Generative Art?

It has been almost a year since everyone started feeding their photos to ChatGPT to get a Ghibli version of themselves. I only remembered because a stranger posted a flashback of theirs. I never tried it. I am a little too attached to my face to hand it to a machine, and some part of me is convinced a doppelganger of me is out there waiting to be born.

I am no artist, but the first time I saw one of those portraits, it looked genuinely good. Better than anything I could draw.

That sent me back to middle school. A friend of mine was really good at sketching, and back then I enjoyed it too. Nothing serious, no shadows, no composition, no idea what I was doing. I could basically outline what I saw. But every so often someone would recognize what it was, and that felt great. But somewhere along the way I got cautious. I started weighing every risk and quietly lost the nerve to just make something without bracing for criticism.

People keep saying everyone in art and tech is done for. Still, every auto 3D mesh tool I have poked at either hands me messy topology or the same shape on repeat. I am no hardcore artist, but I want art that has a soul, and maybe the trick is to stay a little ignorant and a little curious, so we keep looking at the world like it is our own canvas.