Artist Statement

Petrichor is a new short film project that explores my emotional response to the infiltration of generative AI in the creative industry. It confronts artistic and career burnout, loss, and hopelessness about the future of the arts. It is a love story between two astronauts who represent the art and the artist.

Through the guise of optimization, productivity, and technological promise, AI has eroded the creative industry within a few short years. Admittedly, I experienced initial hopelessness, which was a major catalyst for my career burnout. This coincided with midlife, when one reflects on life, career, and identity. I realized that succumbing to grief over what the creative industry had lost was admitting defeat. In an act of defiance, I committed to working in traditional media for a period of time to rekindle my creative spirit.

If there’s a repeated theme throughout history, it’s that creatives are attacked and art is undervalued. But this fosters resilience and is often followed by waves of creative expression. I no longer believe we’re in a moment of defeat and despair. We’re on the brink of a new artistic renaissance.

There’s a saying used in endurance running that “the hay is in the barn”. It’s acceptance that the hard work done during training is complete, and there is nothing more to do except run the race. It sparked in me a moment of realization. With nearly 20 years of experience as a creative professional and a lifetime of being an artist, there is nothing left to do in preparation. The hay is in my artistic barn. It’s simply time to create and have confidence that individual human expression can never be replaced.