• 

  Avoid using AI for simple searches!

• Engage with AI intentionally, rather than as a default.

• Prioritize text generation over images or videos whenever feasible.

• Group questions together instead of initiating repeated, fragmented sessions.

• Advocate for policies that promote renewable energy and water-use transparency.

• Be mindful of which communities are bearing the burden, especially local ones.

• Challenge both hype and doom narratives that obscure the full truth.

• Reject tribal framing; the honest perspective is often more complex and responsible.

• Contribute to positive change! Support organizations that advocate for distributive justice.

#thewayoftheunicorn

#stardustunicornsanctuary #ashleystardustunicorn #thewayoftheunicorn #mindfulAI #AImindfulness #AI #distributivejustice

The conversation about AI keeps getting flattened into a false choice: either you are alarmed by the harm, or you are excited by the benefit. Either you condemn it outright, or you defend it. That framing is making the conversation worse.

People are angry, and they have every reason to be. They are angry about water use, energy demand, labor displacement, and the fact that communities are often forced to carry costs they did not choose so that someone else can enjoy the convenience. That anger is not irrational. It is morally coherent.

But the opposite mistake is just as corrosive: pretending AI offers nothing meaningful to ordinary people. It does. It is reducing the cost of help that used to be reserved for people with money, institutional knowledge, or professional access. Solo business owners are doing the work of a team. Caregivers are getting time and clarity they cannot get in a rushed medical system. Writers without gatekeepers, disabled people needing support, and first-generation students navigating opaque systems are gaining tools they did not have before. That matters.

This is the reality critics and enthusiasts alike often try to avoid: the harms are real, and the benefits are real, and they are not falling on the same people. Communities near data centers bear the environmental burden. Users elsewhere collect the gains. That is not just a technical issue or a market issue. It is a justice issue.

So no, the answer is not to pick a team.

The answer is to get more honest. Individual restraint is not the main solution. These systems operate whether or not any one person opts in. The bigger questions are about infrastructure, energy, siting, and regulation. If we want better outcomes, the target has to be policy, not just personal guilt.

We also need better comparisons. The real question is not whether AI is worse than doing nothing. The real question is what it replaces: driving, printing, hiring, or abandoning a task entirely. Sometimes AI is the lower-impact option. Sometimes it is not. Serious analysis starts there.

What this debate needs is not less anger. It needs better direction. Anger is often the clearest signal that something unjust is being normalized. The issue is not whether people should feel it. The issue is whether that feeling gets turned into pressure for structural change.

If we keep forcing this conversation into tribes, we will miss the truth in front of us: AI is producing real harm and real benefit at the same time. Pretending otherwise may be convenient, but it is not honest.

MINDFUL AI USAGE

Where to Put the Energy

• Avoid using AI for simple searches!

• Engage with AI intentionally, rather than as a default.

• Prioritize text generation over images or videos whenever feasible.

• Group questions together instead of initiating repeated, fragmented sessions.

• Advocate for policies that promote renewable energy and water-use transparency.

• Be mindful of which communities are bearing the burden, especially local ones.

• Challenge both hype and doom narratives that obscure the full truth.

• Reject tribal framing; the honest perspective is often more complex and responsible.

• Contribute to positive change! Support organizations that advocate for distributive justice.

In the end, how we move through this moment is still a choice. We can retreat into suspicion and camps, or we can work together with honesty, restraint, and care for the people most affected by the systems we build. I still have faith that, if we are willing to stay clear-eyed and humane, goodness can prevail—not by accident, but by what we choose to protect, repair, and build together.

With Love & Paint & Stardust,

Ashley Stardust Unicorn oxo
💚🌈🌟🦄💜

Here’s the Happy News: you are not alone❣️ I’m here — and more of us are gathering every day! Birds of our feather are flocking together, and by flying our Freak Flags high, we find one another.

In 2020, I began using 10”x10” canvas boards as palettes for my art during my Intentional Creativity journey with Jane Sanguinetti of Joy of Being – Moss Beach and Shiloh Sophia at the MUSEA Center for Intentional Creativity in Sonoma, California.

Hand-picked and curated by my belovéd super-genius co-monarch, Marten, this collection presents 26 of those palettes. We had so much fun creating together and hope you enjoy this display of MUCH MUCHNESS in all its glittery, fluorescent, neon-unicorny splendor❣️

You are a miraculous creation of the Universe — perfectly made just as you are. You are sovereign unto yourself, the primary agent in your own rescue. You matter. Loving yourself is the key, and creativity in any form can unlock transformative self-love.

