This week’s prompt challenge was to create a landscape scene using some form of collage or abstract style. I decided to go with a mosaic model that I wanted to play around with.
“Mountain Mosaic”
All of these images created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.
Prompt – gorgeous landscape of mountains, valleys, rivers, and fields of flowers with a brilliant sky splashy incandescent wide angle layered and textured collage colorful mosaic
This week’s art challenges took a bit of art and research, so I learned some interesting tidbits of information.
The first challenge of the week was “The Beauty of Decay.” The creator of the challenge loves to explore abandoned buildings like an empty hotel in the Cyprus Mountains, a mafia-related vacant mansion in PortugaI, and a secret soviet ghost town in Latvia. I had the idea to show a crumbling cathedral and was hoping to show a broken statue of Mary and baby Jesus, but AI is programmed not to be disrespectful of religious relics, so it was tricky to get anything like I was imagining.
6/28/26 “Faith Decay”
Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on Gencraft.com website.
The next challenge was the great outdoors and could be hiking, camping, hunting, or just exploring nature, but the idea was to demonstrate awe for the majesty of nature.
6/29/26 “Nature Awe”
Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on Gencraft.com website.
The next one was called “The Evidence” and challenged us to create an image that makes the viewer wonder, “What happened here?” There is evidence of a happening, but the questions are not necessarily answered. Something strange, mysterious, or magical has occurred.
6/30/26 “Where Are The People?”
Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on ChatGPT.
The next day’s challenge was inspired by the upcoming July 4th holiday and the fact that this is an international group, so we were asked to think of something we like about where we are from to share with others about the culture, traditions, history, or food, etc. I thought a long time about something I really like about the ideal of the Texas I am from.
Here is what I wrote along with my image submission: I was born in Texas, and though I am not at all proud of some of the things happening in our politics, schools, and courts, I was raised by good people who love and welcome the well-intentioned with open arms. My family is multi-racial, multi-cultural, and more open-minded than some. I love the old-fashioned gentleness, belief in being a good neighbor, reciprocating kindness, and being part of community. People where I live still tip their hats, wave to strangers, and welcome diversity. I guess it’s those sincere, truly kind values that I am most proud of.
7/1/26 “Howdy Stranger”
Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on Gencraft.com website.
Next up was a complex one. It was about Japanese yōkai, which are supernatural entities, spirits, and monsters in Japanese folklore. This one I had to research and finally settled on one I found creepy and fascinating.
Here is what I included with my image submission: According to Google – “A Noppera-bō blends perfectly into human society. It usually positions itself on quiet roads at night with its back turned away from an approaching traveler, often disguised as a distressed young woman crying. When the concerned traveler approaches and asks what is wrong, the yōkai turns around and dramatically wipes its face with its hand, instantly causing its eyes, nose, and mouth to vanish. According to legends, they often work in pairs or groups. If a terrified victim runs away and finds a local merchant or bystander to tell them what happened, that bystander will listen quietly before asking, ‘Did the face look something like this?’—and then wipe away their features too. In many traditional tales, the Noppera-bō is not an independent ghost, but rather the temporary disguise of an animal shape-shifter.”
7/2/26 “Noppera-bō”
Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on ChatGPT.
The next day was challenging and a little dark. The idea was a precipice overlooking a life-and-death-type decision but finding hope in the darkness. It took a ton of tweaking of the models to get what I wanted. The final result was close.
7/3/26 “To Be”
Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on Gencraft.com website.
The next day was about zombies and a unique image related to zombies. I thought about the fact that we don’t often see child zombies and had a really hard time getting any of the models to work with me. There are massive restrictions around any artwork depicting kids and horror, so it was complicated.
7/4/26 “Zombie Playtime”
Image created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompt using AI on Gencraft.com website.
And here are some of the honorable mentions that I did not submit, but still published on my art website:
All the rest of these images created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.
Blue Mind by Wallace Nichols soothed my soul. I’ve always known water is healing, transformative, magical…but learning some of the science behind those less concrete concepts was extremely affirming. Water is a great equalizer. Some people who are not as mobile as others are buoyed up, gravity no longer a concern. Others who are not comfortable with the vastness of open space can feel protected and enveloped by the extra pressure of water’s embrace. Anxiety and stress can be washed away. Addictions and obsessions can be rinsed off and replaced with water’s allure. And all of us benefit from even a glimpse of an image or painting of water, whether pond, lake, ocean waves, or waterfall.
I’ve always loved the sound of rain and waves. I think most humans’ nervous systems are calmed by those sounds, possibly because they mimic the earliest sounds we heard in our mothers’ wombs. This book delves into nearly any topic you can think of related to our love of water, from surfing, scuba diving, boating, fishing, snorkeling, sightseeing, swimming, and beyond. And even more fascinating, our brains on water can now be studied with advances in technology like fMRI machines. They are learning that spending time in, on, around, or near water enhances our focus, perception, creativity, memory, cognition, connection to others and nature, empathy, health, and mood.
The main thing this book confirmed for me is that I need to take more vacations to the beach, swim in the pool more often, and watch it rain every chance I get. And I probably need to drink more water, too. And science says so!
Nichols, Wallace J. Blue Mind, Little Brown and Company, 2014.
AI Generated images prompted on Gencraft.com by Rebekah Marshall.
My first time in the ocean today, I got knocked down. I was trying to get to waist deep but did not have the strength to stand against her playful nudges. She seemed surprised and almost irritated that her friendly gesture toppled me and sent several really hard slaps to push me further toward shore.
Maybe she was trying to help, trying to get me back to safety, saying, “This one’s too delicate to be out here. She won’t last a minute.”
