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HELLO ART PEOPLE!
Welcome back to another issue of the Open Studio Newsletter. We are now publishing two issues per month:
STEP OUT: As in, explore the wider world out there through events, opportunities, and advice for seeking funds
SINK IN: As in, grab your comfort object and soak in our artist features, podcast, and listings
In today’s issue, we are sinking in, featuring a new podcast episode with the teen founders of Lens of Youth, a Sammamish-based nonprofit that raises awareness, understanding, and inclusion for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, through shared arts experiences.
There’s also a piece I wrote after surveying artists about their use of AI in creating art…but I’m warning you, it drifted into some pretty unexpected places! The promise of AI technology is right up there next to the perils, and the layers of subconscious are definitely at play in how we are developing opinions about it.
We also suggest you take a trip to Bainbridge this summer!
But before we get into it, I have a few things to share about our sponsors:
TYSA (Tacoma Youth Symphony Orchestra) and local violin shop Hammond Ashley put on an annual Bass Festival that is coming up at the end of July. Double bass players of absolutely any age are welcome to attend this special workshop. If these ginormous instruments aren’t on your to-do list, check out the violins, violas, and cellos at the Issaquah store and shop to see what may be a better fit. Although I can attest - everybody needs a bass player!
Fresco Mental Health is a counseling practice run by Tina V. Hays, a licensed mental health counselor in Washington State and a registered art therapist. Practicing in downtown Issaquah, she serves adults in a relaxed art studio environment, and accepts insurance. If you need any kind of reset, check-in, or help untangling some challenges, art could be the way.
General FAQ:
Can I send in my arts event? Yes, always!
Can I suggest a feature? Sure! What’s interesting to you?
Can I send in a question for the arts fundraising advice column? Yes, please do!
Are you seeking advertisers? Yes! Full info for individuals and organizations here.
What counts as art? Self expression in any medium.
Please send all inquiries and feedback to [email protected]
PODCAST EPISODE #5: LENS OF YOUTH
Felicia and Florence (center) receiving an official proclamation from the City of Sammamish, officially recognizing March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.
Here’s a short preview of the conversation:
Check out the full conversation here, or search it up and subscribe on your preferred podcast app, such as Apple Music or Spotify.
All episodes produced in 2026 can now be found on your preferred podcast app or on our website:
Feb 2026: Anna Sullivan, Writer at Pidge Post
Apr 2026: Sarah Miller, Creator of Show Your Art
May 2026: Larkwing, Local Acoustic Duo
AI IN THE ARTS
AI, Art, and The Uncanny
by Ali Marcus
Part 1
Swirling in the background, and the foreground, and throughout all four corners of the artist’s mind, are questions, fears, convictions, and all manner of emotions about AI. A layperson mostly comes across this in conversations or writings about how AI is going to affect art and the creative process in the future, but it misses the key point: of course, the change has already come.
Friends, we are living in an era where the train has already left the station, and we are all on it. We huddle together, zooming through a land that is recognizable as our own but with that signature, indescribable sense of The Uncanny.
The concept of The Uncanny etched itself in my brain as a teenager, when I first read House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski - a novel essentially about a house that is bigger on the inside than on the outside. Not at all coincidentally, House of Leaves, published in 2000, is a hallmark text (and subtext, proto-text, hyper-text) ushering in the internet age. It’s a meditation on what a story is and how we tell it, how it is linked to other forms of art (see Danielewski’s sister Poe’s standout album, Haunted), other people’s experience, and one’s own depths of dimension. The experience of reading it, which is never the same twice, cements an understanding of human interconnectedness that technology seems to bring about in disturbing, captivating ways. Thus, The Uncanny.
Sigmund Freud’s 1919 essay, The “Uncanny,” arrives at some conclusions about this feeling that easily resonate today. He writes, “an uncanny experience occurs either when repressed infantile complexes have been revived by some impression, or when the primitive beliefs we have surmounted seem once more to be confirmed.” The essay ventures through discussions of doppelgängers, coincidences, and hauntings, connecting essential human fears to the essential human truth - that we are all going to die.
