And during that time, my very first painting was called The ity of the ity of the ity of the piece. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work.

Lily Kostrzewa

And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think that's what is so cool about this work. And I think room as my studio, I don't even have a space so I only have a tiny table and I think this is a perfect suggestion because it was a small tiny space and I was able to produce a lot of Chinese painting because Chinese painting only need brush, you don't you need a small table, you don't need to have a big space.

Lily Kostrzewa

So through the process I started to think about how can I from the beginning was not able to want to do the Chinese painting because the transition I wanted to break through the transition but right now goes through all these three decades, four decades I can rethink about something different. I can actually use my drawing skill my bamboo brush to talk about life. I can talk about life in different ways so I started painting all these shapes they can they can be a little bit different. They can be a life, they can be a be any kind of human figure exploration.

Lily Kostrzewa

They can be talking about the people living in a subdivision have a nice green pasture, people have a nice life. We can also talk about people on the other hand was suffering from lacking of everything because in New York City you see homeless people you see everything. Basically you see the extreme people are so wealthy and people are so poor. So through the whole process I was able to just use my training to talk about this movement till I'm actually am going to get in the process the 200 person movement to the looks of the painting. So I'm calling this the 100 man process, the 100 man painting. And you can see from my website the kind of new beginning of how I actually start to marry the my ink painting, my Chinese traditional ink painting to the contemporary painting. This is an art because I'm very excited to have to get that start to my art to my young person.

Lily Kostrzewa

So I'm going to get in the process I'm still in the process, try learning how can I really merge those two styles, become my own style. And thank you, give me this chance to share my journey with you guys. Thank you. Thank you so much, Loli. Thanks for sharing your work with us. Really interesting to see and to see how it relates to expressionism and the Blau Reiter and everything else like that. It's interesting to see that connection, because so much of the conversation has been predominantly about technology, but not as much about expressionism. So it's nice and refreshing to see that. So I guess really quickly, does anyone have any questions? We can take maybe one or two. I just want to make sure there's enough time for the other artists to present.

Lily Kostrzewa

Anybody? I don't have a question, but I wanted to say I sure applaud your journey. I wrote in the comments that having traveled from Georgia to New York City, that was one of the biggest leaps I ever made in my little VW, well, it wasn't a bus, it was a VW Beetle. And to imagine coming, and I know there are quite a few international artists here, but hats off to those of you who've done that and gone to another country. And it looks like you've gone all around the world. And I just really appreciated your story and how, you know, I'm a big fan of your work. And I think it's really important that you were so earnest and emotional and open about what was going on in your life while connecting it to historical movements, as Colin pointed out. So thank you.

Lily Kostrzewa

I second. Sorry. I said I just wanted to second what Roz just said. It was just an amazing journey, an amazing look inside, an artistic journey, as well as a life journey. So well done, Lily. Thank you. Well done. Absolutely. Thank you. All right. Well, I guess we can move on to ST and Prince Magnolia.

Lily Kostrzewa

I don't know if you guys both want to go on together or whatever you want to do. Yeah, we'll just kind of double team it. How's it going, guys? I am Prince Magnolia. This is my collaborator, Miss ST Rivera. We've been working in the NFT space recently doing three different performances slash collaborations over the course of three events or spaces in which we held the room for 12 hours, created digital art live, as well as physical art on one occasion, and poetry.

Lily Kostrzewa

On the last one, which is one that I believe she's got pulled up, versions of the same song. It was inspired basically by some of the conversations about the blockchain metaverse the future this digital physical merge and what that looks so before the week of the performance that Wednesday I was at a coffee shop the poem appeared to me I then read the poem in the room and we top of the room so that people coming in throughout that time could read it and if they were inspired they could find a photo either that they make made found whatever that was inspired or that caught the vibe that they got from the poem itself they would send it to me and then I would take it rework it doing a digital art technique using Instagram filters that I developed. It's playing with the facial recognition technology and the algorithms.

Lily Kostrzewa

I think your audio cut out briefly so that this was all happening within a clubhouse room, right? Sorry. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, I don't know if it was you or me, but your audio cut out just in the beginning of your explanation, so I know that the process is definitely important as far as how the piece was created.

Lily Kostrzewa

We can come back around to it. I think I'll let Estee kind of pick up for a second. She might want to pick up on kind of how we met a bit. Hi, is my audio okay? Can you hear me? Yep. Okay, cool. Hi, I'm Estee Rivera. I'm traditionally an illustrator, and I met Prince Magnolia on Clubhouse, which is a voice application that is kind of like Zoom, just without the video component. And so I was running these small artist hangout rooms, and Prince and I met in that room, and we aligned a lot of the same ideas regarding the blockchain and NFTs and the kind of art that was getting really popular at that time. That was in August that we met, and about the beginning of the summer or late spring was the launch of collectibles like the Bored Apes. And there were all these big rooms where people were what they call shilling, which is not as lovely as a showcase, but it's more like selling your work.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so it was really exhausting. And these artists hang rooms were a bit of a reprieve from that. So artists can come and hang out, share work, make art, poetry. And that's where we met. And I was really intrigued by Prince's art technique. Which he had just alluded to, where he uses the filters in Instagram to create new works.

Lily Kostrzewa

So what is on the screen right now is the poem that Prince was just talking about. Prince, are you still there? Yeah, I'm here. Okay. And actually, will you read it for me this time? Yeah, absolutely. And just so you folks know, I'm in Washington and Prince is in Oklahoma. So we collaborated in this way many states apart.

