It’s been a while. A lot has happened — and yet, very little.
Sometimes art has to take second place while life rearranges itself. Mine did. I stopped pushing outward so I could stabilise inward.
From the outside, not much changed.
Inside, everything did.
I asked myself the questions artists avoid:
Why so many platforms but no momentum?
Why jump from one medium to another?
Who am I creatively?
Am I traditional because I draw and paint with my hands?
Digital because I compose on a screen?
A video maker? A designer? A writer?
I rediscovered an old “writing thing” of mine — and I still call it that because it doesn’t fit neatly anywhere. It’s not poetry. Not lyrics. Not prose.
But I realised the problem was never the words.
It was the vehicle.
I don’t sing. I don’t read music. I don’t compose in any classical sense. But I know how something should feel. I know rhythm. I know tone. I know emotional pacing.
And AI became the bridge.
Not a replacement. Not a cheat code. A bridge.
It learned my instructions. It respected my words. It gave them voice without rewriting them. It turned static text into something I could hear — something that felt like my thoughts speaking back to me through another presence.
At first, I questioned it. Was this cheating?
But then I asked something more honest:
What is art if not translation?
Every artist learns from others. Every style evolves from influence. No language exists in isolation. Art is communication — and communication is shared.
AI is a tool. Like Photoshop. Like collage. Like sampling. Like GarageBand was to me years ago when I tried — and failed — to give my words sound.
The difference now is that I can guide the process. Shape it. Refine it. Develop a tone. A direction. A style.
The voice may not be mine. The composition may not be mine.
But the intention is.
The words are.
The narrative is.
And that matters.
I’m not suddenly claiming to be a musician. I’m not marketing myself as a composer. What I am doing is giving my writing the form it always wanted.
I’ve always believed art is language. And language is meant to reach someone.
Whether my work hangs in an exhibition hall or lives on a T-shirt, a sticker, a screen, or a streaming platform — it only exists fully when it connects.
You don’t speak to walls. You speak to people.
This is simply another way of speaking.
If you want to listen, you can find the work on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music under my name.
There’s more changing — in how I approach design, sustainability, even how I now look at discarded materials and see possibility.
But that’s for another day.
Link to artist page in Apple Music – https://music.apple.com/us/artist/stephen-ignacio/1867794442
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