I discovered my “Way of the Unicorn” through the Intentional Creativity Path of Practice — and it has led me to the best version of myself yet❣️

Though we may never truly know how our light helps others, remember always: BE KIND. Making the world a better place for all beings is the deepest way I know to express my gratitude for the gift of consciousness — and for this wild, beautiful, preposterous ride called Life❣️

With Love+Paint+Stardust,

💜🌈✨🦄💚

Ashley Stardust Unicorn

#ashleymerritt #ashleystardustunicorn #thewayoftheunicorn #wayoftheunicorn #creativeplay #muchmuchness #stardustunicornsanctuary #wildthingsplayhouse #stardustunicorn #freakflag #paintyourinnerunicorn #musea #imusea #intentionalcreativity #intentionalcreativityteacher

There was also a writing process in this step, in which I wrote out my intention in long-hand for the whole process; however, that part wasn’t nearly as fun to watch as the painting. I hope you enjoy it!

My keyword for this process is GLITTER!!! Although, to be honest, it kind of always is…

I would love for you to “Follow” or “Subscribe” to my SubStack, both of which are offered for FREE!

Subscribe now

With Love & Paint & Starlight,

Ashley Stardust Unicorn

This is my Journal Guardian from The Abstract Expressionist’s "Awakening the Dragonfly" Integrative Art Journaling Process.

I created the butterfly collage on top of watercolors and then added the complementary flower background in Canva.

#ashleystardustunicorn #thewayoftheunicorn #muchmuchness #stardustunicornsanctuary #wildthingsplayhouse #stardustunicorn #janedavenport #janedavenportwatercolors #janedavenportartsupplies

I also share my first experience using Jane Davenport’s FridaMania Colour Wheel | Palm-sized, Jewel tones Layercake watermedia paint, and her Marzipan Crayon ColourStick | Jellybean brights! Creamy, high-pigment, water-soluble gel-crayons. I really enjoyed the smooth and creamy application of both products! I particularly love that the ColourSticks are like crayons that react to water, and that the Layercake watermedia paint is a cross between watercolor and acrylic, which, as the name implies, allows for layering colors in a way that watercolor paint does not. And, for the record, I don’t know Jane; nor did she pay me to say this, and I paid full price for her products. I simply love promoting fun products and art processes that I love!

I had a wonderful time creating this and hope you enjoy my process and observations!

With Love & Paint & Rainbows!

Ashley Stardust Unicorn

• Bubbles of Buoyancy

• Caldron of Passion Fire

• Everflowing River of Love

• Flower of Fearlessness

• Hand of Empathic Sensitivity

• Rainbow of Loving Kindness

• Snow Globe of Universal Diplomacy

• Unicorn Potion of Hyper-Focus

Painting created during the final “Apothecary” workshop led by Jonathan McCloud & Shiloh Sophia at the MUSEA Center for Intentional Creativity. Poignant & Potent Magic!!

Please share in the comments below what you know to be YOUR innate superpowers(s)!!

Happy, Passionate, Loving, Fearless, Empathic, Kind, Diplomatic, Hyper-Focused Unicorn wants to know!!

I had SO MUCH FUN last weekend playing with my newly-arrived-from-Canada, Paint with HeArt “Blissful Luminosity” Fluorescent Watercolour Paint from LizzieLou Mixed Media.

My heart-sister and the owner of LizzieLou Mixed Media, Liz Chamberlain, hand-makes all these gorgeous watercolor paints, which can be found by following the links below. Liz is a BRILLIANT and masterful Colour Weaver, and her sparkling presence and dancing eyes of curiosity make my heart grow three sizes every time I see her.

In this video, I created circles and puddles and painted with complete disregard for perfection or making-it-rightness or anything that didn’t harmonize with the BUZZ and FLOW of the NOW that was then, and also NOW. NOW, NOW.

Peace, Love & Paint,

Stardust

p.s. In case anyone is wondering, I was not paid to rave about Liz; I rave about her happily of my own accord! I bought my kit knowing it would be made with so much care and infused with love and devoted intention, and also because I love supporting small, woman-owned businesses.

Yay for Liz!! Truly making the world a better place.

https://www.paintwithheart.com/shop/blissful-luminosity-fluorescent-set

The Way of the Unicorn by Ashley Merritt

Ashley Stardust Unicorn is a Creative Play Artist who is an Embodied Sanctuary, Guardian of Unicorns & Wild Things, and lifelong thespian. Stardust leads "Paint Your Inner Unicorn (or Wild Thing!)" Creative Play Workshops.