Lily Kostrzewa

So this is the poem Sylvian that he wrote. Sylvian. She found herself in a forest checkpoint undefined. Digital flora. Digital fauna. Cascading rhythms of light. The architect was a raver in a former life. His bio read like a new age hippie tech utopian of late capitalist design. Flitting through her archive, the data points aligned. The forest was a maze made with her in mind. In the center, rumors were a sculpture rarer than Rodin. A neo digital primitivist. One of one. Rendered post corpus. Unlocked with the silence of its creator's biometrics.

Lily Kostrzewa

Kefir. A neon glow. Etching patterns as she wandered below. Remnants of an ancient blockchain from Web 2.0. Yeah. So the clubhouse. Clubhouse rooms. The performances became spaces in which different artists that we had met throughout the NFT community, people in tech and other kind of industries. Just people throughout the kind of interesting myriad of.

Lily Kostrzewa

Humans that kind of wander throughout that app kind of would bob and weave throughout the night. And their. Stories the. Their takes on the art as it was being made, we were minting it live, so they were able to watch it be visibly created and then sold in many occasions. And that created its own kind of narrative that we set off of. And so each time that we did them, it kind of created its own unique experience that.

Lily Kostrzewa

In turn, fed into developing the narrative further to the point where inversions this poem where you have this character still being up here and it's this projected future, this kind of speculative. Of. Future of with. Kind of what we have contemporarily. Technologically. And then the ideas are kind of circling around the spaces about things like decentralization and autonomy.

Lily Kostrzewa

Sorry, autonomous like robotics, blah, blah, blah. You guys. And so it's kind of that idea projected a thousand years into the future. Looking at a character that's exploring these blockchains from a pretty singularity. That's kind of like the AI universe or the metaverses that were created at that time and finding the art and the NFTs as if they're like artifacts.

Lily Kostrzewa

You know, she's like an archeologist. And so as each person was sending a different photo, I was reworking it and then being inspired by the image. The poem would appear to me and it we've this narrative of these different perspectives and lives. And then a couple of different characters also appeared. One being Mara. AI, which we subsequently after this experience, she ST has continued to work on a couple of different projects. And we found the narrative kind of weaving into her work, but appearing with new. Characters that we're going to then be developing with a new project where we're going to be doing a gallery takeover with a friend. So that's on the horizon, but I'll let ST kind of take over a bit and fill in where I've missed.

Lily Kostrzewa

Yeah, I'm just now launching the on cyber gallery so you folks can take a look at the gallery in the metaverse that we have here. Some of them are not loading because they're reading from the blockchain. So we just got to make do with the tech as it comes. But as Prince said, we did three of these collaborations. The first one was called a surprisingly fun thing I'll probably never do again. And that came from a project that Prince did solo in the beginning of the summer where he made a hundred images from one source photo of a lamp, I believe. And it broke Instagram's algorithm a bit. And it basically made him they thought he was a bot. And so it kept glitching out and removing some things that were referring to missing murdered indigenous women. And so there were issues with censorship as well.

Lily Kostrzewa

So when Prince and I met, and we talked about this, we thought it was a fantastic idea to circumvent posting to Instagram altogether and redo the project and minting it directly to the blockchain. So Prince took a photo of his backyard and then from there made 100 images in 12 hours. While on my end in the clubhouse room, I was minting. And modding.

Lily Kostrzewa

We were checking in on each other, making sure we were okay, playing music. And I'll just quickly switch to that gallery so you can see. Here we go. So there are actually four of them because it's 100 pieces. But so! So this is a personal image. I don't think it's here, but it's a picture of his backyard.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so as the night progressed, poetry did end up emerging. And there's commentary on the Bored Apes, on CryptoPunks, a lot of the collectible projects that were part of the commentary that we were touching on. So I'm going to switch. So here's an example of some of the poetry that came through. And what I love about Prince's work and his technique is that it's all done on an iPhone.

Lily Kostrzewa

An iPhone SE, I believe. And the way that I formatted them is done with an iPhone app. So it's very basic tools that are being used. And we all together, the project was the trilogy was done in three months, 12 hours each. And so in total, there are 131 pieces of art that have been made in this time.

Lily Kostrzewa

Prince, is there anything you want to add to a surprisingly fun thing before I go into to Echoes? I can continue showing the gallery. Yeah, a couple of things. Whenever I did a surprising, I found a new filter technique that kind of dissolved the image and would like create these figures based off of like kind of like two different filters refracting off of each other and when the figures kind of appeared, it was finally like kind of answering this weird question I had. You know, there's the reference in like sci fi and stuff that goes to the machine kind of thing goes in the algorithm because these kind of figures started to appear.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so as I was working through it, it was just kind of capturing what I would see and then sometimes chasing after things that I would think that I would see. It was really interesting experience kind of being half here, half there. Yeah, definitely a journey. The first ultra marathon that we did.

Lily Kostrzewa

Yeah, we can go to the next. Yeah, sure. So this is the third gallery. Definitely more poetry was coming out towards the end. And I mean, Prince could, I think, will agree that it was surprising that made us realize how important poetry was going to be to our collaborations. There's the piece, the Crypto Punk piece. I love that one. Right. Right there in the center.

