The topic of AI comes up a lot for me because I work as a software developer. It's something I see kind of all day, every day. And so I am constantly reflecting on what potential does AI have in the life of an artist and as a creative individual.

Now, most of you hearing that are probably going to immediately—those who are hearing that as creatives—are going to be like, "well, it has no place."

But does it?

Now, I will say this: using it to replace a thing that you love to do does not have a place in your life. And that's one of the things that I've been reflecting on.

The Core Issue

I've mentioned it before on this podcast, but there is the meme: "I want an AI that does my dishes so that I have more time for my art, not an AI that does my art so that I have more time for my dishes." It's one of my favorite quotes when it comes to AI because I feel like it represents the core issue really well.

Now, I want to look at the people who created AI briefly—and I don't mean like Elon Musk or any specific people by name, I'm talking about the mindset and the problem.

The problem for the people who came up with image generators... let's look at that first. These are not individuals who love to draw or paint. They might enjoy it, but they don't love it in the same way. I know that's a bit of a blanket statement—there might be some exceptions—but for the most part, they had a problem they wanted to solve. They wanted to automate the thing that they didn't love to do so that they could focus their energies on the things that they do. For these individuals, it is coding, it is programming, it is creating software and generating output through that software.

For them, having to stop the development process to produce a piece of art was a problem that they were trying to solve and automate away. And they did it. In doing so, they solved the problem for every like-minded individual. And I think that is an important thing to consider as well. AI image generators were never meant, in my opinion, to be really used by artists. They're meant to solve the problem of creating art for those who don't want to create art.

A Thinning of the Clientele

Now you might be thinking—and it's a valid question—"well, why not pay someone else to do so?" That was another problem that they were solving. The problem was, how do I get art that I'm content with without having to pay someone else? You see, these people are not the ones who would have been your clients who would have paid you anyways.

It is true that some artists have lost their jobs to AI, but the people who fired them or let them go or stopped hiring them are not people who wanted to be paying you in the first place. Now, in some ways, yes, this could be perceived as a problem because it means an artist has lost a job. But it could also be viewed as a thinning of the clientele. There will be fewer less-than-ideal clients to work with; less, hopefully, people trying to take advantage of you because they didn't want to hire you to do the art in the first place.

Anyways, I don't want to make this about—this isn't to be a discussion about the business of running an art business in an AI world. Rather, it's meant to point out the detail that the people who created AI image generators were trying to solve a problem, and that problem was they didn't want to have to stop to create art and they didn't want to have to pay someone else to do it. And in solving that problem for themselves, they solved it for everyone who was like-minded.

Walking in Both Worlds

Now, this is where I struggle. Do I, as an artist, perceive their efforts as an attack or not?

I have the luxury—I say luxury, it doesn't always feel like a luxury—of not having art be my source of income. I pursued a career in software development and that brings its own headaches and miseries with it. Other times it can be absolutely fun, but a lot of the time I'm like, "this isn't what I wanted. I wanted to be an artist." I am grateful that God has blessed me with a means to provide for my family, but I wanted—I've always wanted to be an artist in some capacity.

So, going from there, I think we need to go back to the same question that the people who created AI image generators started with: What is the problem I'm trying to solve and how do I automate it away?

One of the big challenges, and I think one of the reasons so many artists feel attacked right now, is artists are not inherently technical—a lot of them anyways. There's some like myself who walk in both worlds, some who are programmers and artists as well. There's others who are not; they're just into the art side of things. I think that in and of itself, though, is the core problem.

And let me explain what I mean by that. When we only have one side producing results, it's going to feel like an attack on the other. Without more artists also becoming programmers, the automation of creativity is going to feel very one-sided. It will always feel like an attack on the arts as long as there aren't more artists who are also programmers.

You see, in the mind of a software developer who's trying to automate away having to create art, it's not a concern to him "how do I automate away my programming so I have more time to create art?" Does that make sense? He has automated away doing the thing he doesn't love so that he can focus on the thing he does: programming.

A Challenge to Creative Individuals

We need artists to take on learning how to develop so they can go the other way and start automating away the things that take time away from creating art. In my mind, the purpose of AI is to automate away the things that I don't love to do so I have more time for the things I do love to do. And that is the direction that our world is going.

If we only have people automating away art because they don't love to create art and they want to focus on the things they do love to create, where does that leave artists?

I'm going to invite and challenge those artists listening to this to start learning something about development. Start learning how to use AI tools, not to create art, but to figure out how to automate away the things that keep you from making art.

Learn how to automate the spreadsheets. Learn how to automate the programming. If you're like me, I work a software development job. I'm trying to learn how to use AI to automate as much of my development process as possible so I have more time for drawing. That is the thing that brings me joy. That is the thing I'm not going to give up. I love putting my pencil to the paper and producing an outcome that way. I don't want to automate my art away.

But I'm going to look at my life and see which parts of my life can I automate away so that I have more time to dedicate myself to the craft that I actually want to be manual.

