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It is said that a picture is worth a thousand
words.
So
here is a gallery of very few words, but lots of opinions.
And
you know what they say about opinions:
Everybody's got one and they
all stink.
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But
blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For
truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see
what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not
hear it. |
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Go
To Newest Images
The Crisis Series, an ongoing project
| My images illustrate a
few themes. Like many galleries, this Gallery has different rooms. Rather than have the pictures listed chronologically by their creation date, I have separated the collection of images by their different themes. Simply click a link below. A new page will open to display images that relate to that theme. |
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Home & The Crisis |
Best of Election of 2024 |
Our Times & Discontents |
The Hacker Series |
Uncle Sam Series |
Early AI |
| The List of Different Rooms | |||||
| 1. Best of
Election 2024 are those images centered around the theme of the 2024
election that have had the widest appeal. Arranged chronologically
from before the campaigns really got started. The
collection is a good history of the major events, while avoiding
the day to day happenings that had occurred. 2. Our Times & Discontents reflects so many of those issues that impact us all today. Many of these images were initially conceived as illustrations for web articles I had written that focused on various issues in our society. It is truly a chronicle of our times; and is an expression of what causes so many of us to be — if not discontented — at least a bit cranky. 3. This website began in 1998 primarily as a series of articles. titled "The Dispatches from the Front." The articles I wrote focused on issues in IT, with an emphasis on security. Similar to Our Times & Discounts, the Hacker Series are images that were used to illustrate those articles. My Hacker is always shown disguised in a Guy Fawkes mask, á la the hacker group Anonymous. My hacker comes, however, attired in a variety of clown costumes. Although hacking can now be quite deadly, I see these miscreants as a weird breed of clowns. 4. The Uncle Sam series began with one simple image to help explain how, when the federal government slowed down its Covid relief programs, a contraction of the overall economy ensued. I borrowed visually from the famous WW1 Army enlistment poster, but with my own embellishments. After that first Uncle Sam image turned out well, I started out to recreate the whole poster. That effort grew into an entire series of "I Want You To..." do whatever was the issue at hand. These images were often used at the end of an article that served to summarize the main thesis of the article or to form a conclusion. 5. Early AI is a collection of my first forays into Artificial Intelligence image generation. These images were generated using the DALL-E 2 AI app from OpenAI. Most were created before the MS Designer application was made available. The image titled, "Fallout from the Failure of AI," showed me the direction that my image creations would be going as time progressed. Back to Top |
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| My Techniques | |||||
| Long before image
generating Artificial Intelligence became widely available, I
would cut and paste clipart together to make a new whole
composite image. I called this type of art, "Digital
Dada." My term was borrowed from the post WW1 artists, who
began in Weimar Germany, and then spread across Europe and to
the USA. Many
Dada artists worked in collage.
Today's digital cut and paste techniques are really a modern
version of
collage art. Thus, on the image below, titled The
Wired Teacher, you see the words Digital Dada by Gerald S. Reiff.
In those early works, I tried to use Microsoft clipart as much as possible. The clipart from Microsoft was often in gif format with good transparent backgrounds. I learned early on the value of transparent backgrounds when layering images. Some might be surprised to learn that the graphics application I use today is the same app I have used for over 25 years. That app is Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000. Although PhotoDraw is a 32-bit program, and doesn't port well over to our modern 64-bit architecture, I have learned to work within and/or around its limitations. What Photodraw excels at is its ability to cut-out, erase, or crop elements within an image. Adding text is a snap. And its layering ability is outstanding. One the top lines of my IT wish list is for Microsoft to port PhotoDraw over to modern 64-bit architecture and fix its memory management problems. I do, however, make full use of the most up to date imaging applications that fit my unique needs. Photodraw has problems saving image files in a 64-bit format. PhotoDraw cannot now export an image to useable file formats like PNG or JPG. The Microsoft Snipping Tool has solved those problems for me. The app does, however, have a very good Print Preview feature. I send the completed image to Print Preview in its native MIX format, and then use the Snipping Tool to make the final product. All of the images that I create now are made using the Microsoft Designer Artificial Intelligence application. Very seldom do I create a complete composite image with the AI. I use the AI to generate the individual elements that make up the complete image. That gives me complete control over the creative process. Those individual files are then copied from Designer into the most current version of Microsoft Paint. The background removal feature of Paint is not perfect, but it helps get me started on the editing of the individual elements. Once saved to a useable format in Paint, that new image file is opened in MS Photos where it can be copied into a PhotoDraw MIX file. All final editing is then performed in PhotoDraw. When Paint does remove a background space, that space appears as the color white in PhotoDraw. Photodraw makes turning those white spaces transparent a snap. |
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You might want to switch to full screen (F11)
First Image Created — Long Before AI (1999)
More Coming Soon To a Screen Near You
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gerald
Reiff