THE ART OF THE TRANSFORMATION
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ONE PHOTOGRAPH. SIX STAGES. A JOURNEY TOWARD THE FINISHED FARMSTRACT.
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THE ORIGINAL
ENHANCED
LIGHT & COLOR
DETAILS & TEXTURE
ARTISTIC REFINEMENT
THE FARMSTRACT
From a single capture to a finished Farmstract, each step reveals more of what was always there—light, mood, texture, and story—carefully revealed to honor the place and the moment.
I wasn't looking for a photograph that day. I was driving home when I spotted an old barn far across the landscape, and something about the scene made me pull over. The barn was actually quite a distance from the road, so I used the zoom on my Google Pixel to bring it closer. I took the photograph right there from the side of the road and went on home.
That’s usually where the second part of my process begins.
I don't begin with a finished picture in my head and ask technology to reproduce it exactly. I begin with a photograph I chose because something in it made me stop and look again. Then I start exploring what else might be hiding inside it.
With the barn, my first direction was simple: What if this scene felt like a studio movie set? That wasn't necessarily the destination. It was simply somewhere to begin.
From there, the image evolved one decision at a time. We experimented with light, atmosphere, color and mood. Some versions moved closer to what I wanted. Others went too far. Occasionally, something appeared that I hadn't imagined at all and opened another direction.
That's an important part of how I work. I don't control every detail of what happens. I direct the exploration. I decide what matters in the original photograph, what I want to preserve, what might be transformed and when something has gone too far. Then I respond to what comes back: keep this, change that, pull this back, push that further.
And sometimes I reject a beautiful image.
That's why these six barns matter. They aren't six pretty pictures lined up until I picked the prettiest one. They show a creative conversation developing: observation, imagination, experimentation, surprise, correction and choice.
Technology can offer possibilities, but it can't decide what belongs in Farmstracts. I have to recognize that for myself.
The final image isn't always the newest, the most dramatic or even the one someone else might choose. It's the one that still carries whatever made me stop for that original photograph in the first place—and takes it somewhere I want to follow.
THE FARMSTRACT
INSIDE FARMSTRACTS
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Farmstracts begins with photographs of the world around me: gardens, animals, back roads, old buildings, forgotten objects, weathered vehicles, landscapes, and the small things most of us pass every day without giving them a second look.
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I photograph them because something makes me stop. Sometimes I know immediately what caught my attention. Other times, I simply have the feeling that there is something more there—something waiting to be noticed, imagined, or uncovered.
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Those photographs become the starting point for Farmstracts. Created by artist Reena Adair, Farmstracts combines original photography, imagination, and AI-assisted digital tools to explore the unexpected within the familiar.
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The results can be whimsical, surreal, psychedelic, mysterious, or simply beautiful.
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But every Farmstract has one thing in common:
it begins with something real.
BEFORE FARMSTRACTS, THERE WAS FABSTRACTS
In 2023, I began experimenting with abstract digital art under a name I loved: Fabstracts. I was fascinated by what I could create with a phone in my hand—especially how far I could push the camera and digital tools on my Google Pixel beyond an ordinary photograph. It felt like discovering a new creative language.
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But the more I experimented, the more questions I began asking. I started reading more carefully about copyright ownership and the terms governing some of the materials and tools I was using. What I learned made me uncomfortable.
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I had created work I genuinely loved, but continuing in a way that didn’t feel right to me wasn’t something I wanted to do. So I stopped. I kept the artwork. I kept what I had learned.
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But for a while, I left Fabstracts behind.
THEN I CAME TO ARKANSAS
The landscape changed everything.
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Surrounded by the Ouachita Mountains, winding back roads, gardens, barns, old buildings, wildlife, and the peculiar little details of rural life, I started photographing what I encountered: an animal crossing a yard, an insect feeding in the garden, an old vehicle beside the road, a barn in the distance, a reflection in a window, a rooster on a porch, something rusty, something growing, something most people might never think of as art.
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And I began asking a question that would become central to Farmstracts: What else could this be?
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This time, there was an important difference:
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The starting material was mine.
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These were places I had stood, things I had noticed, animals I had encountered, and moments I had actually experienced.
WHERE THE ROAD MAY LEAD
"Coming Down the Mountain" is one example of what happened when my earlier Fabstracts experiments met the place I now call home. Fabstracts taught me to question what an image could become. Arkansas gave those questions something real to grow from—my own photographs of its mountains, roads, gardens, creatures, communities, and curious places. Through that combination, I found my own medium, and Farmstracts found its name.
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The gallery and its four worlds remain the heart of Farmstracts. Beyond them, Field Notes may grow into a world of its own: personal stories, the process behind the artwork, and thoughtful reporting on AI and art while the technology, laws, ethics, and rules are still being shaped. The road may also lead me deeper into Arkansas—to overlooked artists, makers, businesses, food, gardens, and places with stories worth preserving—and perhaps someday beyond it.
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I do not know exactly where this road will lead, but I trust the Lord who gave me these dreams and the abilities to pursue them.
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My responsibility is to use those gifts faithfully, follow where He leads, and give Him the glory for whatever grows along the way.