PAINTINGS

Artist Statement

Nic explores modern technology to generate reference material for her paintings, on her iPhone. Fast, game-like digital processes exist alongside the slow, tactile nature of painting. Nic reflects on attention spans, critical thinking, and psychological behaviours through her work. Her use of AI technology is grounded in critical thinking and research, and it unexpectedly reflects her childhood love of gaming (Nintendo 64, Gameboy and early Internet culture). In her practice, technology is used as a support tool, not as the final form of the artwork.

Ethical and psychological impacts of AI remain ongoing areas of inquiry. Nic supports artist's (and musician’s) copyright in this space, and mostly uses the technology to edit digital collages, consistently considering the sources of her reference images. While aware of the dopamine-driven pull of social media, she has found that using her phone creatively during painting reduces the urge for mindless scrolling, a habit she believes was in part created by major depressive disorder (during and after COVID) but also the result of it. By allowing herself to inhabit the game-like world of artificial image manipulation and creation, she found something within the world of phone-use that was beneficial to her mental health and subsequently found hope that we can exist alongside this technology without extremes.

Nic's work ignites reflection on painting and technology's continuing role in communication and self expression, and invites viewer to think about the bigger picture of a technology that has already arrived and is likely here to stay.