Lily Kostrzewa

Yeah, so surprising. It took 12 hours for Prince to create. Minting took some time. So in total it was 14 hours. We started at, I think, 4 p.m. Central time. I can't remember right now. And then ended at 6 a.m. Pacific time. I don't know if that math is correct, but. It was a long night. So this was in September. And then when we do these, neither one of us ever collaborated like this before.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so it took some time to actually acknowledge what it was that we worked on and really view it. And I think it was Prince's idea to do another one, but instead have my artwork kind of lead where in a surprising and also with versions, it's more of Prince's artwork. So as I stated at the beginning, I'm traditionally an illustrator.

Lily Kostrzewa

And when we decided to do Echoes of the Blockchain, it was a little bit of a challenge for me. My work, I use ink and it takes hundreds of hours to complete typically. And I knew that with being in this kind of marathon state and working within 12 hours, it was really hard for me to picture what that would look like. And so I have two different art styles. I have a doodle-ism style, which you can see in the background there. And then I have a circularism style.

Lily Kostrzewa

And it wasn't until the night before the performance that I actually figured out how I was going to do my visual component of this. And so the way how it worked, we did six pieces. It was on Halloween last year, so October 31, 2021. And I would start the doodle on my end. Once again, in Clubhouse, I would replace my profile picture with the doodle and take that same picture and send it to Prince, who would then apply the filter technique and start one half of a poem. While he did that, I painted on top of the doodle and then took another photo of that. And then I completed the second half of the poem. Then using an iPhone app, I merged the two layers. And then Prince also animated the text that's on there. So it was a lot of back and forth. And each time the profile picture would change with an update.

Lily Kostrzewa

And each piece took about two hours. So it was definitely a different pace than the previous collaboration. And these ended up looking like tapestries. And, you know, we were kind of having this conversation about what it means to be fine art on the blockchain. And, you know, the actual poetry touches on humanity's relationship with technology, past, present and future.

Lily Kostrzewa

So I'll just scroll down a little so you can see the breakdown of the process. So for the first three, I was using scraps. So that's a scrap of cardboard that I then glued onto a scrap of foam core. And then that is the digital component that Prince manipulated. Then that's the final painting, which then led to the final piece.

Lily Kostrzewa

And before I read one of the poems here, Prince, did you want to add anything to Echoes? Yeah. With Echoes, we were so the poetry type appeared in a surprising and in that space and that span of making those hundred images, these different motifs and ideas started to appear to me, which then became the world that we start to see in versions. But in Echoes, we were starting to play with these ideas. And trying to find the language that we could use in order to explore it. And so Echoes is that search playing with kind of older archaic terms in some places, mythology, just trying to find a way to describe this kind of space and that you exist in when half of your life is in this fantasy.

Lily Kostrzewa

Or this theoretical reality. And you're in the other half is in this the physical. And as that's merging and becoming more and more one or the other. So that's definitely rooted in that project. Yeah. And then there are two pieces in particular where we were definitely like on the same wavelength, because once again, we don't go in saying, we're going to do this, we're going to do this. This is what we're going to do. With Echoes there was a little bit of an order in which the visual component had to be made. But the poetry was made there in the room as well. So I didn't know what he was going to send and he didn't know what I was going to finish with. But there were two pieces where the colours that he did in his digital piece I had already started doing in the painting. And that one of them is terrapin cloth magic rug which is currently on the screen I love this piece because it's the colors are just so in tune with each other and then the next one is paris paris 1889 and I'll read that one okay paris 1889 there's something out there she whispered in my ear cold october new your webcam was angled just right the forest behind the river in bloom over your shoulder a myriad of color pixelated lust a mirror of the season reflection rendering hours on end fans blowing you hot air to warm the room skin to skin analog experience you shut the door so yep and I'll just oh sorry go ahead prince I forgot to mute oh thank you I did that one thank you she finished that one and I did and so I never knew what she was gonna like the second half of the poem would be and that one always felt like such a mic drop moment I don't know why yeah so then that was like yeah the after paris was then jericho which for me was the most difficult to finish the poem.

Lily Kostrzewa

It was getting late. My cat was hungry. It was really, it was the music that was playing just wasn't getting it through. So this piece, everything was ready except for the second half of the poem. So that for me, this was the hardest. To finish and yeah I know I know prince has had moments too where you know because it's live and it's performance you know you have to you have to keep going you know you have to find a way to muster the energy or find the words to complete it.

Lily Kostrzewa

So any last comments, Prince, before we connect the two to versions? Well, I just want to say, if people do get the time to see it in the metaverse, is it in, it's not in CryptoVox. No, so this, yeah, it's not in CryptoVox. So Echoes in the Blockchain was selected to be on display for a week in CryptoVoxels, as well as the Central Land in the Museum District, right by Sotheby's. So that was, I think that was last month. We ended the year with this piece, with this collection in the metaverse, but it is on cyber.

Lily Kostrzewa

And as Prince said earlier, there have been subsequent works that have come from, from this trilogy that will be, you know, I guess added to the overall narrative. Oh yeah, I did take pictures. Okay. So here are pictures of the gallery from when it was in, thank you, past ST, from when it was hanging CryptoVoxels.

Lily Kostrzewa

So I forgot that I did that. I was going to say, once we do get it back up somewhere, like, like we had this story where there was this guy her cause she did the painting below and the speed of which we were moving. Like she was taking the photographs of them and sometimes the paint would still be drying or, you know, there would still be like a flower or a leaf or something in it. It was really cool to see them in that space and be able to see that detail.

