A human response to machine-made faces - this project reclaims digital imagination and resurrects it in oil and flesh.
The Space Between Us is a series born from a simple question: what happens when a machine imagines a face, and a human brings it to life?
Using AI-generated portraits as a starting point, this work explores the tension between artificial perfection and human emotion. Each image begins as a digital prompt - cold, synthetic, and eerily lifelike.
Through the act of painting, I reverse the process, turning pixels back into people. This is about reclaiming authorship, restoring presence, and finding something real in the space between technology and touch.
The Space Between Us Hashtag 02 – Artist Statement
This work started with a simple idea: I wanted to explore connection. But something unexpected happened - I found a way to create imaginary portraits using AI. These strange, beautiful digital faces felt full of potential, but also empty - like ghosts. That’s when I decided to paint them.
What followed was a kind of reverse alchemy.
AI turns people into pixels.
I turned pixels back into people.
By painting these images, I gave them something human - texture, emotion, a sense of presence. I didn’t just copy what the AI gave me. I corrected it. I interpreted it. I brought it to life in a way only a human hand can.
The video that goes with this painting reflects that process. It’s full of glitches and distortions - some real, some intentional. For me, they represent the space between us: the static, the noise, the miscommunication we often feel, especially in a digital world. But eventually, things settle - and something real appears.
This piece is about that fragile, complicated space between people, between tools, between imagination and reality. It’s a conversation between me and the machine - but it’s also about what it means to really see someone.
This short film accompanies The Space Between Us Hashtag 02, offering a visual reflection on the journey from artificial generation to human expression. Beginning in glitch and distortion, the video mirrors the disconnection and ambiguity of AI-created imagery—cold, perfect, and emotionally distant.
As the sequence unfolds, fragments settle, the static clears, and something human begins to emerge. The final reveal of the painting marks a moment of resolution—a return to touch, texture, and presence.
This is not a making-of. It’s a meditation on translation, interference, and the fragile, beautiful space between machine and maker.
The Dialogue between me and OpenAI ChatGPT-4 (GPT-4o)
This is a snippet of the workings…Transcript:
ChatGPT-4 (GPT-4o) “A hyper-realistic, cinematic close-up portrait of two androgynous humans in their 30s with wild, multicoloured hair, gazing directly into each other’s eyes with warm, genuine smiles. They are everyday people, unconventionally beautiful and full of character, with raw, detailed facial features that show texture, lines, and individuality. Capture a deep emotional connection—whether romantic or platonic—through their expressions and body language. The lighting should be dramatic and moody yet natural, adding an edgy, candid feel to the moment. The camera angle must be low, looking up at them, emphasizing their connection and presence.
Me: Above is the prompt. Could you please generate me a photograph? This photograph will be used as a reference photo for me to paint with. Can you make their features very different from what you have given me before in other chats? Thanks.
Me: Amazing—can you regenerate again, this time changing the angles of the couple? One should be in profile, and one a 3/4 length, with one looking up and the other looking down—both looking at each other is the most important thing.
ChatGPT-4 (GPT-4o) It looked like there was an error while generating the new image, so I wasn’t able to complete your latest request. If you'd like to try again with the same prompt or tweak it a bit, just let me know and I’ll regenerate it for you.
Me: Okay—amazing. Can you regenerate again, this time changing the angles of the couple? One should be in profile and one 3/4 length. The most important thing is they are looking at each other.”
The Space Between Us Hashtag 02
Oil on heavyweight 300gsm
Fabriano Tela Oil Paper (Off-White) 50 x 65cm