By Ashley Stardust Unicorn

When I was 12 years old, I saw the 1937 film “Captains Courageous” starring Spencer Tracy. For those unfamiliar with the film, IMDB describes the film as the story of “a spoiled brat (Freddie Bartholomew) who falls overboard from a steamship in the 1920s, gets picked up by a New England fishing boat, where he's made to earn his keep by joining the crew in their work.”

While watching the film, I experienced a remarkable feeling of familiarity and longing that was notable for its intensity and pervasive nature —a memory that has stayed with me throughout my life.

I have no doubt that this feeling was inspired in large part by my Grandpa Merritt, who taught me to fish when I was 4 years old. Our fishing adventures always included waking pre-dawn to go out and scour the lawn for earthworms, followed by floating blissfully along a river or lake, basking in the glow of the summer sun and his delight in my presence.

“Captains Courageous” awakened within me the idea that perhaps, somewhere long ago in time, some part of me that exists now had existed then and was carried forward through time as an emotional memory that blossomed in my 12-year-old girl’s heart. The fruit of that blossoming was a poem I called “The Shipwreck,” and that I wrote with so much flow and ease it was as if someone else was directing the pen.

This is that poem:

The Shipwreck

The Demons of the Deep
As if in fitful slumber
Rustle in their sleep
And drag the lifeboats under.

A struggling grasp at Life
A final gasp of breath
The ending of all strife
The peacefulness of death.

The wreckage on the waves
The cry of a lonely gull
The never-resting graves
The endless rise and fall.

As water demons leap
The lifeless bodies sleep.

By: Ashley Merritt

What’s the worst name you’ve ever been called?

For those of us who were given names that became playground fodder, we share a common experience. The cruelty of the playground inevitably left us with a list of those gems, the damage from which stays with many of us long after childhood. However, remember that you are not alone in this.

Especially as “one of these things is not like the others,” those names were among the first snowballs starting the avalanche of shame, burying us with a paralyzing foundation of insecurity and low self-esteem, leaving us in those familiar “4 Fs” trauma responses: freeze (feeling stuck and unable to act), fight (responding with aggression or defensiveness), fawn (seeking approval and avoiding conflict), flee (escaping the situation).

And the fifth and only response we can intentionally invoke, and that allows us to remain and regain our own power: FIND.

FIND a friend. FIND a family member. FIND a therapist or counselor. FIND a community. FIND something that brings you joy and nourishes your soul. These are not just options, they are necessities for healing and growth. FIND an activity that helps you FIND your center and regain your balance. FIND something creative to do that expresses your inner experience, thereby transmuting that trauma energy out of your soul space and into your creations and efforts. FIND a hug! FIND someone with whom you can laugh!

It is with the spirit of that intention that I am introducing the Best Worst Names Ever Revolution, a movement where we reclaim the power of the names that once hurt us. By acknowledging and embracing these names, we take away their ability to harm us and instead use them as a source of strength and empowerment.

By naming those “worst names” and claiming them as our own, we reverse their negative power over us. This act of reclaiming our names is a powerful tool, diffusing the lingering energy of shame and anger that they imparted to us upon delivery. It's a step towards empowerment and self-acceptance.

My Top Three Worst Names:

• Ass-ley (in the obvious category)

• Witchypoo - Earned when I was six and told my fellow students who were being mean to me that I would turn them into frogs when I came into my powers at twelve. Witchypoo stuck with me until I left that school at thirteen. I LOATHED the name at the time, but have since enthusiastically embraced it as an adult!

• All-Time Win: The accidentally seen two-line ode composed to me by someone I thought was a friend, “Alien Pod Person from a Stupid Ball of Mud! I don’t know you, and you certainly don’t know me!!” (Name withheld to protect the guilty.) My mother remains offended.

My Marten (sic):

• All-Time Win: Five 1st-grade girls chanting, “Martin, Fartin’, Dolly Parton” from the top of the jungle gym.

• His highschool best friend’s girlfriend calling him “An, um… charming asshole.”

Come join the Revolution through merriment by leaving YOUR “worst name(s)” in comments below, tagged with #bestworstname as we collectively FIND OUR POWER!

With Love & Paint & Stardust,
Flying My Freak Flag High,
I remain,