Art is Life, Life is… Sheriff’s Canvas
One of the universal experiences a person has is that moment of déjà vu, or coincidence, or when we meet someone new and the sentiment stirs in our thoughts that we’ve met them before but just can’t quite place where, or that we’ve known them far longer than merely those introductory interactions.
“The far reaches hold never before seen planets, moons, stars, and who knows what else. [111*] HD Solanaverse Backgrounds at [0.01] SOL. I want Solanaverse to be a place where friends can come and hang out, a place that inspires, a place to hold, flip, talk about our failures and successes. A charity, a game, a collaborative effort with the rest of the solana community. I am calling my mint date The Big Bang. See you all there.” — Sheriff
“SolanaverseArt Background — Genesis mint of SolanaverseART. 111 1080p Backgrounds from the far reaches of the solanaverse.” — ME Bio
These moments often fleeting in an instant, flooding the mind with a sensation that harkens a greater familiarity in its wake that sticks with us exponentially longer than whence it came. These events seem even fewer as we age, being stuck in our ways or routines and not as open to new things, friends, feelings or emotions, making it harder to cross the threshold of kinship, let alone friendship, in the DeFi and NFT space.
It’s a reminder in that moment that through the vastness of space and time, we are predestined to inhabit that spot at that moment, meeting that new person, that patch of earth, that byte of metaverse, validating us cosmically and mortally with existential bliss in synchronicity that we are exactly where we are meant to be.
“Right, we both have different paths and different roads, and they have crossed at the perfect time” — Sheriff, from LegionLibrary Interview
I am referring to the subject in this spotlight series’ sophomore installment, a jovial, genuine soul with an exceptional talent, a quick-tongued and sharp-witted hilarious character whose generosity of spirit has affected me personally, a brother unbeknownst until the Legion fated our encounter, a man of many clever server pseudonyms, the unforgettable Sheriff, known on chain also as SolanaVerseArt, who internally illuminated 3 enlightening points to rest within thereafter, from both his work and our experience:
- The molding of genres or movements of art can be done by program and prompts depending on style, vision or intent
- The image manipulation mastery with modern technology is done by words and text
- The subjective responses manifested from his work demanded an honest documentation in acknowledgement, the truth of his work begs the truth in mine
“I just want to keep making more, keep experimenting with everything that I can. I don’t care if I sell them, I just want people to see them.” — Sheriff
The Depth and Ease Through Different Movements
Some pieces define the movement in which they can be categorized, as those and others can break down the borders and span a array of surrealism and impressionism, even modernism with splashes of genius in expressionism.
“It’s kind of how I feel about the NFT space right now. 5000 images of an animal with a joint, with one or two differences, catering to the masses, when Original artists are being left behind. All the markets cater to those mass produced products. I tried to get a mint on ME, but I was denied. ExchangeArt might be the only place for 1/1 products.” — Sheriff
With an impressionist slant and its emphasis on accurate depictions of light and its sources, I find predominantly in the Villages landscape banners and Hell-scapes. Viewing surrealism throughout the Dogs in Space collection with the illogical oppositions and symbolic images, capturing a sense of spontaneity, also a prominent trait in canine nature.
The individualism and breaking of tradition, disillusionment and experimentation through expressionism can honestly be argued its residency in almost every piece, also as in all art, much of the collection can be deliberated into any artistic movement if backed by commitment of examples, but frequent samples reside in the preview of the PFP collection.
The expressionism devours my senses, it captivates and essentially renders this audience hypnotized. Awake but unconscious, while mesmerized through the ocular senses as the subject leans into the ability to communicate and resonate from inside, beckoning a moment of time in shared silence to inquire upon each other. The distorted demons and their skillful expression presumably of the inner demons owned by the artist, by definition of expressionism, that uncannily mirror the demons causing daily tumult I harbor as well. During this process of enveloping my mind, a shred of consciousness remaining deliberates within the pleas and thoughts, seeking proof that this result or journey was intentional, as it instinctively and emotionally stirs an intense visceral reaction.
