The new collage

 

As you probably noticed, my main concern here this past week has been with a new generative AI editing process available in Photoshop. This has allowed me to work imagery into my existing photographs to produce sometimes magical, sometimes frustrating results. There are two qualities to this that make it particularly compelling to me: One is this sense of gambling. Failure and magic lurk around every corner, and I find this terribly engaging in art. The second is a strange sense of collage work while working in this idiom. I have always loved collage work, and this kind of piecing together imagery, bit by bit until it works, is immensely satisfying to me. 

When I was first in art school I would go to Point Reyes National Seashore and collect old bottles, stones, seaweed, crab claws, and feathers, and then assemble them into slightly bizarre, and to me, lovely, bouquets. At times I would have sprawling, yet organized collections of found items spread out over my Oakland living room (sometimes to the consternation of my roommates!). I don't believe I submitted any of the finished items to any of my art classes. But I'm sure I was fascinated with the results and consumed at times by the process.

And so I am now.

So far you have seen more finished, articulate collections of this image making, but I have been experimenting a lot with the possibilities in this technique, and now I want to show you my strays, so to speak. I wouldn't bring them to clerkmanifesto if I didn't feel there was interest to be found in them, but also showing them here is a way to finish them and move on from these particular pictures.

This first one is from out beyond the front desk of my library. It involves a separately generated cat in a jar. As much as I am all about the over the top imagery, it is perhaps the more subtle introductions in this image the belie the power of this tool, like the fireplace on the right wall for instance.

This is Dan, a co-worker who has featured many times here before largely because of his open permissions and willingness to model. I put him in a tuxedo and it trimmed him up quite a bit. The clowns and circus animals and marble floor are all present for reasons you must divine on your own. There are no wrong answers. And probably no right ones either.

Out by the antenna tower I saw the turkey flock! It was a great place to see them, and they let me get very close. Alas that I did not have my proper zooming camera with me! But even with that camera I can never get pictures that give a feeling of the flock as I experience it. Their loose unity is so essential to them, but is always too spread out for it to function in a picture, at least according to my talents. So in this picture I tried to recreate the crowd of turkey, albeit without great success. Two or three of the turkeys are native to the picture, the rest are invented. As are the coyotes, and the mountains, because I couldn't really leave well enough alone, and why should I?

This final picture is a bit of The ship of Theseus scenario, the Greek paradox where we question the nature of a ship that little by little has been replaced in its repairs over time, so that none of the original ship is left in it. Is it the same ship? 

Here I have taken a picture of one of my favorite local houses, and, trying to extract some of its fairytale charm, have pretty much replaced every part of it. I like this picture probably best of today's, but there is a part of me that is inclined to come to the conclusion that the best use of this technology is simply to add cats to every single picture everywhere.

The library shelves come alive: The animals I through W

 

And so we continue with our project of bringing our library shelves to life. Yesterday we saw ants, apes, and elephants. Today we continue on alphabetically, having made our way to the "I's".

What animal begins with "I"? I can't remember, but surely it will soon appear below.

Out of respect for certain of our dearest of readers, we have omitted the "octopus" entry, though I did actually make one. I also did a "spider" one, and that gave me some serious willies in the process. Even though I went with a significantly toned down version of "spiders" below, it is still a fair rendition of what would constitute a shelving nightmare for me, though possibly not one as horrifying as books being out of order.

The library shelves come alive: The animals

 

As promised, and as voted on, we are working today on a project wherein each individual shelf of my library is being brought to life. The subjects of the books on the shelf will appear tucked in on the same shelf in a sort of magical realism rendition of the wonder of libraries.

I have resumed this project in the animal section of the library.

 

The top vote getter!

 

In the midst of my flagging interest in our grand project here of illustrating The Book of Isaiah, all of it taking place in a post apocalyptic version of my library, I inquired of my readers (hi readers!) in what direction you wanted me to go next.

More bible pictures?

A return to the plagiarized Winnie the Pooh?

Volumes 713 through 822 of our series on the function of how mitochondria works in the cells of fruiting plants?

A continuation of our Pippi Longstocking inspired detective stories about Wiki Magenta?

A series of pictures of a sunburned bicyclist drinking Orange Crush?

The hundred greatest albums of all time?

The ongoing tale of a transcontinental backpacking trip with minor deities?

And, well, the list rather carried on.

