Author Archives: artNews

While The World Art News primarily focuses on high-end art, antiques, and collectibles, we’re also dedicated to sharing the real-life stories of hardworking artists from around the world. This is one such story.

My name is Dumisani Ndlovu and I am an artist based in Zimbabwe. I was born in 1969 and raised on a substance farm in a rural area in Lupane District where I tended to cattle and goats as a young boy. Despite the demands of farm life, art came naturally to me as a child. I would spend countless hours drawing on leaves with thorns and creating home-made guitars and stools from natural materials found in the bush.

After attending Mgwegwe Secondary School in Bulawayo, I had intended to become a farmer until the headmaster, Mr. Evans, recognized my talent and encouraged me to attend art classes instead. I eventually graduated from the Mzilikazi Art and Craft Centre in Bulawayo in 1993, and attended several art workshops at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, where I fell in love with the craft under the guidance of Canadian artist, print-maker Mary Davis.

Nature has always inspired me as an artist, with landscapes and mountains providing much of my motivation. However, developing my own style wasn’t east as I was strongly influenced by other artists who I looked up to. Although I didn’t realize this at the time, I now see that it was a necessary part of my learning process. It took me 20 years to master my craft, and I have to admit that I am still learning it to this day. With that being said, my art has evolved from art for art’s sake to art that tell my story.

As an artist, one of my biggest struggles has been the financial aspect of my work. Being a full-time artist is a challenge, as the money I earn is never enough to cover the cost of materials, bills, and other expenses. It is difficult to find a market for my work in Zimbabwe, and this has only been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the market for art dwindling, artists like me are now competing for a smaller pool of clients and collectors. Nevertheless, I try to stay optimistic and seldom feel any pressured from competition, focusing instead on being the best artist I can be. So despite all challenges, I continue to carry on and fight for my craft every day.

The most expensive painting I ever sold was “The Baobab Tree,” commissioned by one of my art collectors. The price of my paintings varies based on size, ranging from US$150 for small paintings to US$500 for larger ones. Smaller paintings tend to sell better than larger ones. I sell my paintings online and in local galleries, promoting my work on Facebook and Instagram. I sometimes seek out buyers, but many find my work through social media. I typically receive 2 to 3 clients regularly, with most of them from Europe, the UK, America, and a few from Africa and Asia.

My artistic inspiration comes from my surroundings, and my unique style, choice of colors, and composition make my pieces stand out. Henry Moore, Rembrandt, and Pablo Picasso are my favorite artists. I am particularly influenced by Picasso’s “Weeping Woman” from 1937 and Henry Moore’s prints due to their style and colors.

I use oil and acrylic colors on canvas or paper, depending on the size of the painting I am working on. Large paintings can take anywhere from five to six days to complete. The process of creating art is not only a profession for me, but a passion that keeps me driven and inspired to create new and meaningful works. I love to be surrounded by colorful artworks, including my own favorites. To become a good artist in Africa, drawing and sketching are essential skills because they stimulate creative thought, increase observational skills, and develop visual ideas in all mediums. Drawing is the backbone of an artist.

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In this post we openly say that ChatGPT (may not) be suitable for students and that it can affect their learning and development.

If you have come to this blog as a student to get a way around your essay by cheating from ChatGPT then you have come to the wrong place and we strongly suggest you leave.

On this blog we do display students artwork free of charge, but we do not cheat or make up artwork as being our own work!

It is absolutely beyond dispute that Art Abstract Expressionism Artist UK is now one of the best and one of the most famous top recommended NFT website art blogs in history concerning NFT tokens and the Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Web3 and of course the Metaverse itself in totality.

We also classify our blog as the best top most recommended art blog website for displaying student artworks free of charge.

We just cannot be beaten in popularity, recommendation or fame concerning the public showcasing of student artwork.

ChatGPT

Art is where we make meaning beyond language, but the written word is a magical artwork in itself by the expression of meaning that (only you) can express in the way you see it, the way you feel it and the way you mean it.

You just cannot create true works of art this way by using ChatGPT.

The written word, just like the artwork on this blog, consists in the making of meaning through intelligent agency, eliciting an aesthetic response.

That’s why your tutors (will know) if you have used ChatGPT.

The written word is a means of communication where your own language is sufficient to explain or describe its content.

The written word can render visible and known to the mind of another what was previously unspoken by you alone.

Because of how, and what grammar expresses and evokes is in part ineffable, we find it difficult to define and delineate it.

It is known only through the experience of the reader as well as the intention and expression of the writer.

