MAKE ME A LANDSCAPE, DO NOT INCLUDE ANY SKY
Make Me a Landscape, Do Not Include Any Sky explores the relationship between art, nature, and technology in the emerging age of artificial intelligence. In collaboration with fellow artist and tech wizard John Brownell, I used a collection of my own paintings to train a custom AI image model specializing exclusively in creating “Ben Bloch” style painting images, generated from text prompts. I wondered, what might these images based on a “Ben Bloch” visual language model have to offer to a landscape painter? What would happen if I reversed the feedback loop and reinterpreted them in paint on canvas? What could AI—which is, after all, a human creation—have to tell us about our own human designs? Out of numerous of outputs, I selected several to reinterpret in my own hand. This series is the result.
Aspens, Gathering Storm
Golden Hour, Early Winter
A vibrant colorful sky at sunset
Snowy field with a jack fence
Ruffed grouse, close up, in winter
Fall trees, crisp blue sky, hazy clouds
Winding river through valley, evening, brown and white in pasture, snowy mountains
A lush forest, fall colors, green waters, do not include any sky
Morel mushrooms in a lime green forest with lava
River flowing through edge of a meadow in fall, stormy, with aspen trees and snowy mountains
Spring Flowers After a Storm Has Just Passed Through
A high mountain lake with mountains in the background reflecting the morning sky
A buffalo standing in a puddle in a dirt road in the fall, with mountains in the background
Painting of a rural water tower
Red barn in a field full of flowers
Fall colored bushes by a rushing river
Recently Shown:
Salt Lake Art Council’s Finch Lane Gallery, January 12 - February 20, 2026
Salt Lake City Public Library Downtown, March 14 - April 24, 2026.
Press Coverage:
Ice Breakers with Art and Powerpoint,” by Lara Jones. KRCL’s RadioACTive. March 24, 2026. [segment starts at 38:58]
“Putting the “I” in “A.I.” by Scott Renshaw. Salt Lake City Weekly. January 15, 2026.