Dr. Minnie Young

How long have you had an interest in art and what does art do for your heart and soul?
My love of art began in childhood. My mother had an eye for beauty. She pointed out beautiful patterns in nature, lovely architecture, and pleasing color combinations. We had art pieces at home, including a fascinating image of a peacock made from hundreds of seashells. In high school, I had an excellent art teacher who brought us to museums and taught us to truly see art. Our textbook was titled Learning to Look, and the very first lesson was: “There is order in disorder.” I still marvel at that thought. In college, another inspiring teacher took us into the field to collect a huge chunk of clay. We cleared away the grass and roots, then sculpted something from that raw, earthy material. It was amazing!

Art brings me joy. We can create the kind of world we want to live in with art. In my case, I like to surround myself with images and objects that cheer and inspire me.

What is your background in Canva and ChatGPT and what specifics did you use from each project to build your art pieces?
I started using Canva a few years ago to lay out our state newsletter. Soon, I discovered how awesome it was for presentations, posters, worksheets, and video clips. I also use it to lay out picture books, which I’ve self-published on Kindle. As for ChatGPT, I only discovered it last year, but it quickly became my favorite “thinking buddy.”

For the Roses of Leadership project, I asked ChatGPT for ten quotes combining themes of roses and leadership. When I asked for citations, it explained the quotes were generated based on my prompts, and could be attributed to me! I then asked for quotes from real people, but many didn’t quite match the DKG spirit. So I selected the best from the original list, revised them to DKG’s values, and made them my own.

With my quotes in hand, I opened Canva. I looked at poster designs for inspiration, but started each project from a blank canvas. After creating several designs, I shared them with Patty Simon for proofreading and feedback. With a few revisions, I chose my two best pieces and submitted them to the DKG Art Gallery.

Share some tips for members new to AI art?
There are so many tools out there! Canva is my current favorite, but I also use Google Slides. Just open a blank project, throw in some words and images, delete what doesn’t work, play with colors, and soon you’ll have something that makes you smile!

Don’t be afraid to experiment! Try ChatGPT or Grok. They can generate images based on your prompts. For example, I have a friend who loves daisies, so on her birthday, I asked ChatGPT to create an image of daisies with a cheerful “Happy Birthday!” on top. I texted it to her, and she loved it!

If you’re on Facebook or other platforms, it’s easy to create fun, personalized images using AI tools.

I’m also facilitating the DKG Visionary Network, Tech Savvy Sisters. We’re exploring AI and Canva together. Join us! We meet every third Wednesday of the month at 5:30 CST.