Finding Joy in the Manual Craft

I do think it would also likewise be a problem if we automated every part of our life. I believe God gives us talents and interests because he knows they'll bring us joy. Creating art brings me joy. It just does; it always has. It makes me smile, it makes me happy. Not that it doesn't have moments of frustration, but I have found as I have gotten better at art, I experience more of these feelings of joy.

I think that as we get better at a skill, whatever that skill might be, more joy comes. And I think that's by design. It's to see how much we want it, how much work we're willing to put in, and the joy is a direct reflection of the work that we've put into it. As I've gotten better as an artist, I can draw more of what I want from my mind, and the more I can draw of what I want, the more joy there is because I'm not fighting with myself as much about:

• "can I create this?"
• "oh, there's so much detail"
• "oh, I don't know if I'm going to get this composition right"
• "this isn't turning out the way that I want."

I put in enough time that those become less and less and less of an issue. They don't ever go away, but they're far less of an issue than they used to be, and so in their place, the joy steps in. You also have to allow yourself to be okay with the imperfections of the work you're creating so that you can experience the joy that comes from the good of those things.

Moving Forward

Anyways, what in our lives as artists are things that we would want to automate away? And are we as artists going to step up and figure out how to use these same tools to automate those things so that we have more time for the things that we love to do?

If you look at it that way, it's never been a more exciting time. In the past, there was no way to really automate away the things that you don't like to do, but now there are.

We can automate the parts of our lives—maybe not all of them, but a lot of them—so that we have time to do the things we love. But we need more minds. We need more people out there figuring these things out because you might be the person to figure out how to automate something that other people are struggling to or unable to. You might be the one who can recognize the need that needs to be automated and figure out how to automate it. You might be the one who brings it to attention so that someone else can automate it.

But to simply be fully at odds with AI is going to keep us in a place where we can't automate away the things that keep us from creating art.

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What do you do when you have no time to create, but you desperately want to?

This is a problem that I have been dealing with in my own life right now. My job is very time-consuming. Some weeks I'm putting in the standard 40 hours, and other weeks I might be putting in 50, 60 hours or more. I know that there are some people who put in even more than that. Between managing a career, being a husband, raising five kids, and balancing church responsibilities, trying to squeeze in time for creative passions is a constant challenge.

I get to the end of the week sometimes and I just kind of feel like: What did I even do with myself this week? Where did all the time go? Then the next week starts and it feels like, Here we go again.

I am a creative person. I love to draw, and I love to paint. I love to write fiction, and I write song lyrics (I can't actually write music, but I do like to write lyrics, and on a very rare occasion, maybe some poetry). I also like to read, though I rarely get to pick up a book.

Sometimes we just feel trapped. We might find ourselves on our knees, if we're religious, saying, "God, what do I do in this situation? You put into me these desires to create and I have no time to act on them in any way or fashion. You gave me these desires because they bring me joy, and because there's no time to create, I feel a lack of joy in my life at this time. I feel stuck."

That is how I feel right now in my life in a lot of ways. I feel stuck. But I feel stuck with Jesus—and I would rather feel stuck with Jesus than without Him.

Squeezing in the Scratch: The Sticky Note Strategy

This last week, I looked for little bits of time that I had here and there. I got myself a fresh pack of sticky notes last time I was at Walmart (one of the nice, tall stacks). Now, at the start of a meeting, I might doodle something quick and little. If it looks like it's a meeting that's going to be very attention-consuming—meaning I've got to pay attention—I'll do something small and fast just because I need to scratch that creative itch.

I need to get a little bit of joy from doing so. I know the meeting is about to be draining, and I know that I need to prep myself mentally for it. A little sticky note sketch sometimes is enough to give me that extra bit of joy before doing something intensive.

Unexpected Beginnings: From Changing Tires to Desktop Art

I have the benefit of working a desk job now, and I have for just about my entire career. But one of my very first jobs was working at a tire shop.

I got pretty good at changing tires, but one day the business computer was stolen. My boss kept all of his receipts for years, but his only digital copy of the business records was on that machine. (It wasn't even that great of a computer for the time, but someone still stole it. It would do thieves good to learn more about the hardware they're taking before they make the effort to break in somewhere—though that's not advice for thieves. Don't steal. That's my real advice.)

My boss was a man who liked to help young people from less fortunate backgrounds, often hiring those who had been in trouble with drugs or the law to help them get their lives back on track. I went to the same church as him, and he knew I needed work, so he offered me a job. After the theft, he pulled me aside and said, "All of my records are gone. I need them all recreated. You're the only person in this shop who doesn't come from a problematic background, and I know I can trust you. Would you be willing to rebuild all of this for me?"

He pointed to a massive pile of semi-organized receipts. I said yes.

That was my first desk job. It took me weeks to get through it all. The other guys in the shop would look at me and say, "Why does he get to sit at a computer?" I’d reply, "Well, come look at the work that I'm doing," and they’d immediately back peg: "Okay, yeah, I'm gonna go back to changing tires." I always thought that was amusing. They thought they wanted to do it until I showed them the numbers and how I was balancing them. Then they decided they were better off changing tires and talking to people.

Ever since then, through a church mission, college, tech support, and eventually entering the tech ecosystem as a developer, I’ve been at a desk. But my first love was never development.

