chriswoodartist

8 years ago I shared studio 1 at Hotwalls in Portsmouth UK. We operated as a collective known as “Fire-monkeys”. Initially there were over 20 artists’ and we each had a slot during the week when we could use the space. We each had a day and specific hours when we could either have the entire unit to ourselves or share between two of us. We had an ongoing exhibition showcasing our talents and I sold a reasonable amount of work but I ended up making artwork that I hoped would appeal to the locals rather than work for myself. Clearly the rent had to be paid.

Eventually, people left the group, for whatever reason and we ended up with about 8 of us sharing the space, which was great but after a while I realised it was not an ideal situation and left both the group and the studio. If I had a studio in that location to myself it might have made a difference but at the time, the restrictions that the council imposed on studio holders were a red flag and it that wasn’t enough, the studio rents were unaffordable, unless you became a shop rather than a working studio. At the time I was very fortunate as I also had a studio at ArtSpace Portsmouth, where I have been a member since  1995. Studio shares can be a great experience, providing you are sharing with only one other artist.

I digress ! Below is the first of many designs that I played with when I was trying to establish a logo for Firemonkeys. Sadly time got the better of me and this little linocut joined the ranks of my many unfinished projects.

Today I’m revisiting this for reasons that I will disclose later.

I am very wary of AI within the creative industry but today I thought “what the hell”  and downloaded  “Dola” (or Cici as it used to be known). It is fun and you can keep editing and tweaking the results. it’s an unusual process because the results are so quick. As an established artist I am used to drawing being a slow process and I enjoy the challenge but with Dola something that looks quite reasonable appears within 20 seconds but reasonable is not perfect and perfection takes time . The whole thing reminds me of when desktop publishing became so accessible to anyone with a PC and a printer – BUT it certainly didn’t turn everyone into competent graphic designers !  Outcomes were often garish and lacking in basic design principles. My observations of Dola, so far, are that it’s a useful tool to aid composition but an aid is all it is (at present).  The air brushed images are very competent but lack sophistication and soul. These apps are supposed to learn from their user which is both good and worrying in equal measures ! In conclusion the jury is out !

I developed a few ideas with Dola and redrew the results, using the tools that I have used for the past 50 years, namely, a soft pencil, a pen and my collection of Graphic Brush Pens. My aim was to develop about six different anthropomorphic characters. Once I’ve got a little further with them I’ll post them on here but for now you’ll have to make do with a print of a rather acrobatic monkey !
copyright Chris N Wood 24.11.25