Tina Tiresome
Authentic, brilliant, neurodivergent creative who has been self-teaching since age thirteen.
We love Tina, her brain, and her expressions of her authentic self.
We always ask participants to share as much as they are comfortable sharing about themselves.
“To start off, I want people to know I find this question overwhelming! Or rather, I find almost everything in life overwhelming,” Tina says.
“I am autistic with ADHD, the world is so loud, colorful, intense, and fascinating all of the time to me. I try not to let that stop me from creating, learning, and doing the things that I love—but that does not mean it comes without struggle, a lot of effort, and sometimes tears.”
"Generative art has been a pathway to community, support, and a new way of connecting with people—by seeing tiny parts of their imagination and having mine seen by others.”
Tina uses Midjourney to produce her generative art, and Canva for tutorial building and her famous Prompt and Explore series. For editing, she uses Photopea on her desktop computer, and Snapseed on her mobile device.
For putting together collages and drawings which she uses as image inputs, she uses Clip Studio Paint or Paint Tool Sai.
And if you’ve ever met Tina, you won’t be surprised by what she wants to learn.
“Everything, all the time,” she says.
“I have been home-schooling myself since the age of 13, so I am very used to teaching myself whatever I need to learn. Just last year, I learned how to program and visualize data, how to do 3D modeling and 3D spatial design, and even how to build furniture from those 3D models I made.”
“Whatever goal I have in mind, I want to and will learn the tools required to achieve it.”
She’d love to learn Stable Diffusion models and hopefully one day train her own models.
“And maybe one day, I will learn how to do social media better, but that is highly unlikely,” she says.
“People have told me for a very long time I have underestimated myself. Maybe, just maybe, they have a point. Just needed the right tools and environment to find and share my voice with pride,” Tina says.
“I feel like I found a place and community where I can be unapologetically me, and not be so afraid.” —Tina
On her work, she says, “my approach is always an explorative one. Very rarely do I approach anything with a full plan in my mind. Rather, I enjoy the delightful surprises that come up throughout the journey of creation.”
“My visual imagination is very fuzzy and unstable, I almost always come up with concepts, with almost no visual elements attached to them,” she adds.
The piece above is one that speaks to Tina’s soul.
“Maybe a bit literal, as the image inputs do include images of my actual physical self, but with this and the others in that series, I tried to capture my feelings of freedom and weightlessness that I have felt since this world has opened up to me,” she says.
“Like a bird, surrounded by cotton candy clouds—uplifted and in high spirits. My head has always been in the clouds, stuck in daydreams of magic and wonder. Now I can free them and make them come to life in the most beautiful ways.” —Tina
Tina, I hope you read this comment. You're amazing and wonderful. I adore your cotton candy clouds and the freedom expressed in that image.
I'm Neurodivergent as well (Tourette Syndrome), and have a daughter with both Tourette and autism, as well as a non-verbal learning disability (opposite of what it sounds like). Never give up on your wonderful, creative self. I can't wait to see the places you're headed!
Tina is amazing! We've been working on video versions of her Prompt and Explore series for her Instagram and YouTube. As an autistic individual myself I see where she is coming from and I am very happy and proud of what she has accomplished so far! Amazing work Tina and I can't wait to see where the future takes you! <3