Digital vs. Physical
Navigating the Emorey Labs transition — where AI generation meets paint and plaster.
I spent the first decade of my career with paint under my fingernails. Scaling scaffolding at dawn. Mixing pigments by hand. Feeling concrete texture through latex gloves.
Then I discovered generative AI.
The Initial Resistance
Like many traditional artists, I dismissed digital tools as gimmicks. "Real art" required physical labor, I told myself. The smell of linseed oil. The ache in your shoulders after a twelve-hour painting session. The unpredictability of how paint behaves on a hot wall.
But then I watched a colleague spend three weeks painting a 40-foot abstract mural — only to have the client reject it because the color balance was slightly off. Three weeks. Gone.
The Emorey Labs Experiment
What if I could preview the final result before touching a wall? What if clients could iterate on designs digitally, before committing to paint?
I started training AI models on my own work. Feeding them thousands of my brushstrokes, color palettes, compositional choices. The goal wasn't to replace painting — it was to augment the creative process.
Now, when a client approaches me with a vague idea, we collaborate using Emorey Labs. I generate dozens of variations in minutes. We explore directions that would have taken weeks to sketch by hand. We fail fast, digitally.
The Hybrid Approach
Here's what I've learned: digital and physical aren't opposites. They're complementary stages in a single creative process.
I use AI to explore. To iterate. To find the perfect composition before I mix a single color. Then I switch to brushes, scaffolding, and concrete. The physical execution brings texture, imperfection, humanity — things AI can't replicate.
"Digital tools don't replace craftsmanship. They amplify it."
The best mural I've created this year started as 200 AI-generated variations. The client and I narrowed it down to three finalists. We debated. We adjusted. Then I climbed the scaffolding and spent two weeks bringing that digital vision to life with physical paint.
The result? A piece that satisfied the client on the first attempt. No expensive revisions. No wasted materials. Just efficient creativity.
What I Tell Young Artists
Don't choose between digital and physical. Master both. Use AI to think faster. Use your hands to feel deeper. The future belongs to artists who can navigate between pixels and paint without losing themselves in either.