Reflecting on My 2025 Taxes as an Alberta Artist: What I Learned
You're reading this because you're trying to figure out your taxes as an artist. Really, when was the last time you felt good about doing your taxes? Doing my taxes for my art business used to freak me out. But 2025 was different—because I had been taking annual notes (I'm a teacher). Here's what I learned about filing as a registered sole proprietorship in Alberta, tracking expenses across multiple platforms, and using that crucial nil inventory election that most visual artists don't know about.
How AI Image Generators Actually Work: (Not Collage, Not Magic)
How AI Actually Creates Images: What the Research Reveals
Type "a dragon eating ice cream on Mars" into an AI image generator and you'll have a photorealistic rendering within seconds. But is this sophisticated collage — or something else entirely? The research reveals a far more nuanced picture than most public debate allows.
They Called Me the Google Queen. Now I'm Doing It Again.
I come from people who chose to step back from technology to stay pure. I chose differently. After a decade in Alberta classrooms — and a lifetime watching what avoidance costs — here's what I've learned about fear, the Sisyphean cycle of technology panics, and what the TQS actually asks of teachers right now.
The Hidden Cost of Intelligence: How AI Is Reshaping Our Energy and Water Landscape
Every time you hit generate, something invisible happens. Power flows. Water evaporates. Servers hum in facilities you'll never see, in communities you'll never visit. I started researching the environmental footprint of AI infrastructure. I was using the exact technology I was investigating to do it.
Edmonton Strathearn Art Walk 2026
Edmonton artist Vanessa Corrigall reflects on her years exhibiting at the Strathearn Art Walk — a free outdoor art festival where 160+ booths sold out in days. Find her at Booth Red 1, September 11–13, 2026, with her underwater swimmer paintings.
Could Alberta Teachers Afford a Home in 1906?
In 1906, Alberta teachers earned just $614 a year—yet land and homes were often within reach. This post explores what teachers could actually afford, how government policy shaped land access, and why affordability looked very different for Indigenous communities. It also compares what has changed—and what hasn’t—about the kind of life a teacher can realistically build today.
How I Actually Use Midjourney as an Artist — My Process, My Decisions, What I Reject and Why
The part nobody talks about with AI art tools: the rejection. Before I find one image worth keeping, I generate dozens. That's not a failure of the tool. That's the work.
Why Some Art works (and Others Don't): How to Train Your Eye
Both images in this post were made with AI. One works. One doesn't. The difference has nothing to do with the tool.
Is AI Art Really Art? What History — and Experience — Tell Us
When photography arrived, painters said the same things people are saying about AI today. Here's what happened next — and what it might mean for artists now.