Ken Crost Art

My artistic practice has developed over decades and across disciplines, including photography, theatre (actor, producer, director, playwright), digital photography, and digital art. Working within these varied forms has given me a sustained familiarity with the creative process as one shaped by time, uncertainty, resistance, and occasional moments of clarity. I understand creation not as a singular act of expression, but as an iterative and embodied practice—one that relies on intuition, sustained attention, and choice.

In recent years, this practice has expanded to include artificial intelligence as a creative tool. I use AI not as an autonomous generator, but as a responsive system within an artist-directed workflow. AI does not invent my vision—it unlocks it. The process is one of discovery rather than automation, dialogue rather than command. Sometimes the first key fails. Sometimes the fifth or the twentieth. My prompts are intentionally minimal, allowing the underlying photographic or digital source material to guide the work. These source images carry intention, memory, and visual weight, shaping both the direction and limits of what emerges.

The role of AI in my process is one of mediation rather than authorship. The work develops through exploration, repetition, and refinement. Images often resist resolution, requiring numerous iterations before they align with the internal logic I am pursuing. When that alignment occurs, it is not the result of automation, but of judgment—of knowing when an image has reached a state that feels coherent, resolved, and alive.

Conceptually, my AI-assisted works explore transformation, fragmentation, and states of emergence. They occupy a space between the organic and the constructed, resisting literal representation in favor of emotional resonance. I am less concerned with realism than with perceptual and psychological truth. The images are intended to be experienced intuitively, allowing meaning to arise through sensation and reflection rather than explanation.

Alongside this visual practice, I maintain an active writing practice, including an AI-less novel. Although materially distinct, both disciplines are driven by the same creative impulse: entering uncertainty, following instinct, and allowing form to emerge through sustained engagement. In both cases, the work is not about illustrating ideas, but about discovering them through process.

Ever since AI became a player in the world of art, public discourse around AI-generated art has been polarized. I remain aware of these debates but choose to focus on creating rather than responding. Tools evolve, but the artist’s role remains consistent: to perceive, to interpret, and to take creative risks. I choose to create because it is who I am—and because nothing else feels more alive. My practice reflects this continuity, treating AI as one tool among many in service of intention, inquiry, and meaning. 

Not all of my artwork incorporates artificial intelligence. In non-AI pieces, Adobe Photoshop serves as my primary creative environment.

Tools used: Adobe Photoshop, Topaz Gigapixel AI, OpenArt.ai, and occasionally Studio Artist.