My Story

"Fractal Origami" from Corals Collection

I’ve always had creative ideas around art and design but never felt skilled or trained enough to turn them into reality. Still, my notebooks were always packed with random sketches.

In 2016, when I was working in Berlin, I discovered a gallery called Lumas. Two things about it really hooked me: first, it operated like a collective of artists showcasing their collections in beautiful locations—maybe not super innovative, but still cool. Second, the production quality was mind-blowing: they printed on a special shiny glass, especially striking in larger formats. Combined, these two things made Lumas feel like a magical place. I kept going back, bringing friends along, and grilling the staff with questions about artist selection, exclusivity, and the printing process.

Along the way, I got excited to try out their approach myself. I found a photo app that transformed regular pictures into drawings, then had a few of my own reprocessed images printed. The resolution wasn’t great, so I could only do small prints, but it was still fascinating to see my ideas come to life. Eventually, I even landed a meeting with Lumas management and signed an affiliation agreement. Sadly, I couldn’t find a partner who was equally passionate, so I had to put that plan on pause.

Fast-forward to 2024. In April, after a decade in my previous job, I left the company and decided to write a sci-fi novel as a fun “in-between” project. To visualize the scenes, I used AI tools like DALL·E to generate images—imperfections and all, especially with character consistency. But creating prompts and seeing them come to life was exciting. That’s when I had a wild thought: wouldn’t it be amazing to see these AI-generated visuals in a gallery like Lumas? Unfortunately, the gallery wasn’t exactly keen on AI art, so I looked for alternatives.

One idea was to show the pieces in a coffee house where I was a small shareholder. A friend and co-shareholder liked the concept so much we brainstormed about building a dedicated website to showcase the artwork, figuring out ways to make it feel exclusive and special. I created a few themed collections, one of which—Highlands Cattle—was inspired by a past trip to Edinburgh. But both the coffee chain manager, me and my friend got busy juggling other commitments, and the whole idea had to take a back seat for a while.

Then I told my friend Henry, who runs the coworking space Drop-In, about the project. He immediately saw the potential and encouraged me to go for it, offering moral support and a place to showcase my work. I pulled off a quick sprint—finalizing selecting a good production lab, upscaling images, designing the website, and preparing all the labels and descriptions for the Highlands Cattle exhibition. So far, the feedback from Drop-In visitors has been really positive.

Of course, I keep asking myself if these images qualify as “art.” It’s a big question—probably one for another post. But to me, AI is just a fantastic tool to shape and share my creative impulses in a tangible way. It’s thrilling to see something that used to exist only in my imagination hanging on a wall, catching people’s eyes. I’m curious to see where this journey leads next, and I’m glad I’ve got the freedom and the tech to keep pushing forward.