The Art Base displays two new contrasting methods of producing art

The Art Base showcases two contrasting art forms through its new exhibition, which opened Friday and runs through Dec. 7. Dorothy Raymand sews fabric landscapes based on traditional quilting techniques, while Ann Morgan produces paintings employing the use of artificial intelligence.

The two Denver-based artists are both over 50 years old, and while one uses the traditional techniques of sewing, the other has trained her own AI model to inspire her oil paintings.

Raymand has sewn all of her life, and for 15 years, she has worked exclusively with textiles to create textured fabric landscapes. Her works directly draw from the tradition of quilt making; she’s even a member of SAQA: Studio Art Quilt Associations, which promotes the art of quilt making in both older and younger generations.

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“The youngest generations are really interested in repurposing, reusing, and recycling, and sewing fits right into that,” she said. “I do hope that the skill stays on.”

Her landscapes reflect both real and imagined places, but they recall the Colorado West, as well as the seaside, where land meets the ocean.

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“What I like about where the ocean meets the land is it’s just more interesting than the ocean itself. To me, it’s fascinating because water has different colors, and land has different colors. From an aerial photo, you can see all of the interesting patterns and dynamics. I like to explore how shadow and light react through different colors,” she said. “I love the subtleties of color (in fabric). You can get 50 different shades of green because each fiber takes green differently. And, I love the feel of different kinds of fabrics — soft, shiny, fuzzy. I use texture as a feature in my art.”

Through her seven large pieces, which span up to 48 inches wide and 35 inches high, as well as her smaller works at The Art Base, she hopes to connect viewers with memories of similar landscapes.

“I want to evoke a sense of recognition — a feeling of ‘Yes, I have been there,'” she said. “My ocean-land pieces are all about the ebb and flow of water as it meets the land.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Morgan taps into memories with the aid of AI. She knows employing AI for art is controversial, particularly within the artist community, but she believes it serves as a collective memory for everyone.

“I’ve gotten a lot of flack — a lot of pushback from artists … (but) that’s what I hope to tap into, is that collective memory,” she said.

She worked in technology for 20 years before leaving her career to focus on art — and her life. Leading up to her 50^th birthday, she found herself in a bit of a midlife crisis.

“(I wanted to) figure out the value of being here. It was an existential crisis. Fifty years is a long time to be on the earth and to collect baggage,” she said. “It was important to paint through that crisis.”

Through therapy, she began evaluating her memories of childhood and early 20s, including what to let go of and what to keep.

Her large-scale paintings, the latest which measures 72 x 120 inches, are a statement in and of themselves. When she attended college in the 1990s, she was encouraged to approach her work from a personal, female perspective, which also meant small, she said. Now, she projects images produced by AI on the wall and begins to paint.

Her process begins by writing text prompts, using whatever she emotionally feels that day, to see what layered images AI produces. She has incorporated her own photographs, friends’ photos, and social media images to inspire her paintings.

“I don’t often use the results,” she said. “It’s just a meditation.”

She does, however, project digital sketches inspired by AI and augmented through Photoshop onto her canvas. The inside joke involves the fact that she uses the same projector to produce art that she did to deliver PowerPoint presentations at tech meetings.

Projecting the images means she usually paints in the dark.

“It’s a surprise when I turn on the lights,” she said about her oil paintings.

She often creates a new digital sketch through AI based on where her painting has gone and projects it onto the canvas once again.

“It’s a process between digital and traditional art,” she said.

Her series, “Once When I Was You,” portrays how digital life has become central to the human experience, as people generally remained glued to their phones and computers, often tied to social media. Her works result from her life review, recalling various versions of herself in the past while perhaps offering viewers a fresh perspective on their own lives.