Mike de Sousa is an artist, composer, writer, and photographer who has created public art since 1982.
Mike's work often brings together light, sound, and words to form a unified whole.
One Hundred Artworks is his evolving retrospective that was first published in 2015. As with all his creative work, the audience focus entirely on the content as there are no commercial links of any kind. Mike considers those things of most value should be free and for all.
Motivated by his wish for his work to be accessible to a broad audience, Mike uses lucid poetic language, short form music compositions, and vivid art. Mike's work expresses the value of peace, the care of one another, the earth, and living things, and that most precious quality of a life well lived: love.
Art in one form or another has been essential to my life since early childhood. Art is the means I use to connect with others: of my experiences, observations, feelings, and thoughts.
I work with a range of mediums to create art, both physical and digital. I choose the medium that I feel offers the best opportunity to express and communicate those things that are closest to me.
Music is for me by far the most instinctive artform I work with. I enjoy the dance of sound and the life for its moment music gives.
I value the music of words becuase of their meaning and play. Words can provide clear pathways to healing personal and societal harm, and their use in art are the most enduring and forceful tools of political change.
Much of my visual work is created in the digital realm with light. I use a variety of tools and painting techniques to assist me. After I manipulate and fine-tune the line, forms, and composition, I am ready to apply an array of tonal techniques I have learned through my photographic work.
I have been an early adopter of technology in my creative process for over fifty years, from using the first digital music effects, hardware, and recorders, to the use of digital cameras and photographic software.
Today, when creating some of my visual art, one of many tools that assists me is ai (artificial intelligence). As with every creative tool I use, ai may act as a plaything to experiment with ideas, or to iterate ideas that can provide pathways to explore, but ai plays no part in the work’s conception, or as a ‘partner’ in my aesthetic decisions about how my ideas are shaped into a completed work. ai is not conscious of any action or idea I make. I do not use ai to ‘make art with me' as one might with ac (artificial consciousness), but as one of many tools that I may use in my creative journeying. I do not use ai in either my music or writing.
You may be interested in reading The Artist And Artificial Intelligence at 500 Portraits, and more generally of my ideas about my practice and aesthetics at The Craft of Art.
My hope is that my creative efforts produce art that captivates you, is thought-provoking, and draws you back, for it is only on our return that we begin to love.
Visit Mike's Personal Site for more about his background...
Discover more of Mike's work at Art Lover VIP which also features social and environmental publications.
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