Solari subscriber Kevin McEvoy is a full-time professional oil painter who trained for several years at an atelier in Florence. He recently reached out to Catherine and Solari to tell us about his marvelous painting, John Henry and the Machine, as well as other encounters that have informed his thinking about AI and “the Machine.” He has given us permission to share his comments.

“I recently created a large painting, nine feet wide, which I’ve called John Henry and the Machine (very much influenced by Johnny Cash’s wonderful rendition of ‘The Legend of John Henry’). The painting is inspired in large part by your work, as I so appreciate the way that you urge people to take courage and stand their ground.

My painting is also inspired by the writings of British psychiatrist and author Dr. Iain McGilchrist. I had the privilege of painting Dr. McGilchrist’s portrait at his home on the Isle of Skye, where we discussed his “hemisphere theory” (explained in his 2009 book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World) and the hijacking of the Western mind that was set into motion centuries ago and is now being perfected by Silicon Valley. Another thinker influencing my art is the historian and war studies professor David Betz, who has helped me to understand the nature of civil war. And last but not least, I have been deeply impacted by writer Paul Kingsnorth, and especially his latest book, Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity.

Stephen Blackwood, the president and founder of Ralston College in Savannah, Georgia (which has as its motto ‘To think is to be free’), recently invited me to exhibit my John Henry painting at a Ralston-hosted event titled ‘AI and the Battle for the Human Soul,’ where Dr. McGilchrist was to be a speaker. My wife and I packed our five homeschooled kids in the car and towed a trailer with the painting from Long Island to Savannah. At the event, Dr. McGilchrist spoke powerfully, urging the West to return to faith and reject the siren song of the Machine. Representing the other side of the coin was computer scientist Stephen Wolfram, who is considered a central pillar in the creation of AI. His talk was, for me, terrifying—an unmixed homily on techno-optimism. Afterwards, at a private dinner, I was seated across from Wolfram. We quarreled—albeit politely—for two hours. He knows full well that his technology will be used for a mass surveillance digital panopticon. He wrapped up by saying, ‘Well, none of any of these things matter. We’re curing aging with biotech, and there are those of us who will live forever.’

Thank you, Catherine and the Solari Team, for all you do. As an artist and father, I am deeply grateful for how you assist us in navigating treacherous waters.”

On his artist’s website, Mr. McEvoy quotes CS Lewis, who said, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.” He also reminds us that traditional oil painting portraiture captures “the beauty of the human spirit,” a spirit that he elegantly conveys in John Henry and the Machine.

From Johnny Cash’s “The Legend of John Henry”:

John Henry said to his captain,
a man ain’t nothin but a man,
but if you bring that steam drill round,
I’ll beat it fair and honest,
I’ll die with my hammer in my hand,
but I’ll be laughing,
cuz you can’t replace a steel driven man