Shattered Seagull’s Gaze

A Visual Journey Toward Inner Freedom

“Freedom, finally, is not the flight of the seagull, it is the calm gaze that watches it pass.”

Introduction

I believe that images have a unique ability to serve as anchors in our lives, preserving memories and emotions that shape who we are.

This truth has been with me since childhood. When I was four, my family visited a small market in Stonehaven, searching for something to hang above our living room fireplace. My parents encouraged my older brother and me to choose something meaningful. While he couldn’t decide, I was captivated by Salvador Dalí’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus, a surreal, dreamlike painting that stayed above that fireplace until I left home at 23.

Through years of change, my parents’ divorce, my brother moving away, and eventually the sale of our home, that image became a constant presence. It was more than decoration, it was a silent witness to life’s transformations.

Decades later, it hangs above my desk again, still watching, still reminding.

Its symbolism, paired with my daily Stoic practice and my Memento Mori tattoo, “remember that you must die”, inspired this series. It’s a reflection on how freedom and transformation are born not from escape, but from acceptance and endurance.

About the Project

This seven image series traces a psychological and emotional journey from confinement to quiet liberation.

It explores the metamorphosis of the self, from vulnerability and fracture to a state of granite like stillness.

Drawing on Stoic philosophy and the surreal metamorphosis of Dalí, the series proposes that freedom is an inner transformation, not an external condition.

Through the aesthetic of Symbolic Fragmentalism, blending Surrealism (dream logic and inner metaphor), Cubism (structural fragmentation), Neo-Expressionism (emotional turbulence), and Minimalism (spatial calm), each image captures a different stage of awakening, chaos, and acceptance.

It’s a story about someone who feels trapped, like a bird that can’t fly away.

The Search for Inner Freedom, the journey to lasting liberty not through escape, but through stillness and acceptance.

It reinterprets flight as a metaphor for consciousness, exploring how identity evolves through endurance.

Echoing Stoic ideals of apatheia and Dalí’s metamorphic surrealism, it charts a passage from longing to peace, from fragmentation to unity.

They watch the world and feel lost, but they slowly learn that real freedom isn’t about running away, it’s about finding calm inside, like a rock that doesn’t move even when the waves crash around it.

Core Message

Transformation begins not in escape, but in acceptance and stillness.

Freedom is not flight, it is the calm gaze that watches it pass.

Core Palette: Slate Grey, Rust Orange, Dusty Rose, Olive Drab, Cream Subdued

This is my first full AI art project, the result of weeks of trial, error, and discovery.

I began with a written outline of what I wanted the project to express, breaking it into early concepts for ten possible images. From there, I started experimenting, both with ideas and with tools.

To understand which AI model could best translate my imagination into imagery, I first created a clear image in my mind and described it in writing. Then I visited multiple AI assistants, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Co-Pilot, Grok, and others, to generate different prompt interpretations.

Armed with those prompts, I evaluated them across several image generators, Midjourney, Leonardo, Ideogram, Flux, Nightcafe, Runway, Craiyon, and more, to see which combination of model and prompt truly matched my vision.

After extensive testing, three tools stood out, Firefly, Midjourney, and Leonardo, with Firefly appearing as the most balanced for the series. Its “Enhanced Prompt” feature, paired with Gemini’s first phrasing and refinement in ChatGPT, gave me the best creative flow and consistency.

Once I had my foundation, I built Firefly Boards, a Main Project DNA Board defining the series’ aesthetic, and individual boards for each image. This kept the colours, symbolism, and atmosphere unified.

After generating the images, I performed minor refinements in Photoshop to bring subtle cohesion and clarity, the final polish to the vision that became Shattered Seagull’s Gaze.

ACT I — Awakening Awareness

Twilight’s Gaze

Meaning: She’s looking at the sea, wishing she could fly like the birds. It’s the moment she realises she’s stuck, but also that she can think and feel deeply, a real awakening of consciousness, the self’s first confrontation with its own boundaries. The fractured geometry mirrors early Stoic thought, clarity often begins through discomfort.

Role in Project: Opens the journey, the spark of awareness that begins the search for meaning and freedom.

Seagull’s Secrets

Meaning: One bird looks normal, but the other looks strange and broken, like it knows something but can’t say it, a metaphor for partial perception, the self begins to suspect deeper meaning but cannot yet grasp it. The duality of the birds mirrors Stoic reflection: knowledge withheld until one can accept it without fear.

Role in Project: Introduces mystery and reflection, the soul begins to question what freedom really is.

Mask of the Gull

Meaning: The bird looks both ways, one side light, one side dark. It’s confused about who it really is, a divided persona, emotion versus reason, impulse versus acceptance. The two beaks stand for the Stoic struggle to find harmony within duality.

Role in Project: Closes Act I, the self-recognises its fracture and begins the confrontation with its divided nature.

ACT II — Chaotic Confrontation

Fragmented View

Meaning: The bird is flying, but everything around it is breaking apart. It doesn’t know where it’s going anymore, it’s a shattering of perception, chaos as catalyst. As Marcus Aurelius wrote, “The obstacle is the way.” Collapse becomes the crucible through which endurance is forged.

Role in Project: The turning point, destruction becomes the beginning of transformation.

The Watcher of Dawn

Meaning: The big bird watches everything but can’t close its eye to rest. It’s tired from seeing so much with an omniscient consciousness, perception becomes imprisonment. Awareness without acceptance leads to fatigue, the self must now turn inward to find peace.

Role in Project: The emotional and philosophical peak, the self faces the cost of knowledge.

ACT III Melancholic Resolution

Vertical Unmoved

Meaning: The door doesn’t move, even when the wind blows. It just stands and waits, it becomes the Stoic symbol of constancy, strength through patience, peace through calm. The metamorphosis begins in acceptance, not escape.

Role in Project: The first moment of stillness after chaos, strength found in surrender.

The Figure

Meaning: She turns to stone, but she isn’t scared. She’s calm and part of everything now, the sea, the sky, and the birds, the culmination of the Stoic ideal, apatheia, serenity amidst chaos. The figure, like Dalí’s Narcissus, transforms into something nearly eternal. The seagulls now stand for continuity, not longing.

Role in Project: Closes the series, the self becomes both the sea and the stone, peace replaces pursuit.

Final Reflection

Shattered Seagull’s Gaze is both an homage and a meditation, to Dalí’s metaphysical metamorphosis and to the Stoic acceptance of impermanence.

It reminds us that we cannot control the wind or the wings of others, only our own gaze upon them.

Freedom is not found in flight, but in the calm that watches it pass.

I am new to all of this and learning as I go but have loved doing it so thank you for your time if you went through this.

Regards

Alex