In Freud’s view, the life/death connection, being something that we all know is true but can never consciously experience both sides of, is the ultimate paradox and creates the feeling of The Uncanny. No amount of civilized society or modern technology can rid us of our fate, as much as we try to repress the knowledge of it.
In fact, modern technology may be bringing us closer to confronting it. Masahiro Mori, a pioneering Japanese roboticist, famously developed the idea of “The Uncanny Valley” in a 1970 essay about the harm that automated technology can cause if it tries to be too lifelike (here is the first authorized English translation from IEEE Spectrum).
Mori’s depiction of the human response (affinity) to robots as they attempt to achieve a more lifelike presence. (Source: IEEE Spectrum)
He wrote, “Because of the risk inherent in trying to increase their degree of human likeness to scale the second peak, I recommend that designers instead take the first peak as their goal, which results in a moderate degree of human likeness and a considerable sense of affinity. In fact, I predict it is possible to create a safe level of affinity by deliberately pursuing a nonhuman design.”
The Uncanny Valley is the result of a kind of technological hubris, the consequences of which are playing out in our daily lives. Our friends Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Siri, and others are whispering in our ears that we can all live forever, which we must - and cannot - reconcile with our knowledge that the end comes for us all.
Part 2
The job of the artist is to express. For this reason, artists can be conductors of social energy. A painting, an essay, a quilt, a song, or a dance can communicate something that other people can feel, or perhaps they already feel it but it hasn’t yet been recognizable to them as a feeling they can name, until someone’s creation brought it to the fore.
This month, I made the rounds among some highly accomplished artists in our region to see what was on their minds about AI in the arts space. I was curious to gather up what people are feeling. What are people absorbing about living through this time? How might that wend its way into the creative process?
This sampling of artists displayed a wide range of enthusiasm, hope, cynicism, and wariness, although the predominant emotion is ambivalence, a lot of which sounds like the discomfort of The Uncanny.
Overall, they tended towards practicality, which feels like a coping mechanism. It’s not a bad choice; when you’re in your midcareer, you have projects going on, deadlines to adhere to, new phases you are working towards, relationships to strengthen, and portfolios to update. Confronted with what is possibly the largest societal shift any of us have seen or will see in our lifetimes, you still have to keep the machine around you going. You still have bills to pay.
Storyteller and ritual creator Divya Rajan uses AI to generate slides for presentations, and to find resources for artistic research. Printmaker Sahily Perez McMillan uses AI to “write SEO friendly titles and meta descriptions for web pages and Etsy listings.” Painter Juliet Fiss uses AI to create “interactive games and apps that add an educational layer” to her paintings, and as an editor to her writing after she drafts a piece in her own voice.
You’ll notice that this is all tangential work to the production of art, highlighting the nature of the contemporary arts ecosystem, which requires artists to also be digital designers, marketers, pr specialists, and website managers. Chris Pirillo, a self-described Creative Entrepreneur, is a prolific creator and cultivator of the maker community, whose use of AI is integral to his creative process. He likens AI to any other artistic tool, like a brush and some paint.
“These tools are inherently inert,” he points out, giving them no agency beyond the kind he decides to assign. His Vibe Arcade is a window into the creative synapses firing in his orbit.
Knowing how to assign or limit agency to AI comes up repeatedly as an important skill. Artists who are also experts in the software engineering field bring invaluable expertise, because they can play in both the tech world and the art world.
Juliet Fiss, who holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Washington, uses an approach often referred to as “agentic” software engineering. She employs AI tools to follow her directions, starting with the high-level architecture and also designing systems for planning, writing specifications, writing code, and testing the creations.
“It’s important to constrain the AI so that it cites its source. If something doesn’t seem correct to me, I can fact-check it against the original source.” Fiss is like a CEO who understands the roles each of her departments must play, what sub-systems need to be happening in each department, and what guidelines they all need in order to produce the ultimate end result. She understands that if she doesn’t define and explain these guidelines, the team will not produce what she envisions.
