Arthur In Apocalypse Wonderland (A Short Story, Together With Contemplative Listening Pleasure) | A Mixed Media Art Project

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Once upon a time, there was no space. No universe. Then the world came into existence by The Majestic One. Then there was no more world. All that was left was a remnant of what the people of the world remembered to have existed. We envisioned a paradise where bliss ran rampant in our imaginations.

That the elders didn't heed the warnings of the world's climatologists was a sad and unfortunate day in our history. This was told to Arthur, one of the young survivors by his father, also a climatologist.

What was left was a desolate wasteland, with millions of tons of unspoken wreckage. Billows of unsanitary smoke spewed into the atmosphere. Once majestic skyscrapers emanating magical lights dimmed, then went black. The aurora borealis twinkling over the nights' skylines vanished. Barren lands scattered with rotting corpses left little room for clean living spaces.

But the world survived. Different, but survivable.

The exodus of people from his city who did survive left a mark on Arthur. No longer a cheerful lad of fourteen, he could no longer remember his extended older family.

One day, Arthur worked to morning that dawned not as gloomy as in the past.

"Arthur, let go outdoors!" an excited ten-year-old Alyshea pronounced, as she tugged on his arm.

Remembering days when they frolicked in the fields daily enjoying the animals, sights, and sounds of summer, he almost succumbed. But the scene didn't materialize that day. Instead, under the hazy afternoon, ash dripped to the ground without a care.

Arthur desperately wanted to believe. Not wanting to disappoint his only sister left, they donned their handkerchiefs across their faces covering their nose. The acrid smell grew weaker each day, but still came each morning.

"It's raining. Don't you see it?" Alyshea screamed in delight once outside.

"Rain is no more, silly girl." Arthur frowned, then heaved a remorseful sigh.

Suddenly, music spread across the festival infusing a foreboding into Arthur's thoughts. His pulse raced, as he scoured the landscape. A festival of old. What manner of delusion is this, his panicked thoughts sprung up.

Alyshea danced around him, taking in the eerie music, then pulled away and dashed off to locate the semblance of a ferris wheel as butterflies fluttered in the sky.

A festival for Arthur in an apocalyptic land.


Source

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For my current mixed media art project, I wanted to portray an oddity. A festival held in the middle of an post-apocalyptic city as its remaining citizens attempt to bring normalcy to what they knew before. Siblings Arthur and Alyshea attend the festival amid smoke and acid rain, seemingly oblivious to its effects.

To envision an apocalyptic world, I relied on two stable diffusion images from two different stable diffusion programs, Night Cafe and StarryAI. Both are excellent at producing images that fit the description I apply. For this project, I wanted a desolate dystopian landscape and an unusual eclipse.

Below are my steps:

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Night Cafe Text input:
"Post apocalyptic wonderland."

Style: Horror
Model: Artistic
Initial Resolution: Thumb
Aspect Ratio: 1:1 / Weight:0.9 / Runtime: Short / Seed: 3739248963

Night Cafe Result:
NightCafe-PostApocalypticWonderland.webp

StarryAI Text Input:
"Eclipse in fantasy lucid highly detailed."

Style: Hydra

StarryAI Result:

StarryAI-EclipseInFantasy-Image2-1.webp

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The remainder of the images I chose to accompany my theme was a skull surrounded by foliage. My pure fractals highlighted the once beautiful landscape.

Skull in nature ~ Pure Fractal titled "Butterfly - Spiked ~ Pure Fractal titled "Yellow Butterfly"

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I then utilized Canva to blend the different type images. Below are my steps in which I begin with a blank, white canvas, then added layers of elements, removing backgrounds, resizing, and repositioning items as needed.

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I share with you my completed project:

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Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my mixed media art project.

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Good luck everyone with whatever your endeavors.

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SOURCES:
a) JustClickindiva's Footer created in Canva utilizing its free background and images used with permission from discord admins.
b) Unless otherwise noted, all photos taken by me with my (i) Samsung Galaxy 10" Tablet, (ii) Samsung Phone, & (iii) FUJI FinePix S3380 - 14 Mega Pixels Digital Camera
c) Purple Butterfly part of purchased set of Spiritual Clip Art for my Personal Use
d) All Community logos, banners, page dividers used with permission of Discord Channel admins.
e) Ladies of Hive banner used with permission of and in accordance with the admin's guidelines
f) Thumbnail Image created by me in Canva.
g) "Flames." What is Apophysis 2.09. https://flam3.com/

1 What is Stable Diffusion? StarryAI.Com. Online at: https://starryai.com/stable-diffusion

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