Lily Kostrzewa

Yeah. And the one that's on the screen, Lilith, you can see. Sponge, flowers, and my hands. So in this piece, you can still see flower, a couple of petals that were stuck into the paint. In Terrapin, you could still see that the paint was very wet because it was very just in the moment. Yeah. So after this, which was in October, Prince came up with the concept for versions.

Lily Kostrzewa

And Prince, do you want to talk about the connection between echoes and versions? And we already talked about Sylvian, but maybe you want to go into it a little bit more? Yeah. So by the time of Echoes, I had found language and that's whenever I did Sylvian. And that's when this kind of the full concept kind of appeared. This speculative future.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so you subsequently get the journey of with each poem and each NFT of this character kind of going through these different stories. But the stories are inspired by the images that I was getting that night. And it was from people within the community, some friends, some complete strangers that wandered in, different ages, different continents, some in Europe, some in the States, some in South America, some in India.

Lily Kostrzewa

And like their inspiration from the poem would then give me that source photo. And sometimes they were willing because of being moved by the poetry or by the moment to share things that were very personal. One of them is called Pastoral. And it's an image of a gentleman named Kevin Pascoe, I believe is his last name. Right, ST?

Lily Kostrzewa

Yes, Kevin Pascoe. It's on the screen now. He's a really nice gentleman in this space. Does a lot for the community. But he shared a photo of his great great-grandmother, I believe, in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. And I happen to be in Tahlequah, Oklahoma currently, whenever we were working on it. And the conversation, once again, as Paris was kind of named after the year of the World's Fair in Paris 18...

Lily Kostrzewa

I was also thinking of what this kind of specular future will look like for a for a little community, you know, when, when we merge more into cities or into space, and so on, as for a technology both proliferates and increases and rapidly expands. It also is not evenly dispersed as this said a lot of times.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so him sending that, I was able to touch on, on that and write pastoral, which I want to read actually personally. So one second, sorry. Sorry. So I didn't realize I was going to do that. Ghost towns, post-industrial scars, empire denial, degradation, poverty, and blight a hundred years before and after cycles past made present ancestors spoke of a people that once spoke to the ghosts and machine till machine started to breathe with the voices of their dreams.

Lily Kostrzewa

That was a very emotional night. These rooms create an intimacy. And it allows us to be vulnerable. And then in turn, the people in the room to be vulnerable as well. And I was very emotional that night. And just to get on a personal, my sister actually was able to come to this performance and participate and, and submit an image that I had taken of her, you know, I think it was seven years ago or eight years ago.

Lily Kostrzewa

So to, you know, hear Kevin's reaction to how Prince treated his image and the poem that was written. It's just a beautiful moment. So, yeah. And this is actually the one of my sister that she submitted. Yeah. If you want to read that one to close it out. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So just to give a little context and we'll open the questions or whatever, but so that one, her sister, her sister sent it to me surprisingly in the back channel. Cause she, I think ST can say like, they've been the closest in the past few years, especially with COVID happening. And so her kind of showing up to support an artistic endeavor that she was doing, especially in a new space like clubhouse was a huge thing for her.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so then whenever I got the image, she gave me a little bit of backstory that made me want to, to, to express in certain perspective. I don't see. And I want to definitely elaborate on in the future, which is that of the anti-hero feminine hero character, I guess, like, you know, enough of like the excuses or the, the, the, I don't know. Just a, a real perspective in a female kind of cyberpunk element.

Lily Kostrzewa

But that's kind of the moment that I was given because of the vibe that she, she was putting out in the image. I was just getting this urban sprawl and the strength of, of her in that moment. And then that image was a cool thing to riff off of. So here's, this is Zeta. Graffiti in the sprawl transfixed on its writhing incantation.

Lily Kostrzewa

She traced each line as if it led to the emptiness inside chasing images of your life. Mirror entered monochrome black and white, and yet more alive. The bone handle of the Sicario's knife looked worn and old. He asked if I was shy. I defied. He, he, he spelled death with his last breath. The sprawl never sleeps. It writhes.

Lily Kostrzewa

Thank you everyone. Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thank you. We feel privileged to be here and to share our art with you. Thank you so much. ST and Prince really great to, to see this presentation. And I definitely felt a connection in terms of, I felt like I was entering into William Gibson's reality of, you know, Neuromancer and that whole future era. But you know, in real time in today's time, it's like we're slipping into that place where the sprawl is a real thing. So it's interesting. And it was cool Prince to connect with you over Instagram and that chat. The other day, I felt like I got to know you, you were a little bit going back and forth about music. So nice to, you know, see the work and are there any questions from the, the rest of the folks here? Yeah, I have a question. I, I can envision this, this project rolling out as Prince and also as a book.

Lily Kostrzewa

Have you all considered developing, Prince from the individual components or creating a book, or are you intending to just keep the presentation within the cyber realm? So for disclosure, like I've last year had basically all my personal possessions stolen, which led to me during a move, which led to me using the, the Instagram technique and iPhone, because I didn't have any of my previous work or material.

Lily Kostrzewa

And so anyways, I've been trying to get back up on my feet since then. And so we've been kind of working with what we have had, but we're definitely developing things both in the metaverse as well as IRL, physical ways to express it in different mediums and formats. 100%. We both kind of, one of the big things that we connected on was the realization that a 21st century artist is multi hyphenate.