“For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” — Hamlet by Shakespeare
As I regain capacities still laying eyes over his works, the unfathomable fact that I continually ponder, even aloud to my optical subject at times, is the juxtaposing ideas that these works are produced with great manipulation and utilization of modern technology and approach, however achieves a result that transcends time of artistic styles of approximately 100 years or more, and when in the subject’s view, causing such a catatonic state and allowing it to interrogate its viewer as the viewer does it in return, making each day in that century felt in that moment. This is characteristic of art for centuries, and yet through modern practices, are framed achievements on cell phone or desktop screens in the form of an NFT.
“Die hard Art critics would probably say that it isn’t “art” but to me it is a useful program to take what is in my head, in my imagination, and using my own words, place those images into a format that I can share with other people. I can’t draw, I can’t paint, I learned this in college while working toward my Graphics Design degree.” — Sheriff
Utilizing Modern Technology in Master Class
“It was a mining rig, I got it to run a local program through disco diffusion, It is 10 graphics cards, it was awful and slow. But it is how I started learning how to do the AI art. Artificial intelligence, machine learning. Sometimes I get something I can put into photoshop the first time, sometimes I scrap hours worth of images, because I am just not feeling it.” — Sheriff
“That rig would take 3 hours to make one simple 512x512 picture, so I would let it run for several days. Pick the best ones out of the bunch, and then edit them in photoshop. Then I learned that I could rent a Tesla v100 GPU if I ran Disco diffusion in Google colab, I could make a prompt, have it render 10 or so pictures, then make sure it is doing what I want. Adjust prompts until I get exactly what I am looking for. Or well…. what the AI thinks I am looking for.” — Sheriff
During our interview process, following a clarification of meaning in this context to what a ‘prompt’ entails for AI art, Sheriff stated the response below, spawning an impromptu collaborative research experiment through his methodology.
“Prompts are a series of descriptors, “A photographic portrait of a stoic angel :: Studio Lighting :: sitting in silence, contemplating the universe :: Black paper, highly detailed, fine line-work” that would be a basic one, If you want a caption, i can load that up and run it and see what it makes.” — Sheriff
The renderings produced above are the result of the Midjourney program, below using Dall-e 2. The exact same prompts curiously resulted in two different styles. Tools in the process are Disco Diffusion, Google colab, Tesla v100 GPU, Midjourney and Dall-e 2 for fixing or altering faces and details, and Gigapixel for upscaling.
“With some of the expressionism I will use a feeling in the prompt, It is amazing that the AI can pick up on Anger, suspicion, joy, glee, stoic, etc. Then I will layer other prompts on top, like studio posing positions, “chin tilted down” “side profile”. With landscapes, I will close my eyes, and imagine a place I would like to see a glimpse of, then write it down for the machine to show me what it sees” — Sheriff
The overwhelming diversity of style allows the full spectrum of creation toward an intended result and mastery of many artistic movements by utilizing various combinations of programs, a fact only usurped in awe by the process I witnessed first-hand, and peaked the apex of interest as a writer, that unlike the art of a century ago or older, summoning the typical image of a stool, brush and canvas, art in this form is produced with words. The examples in our experiment used those exact and identical words, yet the AI programs interpreted them in varied ways with distinctly separate styles and tones.
Familiar with the cognitive benefits of art, journaling and conversation, other forms of conscious, modern and alternative medicine include meditation. In this practice of reaching the Higher self, it’s paired with the ability to feel and interact with the other incarnations our soul has had over 100 years time or greater, through linear time though mentally not entirely adhered to it, to heal our present minds.
