Artist Statement

As a classically trained artist using time-honored techniques, I've struggled with my path as an artist in this rapidly developing technology-driven society, fighting to reconcile where I landed. In this age, where almost anyone can generate any type and style of art with a key stroke or voice prompt, how does a classically trained artist resolve this after years of traditional training?

This current work grows from a steady stream of synchronicities that led to a sudden realization, guiding me in my current direction. I was able to flip the polarity on the situation, as the answer arrived in a moment of clarity — I had no doubt as I began reviving long dead projects. AI opened a creative avenue for endless opportunities, creative journeys into the new unknown.

Less than a year ago, I started to examine generative AI as a way to revive a past video idea. I did the initial research and dove headfirst into AI as the means to this creative end. Immediately, I knew I had found an answer to more than my video project: I had found my place in relation to my art and its place within the art world.

During the process of working with AI, I started using old unrealized works as learning tools and subjects. I received mind-blowing results that could not be ignored — to ignore this block of work would be to ignore my path. I knew I had to create images in traditional art methods, bringing this work from the ethereal realm of artificial intelligence into this 3-D material world.

This also resolved my place in this traditional world as an artist, coexisting creatively with AI, making completely new and unique works of art in classical fine art methods. The art is born from AI images driven by my unfinished and long abandoned works, then rendered as traditional paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints. It represents a symbolic full circle for me and the creative process — which is actually a much larger life metaphor as well.