No, not if you’re doing it with intention.

AI art is a collaboration between human vision and machine learning.

I write detailed prompts, refine outputs, tune the lighting, mood, symbolism, and storytelling. I often go through 50+ variations before finding the one that feels right. That’s not random and I’m pretty devoted to learning how prompts work just right.

It’s intuitive creation.

Define real. Is photography not real? Is collage? Is animation?

Art is about expression, intention, and connection, not medium.
AI is simply another tool, like a paintbrush or camera. The soul behind the image is still mine.

If it moves you, awakens something, or brings beauty into the world somehow, it’s art.

This is a real concern because many AI tools was or are trained on a large dataset of images from across the internet, including public artwork. This has raised fair concerns, especially from artists who didn’t consent to having their work used. I want to acknowledge that.

As a writer + artist myself, I understand the fear of being erased or copied without credit.

But I don’t use AI to mimic anyone else’s style. I use it as a tool of original creation, rooted in my own stories, ideas, visions and inspiration. The result still reflects me.
The final image is curated, refined, and often completely different from anything it was trained on. I believe there’s a difference between stealing and transforming.

More importantly: AI art gave me (and many others) a way to create when we had no other access.

For my clients—like Evangelina, a woman of color who dreamed of creating her oracle deck—it was either AI or nothing. That doesn’t mean we don’t value traditional artists. We deeply do. But access to tools should not be gatekept.

Easy? Maybe for low-effort outputs.
But high-quality, emotionally resonant AI art takes taste. Vision. Editing. Patience. Using other tools. Creativity. Writing skills.

This isn’t a shortcut.
It’s a new tool.

The magic is in what you weave into it, not the tool itself. You can hand someone a camera but can they easily take a mesmerizing photo?

No. Because it can’t.
Just like digital didn’t erase oil painting. Or e-books/kindle didn’t erase poetry.

There will always be a place for handmade, hand-drawn, human-touch art.

What AI offers is access for those who couldn’t afford to hire artists, or who didn’t feel like “real” artists themselves.

This isn’t a zero-sum game.
Art can be sacred, plural, and abundant.

And please know I’m deeply pro-artist. I hire, credit, and support traditional artists in my work and community.

Yes, if the creator poured their soul into it.

What makes art soulful isn’t the brushstroke. It’s the intention behind it.

AI art can be deeply mystical, symbolic, and healing, when done by someone who infuses it with care, vision, and emotional truth.

An illustrator can draw something for a client and then move on— did it have soul then?

A tattoo artist sees my designs, copies it on the arm of a client, are they soul-less because they copied my image?