# @stevedmcdonald on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DQMjLV-kR37
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/63359427-stevedmcdonald-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/4c3dc99103.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-10-24T14:55:16.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Steve McDonald 🎨📚 (@stevedmcdonald) — https://gondola.cc/stevedmcdonald

## Caption

'Field Notes from the Frontier: Sketches at the Edge of Knowing'

Please… I’m not pro-AI. I’m pro-artist. After more than thirty-five years of making and teaching, I’m not surrendering my craft to technology. I’m safeguarding it. AI is here to stay, and if I’m to remain as well, acknowledging its strength matters. So does learning it on my own terms (and even teaching it).

I’m building practical workflows that respect consent, credit, and compensation...so the tool amplifies human expression rather than replacing it.

Determine your own future; don’t let it determine you. Turning away from change won’t stop it. 

I’m also an environmentalist who believes in human-caused climate change. We’ve made a proper mess of the planet. The power and water AI consumes don’t help, but maybe, just maybe what we call “AI” (really our collective knowledge, data and research) can help us design, communicate, and mobilize better than we have before.

I share this because I believe in fighting for artists’ viability, for our names on our work, and for a future where the tools serve us...and the planet...not the other way around.

I think a lot of artists believe fighting on the side of legacy media versus the new platforms is the right side of the fight. I humbly disagree. Legacy media has never cared about artists...only about its own profit.

But that’s me. And I get asked daily, so…

#FieldNotesFromTheFrontier #AIArt #ProArtist #ArtAndTechnology #CreativeEthics #FutureOfArt #Illustration #AIandEnvironment #ArtistsRights #SustainableCreativity

## Stats

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- **Likes:** 2,808
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- **Comments:** 30

## Tags

illustration, fieldnotesfromthefrontier, futureofart, aiandenvironment, artandtechnology, proartist, creativeethics, aiart, sustainablecreativity, artistsrights

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