July 21

It’s hard to believe a full year has passed since that fateful day at the Beanstalk Second Hand Emporium. The discovery of that mysterious wooden drawer, brimming with joker playing cards, seems both recent and distant – a paradox of memory that aptly reflects my current state of mind.

I find myself leafing through my journal from last year. An entry from February 23, 2023, catches my eye. In angry red letters, I had scrawled “IS THIS THE END?” next to a printout of pipe-smoking cows generated by my aunt’s foray into artificial intelligence¹. How despondent I felt then, believing my artistic career had been rendered obsolete by lines of code.

Oh, the naivety of that moment! If only I had known then what lay ahead. The wooden drawer, initially a whimsical purchase, has proved to be anything but. It has become a lodestone, drawing me inexorably towards… well, I’m still not entirely sure what.

What I do know is that the past year has been one of profound change. My artistic practice has evolved in ways I never anticipated. The automatic drawing techniques I’ve been exploring have opened doors in my psyche I didn’t know existed. Each sketch, each painting, feels less like creation and more like excavation – as if I’m unearthing buried truths from the depths of my unconscious².

But there’s more to it than that. A sense of urgency underlies everything I do now. My art isn’t just art anymore; it’s a search, a quest. For what, you might ask? I wish I could say with certainty. All I know is that it’s vitally important, not just for me, but potentially for all of us.

As I look back on this transformative year, I can’t help but feel that I’m standing on the precipice of something monumental. The future is shrouded in mystery, but I sense revelations on the horizon. Whatever comes next, I promise to share what I can, when I can.

Stay curious, dear readers. And remember, sometimes the most innocuous objects – like a drawer full of joker cards – can change everything.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making. In recent years, AI has made significant strides in creative fields, including art generation.
2. The unconscious, a concept central to psychoanalytic theory, refers to the part of the mind containing thoughts, memories, and desires that are not consciously accessible but may influence behaviour and experience.