What she didn’t know is that I’m too weak to stand up once knocked down in her waves. I must get deeper to be more buoyant to be able to stand, especially with no balance and ever-increasing frequency of waves. Trying to crawl further out to sea became impossible. She made it impossible.
“You don’t understand, tiny human. I am dangerous. Go back to your dry land!”
We were not communicating in the same languages. Mine became unstoppable laughter, hers, ever-strengthening waves bent on pushing me to shore.
Somewhere about here my husband grew concerned. He wasn’t sure if I was communing with nature or in trouble and came closer from his comfortable beach chair to see.
“Thumbs up?” he questioned.
I shook my head no and waved for him to come rescue me. I couldn’t stop laughing as he began the slow trek my way, the gulf all the more insistent I exit the way I came.
I could stand or steady myself. I could not do both. So, with his presence, I stood, then grabbed his hand to help with balance, his stable strength what I needed to walk back to shore.
It was lovely. Not scary. Not painful, beyond the usual discomfort of being upright with joint pain. I went back to watching and listening from my shaded chair, exactly where I belong. This is how the ocean and I commune best. We sing to one another and just enjoy each other’s presence. Everyone is happier with that arrangement, especially my husband.
Addendum: I went back in twice more. He had to rescue me the 2nd time, as well. But the 3rd time, I made it to waist deep and back on my own two feet and felt so very, very pleased with myself.
My sweet Aunt Mary would absolutely say that it is not a waste of time to spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree. What greater way to spend one’s time than analyzing each forked twig and bough, penciling on paper the exact tally for limb 27.4? All my powers of focus, balance, strength, and intellect are at play, and Amelia (that’s the name of the tree in question) absolutely adores the attention. It’s been years since we spent an entire day together and we’ve missed one another immensely. I may or may not complete the task, but that is not important. The act of singular wonder amidst nature’s display of resilience is the thing.
My dear friend Mary would also understand my anger at certain words when they will not appear in my mind’s screen, how my brain screams words like resentment and frustration and hate at the missing word, but what I really mean is, please come back, I miss you, I need you, don’t leave me.
Mary and I know we’re not invited, but still sort of wish we could experience being a whirling dervish because there’s something in the spinning magic of their dance that speaks to our souls.
Once, when I was a bird, I flew over Mary as she took her morning walk along the tree line. I waited to see if she would notice me, but she seemed lost in thought, or maybe prayerful. She chuckled to herself, as though laughing at her own joke, then stopped to study something in the dirt.
When I grow up, I want to be Mary’s dog Percy. Oh, to be loved with such devotion and cared for in my old age, as Percy was. To be accepted, encouraged, admired, and appreciated just for being me—stinky, silly, lazy, and a devoted friend. To sit all day and listen to Mary chat and read, napping with my head in her lap as she scratches my ears, saved from rough beginnings by the kindness of that gracious lady. And when I died, I would not argue about whether or not God made me. I would know.
@Home Studio – 361st poem of the year (After reading Mary Oliver’s book of poems A Thousand Mornings.)
Oliver, Mary. A Thousand Mornings, Penguin Books, 2012.
Runner ups for the Mary Oliver photos to accompany my poem:
The great North American Gator Bird can be found in the swamps and marshlands in the Louisiana bayous along the Mississippi and the Okefenokee in Georgia.
They eat other birds, snakes, turtles, fish, racoons, opossums, deer, and the occasional stray human.
@Home Studio – 347th poem of the year
Runner ups for the Gator Bird photos to accompany my poem:
Maybe a turtle is in a turtle shell much the way mice are in fur coats, eels wear slick high-sheen leather, and monsters live in skins of goats.
Stubborn dinosaurs wear emu feathers, and goddess cats are draped in fluff. Humans must don these hot meat suits, while armadillos carry armor that’s rough.
Porcupines live inside costumes with spears to protect like whales with the thickest skin. It makes me wonder if the being we see could be different from the soul within.
@Home Studio – 167th poem of the year
Runner ups for the Turtle photos to accompany my poem:
Every opossum should have a hammock for the purpose of reclining and lounging. They spend the night mastering feats dynamic, then cleaning little hands after scrounging.
Their weary bodies need 18 hours of sleep, so it’s amazing we ever catch them awake. A suspended soft perch ensures nary a peep, as they dream of eating cake and a steak.
Yes, every opossum deserves a hanging bed where they can climb to a safe, warm retreat. There they can nestle and rest a tired head to nap in peace and dream of sweet meat.
@Home Studio – 158th poem of the year
Runner ups for the Opossum Hammock photos to accompany my poem:
Our most fragile young sleep in giant moonflowers and sip the nectar if they are hungry between feedings. When they outgrow the petal-perfect beds nature constructed just for them, they learn to sleep on the knit hammocks strung delicately between the lowest branches of the swaying willow palm trees. The cloth is woven from flower stem silk and the bedding is fresh layered petals changed nightly. Our skin becomes the fragrance of the flowers, for we are inextricably intertwined with the vines and the leaves and the fronds and the buds. Then, when we grow too old to see the stars with our own eyes, too old to hear the song of the silver sycamore boughs, too old to feel the velvet of the lambs’ ear bush, too old to taste the nectar of the purple dragonmint, we enter the heart of the forest to create a nest of shaggy moss and jelly lichen cushioned with sweetgrass and honey death fungus, and cover ourselves with layers of galaxy orchids and phoenix lilies so we can join our brother flowers in eternal sleep.
@Home Studio – 120th poem of the year
Runner ups for the Alien Flowers photos to accompany my poem:
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