The years I’ve spent on daily achieving this were at the forefront of thought while gazing upon his works also, even witnessing the process that elicited the transcendent authenticity from within, demanded the same in this submission of expressionist text in return, solidifying yet another reminder in that moment, in that physical and metaphysical space, in view of Sheriff’s art, I was exactly in the spot I was existentially preordained to inhabit. Medicine has many forms, one of which is therapy, meditation is also therapy, and as every psychiatric ward or educational systems, who undisputedly utilize it in many forms, prove art is therapy.
The Revelations in Subjective Response
“This is in praise of the vulnerable man
Why don’t you lead the rest of your cavalry home
This is a thank you for letting me in
Indeed in praise of the vulnerable man” — In Praise of the Vulnerable Man by Alanis Morissette
Sheriff’s abilities in photo manipulation and graphic design are incredibly provocative. Through a process I witnessed first-hand and for the first time, his depth of texture, color with detail poignantly radiating and palpable enough to climb from the screen and burrow into all the mental cracks. As I break down the walls of my psyche to fully allow in the subjects produced, to wash over me, to wrap around my consciousness and unconscious, I’m implored from within to accept the inevitable divulging of intensely personal experiences. The adage, there’s a thin line between madness and genius, rings in my ears while viewing his work of genius, from my perceived side of the line where I usually believe I find myself, or at least occasionally view myself from past inherited abuse.
Having had completely genuine, human, in depth and all-encompassing conversations with him and other members, founders and supporters in Legion’s Demon chat channel, documented and that can be read back by anyone, Sheriff and the Legion allowed and encouraged it to be ok to feel different, to have cracks in a broken psyche from past traumas. When living in the darkness for so long, in some ways it’s really the smallest of gestures that have the biggest effect. Words cannot express how grateful, inspired, amazed, humbled and entertained I am of you, Sheriff, my admiration and adulation is boundless and continually motivates the artist inside that I deserted long ago. Sheriff’s art invites you to not feel alone, fighting vices, or voices, or demons or the psyche alone.
“I peek into the hole, I struggle for control
The children love the show
But they fail to see the anguish in my eyes
Fail to see the anguish in my eyes” — Dope Hat by Marilyn Manson
In my DeFi experience, this all is true to be said regarding myself and the two Legion Elders, Trek and Stonez, also a close DeFi friend in Bayleytron who is a Legion Mod and LL Editor, or some chance encounters I’ve met in the space, like Echelon with TheEgoVerse, HarrowedWrath, and the Avalanche crew through collaborations with the Legion. Through the various introductions, events, or experiences that launched them beyond the threshold and scope of DeFi anonymity in some way, with elevating levels of relatability and mutual understanding of the parties involved formed a kinship that juxtaposes the mortal reality of brief introductions with a familiarity of a timeless brotherhood, ultimately initiated by an artistically captivating NFT, bringing the aforementioned to fruition.
“I hope every individual has a different reaction to my pieces, finding something new in them each time they look at them.” — Sheriff
The LegionLibrary homepage background and my Twitter banner art were produced by Sheriff, including the pages of Legion’s fully functioning native ecosystem. Find the Backgrounds Collection on secondary on the Legion Marketplace and MagicEden also is all that’s been released thus far. Post Legion’s Demon mints, Sheriff will then release his Banners and 1/1 collections. While site is in progress, Sheriff can be found on Twitter, in Legion chat channels, or Sheriff’s SolanaVerseArt discord.
If you are already in the Legion, you are exactly where you are meant to be, if you are reading this now, you are exactly where you are supposed to be. If you are struggling in any way with addiction, suicidal tendencies, or domestic abuse of any form, absolutely reach out to National or local resources, or at the very least, join the Legion and message me, because I know you, I was you.
“Do you ever feel like a misfit?
Everything inside you is dark and twisted
Oh, but it’s okay to be different
’Cause baby, so am I (so am I, so am I, so am I)
Do you ever feel like an outcast?
You don’t have to fit into the format
Oh, but it’s okay to be different
’Cause baby, so am I (so am I, so am I, so am I-I-I-I)” — So Am I by Ava Max