The Hidden Artistry of Technical Work

I pursued a career that I honestly never intended to. When I first felt prompted to become a developer, I argued: You want me to do this professionally? I didn't even enjoy this the first time I tried it when I was 16. But the impression I got back was clear: Yes, because it will let you provide for a family. And it has done that very well, allowing my wife the option to stay home and raise our five kids, which was a situation we intentionally sought and prioritized.

But even though my primary job is technical, I’ve realized that coding in and of itself is still quite a creative endeavor.

People think of software development as a purely technical pursuit rather than an artistic one. Sure, companies hire entire user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) teams because you need visual art to go with the technical side. But even the actual art of writing code itself—or architecting a solution—is an art form.

I consider it a work of art when I can build a solution that works so cleanly that I won't have to spend a lot of time coming back to modify it later because of how it was built. When you can build something where you control the behavior through metadata or configuration files rather than constantly changing code here and there, that is a form of art.

Left Brain vs. Right Brain: A False Dichotomy

I have a friend I play tabletop RPGs with who is an incredibly talented tech architect. We were talking recently, and he mentioned wishing he had more interest in creative pursuits, claiming, "I'm all left brain. I got no right brain."

I told him I don't think that's true. We put a lot of emphasis on the idea that the right side is creative and the left side is technical, but there isn't any creativity that isn't first technical.

Even when I am drawing, there are strict principles and elements of art at play. Even if I don't explicitly think of the terms, a part of my brain is keeping track of line weight, value, composition, and narrative structure. Am I communicating the right emotion? These are ultimately technical questions, and they are stored in the left side of the brain.

The right side of the brain is simply the part that takes that technical knowledge and does something creative with it. That is just as true for technical architects as it is for painters. You store your technical knowledge on the left, but when you problem-solve and architect a clean system, you are accessing that knowledge through the creative right side of your brain. That’s how you come up with creative solutions.

Anything can become an art when creativity is applied to it—whether your art is creating applications, building perfect spreadsheets that are a beauty to look at, or architecting a perfectly connected system.

How to Squeeze Creativity Into Your Day

If your time is heavily limited, the "when" and "how" of creativity becomes a strict choice.

Personally, I don't watch a lot of TV. I know many people want to come home after a long day, sit in front of a screen, and unwind without thinking. That is a valid choice. But you could also choose to do something creative.

When we think about making time to create, we often fall into a black-and-white trap: “I only have an hour before bed, and I want to relax, not spend an hour working on a project.”

But it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing:

• Multitask your relaxation: Can you draw or sketch while you watch a show?
• Shrink the scope: Can you take just five minutes to scribble a rough sketch in a notebook?

You don't have to completely disrupt your routine. Sometimes you just need to insert creativity in a micro-form.

This last week, I didn't have the capacity to commit to a whole, finished drawing. But I wanted to get better at drawing noses. So, during and between meetings, I focused entirely on that. By the end of the week, I filled two and a half standard printer pages just practicing noses. I pursued micro-growth as an artist within my limited time, and I have a much better grasp of it now than I did on Monday.

Some weeks I focus on technical growth, some weeks I focus on a specific anatomy part, and other weeks I just draw for pure fun. And some weeks, if it's really not the right time for it, I don't force it at all.

Our time is limited. Not every free second has to be spent pursuing a single avenue of joy. I love to read, I love video games, and above all, I love spending time with my family. My family gets the first slice of my free time, and I squeeze in art, gaming, or reading into whatever micro-moments are left over.

My Invitation to You

What could you do differently in your day-to-day to squeeze a little bit of creativity in here and there?

• Can you get a pack of sticky notes and commit to drawing just one sketch a day ? Toss them in a shoebox and watch them build up over time.
• Don't have time to read a whole chapter of a book? Can you read one or two paragraphs ? It’s not as satisfying as a full chapter, but it is something.

We have to break out of the all-or-nothing mindset that keeps us paralyzed. Creativity isn't an all-or-nothing game. It’s about finding small, imperfect moments to create, however brief they may be.

Find those moments. I promise that as you build a small habit of capturing these micro-moments, you will experience an increase of genuine joy in your day.

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Perfect love casts out fear. But we are imperfect beings, often selfish and self-thinking. Our limited ability to love makes it so we cannot overcome fear on our own. But there is a source of unlimited love, that when we let ourselves be filled with it, enables us to overcome all fear through God.

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As creatives how does AI fit into our lives? Not AI art. Not AI that does the things you love to do. But AI that does the things you don't enjoy doing. Where does THAT fit?

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When we look at the book of Genesis do we see that God made us to create? When we read Exodus and God is providing in great detail how he wants the tabernacle to be created, do we see that as a list of instruction? Or do we see it as a divine opportunity for those being instructed to grow themselves as creative individuals? What can we learn from that?

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DO we think about how the ability to create is a gift from God?

It is part of him that he put into each of us.

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Sometimes I look back and try to understand my own life as it had been through the lenses of what I know now.

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Although I have introduced myself in the past it seemed like it would be wise to introduce myself again. It has been many years, and some things in my life look different than they did before.

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