ROCK SPRINGS – A new exhibit featuring local artist David von Metz will be displayed at the Community Fine Arts Center next week.
The exhibit, titled “In My Element” will be on display Nov. 2 through Dec. 28. An artist reception is planned to take place Nov. 2 from 2-4 p.m.
According to the CFAC, the exhibit is divided into two sections, one featuring a combination of inkjet prints, acrylic paint, and hammered-in nails or glued-on wood shapes. The other section features AI-generated images Metz utilized the Midjourney image generation tool to create.
“I’m excited about the potential for using AI as a creative tool, and I’ve chosen artworks for this exhibit that will (hopefully) give visitors a sense of some possible creative directions for AI created images,” Metz said. “For me, the process of making AI images is creatively similar to photography. When you use a camera to take a photograph, the camera can do nothing without human intervention and control. The photographer chooses the subject, camera placement, exposure, lighting and so on. In a similar way, Midjourney AI can do nothing without your creative input. You specify the subject, mood, details of the desired image, and so on.”
Metz has had his work previously displayed at the CFAC and the Wyoming Governor’s Capitol Art Exhibition. He also had solo exhibitions at galleries in Casper.
Metz said his education and work life have been based in science and mathematics, but has always been involved with art and image making. He said he enjoys using software such as Photoshop to make images, saying he views his artwork as “visual theorems that explore our perceptions of the world.”
“Much of my recent work is highly geometrical. With my mathematical background, I feel comfortable exploring the image-making possibilities of mathematical transformations such as conversion to polar coordinates, or iterative processes where I generate multiple transformations and have them interact with one another as layers in Photoshop,” he said.