Alison

Wow! I haven't posted anything in this blog for five months. I've been getting lazy. It doesn't mean that I've stopped creating AI artwork. If you check my main blog, you'll see that I've been creating film posters with AI for the last few months. Sometimes they're obviously AI creations, but in most cases I've made posters that look genuine.

Over the last two weeks you'll see that I've inserted a white-haired girl into almost every poster. It was only two days ago that someone finally messaged me to ask who she is. Her name is Alison. She's a girl that I met when I lived in New York in 1998. She was 16, but looked older. I was often invited to her father's house. He was one of the most fascinating men I've ever known. Some may call him crazy, but I prefer to call him eccentric. Recently I've been thinking about them a lot. I don't have any photos of them, unfortunately, so I've drawn them in AI from memory. I remember Alison clearly, but it was difficult to draw her. Her father (Jed) was easier to design.

Jed called himself a mystic, or a seeker of knowledge. He said that he doesn't know much, but he's wiser than all the fools in New York. To explain, he laid two Tarot cards on the table, the Fool and the Magician. He said that all of mankind falls into one of two categories. The Fool is someone who only believes what he can see with his own eyes, or what science tells him. The Magician is someone who recognises that there's an unseen world, and he devotes his life to searching for the truth. In the first card you can see that the Fool is about to fall off a cliff because he can't see it.

Jed was pleasantly surprised that I already knew the basic teachings of the Tarot. That's why we became friends. When we met, Alison didn't say much, She just sat next to me taking everything in. On one of my visits Jed told her, "All your teachers are fools. Don't argue with them. Learn what they tell you and get good grades, but when you leave school you should forget it all and follow the truth". Alison obviously followed whatever he said unquestioningly.

Alison looked somewhat unhealthy. She had white hair and a pale face. She almost looked like a Goth. She wore dark eyeliner, and I never once saw her smile. She always wore black. She wore a black sweater and a black skirt that covered her knees. She looked quaintly old-fashioned. Her eyes were vivid. It's impossible to describe them. When I said something that surprised her her eyes would flash open. She was always smart and well-groomed, unlike her father. At first glance Jed looked like a vagabond, but if you looked closer you could see that his clothes were clean and tidy. He just had his own look.

I regret not remaining in contact when I left America. I was having a lot of personal problems at the time. I've tried in vain to track them down with the few vague memories I still have. I don't even remember their last names, if they ever told me. It was 28 years ago. Alison must be 44 and Jed in his 80's. My only hope is that they'll read this post and remember me.