Lily Kostrzewa

Like basically you have to be, and so kind of looking at things as different mediums of expression, or it's a t-shirt to a graphic novel or an NFT or a canvas. It's all equal in our eyes. And it's not necessarily something that's about capitalism or a comment pro or against that. It's more of a different ways to have a conversation and tell our story to people and ways that people like to be told stories too.

Lily Kostrzewa

Have you, have you considered setting up a Patreon account to help raise funds that would facilitate you being able to get back on your feet? Do we have any questions? Do you have any ideas on what you want to do? That's a very good idea. We haven't, we've been just kind of hustling down what we've been doing, but that's a very good idea. Thank you.

Lily Kostrzewa

You're welcome. So I put, oh, sorry. Just want to say I put in the chat a question. Do you have a direct link to this so we can see it online? Yes. So there are direct links to the web pages. The CryptoVoxels show is quite a long time ago. It's closed. But there are links to the other galleries that were part of the presentation.

Lily Kostrzewa

Would you mind putting those in the chat? So not at all. I'll do that. Yeah. Thank you. And then we'll be doing a new collaboration titled Prisms Indigo. That will be in, sorry, in whose gallery? I don't know. I don't know. Sorry. Yeah. So Prisms Indigo will be at Chopper Chunky Gallery. It's using Koontz Matrix and the artist and gallerist is Mark Craig, who is based in the UK.

Lily Kostrzewa

I have a question I'd like to ask both Prince and ST about. First of all, I want to say that it's an incredibly phenomenal presentation of the marriage of poetry and art. I've been involved in exhibitions, analog exhibitions, but I've never quite seen anything the likes of this. So I'm really enjoying what you've presented. I have a question. There have been contributions to each piece by Prince, by S.T., and then you mentioned other visitors who might be in the club room. My question is, who does what? Is it always that Prince works with the poetry and S.T., you're doing the art or the illustration for it?

Lily Kostrzewa

Or does that get turned around? What comes first? Does the poetry come first? And then there's a reaction to the poetry and art or vice versa? I'd love to hear about that. Sure. So I'll just kind of lay stuff out in that if I missed anything, S.T., I know you got it. But basically, the way that we've looked at each collaboration on each project has been conceptual in nature. So in the first one, we were playing with the idea of generative art, which in the NFT space is where they will take a single image like the board apes, the monkey image, and they just do slight variations of it. And it'll be a 10,000 image project where they use a generative AI and it comes up with 10,000 different slight variations, which they then sell. So we were kind of doing a critique of that by me pretending to be the generative AI using a single source photo of my dad's backyard and then turning it into 100 actually unique individual images, as opposed to do just slightly different.

Lily Kostrzewa

10,000 images of an AI. So in that one, she was more of kind of she with the performance aspect of it, the editing and the minting, she was kind of facilitating all of that in the room. Since it's open for 12 hours, you're having to host, you're having to guide the narrative of the room, the conversations that people are having, making sure that people are in good moods, playing music at different times, especially with our project. Music is a big part of my language and hers. So we've kind of woven that into the experiences to tell a third story, almost kind of soundtrack to the experience in a way. So that's been a lot of what she's done on the first one. And then on the second one, Echoes, it was her art as the focus. So she would do a drawing, send it to me. I would rework that drawing.

Lily Kostrzewa

She would do a painting over that drawing. I would then send that back to her. She would create a composite image of those. I would create the first poem, start of the poem. She would create the end of the poem. And that meant that as the final NFT. So that was a back and forth. And then on the last one, it was, so that one was playing with the idea of sorry, the process of AI, the way that it actually works as far as an input output method, where like with this GAN art, you're using some text and some image in order to influence and create the output that it gives you as far as an image goes. So we were playing basically a kind of artistic kind of, I don't know, back and forth, some kind of ball game, pretending to be this AI, I guess, in a way, in the way that we were processing the images and then compositing them together.

Lily Kostrzewa

And then for the last one, I was kind of turned myself into a human GAN myself, individually, and opened myself up to the audience to be the input source, the source photo or the source inspiration. From which then the image and the words or the poetry will come. Fascinating. What, what iPhone app did you use? You mentioned using iPhone apps and doing it all on an iPhone.

Lily Kostrzewa

So yeah, sorry. Yeah, go ahead. For the for the editing. I used for a surprising I used an app called Instasize. And then for voiceover, versions and no sorry for echoes I used unfold. And then with versions, it was a mix of Instasize and unfold. Go ahead, Prince. Thank you. No, sorry, I didn't interrupt you. Yeah, cuz she actually had a lot more than me. I just used Instagram filters and that's it. I don't use any other editing software or anything. At this point. It's just exploring. What it can do as an expressive tool.

Lily Kostrzewa

And that's been part of the journey. Wow. It's awesome. Well, I'm gonna have to stop the questions here to allow Michael some time to present. Definitely fascinating presentation, but I just want to make sure it's fair for all the presenters, but I appreciate you guys coming on and you know you're definitely welcome to hang out after the presentation as well as anyone else here for the rest of the day. If there's further questions. Since we did get a slightly late start, we'll stop the recording at 10 after four and I just wanted to thank you guys again for presenting and welcome Michael.

Lily Kostrzewa

Thank you. Wow, that's a tough act to follow. So I guess Most of last year, at least the first two thirds of the year. I was primarily focused on my solo show that was in September and Part of part of The power of this community or this social sculpture. Is in you all and so the fact that I can watch Colin interview Victor And learn about Victor's practice and its history and then also to have private chats with some of you all like Renata and others to work.