The meaning is made by all the participants, and so can never be fully known.

It is multifarious and on-going, which is itself an expression of something, just like any artwork and like within actual oil paintings themselves.

Dishonesty

Dishonesty is to act without honesty.

It is used to describe a lack of probity, cheating, lying, or deliberately withholding information, or being deliberately deceptive or a lack in integrity, knavishness, perfidiosity, corruption or treacherousness.

Dishonesty is the fundamental component of a majority of offences relating to the acquisition, conversion and disposal of property (tangible or intangible) defined in criminal law such as fraud, or maybe just being dishonest to yourself and others, whether by the written word or verbal.

ChatGPT, like any other AI-based model, has its limitations, and its very good points too.

It is not capable of providing original ideas or critical thinking, which is essential for students.

Additionally, it can be unreliable, as it may provide inaccurate or irrelevant information.

Furthermore, it can be a hindrance to students’ creativity and problem-solving skills, as they may become too reliant on the tool to do their work for them.

Well over half of students are likely using AI tools to cheat the education system in exams or essays, but it wouldn’t be surprising if that number were already higher.

The survey found that 43% of college students overall say they’ve had experience using AI tools like ChatGPT, and half of those acknowledge turning to those tools to work on assignments or exams.

This figure translates into 1 in 5 college students admitting they employ AI to complete their schoolwork.

Most of the students who’ve used AI apps said they did so for personal projects, out of curiosity, or for fun.

ChatGPT is a popular language model developed by OpenAI, which has been widely used for natural language processing tasks such as text generation and conversation.

It has also been criticized for its potential negative impact on students.

When Stanford University’s student-run newspaper polled students at the university, 17 percent said they had used ChatGPT on assignments or exams at the end of 2022.

Some admitted to submitting the chatbot’s writing as their own.

OpenAI’s new GPT-4 update (GPT-3 and GPT-4 are the models which underlie ChatGPT) is able to get 90 percent on a huge number of exams, including the American bar exam.

The AI bot is also capable of writing human-like essays on any subject in seconds, in response to simple text prompts.

Creator OpenAI is working on a tool to detect AI-written content, but warns it’s not 100 percent accurate.  

For now, these students and others are probably getting away with it.

That’s because ChatGPT often does an excellent job.

Over half of college students (51%) believe that using artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT to complete assignments and exams is cheating.

Two in ten (20%) disagreed, and the remainder were neutral.

Those are among the key findings from a just-released BestColleges survey of 1,000 current undergraduate and graduate students, conducted in the first two weeks of March.

The artificial intelligence tool, made available for free late last year by the company OpenAI, can reply to simple prompts and generate essays and stories. It can also write code.

Within a week, it had more than a million users.

As of early 2023, Microsoft planned to invest $10 billion into OpenAI, and OpenAI’s value had been put at $29 billion, more than double what it was in 2021.

AI has been playing an important role in every field, including the education sector.

There are so many interesting things happening around AI technology in the education industry.

This includes AI-based online classes, enabling personalised learning, helping students get better scores, etc.

But what about teachers?

What benefits do teachers get from AI technology?

Will AI replace teachers in the near future?

Before answering all these questions, let’s first go through some facts about AI and its implications in the education industry.

Learning by a machine demonstrates the success and power of artificial intelligence (AI).

When a machine learns things through machine learning (ML) algorithms and gives correct results, it is remarkable.

As per a report from newscientist.com, an AI passed the English language test and achieved its best-ever scores.

The result was a breakthrough and an interesting development in AI technology.

Another breakthrough was the AI-based program AlphaGo defeating humans in the complex board game Go held in South Korea in 2016.

AlphaGo makes its moves based on knowledge previously learned through ML techniques.

Machine learning and AI are at the heart of many of the data-privacy issues today.

Technology companies that are guilty of misusing consumer data often do so through these emerging technologies.

However, it should be pointed out this is the exception and not the rule.

When a consumer pays a company for its products, the consumer’s data should not be used in a way other than to make the product function as expected or to improve the product experience for that consumer.

One of the most critical questions that any education leaders must ask themselves before implementing an education technology product that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) “Can my educator and student data be kept private and secure?”

While data privacy is a deep and complex topic, when it comes to AI, there are a few critical areas to pay attention to. 

Many educators fear students will use the artificial intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT to write their reports or cheat on homework.

But other teachers are including it in the classroom.

In all 23 projects, from Virginia to Hong Kong, are receiving support through the bank's latest round of conservation grants