![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Bernard.jpg\")
Tony Bernard, who has created multiple Rice Festival posters, works with acrylic and canvas. Image courtesy of Tony Bernard Studios<\/p>\nThe posters advertising the International Rice Festival in Crowley, like countless others created for agricultural festivals across South Louisiana, are popular collectors\u2019 items, showcasing Louisiana life in all its porch-jamming, kitchen-dancing, crawfish-boiling beauty.<\/p>\n
Their releases are usually moments of big celebration. But not this year. When the design for the 88th International Rice Festival hit social media, it was slammed as \u201cAI slop,\u201d web slang for generic and increasingly ubiquitous images created with AI tools.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not \u2018art\u2019 it is AI,\u201d one comment read. \u201cThis does not reflect Louisiana artists. There are so many local artists that work hard to make beautiful, original art. Very sad to see this is the one that was chosen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The design, critics said, lacked the soul and color of previous posters and, anyways, the grains looked more like wheat than rice. The Rice Festival organizers quickly began moderating comments, likely hoping to hem in the controversy, which had already metastasized to other social media platforms.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a marked difference between the colorful posters of Rice Festivals past and this year\u2019s understated, monochromatic design. And the panicles do lack the characteristic bend that makes rice grains easy to identify.<\/p>\n
But was it AI that brought Crowley the poster that, opposing the critics, some called \u201cbeautiful,\u201d \u201cabsolutely gorgeous\u201d and the \u201cbest poster in a long time\u201d?<\/p>\n
Well, yes and no.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The poster was created by a local artist, Cris, who asked to be identified only by her first name and her professional moniker, ZEPPIX, out of concern for her own and her family\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n
The controversy took the single mom, photographer and visual artist by surprise. She had only recently gotten back into visual arts, mostly digital, after spending years focused on photography. And while she admits to using an AI tool called Midjourney for parts of the design, she argues that this doesn\u2019t mean she didn\u2019t work on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so much handwork that went into that,\u201d says Cris, from the overall composition to making changes throughout the process on a tablet she uses for original drawings and other digital art. he may have used a variety of tools, but that doesn\u2019t mean the poster isn\u2019t the product of a local artist, she maintains.<\/p>\n
According to her, the organizers agreed. \u201cThey knew that it came from different sources \u2014 they didn\u2019t care,\u201d Cris says. Creating the poster, a digital product as it may be, still involved lots of back and forth between her and this year\u2019s festival president, Julian Leblanc, she notes, implementing his feedback and wishes into the design.<\/p>\n
Leblanc stands by the design. \u201cAs it stands now, that\u2019s my poster,\u201d he told The Current on Friday, declining to comment further.<\/p>\n
The controversy tapped into a broader concern that goes beyond the Rice Festival or its counterparts celebrating ducks, oysters, shrimp and petroleum. AI, many fear, is automating artists out of work and dehumanizing art in the process.<\/p>\n
Tony Bernard, who has created multiple Rice Festival posters, works with acrylic and canvas. Image courtesy of Tony Bernard Studios<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it affects artists that are already established,\u201d says Tony Bernard, a Lafayette artist who trained under George Rodrigue and has painted dozens of posters for festivals across South Louisiana, including several advertising the Rice Festival. \u201cBut people that are younger and trying to get their foot in: I think it\u2019s a slap in the face to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
While at their core commercial products the posters \u2014 often characterized by their decidedly imperfect technique \u2014 bear cultural significance as visual representations of Louisiana\u2019s unique culture. The controversy poses a philosophical question: What makes art, art?<\/p>\n
\u201cArt is more than just painting. It\u2019s composition, and it\u2019s ideas,\u201d Bernard says. \u201cWell, AI don\u2019t have ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s debatable \u2014 AI tools have become infamous not just for what they know but what they hallucinate (recipe for delicious spaghetti with gasoline, anyone?) \u2014 but Cris argues that it\u2019s her and Leblanc\u2019s ideas that dominate the poster\u2019s design.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LeBlanc wanted to pay tribute to Lt. Allen \u201cNoochie\u201d Credeur, the Rayne police officer who was shot and killed by friendly fire in March. So Cris worked his badge number into the design. Should the poster feature a tractor or a combine? The two debated and settled on a tractor. The accordion placed prominently on the poster had to be a traditional Falcon brand, she decided.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single freakin\u2019 aspect,\u201d Cris says. \u201cIt was not easy, it took many hours. It took months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, she says she understands her critics\u2019 concerns. \u201cI see their side, I do,\u201d she says. After years of competing for the commission, she was just happy to be chosen this year \u2014 a sense of joy that has been dampened by the harsh online criticism. Still, she says she wouldn\u2019t do anything differently if she could \u2014 despite her respect for visual artists who work with a brush and canvas.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t take it personally and try to break me down because y\u2019all think I\u2019m hurting other artists,\u201d Cris tells her critics. \u201cNobody\u2019s ever going to stop buying hand-drawn art.\u201d And while she sees herself hanging art generated with AI tools on her own walls, she doesn\u2019t see it replacing more traditionally created pieces in her home either. \u201cNothing\u2019s ever going to top that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
After receiving the slew of criticism she did, and almost wanting to delete her online presence over it, she has a message for whoever throws their hat in the ring next. \u201cWhoever does next year\u2019s [poster] better be real confident,\u201d she cautions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The posters advertising the International Rice Festival in Crowley, like countless others created for agricultural festivals across South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-107217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}