Lily Kostrzewa

With Talent like Lucy Boyd Wilson on by show last year to get invited to Ross's Presentation that she had and get to see some of her practice. It's this is just such a wealth of Community artistic talent and inspiration and so from that standpoint. I wanted to switch gears a little bit today and To realize that You've seen sort of The height of finished products, even though they were experimental in nature in some regards in terms of what was just shown but then but then also to see All of Lily's beautiful work and how she how her artistic journey was there I wanted to share My experimentation that I've been doing since my show last year in September. And some of it was inspired by work that I've seen over the last year in the salon and from others.

Lily Kostrzewa

So let me quickly. Share. My screen here.! Is this showing okay? Okay, awesome. Yep. So, As probably some of you know I do a lot of highly mathematically based artwork, whether it's based on fractals or other mathematics. And one of the things that's interested me has been creating mathematical sculptures.

Lily Kostrzewa

And even though this is a very complex work, I'm not sure if you've seen it. This one that I created here. I wanted to show it kind of in a theoretical setting. So I created my own little museum corner. And then there's another piece here. The one in red, which is another fractal base piece of artwork. And so I just set this up. And like I said, most of these are experimentations. I just kind of wanted to show a few of these.

Lily Kostrzewa

This one here is a little bit different. This one's known as a hyperbolic pseudosphere, which probably doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's a geometrical device. And this is kind of some of the close up of it. Some of the other things that I've been playing around with is just how do I play with my own lighting, my own techniques. And these are experiments that I've been playing around with. And I. I was hoping that I could get feedback from you all and maybe this feedback will have to be after hours here.

Lily Kostrzewa

So I kind of wanted a bit of participation. In this piece here. This is like a 20 inch by 60 inch piece that I created. And even though most of these have a very complex structure. And I think that's a very high mathematical quality to them. I oftentimes go in and do digital painting techniques with that just to just to mix things up and to add my flair, my vision.

Lily Kostrzewa

This is another one that's a very fractal looking image. But what I what I've been playing around with are ways techniques. To add in kind of a 2D element in back to give context and add some more visual interest. This is the another one with the same kind of technique. Now this is interesting. So the next three images is the exact same mathematics.

Lily Kostrzewa

And I'm going to go ahead and do that. But look at in different lighting in different color techniques. And this is very much used in a lot of scientific realms and astronomy and such. When you see some of the beautiful pictures of nebula and other things like that. You're actually looking outside of visual light range and the lights that you see are kind of manufactured so that we can see things visually. But then there's also some light that we don't see. Because sometimes some of those are seen through x-rays, infrared and such. And so this is the exact same mathematics, but looked at and concentrated on with different lighting, different colors.

Lily Kostrzewa

And you can see very different sorts of images created. And so this is some of the experimentation that I've been working on these past few months. And this one's very interesting. I call this one pushpin cloud. This has millions of like pushpin shapes that are scattered about fractally so that you get some interesting light and dark shaded patterns. And once again, this is very much related to physics.

Lily Kostrzewa

I don't want to get too nerdy. But at the. Big bang when the universe started expanding rapidly. The reason why we have galaxies and stars and planets is that there was a very, very slight clumpiness in the distribution of the energy and ultimately the matter that expanded. And that very, very, very slight clumpiness results in us and everything else. And so this is the kind of thing that we call the grid system. And this is a similar technique that I used to create this grid looking system that I find very interesting. So I just wanted to show these very briefly because they're kind of the.

Lily Kostrzewa

They're kind of where a lot of my earlier art has come from. But then in the past year or so, I've been getting more and more interested. And. Working. With AI. And this kind of dovetails a little bit from. What Princeton ST were talking about just in some of their explanations. So what I've done here is that I've taken some of my either existing artwork or existing mathematical shapes. And started using various AI techniques. And primarily with this set that I just wanted to show you.

Lily Kostrzewa

These are what's known as style transfer. And this is a popular, very, very popular methodology that iPhones and smart devices will utilize to give you. Things that look like we're created for them. Vans. And then go style or something like that. Now, the thing the thing that I'm most interested in is, can I keep my own aesthetic and not just make it look like somebody else's? So this is part of my journey right now is how can I add a pinch of this influence or this inspiration.

Lily Kostrzewa

But not make it. Look like it's that other artist or something because I'm not interested in that. I want it to be about what I do. So a lot a lot of the style transfers. What I've done is our mashups of my own work with my own style. Not bringing in another artist. And so these first few that I'm showing you are all various.

Lily Kostrzewa

Iterations of my own work using my own work to create new work. That's my own work. And so that's what these several are. And then I'm going to show you a couple others beyond that. That have other influences. And again, these are all works in progress. I don't know that these are final yet. I. The. The challenge with the AI is that and I think I mentioned this before is that the pixel counts are so small that for me as a print artist, I need I needed to create my own unique upscaling techniques so that I can take something that's only like 512 by 512 pixels. And bring it up to. 6,000 by 6,000 pixels if I want to print it 20 inches by 20 inches, which is a challenge. And you have to make interesting compromises and such.

Lily Kostrzewa

So here's my first. Here's my first experiment of mixing one of my previous fractal images which the more red and yellow area. Is primarily where the fractal image was I it was my praying mantis fractal that I had created several years ago. So what I did was I mixed a bit of myself with a bit of. Jean-Michel Bosque.