Fiss paints what she calls mathematical art - powerful paintings that render mathematical concepts in visual metaphor. Her paintings are created completely in analog, by hand. She asks, “I would never hire a person to come up with ideas for my paintings, so why would I use AI for that?”
“Gnothi Seauton (Huge Notations) - II” by Juliet Fiss
Closeup of the integers in “Gnothi Seauton (Huge Notations) - II”
Recently Fiss built interactive overlays so that people can explore the math concepts in her work, from prime number patterns to the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm. Make sure you visit those links and play with the filters that allow you to see different areas of her paintings spotlighting various mathematical processes.
She is quick to clarify, “I always finish the painting first and then add the interactive software layers as a later step.”
Part 3
It takes firm discipline to develop as a professional artist. This is serving artists well, because discipline is exactly the skill that helps define and retain artistic integrity when confronted with the AI tools we all now have access to.
This shows up as impulse control and the creation of personal ethical boundaries for some. Several artists made sure to state that they do not use AI to generate images or videos of any kind, ever. They either acknowledge that it never measures up to something the human can create, or they cite concerns about theft that they know they cannot control.
Many are concerned about environmental impacts of AI, which they apply in uneven ways to their use of AI, social media, or other tech services. You may be quick to point out that it’s impossible to draw clear lines and still exist in society - to use shipping companies, buy plane tickets, or engage in other transactions with companies that now rely on AI at an industrial scale.
But artists and creatives are often shy to speak up about their use of AI. They fear criticism, judgment, or worse, public shaming on social media in ways that can affect one’s professional reputation. An anonymous contributor points out, “It's much easier to blame the person trying to keep up than to hold accountable the systems profiting from the chaos while encouraging the rest of us to fight each other at the bottom.”
As a society, we are still combating the mob mentality that social media is built to foment. Juliet Fiss points out that the social media feeds themselves are curated by AI, which - can you feel it? - prickles your skin in that specifically uncanny way.
Even Freud knows we tend to oversimplify. He writes, “We must not let our predilection for smooth solution and lucid exposition blind us” to nuance. In his essay, this was meant to encourage an open-mindedness to the discussion of The Uncanny, an abstract - and yet fully tangible - feeling.
But I’ll take it as more general advice on this topic of existential dread. I know you’re all feeling it. I’m feeling it. Freud was feeling it. The passage of time, the uncertainty ahead, the mortality of it all - the characters change but the story always ends the same way.
How can we, as artists, channel the experience of living through this time? How can we help others make meaning of it?
Sahily Perez McMillan reminds us that “it is important to remember you are a human and art is a form of communication between humans.” Artists are a constant reminder of this undeniable fact.
Because I Couldn’t Help Myself
Aren’t you a little curious what AI would have to say about the arts and AI? I put this question into Claude:
I'm surveying artists on whether or not they use AI in their creative work, and if they are willing to go on the record, using their names, with their answers. Can you imagine yourself a professional artist, mid-career, with professional success and confidence but a lot of ambitious goals as well, and create an answer?
What came back was fascinating to me. Notice that AI also landed on the idea of discipline as a differentiator - should I feel validated, or outraged?
Name: Marisol Vega
Medium: Installation art and public murals
I use AI as a research and ideation tool, the same way I might use a sketchbook or a walk through a neighborhood I've never been to — it's a way of generating unexpected collisions that I then react to. I'll feed it a concept I'm stuck on and see what it spits back, not because I want its answer, but because its wrong answers are often more interesting than my right ones. What I make from there is mine: the judgment calls, the material choices, the relationship to the site and the community it's in.
Where I get cautious is when AI starts to feel like a shortcut past the discomfort, because the discomfort is usually where the work is. I've had to learn to notice when I'm using it to think and when I'm using it to avoid thinking. That's not a critique of the technology — that's just a discipline question I have to ask myself about any tool.
I'm happy to be on the record with this. I think artists who are using AI and staying quiet about it aren't doing the field any favors. The conversation needs more honest voices in it, not fewer.