It turns out I have dozens upon dozens of running projects going on here at clerkmanifesto. I was concerned that with so many choices the voting process would be muddied!

But I am here to tell you that now that voting has closed, a clear winner has been chosen! I am overcome by the unexpected interest in our top vote getter, and am pleased that the choice is so strong. Nevertheless, for those of you who voted for other favorites (and each of the 31 choices received at least zero votes), rest assured, I will return to all of these projects in time, and will complete every single one of them, provided I live forever, which seems a reasonable request.

But I am certain that I test your patience, making you wait for the results of the voting. And so, without further ado, I now unveil our top vote receiver for clerkmanifesto's next project.

In an absolute landslide, receiving a total of nearly zero votes, I am pleased to announce that clerkmanifesto will now continue work on the "Library Shelves Come Alive" project!

Judging by the voting, it is clear most of you will be delighted to hear this.

For those few of you not familiar with this landslide winning project, it is one in which we take sections of the public shelving of my library, and literally bring them to life with the subject of the books in that area physically appearing on the book shelves.

While this project started sometime ago, and I remember a nice one with mushrooms growing near our mushroom books, I can't, ahem, find them, any of them. But not wanting to launch into the new series of these pictures today, which will take place in the animal section of the library, I have instead put together one sample new picture from the tree subject area of our non fiction shelves so you can see, or be reminded of where we are going with these pictures.

The parable of the library clerk

The parable of the library clerk is for advanced readers.

If you are stumbling through the Internet and by freak chance stumbled upon this page, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the power of its themes and allusions. I recommend practicing on a couple hundred of my more than 3,000 previous posts to prepare you for this one.

Regular readers, however, should find this to be a walk in the park.

The parable of the library clerk was inspired by a series of phone calls wherein library patrons wanted assistance with something on their library account, and, when asked for their library card, were surprised and unprepared even though they had never in their long lives done anything on their library account without using their library card. The parable of the library clerk took this scenario to such a dramatic extreme that it went beyond the exploration of library work, and ventured into a study of the fabric of the Universe itself, and has become part of the religious literature of mankind.

And so I present to you:

The Parable of the Library Clerk

"Good afternoon. This is the Feldenstein of the library speaking. How can I help you?"

""

"I'm sorry. In order to help you, I will need you to speak to me."

""

"I know sometimes it can be difficult to articulate our needs, but over the phone there is no way for me to divine what you desire without hearing spoken language, preferably in English."

"" 

"Unfortunately you simply must express words to me for me to help you."

""

"Okay, I will make an exception just this once, but you should be aware that this will not be something we can do for you here in the future."

""

"Okay, I have requested The Duino Elegies by Rilke. You're second in line, but we have several available copies so it should be in for you sometime later this week.

""

"You're very welcome. And remember, this is just a one time exception."

""

"You have a good day too. Goodbye."

Isaiah: Lion and straw and four votes

 

Today we feature, from the end of Isaiah 11, verse 7:

"and the lion will eat straw like the ox."

We have moved upstairs in my library for this scene, though after bringing in a lion and photographing him eating straw (I could not procure straw and so shredded plastic in our paper shredder to simulate it), I have had to make a few tiny changes to this real life scene in photoshop.

Sorry, I shouldn't joke. The Bible is no joke!

Anyway, we're continuing on with Isaiah here, though soon we'll come to the end of the iconographic portion, or at least to the end of the kind of iconography that interests me. I am not sure I'm interested in pictures of Ephraim not being jealous of Judah, or of them plundering the people to the east.

This will mean that there are going to be decisions to be made. 

I could:

1. Start at the beginning of the bible and do an image by image recreation of it, creating over 18,000 distinct images illustrating the text before dying of old age with my project still unfinished.

2. Switch to writing amusing anecdotes about library work for awhile.

3. Return to my abandoned project of rewriting Winnie the Pooh.

4. Return to my abandoned project of telling the mythical story of my through-hike across America with local deities.

5. Complain in an amusing, but mildly uncomfortable way about how my genius still largely goes unrecognized.

I could also just do whichever of these options gets four votes, leaving it in your, the readers' hands.

Actually, that's just a trick delay tactic. I've never gotten four votes in my life before!

Isaiah: Bear and Cow

 

Working, as I am, on a suite of Biblical Scenes (we are now in Isaiah, er, and have only ever been in Isaiah), readers naturally want to know: "Have you actually read Isaiah?"