Lily Kostrzewa

And also with Pablo Picasso. And this is what I what I've come up with. Now what I would be curious about and any reactions to would be. Is it perfectly obvious that those are those influences or does it feel more like a well blended mixture of things or does it feel completely foreign to me because that I that's why I would really appreciate feedback on that.

Lily Kostrzewa

This is the same. I'm. Praying mantis fractal. But now. I played around with influences of her anonymous posh. With Salvador Dali. And you can see a very different vibe a very different result I wanted to create something that felt very airy and this feels more watery to me in some ways so but again. There's a lot of me in here but there are some direct influences that I've tried to wrangle in.

Lily Kostrzewa

And it's hard it's hard to tell without some without some feedback kind of what you're all see so and then this is the last two here. I created a number of very abstract black and white. Mathematical fractal images. And I worked in the influence is. Ibrahim el Salahi. Who is a Sudanese artist who I love his work it's.

Lily Kostrzewa

Very. It's got a lot of the influences of Islamic art in it as well, along with very. Graphic. Iconography involved as well, and I just have a real. Similar sensibilities of how I love that kind of artwork and his style and his story. Really influenced me, so I just wanted to share these and then the last the last bit that I wanted to share.

Lily Kostrzewa

Is in the area of. Using and again this sounded like maybe. Our previous the two previous artists may have used this I don't know. Chris magnolia had alluded to this directly, but this is using. Actual words to generate artwork using. An available program or set of programs actually a number of different styles that happened using it. Vq gan plus clip. And I find this very fascinating, the thing that to me is really interesting is that.

Lily Kostrzewa

Mathematics is ultra precise, even if you're doing things using chaos theory, the math is still very precise language is completely imprecise. It's filled with ambiguity. It's filled with ambiguity it's filled with. It's filled with ambiguity it's filled with. Past history, the way in which we think we communicate clearly to other people we get misinterpreted all the time, and so, for me, part of the experimentation that I found very fascinating over the last several months has been working with this program.

Lily Kostrzewa

To create. New types of both abstract art and. Abstract art and. Bringing in a little bit of. Other elements as well and I'm just going to kind of walk through these semi quickly just to just to give you a flavor of what I've done. This one, I just wanted to do kind of a chalk drawing that had kind of a misty feel about it and I and I'm not going to give you the exact words that I use for each of these. But.

Lily Kostrzewa

This one I started off. And this process you go through many iterations it starts very broadly you get the big brushstrokes, if you will, and then, as each iteration happens it gets more and more tied into. The imagery that has been inspired by the words that you, you know through in the input and this one I did an experiment that said, I want to create a. City scape using Cyrillic.

Lily Kostrzewa

Alphabet. That was my input for this, and this is what it started off with, and this was the last iteration that I ended up with. So it went through many, many stages to go from this starting point. To ending here. And again, these are small pixel sizes, I mean this was like 600 by 800 or even maybe a little bit smaller than that I don't remember now. But I think it's a pretty good example of how you can create a very large scale. And part of my challenge again is in upscaling this work and I a lot of these I haven't I haven't played around with upscaling yet again, a lot of this is very pure experimentation on my part.

Lily Kostrzewa

This was a geometric landscape, so you can see some elements that look like tradition look like maybe there are trees there. Hills and things but there's also geometric shapes involved in this as well. So. So I think it's a great example of how you can create a very large scale. This is one I did.

Lily Kostrzewa

For a still life with plants and text. And, and so this was very interesting here's another still life I did with flowers and fish. And you can see that the fish emerging here down in this. Down in this lower right hand corner element and you can you can obviously see the flowers and such. This was one I did that I wanted to do try out on a chalkboard put putting equations and text.

Lily Kostrzewa

This is one I wanted to do a sketch of black and white images and I just left it really, really open ended. I don't know why I didn't do that. I don't know why things look like fate faces it looks like somebody was sketching portraits or something here. So again, this is just for me a lot of just testing out this one, I wanted to do a by a blue bison skull with a bright yellow sunrise.

Lily Kostrzewa

This was a blue base with sunflowers in the style of john Michelle basket. And I just left it really, really open ended. I decided to try a few cyberpunk steampunk images. This one I called the court of the steampunk queen. This was an interesting one I. Wanted to try doing a female nude wearing a gas mask, and this is, this is what emerged and I said an abstract. So this is this is. This is what emerged from that so.

Lily Kostrzewa

Black and white geometry, just to see what could come up here. A second black and white geometry I buried it a little bit. This was a very interesting one I typed in guernica as a street fight. And I don't know whether it focused on. The artwork of a castle I don't know if it might have tried picking out imagery from.

Lily Kostrzewa

You know the actual bombing and the destruction of guernica. But this was a very interesting result. This was a very interesting. This I typed in a great naval battle. An abstract great naval battle and this, this is, I find this one kind of interesting. This was a neural network in black and white.

Lily Kostrzewa

See a lot of sort of brain looking imagery as well, so it's kind of interesting. This is one of my favorites. This is my. Steampunk. Steampunk. Guidance Stein. Which I totally love I think it's totally cool. This is another kind of portraiture I wanted to do something a little kind of. Vinci style.

Lily Kostrzewa

So I added some of that flavor in there, this is another one I totally dig. I did. A steampunk Max mad scientist. That he got Sheila would have painted. So had a number of different interesting influences coming together, which again for me I'm just trying to test you know kick the tires and test the engine with this thing just to see what's potentially possible.