If you’re looking for more reads about issues and discoveries related to local artists in King County, here is what has been featured earlier in 2026:
Jan 2026: A Conversation with Artist Gail Baker
Mar 2026: A Conversation with Lucia Flores-Wiseman
Apr 2026: Working Artists Raising Kids: A Conversation with LaMecca Bostwick, Rose McMahill, and William Cook
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WORTH A TRIP: BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
From many years as a touring musician, I developed a condition that I call Ferry Anxiety. You know it when you feel it. What time is the boat I need to be on? What time is the boat before that one, just to be safe? Actually, for peace of mind, I’ll get on the boat before that one and then I can relax.
When you have to get on a Seattle ferry in the height of summer for a work commitment, you develop coping mechanisms like this, because, well, you have no choice. The majesty of the Puget Sound in summer and the glorious sense of displacement on the islands always manages to deliver.
This month we are suggesting you brave the ferry lines and take a trip over to Bainbridge Island. You could walk on the ferry and sort out transportation sans car on the other side, because most things are walking or biking distance anyways.
You won’t be able to fit it all in in one day, because there are so many fancy arts experiences over there. BIMA (Bainbridge Island Museum of Art) is always a good bet, with free admission and rotating exhibits showcasing contemporary perspectives on local culture. Opening July 3 is “Cloth, Paper, Stitches,” celebrating what handmade books can represent to a person or a society. Analog seekers, book nerds, pathological scrapbookers: there isn’t anywhere else in our region where you’re going to see something like this!
Down the street a couple blocks, glass artists Dan Friday and Raya Friday (siblings) are showcasing sculptural glass pieces at Bainbridge Arts & Crafts. Open through June 28, make sure to stop by - I got to meet Dan and talk with him about his work on the Spotlight North Studio Tour in 2025, and felt his passion and his original perspective immediately. This is glass art with a point of view.
There is also sometimes great live music to find on Bainbridge! Our recommendation for August 2 is to see Portland-based Dumpster Joe at Eleven Winery. I’ve never been to this venue and don’t have any idea about the wine (you’ll need to find another newsletter for that), but I have seen Dumpster Joe play, so I know it’s going to be one good old time.
For the younger set (or anyone!), if you have time on Bainbridge you also want to visit Bloedel Reserve. It is a gorgeous place, but it’s not cheap, especially if you want to bring the family. So, here is a good excuse to pair it with some art: Botanicartoons Workshop on June 27. Open to kids 4th grade and up - and adults - this is one of those unique opportunities that hits all the senses at once.
At some point, you’re going to get hungry, and while it’s not hard to find great food in Bainbridge Island, there really is a must-eat destination: Pizzeria Bruciato! Margherita for the kids, and anything with mushrooms on it for the adults. Take it to go and eat it on the beach, or go have a picnic with Pia the Peacekeeper, hiding in a nearby park!
Speaking of park treasures, BIMA has a fun arty treasure hunt running through the month of June. If you are on public lands in Kitsap County this month, you may come across hand-blown pink glass orbs (made by Hilltop Artists, a youth-development arts organization in Tacoma) hiding in the brush. If you find it, you get to keep it! Here are the rules.
My wish is for all of you to be on a treasure hunt for art this summer. Whether you find it in the woods, in your garage, in an airport lounge, under a beach towel, in a rental car, or in the sunlight reflecting off a wet pebble in the dirt…you’ll find it if you are looking!
CHECK OUT THIS MONTH’S “STEP OUT”!
Starting in May 2026, the Open Studio Newsletter divided into two sections: STEP OUT and SINK IN. You’ll now be hearing from us twice a month: once with a long list of ways to get out in the community, and again with some features and links to explore all by yourself with a warm cup of tea.
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LOCAL SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT
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Whether you’re here for a fresh cut, hair extensions, or a restorative facial, every detail is designed with your well-being in mind.
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At House of Layo, you don’t just leave looking amazing—you leave feeling renewed and connected.
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