No one has ever read Isaiah.

I have, however, skimmed some brief portions of Isaiah, and formed an astonishing number of off the cuff opinions! 

So that's pretty good, don't you think?

Ah, readers (hi readers!) want to know what I could possibly mean by 

"No one has ever read Isaiah."

Okay.

Here, read this:

Wumble the awful maker. I am great! The gracious will excel. Grass grows. In time, know this: Romantic Comedy fans will be friends with the fans of sleeping. 

End oppression when the mark is raised!

Burxel, dynamite, catastrophic insight into what I am telling you. Yes, that's how it is now, but if you close your eyes, ah, then. Then!

I hate Real Madrid. 

One can study that text. One can derive meaning from that text. One can say the words of the text. With some effort one might be able to summarize it, discuss its authorship, and/or talk about how it sets into history.

That is a ton of stuff one can do with it!

But read it?

Meh.

How does this relate to today's verse which is the first part of Isaiah Chapter 11 Verse 7?

I've tried to answer that question with another complex visual rendition of the scene.

The text reads:

"The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together,"

I hope you enjoy it, but if you don't, hang in there because the lion is coming back into it soon, maybe even tomorrow, and get this: 

The lion is going to eat straw like an ox!!!!

Wild.

But in the meantime, here we are in our fallen library, and we've got a cow, a bear, and their babies, which is pretty awesome in its own right.

Isaiah eleven continues and things still are cheery

 

Hello bible students!

Today we continue with Isaiah, which is crazy!

But where we are now isn't crazy yet. It's kind of the really nice part. And today's picture is still of verse six:

"the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them."

Though this is all pretty nice, I tried to give a "whole picture" kind of feeling to the proceedings.

Naturally I set it once again in my library.

Lion and lamb

 

Going through a religious, or anti-religious, or usurping-religious phase, when I settled down with some powerful, new, creative AI photography tools, I naturally drifted off into religious imagery. I found myself working my library, specifically the entrance area of the Children's Room, into a kind of post apocalyptic biblical scene.

And at the center I set the proverbial lion laying down with the lamb:

Immensely proud of this rich iconography I decided to go check out what the original verse was all about.

There isn't one!

In Isaiah 11, where this all comes from, the lion does not lay down with the lamb!

Crap.

Probably what it should be is this:

Yep. It's a wolf and a lamb that feature at the start of Isaiah 11-6. But to be honest, they really just live with each other:

"The wolf will live with the lamb" 

For actual lying down we need this from the next line:

"The leopard will lie down with the goat"

The uninitiated among you, and the non biblical scholars, might think I am making things up, but no, I'm pretty straight up when it comes to biblical reporting, feeling there is always plenty there to either:

A. Make its own points against itself.

or

B. Make all the points I want to make as is.

Anyway, the lion does come into it soon as part of a team of four, but we'll leave that one for another day.

No stranger to hard work

 

I had a short couple of days back working at the library after a vacation and before a long weekend. So I suppose it should all have been easy to take. Instead it took some adjusting, and alas that I do my best adjusting while not working.

One afternoon in this short work week, I was putting in a serious shift on the self check out machine which was swamped due to the after effects of a holiday weekend. A co-worker walked by, as they do, because my co-workers at the library do a lot of wandering. 

A thought suddenly ran through my head:

"I'm no stranger to hard work."

I didn't say it. I merely had an unbidden though, a conversational impulse. I didn't act on it. I just started musing on the phrase instead.

It had struck me as incomplete somehow.

"I'm no stranger to hard work, we're more like acquaintances."

"I'm no stranger to hard work, but I don't like to be recognized by it."

"I'm no stranger to hard work, but that doesn't mean I like getting locked in a room with it."

"I'm no stranger to hard work, I just think we confuse each other."

After a few seconds there was no one to tell any of this to. And besides, I was way too busy.

On being helpful

 

It was a busy day at my library as the people of Minnesota tried to beat the heat. Several of the older patrons eschewed our clever and relatively simple self check out kiosks in order to come have their books checked out personally, by me, at the front desk. Perhaps feeling guilty about burdening me they tried to be helpful, pushing books forward, handing them off, and other assorted nonsense that confuses the experience.

It led me invariably to this thought:

If you want to be helpful, there are the anonymous and wonderful self checkout machines over there. But if you're going to opt for the white glove experience, you're going to have to let all that go.