art without ai

grab lightly, pray often

Harvested and purchased the seeds to these flowers sometime in July 2025.

Planted them at some point between unloading the dishwasher and violin practice in October 2025.

Watered. Weeded. Received 25 million mosquito bites. (I might be exaggerating.) Forgot about watering. Frantically ran out one afternoon to see if they needed watering. They did. Lost half of them. Prayed over the rest.

Gathered more mosquito bites. Developed mysterious rashes. Had a swollen lip for half an afternoon from something that bit me. Pulled more weeds.

Felt extremely frustrated at how overwhelming the weeds were. Almost doused the entire plot in Round-Up. Calmed down. Went out one afternoon when the weather and my emotions were cooler and diligently pulled all the weeds again. Watered again. Stung, bit, and cut by something again.

Enjoyed several pleasant afternoons on the swing watching the pansies tremble in the wind. Loved the burst of cosmos in the Spring and laughed to find a California poppy when I thought they had all died. Felt so cold that we finally gave up and went in.

Found myself praying for grace in many areas of my life. Questioned whether it was worth it. Found scripture, and prayed it daily.

Remembered that flowers are frequently pressed. Realized I had parchment paper and the perfect Mediterranean cookbook for such an endeavor. Ran back outside to snip as many as I could. Told the six year-old to collect flowers with me. Won't it be fun? She couldn't keep up. She felt discouraged because she kept accidentally crushing the flowers. Replaced her broken flowers with my whole ones while she wasn't looking so she wouldn't get too discouraged. Whispered a prayer for grace to walk that delicate balance between helping and allowing a child to learn through difficulty. Pressed the flowers and then spent two days cleaning up the bugs that came inside from the pressed flowers.

Fielded quite a few questions about when would these pressed flowers be ready and are they ready now? Now? Can we check them now? No, we don't want to disturb them. Be patient. Realized in telling her to be patient I should probably try it myself. Prayed again.

Traveled. Ate. Worshiped. Did laundry. Felt overwhelmed. Finished school. Felt relieved. Missed text messages. Prayed for grace to be a good friend. Got discouraged. Remembered Jesus. Replied to friends. Checked on the pressed flowers. Realized how intricate and beautiful these blossoms were and was once again humbled by the way I always underestimate God's glory in Creation. Cheerfully made dinner sometime in May 2026. Released pressed flowers before we ate.

Glued flowers to thick paper after reading a book to my daughter and while listening to my husband read the Bible.

They still need to be framed, but this is what making art as an amateur looks like without AI. (And really, when I say AI, I'm simply referring to anything that promises glory without cost.)

Probably, the greatest temptation for an amateur artist or really anyone between 20 and 40; is the promise of speed and ease.

It's a kind of reductionism, and it shows up all the time in YouTube art videos. Three easy steps to creating a rose. How to master proportions in 5 minutes. Everything you need to know about oil painting in a time frame of 4 minutes? What? That's wild. I can't possibly believe that oil painting can be wholly known in 4 minutes.

But actually it's all over the internet. (Three things that can fix your marriage. I'm pretty sure if three things can fix your marriage then it's not broken. And I would put good money down that those with healthy marriages are doing a lot more than three things.) Learn Latin in one afternoon. How to master Spanish without putting forth any effort or time. Okay, the last part I added in. But that really is what they're promising you. It's the illusion that something beautiful or true or good can be had easily. It can't.

This kind of reductionism is fundamentally centered around a life without prayer. Any advice that allows you to grow, mature, and develop with out prayer and a healthy sense of your own dependence on Christ is fundamentally flawed.

It's also generationally forgetful. You see, what I love about being an amateur gardener or artist or poet or any number of works the Lord lays in front of me is the opportunity to share. Because somewhere wandering around in my backyard is a child who knows how to take a seed to the point of putting it on a wall to delight all who enter the room. She doesn't know she knows it. I didn't know how much I knew from my Mom either. But there will come a day when she will think, "I wonder if I could do that?" And that's when she will know that she can because she's been watching it be done over the course of years.

She will realize that mosquitoes aren't that bad, and seeds need a season, and prayer is for everyday, and discouragement is temporary, and life unfolds if we try not to grab to harshly at it.

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