Marilyn's Photos - Nov 2 2025 - Countdown Time

 

This is countdown time.  I know that Christmas is coming because I was in Michaels yesterday and Christmas was on sale.  Lots of Christmas.  Of course I did go into a retail store and that’s the key to Christmas countdowns in North America.  It is a retail experience these days.  In addition to retail, there is a movie countdown - brilliantly created by Hallmark.  It generates one-third of the company’s total advertising revenue - over 4350 million.  One article called it “Hollywood’s turkey factory.”   I can assume Europe offers a more traditional countdown to Christmas. The Advent Calendar started the countdown - and that is December 1st.  That’s a Christian tradition starting the season of Advent. Typically their countdown  starts with Christmas markets in mid to late November and then goes by the Advent calendar.   For those who like to jump into things, the Countdown season is here and the stores are prepared. What do you think of these winter orchards?  It was a few years ago with a severe frost and cold, so the leaves basically froze on the trees and didn’t turn colour.

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Marilyn's Photos - Oct 31 2025 - Big Skeletons this year

 

I know there have been skeletons on front lawns in previous years.  This year, they are bigger than ever.  Some are 12 feet tall.  And there seem to be so many.  It looks like the Home Depot might be the source of this trend. The giant skeleton is Skelly and this year has brought along pets.  This is part of the “Gruesome Grounds” collection. The price point quoted by the Spruce is $299 -  so might seem like an acceptable cost for the big scary day. The dog is 7 feet and the cat is 5 feet.  This is a pack of scary creatures so there is also a scarecrow, troll and a fire-breathing dragon.  There are more horror themes.  The Home Depot has an animated Chucky, Tiffany duo, Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster.  What do you do with these things in the off-season.  You buy the Home Depot smart storage solution - the decorate storage bag and the pro grip storagte tote.  Next, head over to Costco and find more giant skeletons with moving and blinking LCD eyes.  What about Walmart? Checking them online they are now on sale - get a 10 foot posable skeleton, bone colour for $75.00. The trend started in 2020 as a response to COVID, and it has just kept going. Here’s a picture from the good old days when it was just a hand - although it is coming out of the ground.

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Marilyn's Photos - Oct 30 2025 - AI Journey

 

My AI experience in visual art turns out to be a twisted road if you ask me.  I decided that I would no longer accept AI generated images in the two groups that I host on Fine Art America.  They are All Glorious Gardens - on the garden and flower topic, and Welcome Fine Artists - wide open with weekly features based on a theme.  I find the AI-generated images to be unrealistic - here’s an example below - the purple, purple and purple garden all aglow that is both unachievable for the plants shown or is clearly a cartoon-style garden or plant as in the black-stripe iris below.  It is clearly a fake, although very artful. That’s the norm, now.  But yesterday I discovered a new norm. I was moderating images and checking some to find out if they were AI-generated, I was surprised by the AI-generator detectors had different results. So I went checking with Google search for the images to see if the work is original.   I tested my own images.  When I checked Tidal Surge on the AI detector site, it rated it original work.  When I checked it as a thumbnail image on Google AI analysis, here’s the answer: I checked it as a larger image it indicated something else:   “The image is a piece of digital art by an artist named L.A. Johnson, titled "Heart of America". The artwork depicts a glowing orb with a swirling pattern at its center, surrounded by a textured, organic-looking background with flowing white lines. The text "america" and "eart" are visible at the bottom of the image. The title "Heart of America" and the visible text suggest a connection to the American Heart Association, a non-profit organization that funds cardiovascular medical research and educates on healthy living.” Yesterday it said it was by someone else.  And when I added Marilyn Cornwell Tidal Surge, it indicated there was no such thing.  When I changed it to Marilyn Cornwell Tidal Surge Print, it acknowledged it was by me, but wouldn’t retrieve the picture.  I had to type in “Show Tidal Surge Print” to get it to retrieve the image.  It is an usual picture, so maybe that was the source of this AI confusion.  It is an interpretation of one of Floyd Elzinga’s metal wall art pieces.  The original is below.   It turned out that each of my images checked with AI Google was identified as being by an artist other than me.  Each time, the image was given a name that could not be found anywhere by the artist it claimed created it.   The conclusion is to not use Google picture identification anymore as it isn’t reliable. Who knows where this will lead or end? It certainly is a strange journey to be on.

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Oct 29 2025 - French Provincial - 1960s vs 2025

 

When I was a young person there was a craze for “French Provincial” furniture     with  my parents’ generation.  When I look at articles about “classic French Provincial” furniture, the pictures show ornate pieces of dark wood furniture.  There are white and painted versions, but these weren’t so popular with my parents generation.   The legs are curved- called cabriole - with the claw feet and there are little swoops and swirls in the wood trim. There’s the example below.  Can you imagine the matching bed, side tables and chair in the bedroom?  And head over to the dining room with a matching set of chairs and table like this?  Don’t forget the Living Room if you are going to have a house with an integrated style. French Provincial today - now it is known of as a blend between rustic charm and elegant simplicity, cleaner lines and natural materials and patterns.  There are countless articles on French Provincial style now.  I guess there were many in the 1960s as well.  Today’s focus is on the rustic, farmhouse style rather than the grand chateau.  Beyond the grand chateau is the Trump style - the opulent 18th century French court style in the era of King Louis XIV and the Palace of Versailles.  I am relieved that didn’t get popular in my childhood. Here’s the Betty’s Sofa at the Watering Can.  This came from someone my sister knew -  “Betty.” It came from her living room to adorn the Watering Can for quite a few years.  In the Watering Can setting it is vibrant and alive with lots of style.  At Betty’s it likely was covered with plastic to keep it protected from pets, children and all things fun.  Since this photograph, it has been replaced with a similar sofa - it was so well-loved and used for photo ops that it wore out.  I am sure there are many around the Niagara area to keep the tradition of a French Provincial sofa photo op set alive at the Watering Can for a long time.

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