“Paint Brushes Close-Up” by Tech109 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
12,899 …. 12,900….12,995….13,000 I did it!? Oh god, I did it! It took 3 months, but I did it! Thirteen thousand followers praising me and loving me and buying for me. Hi, I am Kayley Nyambura follow me @KayIDraw I do art, commissions, and pins. As a 17 and ½-year-old woman I have become what you call famous. Like all I get is the love and praise from my followers as well as having all my pins and commissions are always sold out in seconds. The best part of all the fame and glory all comes from what I love: art and making it. Nothing can make this day go wrong.
It has been a month and I was doing my thing withdrawing a commission of Senku from Dr. Stone for an account name @rosetotheoccsion09. I have seen that the number of people who want my commissions have declined a bit, which isn’t a good thing. Because normally I would get a lot of people lined up to get a commission for my art. However, that’s fine it’s probably just a slow month for me. These things could happen to anyone. However, with time it becomes for frank that the numbers are going down not just with the commission, but pin sells too. Again, very odd because lots of people love my art. I knew when things were getting bad was the number of likes was going down. Normally it would be about 1000 however it declines to 900 likes. That is when I had to find out what is behind this.
This is awful. Some bitch is taking my glory away. I need to find out who this mother fucker so I went to the best sources I can get which is my best friend Meghan her account name is @megalodon_bites a shark account. So, I DM Meghan to see if she had any idea what was going on, so I started with:
(@KayIDraw) Hey! Bestie! How is it going
(@megalodon_bites) NM
(@megalodon_bites) WBU
(@KayIDraw) oh, u know the same old crap… but enough about me
(@KayIDraw) is there a new IG artist on the platform or something
(@KayIDraw) cause like the low key I’m losing my clot right now
(@megalodon_bites) Oh yeah like there is this new IG artist. Like I think the name is @Count_to_Pen. It like super cool because they are like an AI or smth. But I like it so cool.
I didn’t know how to feel about this like what the hell is an AI calling itself an artist doing on my platform like it’s super unfair. I got to work on finding out more things about this AI call @Count_to_Pen I wanted to say goodbye to Meg for helping: (@KayIDraw) Hey Meg ttyl, thx for the info! Luv u
All right now time to get started as I was typing up @Count_to_Pen in the search button. I was thinking how in the hell can a dumbass of a bot do art. Like AI is just man-made and it can never learn how to make things on its own without a guy pulling the strings. When I got to @Count_to_Pen I was truly shocked by what I saw. First, of all, it had twenty thousand followers, and the likes are in the tens of thousands. Like more than I could ever have and most of them are posts of commission that @Count_to_Pen had done.
What hurt me the most was this art was great? It was like a human-made it. What was in the post I was looking at had a figure in a corner and color just bursting out of it. This was something to behold. I felt a tightness in my chest, and I only saw green of envy. I looked at the bio it says, “Pen, our AI, can make art by an algorithm by taking works of art and see the pattern of how the drawing is made and use this info for Pen to make it is own”. As I keep reading the bio it clicks to me because is it an AI which means it can post much faster than me and it doesn’t get artist’s block it can just keep posting. I am up with the worst case of my life?!
I knew this will take a lot of hard work to get to the top, but I am willing to get my glory. To start a need to polish my art skills because I knew that my old style isn’t cutting it now. So, I try to contact my old master Opal she was my favorite art teacher she was able to show me everything I had learned so it makes sense to go back to the basics. So, I signed up for her art program. Next is to work overtime because if “Pen” can post 3 pieces of art in one day I can triple that. Just watch it Pen because I am taking back my crown.
When I got to Opal art class, I felt like stepping back in time where I was just discovering myself as an artist and the fun I had while doing that. However, that’s not the goal for this trip I need to get back at the top and crush “Pen”. As I was thinking Opal scared me and asked, “Oh hello Kayley how are you doing?”.
“Oh! Ms. Opal is good to see you…Um I just here to…you know change up my art style”. She gave me a confused look and ask, “But Kayley I thought you were happy with your style. It’s not that I think you should stop improving your art but it just you don’t look too good”.
I told her that I just want to change it up a bit. But under my breath, it hisses out “I need my crown back”. So, I got to work hard for 4 months recreating myself but because that takes forever, I have been trying out to post other things like my art journey to rebuild myself and posting art processing videos. But it is not enough @Count_to_Pen is literally just crushing everything, and all of this is just making my followers yell at me like “WFT with all these changes” or “ugh you are a sellout”. And Meg has been asking me if everything ok because I have been shutting a lot of people out to do more art. Don’t they understand why I am doing this? I am slowly hating art….
“Hey? Kayley” called Opal.
“Yeah? What’s up”, I responded.
“It just your drawings are so off… is something on your mind Kayley?”. I just look at her it’s been weeks I’ve been trying to be this AI that I am losing myself. As I look at her tears started to drip…“sweetie”, Opal quietly whispers, “are you alright?”. I couldn’t hold back and the damn just crashed down and all I can do is cry and whimper fuck…fuck…fuck?! Who am I anymore?! Why am I doing this? DO I even like art anymore? I was crushing my heart burst, eyes burn, lungs are on fire, tears are spilling, and I am gone. But then it hit me like a brick. FUCK. THE. RULES!? This is shit I am going to stop and take a break. SO, I stood up and look in the eyes of my teacher and say, “I am taking some me-time…. Later Opal”. With my tears, I leave the art room.
It has been 5 months after the meltdown and I feel a bit better with myself I told a break with Instagram. And started to draw again for me this time and I never felt so alive during this break. My art left like me and even though I not posting that much I feel better. My glory is gone but I feel happy. I just let @Count_to_Pen keep the trophy of fame because all I need is me.
Work Cited
Kelly, S. D. (2021, August 5). A philosopher argues that an AI can’t be an artist. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/02/21/239489/a-philosopher-argues-that-an-ai-can-never-be-an-artist/.
Mpro. (2020, December 7). Instagram user SLANG + abbreviations & lingo. Social Pros. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://socialpros.co/instagram-user-slang/.
Pepi, M. (2020, May 8). How does a human critique art make by Ai? ARTnews.com. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/creative-ai-art-criticism-1202686003/.
Weiner, K. (2018, November 12). Can ai create true art? Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/can-ai-create-true-art/.