Portal Master
Generative art collaboration 3
Welcome
Welcome to the second April edition of Eclectic Extras. I’m so excited to share this collaboration with you. Chippy introduced me to p.ai.nterly and we hit it off immediately. She's such a talented artist.
You can find p.ai.nterly on both Instagram and Redbubble.
The collaboration
My collaboration with p.ai.nterly was so much fun. I love all the images we came up with! The two in the images I’ve shared are our favorites.
I won’t belabor the collaboration process, as many of you will have read it twice now. For those who have not, you can find it in Eclectic Extra’s first edition in which you’ll also find my collaboration with Mixed AI Art.
In the images below, I’m contributor A and p.ai.nterly is contributor B. As you can see, we shared four words each, for a total of eight shared words. We then each went our separate ways, adding another set of four (different) words, leaving us both with a total of twelve words to form our prompts.
I especially loved the images p.ai.nterly came up with. She chose her words well!
The story
Well, the words and images in this story led me to a strange place. I’m beginning to think that this will be the norm for these collaborations.
Portal Master
A wondrous creature made of magic and stardust guards the portal that leads through the nebula into another reality.
Well, guarding may be putting it a little strongly. Though the fuzzy, teal cat-like being wields great powers over both time and space, it emanates an inviting warmth that lures travelers into its orbit.
It has a job to do, bringing the realities together while simultaneously keeping them apart. Just enough of each leaks into the other to keep both stable and expanding. Without this admixture, the realities would collapse in on themselves, leaving existence in flux and in need of another bang to begin a new cycle of universe creation.
It’s happened before and when it does everything halts for the briefest of moments. A cataclysmic shift follows immediately on the heels of that pause, bringing a violent indrawing of all matter on both sides of the portal.
One wouldn’t say the creature truly thinks. Not like humans and other sentient creatures do at any rate. It more just—is. Ever creating, ever reaching. Stretching out its influence within the realities that exist on both sides of the portal.
There are those who claim the creature lures people to their deaths. It laughs at this and the ripples of that laughter expand ever outward from its core, the curiosity of it further enticing unwary spacefarers.
Beware its call, for if you heed it, you will find yourself in an alternate reality, there to live out your days. For once matter passes through the portal, it can never return to the reality in which it was born, lest the balance shift and the universes collapse.
How do I know this? I am the portal—the creature’s master as it is mine. Together we create the reality you know and the one you don’t. Together we keep you safe.
Afterword
You can view the ten images (five each) that p.ai.nterly and I chose to publish on Instagram. P.ai.nterly's are the odd numbered ones (1,3,5,7,9) and mine are the even (2,4,6,8,10). You can view all of them here.
May 14th’s collaboration will be with artist Jordan Magnusson. You’re in for a special treat with this one as Jordan also draws amazing images. We changed up the collaboration a bit, adding one of his drawings into our prompts. The results are amazing!
Let me know what you think of today’s collaboration and the odd little story that grew out of both the image and the sixteen prompt words we used in creating them.
I love this story! It ignites my imagination. A writer, an artist really are the masters of the portal between two universes. Great collaboration! Great story!
It was a joy to collaborate with you! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful story with our art!