Lily Kostrzewa

And to let you to let you know the difference this image in the lower right hand corner here. This is the original this was five I think 672 by 672 pixels. This is 6600 by 6600 pixels. So you can see the detail that I had to scale up and the challenge that's there. And I use I'm developing my own setup techniques partly using giga pixel which I highly recommend it's a really, really good tool.

Lily Kostrzewa

But I'm also working on other techniques that I'm developing on my own to help. But the big challenge with upscaling from small to big it's you have to make really artistic choices of at small scale. Diagonals and shading and things oftentimes comes through as noise and when you upscale noise you just get a whole bunch of more noise. And as an artist, you have to decide well was that was those were those dotted lines really a solid line is it something else, and in the upscaling process.

Lily Kostrzewa

Those decisions are really key and critical and get a pixel even though it's used primarily I think for photographers. I think, as people who might be interested in being able to create larger digital works from. Smaller. AI works I'm finding it a helpful tool along the way. So anyway. That's kind of what I've been working on and.

Lily Kostrzewa

It's complete experimentation, right now I'm not sure exactly how what of these images like shown today I'm going to use or if they're just. Bits of learning along the way, so any feedback I appreciate greatly so. I will stop sharing Thank you. Awesome thanks so much Michael really appreciate you presenting and we have like about five minutes or so left so any questions, so we could squeeze in and then, after we stopped the recording we can certainly continue on and along those lines.

Lily Kostrzewa

Feel free to shout out. I really want to. I really want to. Compliment you Michael on the painterly quality the visual painterly quality every one of those images it's absolutely wonderful. I would caution. Yeah I would really caution you about. Two things don't worry about whether anybody thinks that you stole something from dolly are Picasso that's ridiculous. Okay.

Lily Kostrzewa

You. Come through good and strong. Okay. Worry about any of those influences whatsoever. But I would like to see that you do pick one. Style that attracts you the most expresses you the most and do a complete series of at least 10 images. In that style. Okay. Will be very. Interesting to see how they progress, in other words of use. If you. Type in still life in cubism one and said to the computer still like cubism to. You can go along and see what happens.

Lily Kostrzewa

Because I suspect it's going to try to go back to the original images as much as it possibly can and you're going to have to really come up with some genius move to make it not do that. Okay. Thanks Lee. Know that. Closer. I appreciate your. Feedback. And it's really helpful I mean this is what I value about all of you being such.

Lily Kostrzewa

Good artists is. I appreciate your honesty and you all have your own experiences where you're coming from, and for me this, this is what makes this group. Something really, really special to me so thanks. Thank you. Is there time for me to talk or do you want to wait till the recording stops Colin.

Lily Kostrzewa

Go ahead. Time for one last question. Yeah I just wanted to ask you Michael first of all I'm wowed by. What you've shown us that Gurney as a street fight what was your contribution to that was at the initial image or the language you put into the AI program. Good. Good, that's a great question. It, there were two things. Part of it was the initial input into the AI, so the language.

Lily Kostrzewa

And then after what I showed there, I had played around with and manipulated to some degree. And how, I don't know, what changed was I changed some of the color palette. I added in a few other elements. Without going back and kind of showing you the very first one and where it ended, I would say that the imagery near the top and some of the business, the bits in the middle were enhanced and the colors were changed for the most part to get it to something that for me felt appropriate to the language that I had picked. But it surprised me. What I saw there really surprised me because I wasn't sure what I was gonna get. I thought maybe originally I was gonna get something that was a modification. I thought maybe it was gonna be something that was a modification of Picasso's Guernica image since it's so striking and it's so well known.

Lily Kostrzewa

But this, the street fight element, I think influenced it and I don't, so I can't say what elements of Guernica, whether it was, cause there were a lot of photographs of the town, after the bombing, and the devastation there that you can find online as well. So it's hard for me to know where the imagery was drawn there. Thank you.

Lily Kostrzewa

What's the name of the software that you used, Michael? For the very last, for when you type in your search variables, yes. Yeah. But I am typing it into chat. Okay, thanks. It is called BQGAN, oops, plus clip. It's an open source. It's available. It's available. I mean, if you type BQGAN plus clip, you will find many, many references to it.

Lily Kostrzewa

Some people are, have created paid sites where you, the thing is you're accessing a database and you're accessing the AI through publicly available sites. For university setting computer programs and our computers. And so if your time is limited and the easiest way to limit the time is for the image sizes to be rather limited.

Lily Kostrzewa

So depending on where you wanna go with it, you're looking at, like I said, most times you're limited to pixel sizes that are several hundred pixels in one dimension versus another, you know, the other dimension. So they're, they're fairly limited. But very interesting yeah I don't see where oh did carlin post the link oh maybe oh yeah okay I posted something from medium but the search term would be would be this vqgan plus clip yeah okay that would be the search term and then you could find you know a bunch of different resources online about that particular gan I believe so we're just about out of time though for the recording and we you know definitely be sticking around for whoever wants to stay but I just like to once again thank our presenters for today lily and prince st and michael very diverse and interesting salon as always I feel like it really ranged the gamut from traditional to present day to future tense and you know all different types of media and ideas really interesting and diverse presentations but they all somehow you know interconnected in a variety of ways too so I think that's what makes this group so special and I am going to stop the recording in five four three two one