Local artist Patrick Redmon opened his newest exhibit, “Form from Chaos” at the Kokomo Art Center October 19, which celebrates the process of creating art and the renewed joy it has brought Redmon.

Kokomo Art Center Curator Lesley Wysong said the collection of pieces, which range from large-form paintings to prints of AI-created illustrations, has generated a unique response from visitors and artists alike.

“I think they were just intrigued by what he’s doing. Like I said, it’s so different than what they normally see. … It’s almost got a story to the artwork, and people can enjoy that I think. It’s not so literal where you look at it and say, ‘Oh, it’s a barn.’ His [art] is almost mystical.”

Redmon said the title of the exhibition, “Form from Chaos,” has driven his art for some time. He explained that the exploration of “pareidolia,” or the human tendency to perceive faces and figures in random patterns, has allowed him to begin enjoying art again.

“That was a technique that got me back into art, when I had kind of quit for a while. Because it was a joyful process. I liked the process of discovery, of finding these forms that just appeared out of nowhere – seemingly out of the chaos of painting,” Redmon said.

He began using more traditional media like painting and drawing to create large pieces of art with many colors, and loose forms that seem to emerge from the canvas. Redmon described the process as free-flowing and spontaneous.

“I just free painted. And whatever came, came. And then eventually I developed the skill to kind of articulate those objects so that other people could also see them; to outline the form, to shade the form, and that kind of thing. I don’t know ahead of time how I’m going to color them. … So to me that’s still a joyful process,” Redmon said.

As he continued experimenting with painting, he was drawn to artificial intelligence’s ability to rapidly take ideas and create visual representations of the prompts. While the process is different, he enjoys the unexpected nature of creating the art.

“I think the AI is so fast at articulating the idea, but you don’t actually know how it’s going to look. Whereas with the painting, it does take a lot more personal investment of time and energy to get the image you want, but you can get basically exactly what you want the first time,” he said.

The connection between traditional media and artificial intelligence may not be immediately evident, but Redmon said the joy he gets from the process is similar. That’s what has driven his experimentation.

“To me, that is a similar joy, in that you can start with this idea but you really have no clue how the computer itself is going to articulate it. Sometimes it’s comical, sometimes it’s really cool, sometimes it’s just interesting. … It gives me an idea that I would not have thought of myself, which could be used for further art projects,” he said.

At the opening reception of the exhibit Oct. 21, Redmon set up a laptop with the AI art generator he used to create his work, “Starryai.” Wysong said visitors young and old gathered around the computer to experiment with the app.

“There were people all ages. In fact, I had someone that was 90 sitting there on the laptop and doing it. … People were kind of standing and waiting, they all wanted to do that, which I found intriguing. I thought, boy, this is going to take us in a new direction, I think. Not that everybody’s going to generate AI art, but I think they were intrigued by the fact that you can,” Wysong said.

Redmon said the media tends to focus on the negative aspects of artificial intelligence, but he thinks the technology has potential to inspire others to create art. He teaches art at Maconaquah Middle School, and uses AI in his classes and is passionate about exposing people to the possibilities the technology has.

“As an art teacher, I love to see people create. So that was really interesting. I saw several people throughout the night that probably never would have done this on their own actually sit down, type in prompts and create art. … Now they have a new tool which allows them to articulate an idea that never would have been shared before,” Redmon said.

Redmon’s passion for community is also visible throughout the exhibit. 48 prints of AI-generated art are being sold to fund a scholarship for art students, and several of the pieces will be displayed in Peru at the conclusion of the exhibit. A tiger mural will hang in Peru High School, and a mural of Gabriel Godfroy and the Miami homelands will hang outside the Miami Nation of Indiana’s tribal headquarters in downtown Peru.

Redmon said he began creating these large pieces as a way to make art more visible in the community and inspire others to create.

“I think the more art we have in our community, the more artistic we become. Because it shows people that you can appreciate art, it shows them that they can do art, and that they can have some impact of just hanging a picture in the community,” Redmon said.

Wysong was particularly drawn to the large paintings that Redmon created for the exhibit, specifically one titled “Galaxy Traffic Control Officer.” Painted on half a ping pong table and mounted in a room with color-changing lights and a blacklight, the three figures depicted in the painting surface and descend into the dark background.

Wysong said she sat in the room one day for over half an hour, watching as the painting transformed. As an artist herself, Wysong said the exhibit has encouraged her to experiment with her own work.

“I think it’s neat to see someone stretching and a lot of different media. He’s been experimenting and, you know, I love that. We all kind of get in a little rut, and it’s inspiring for me to want to maybe try some different things that I haven’t done,” she said.

“Form from Chaos” will be on exhibit until November 30 at the Kokomo Art Center in Highland Park. The Kokomo Art Association is a non-profit organization that is run by volunteers like Wysong, and features local artists throughout the year. For more information, visit their website at kaaonline.org