N.J. Artist Uses AI to Create Art After Vision Loss
Discover 'The Spirit From Within,' a virtual gallery by N.J. artist Jon Paul Ferrara, who, blind since 2020, is creating new art with AI assistance.
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Jon Paul Ferrara: “I feel I have my life back.”
RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ, UNITED STATES, September 8, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Jon Paul Ferrara, a 67-year-old commercial and fine artist who in 2020 lost his eyesight after cranial surgery, has announced the launch of www.TheSpiritFromWithin.com, a virtual gallery of original art he created with the assistance of AI.
The Spirit From Within comprises 26 artworks – covering biblical, spiritual, and inspirational subjects – that he created over the past six months. “People familiar with my work have told me that the art I’ve created with AI assistance looks exactly like the work I created when I could see,” said Ferrara, who had a four-decade career in publishing.
Ferrara gives the AI program explicit verbal instructions, down to the size of the “canvas,” perspectives, and color shades. He regards it as “another tool in my toolbox, another kind of brush.”
He continued, “I feel I have my life back. After six years, I’m able to create again. I started out with brushes and oils, like all traditional painters, and then over the course of my career, began working with a digital stylus. With the loss of my eyesight, AI is helping me reclaim my life as an artist, a life I’d thought was gone for good.”
After studying at the New York Academy of Fine Arts on a scholarship, Ferrara began his professional career and over the course of 40 years produced more than 1,000 cover illustrations for Harlequin, Simon & Schuster, and Pocket Books, among other publishers. He worked with the actor Topher Grace, and his portrait of supermodel Fabio appeared on a NASDAQ sign displayed in Times Square in New York. In addition, he designed the tombstone for the model Anna Nicole Smith.
The Record, a USA Today Network/NorthJersey.com daily newspaper in Bergen County, N.J., where Ferrara lives, ran a front-page feature article on Sunday, July 12, “The Artist Within: North Jersey romance novel painter says AI helped him create again after vision loss ended his career.” News 12 New Jersey aired an interview with Ferrara on September 6.
The Spirit From Within periodically will feature additional artworks. “I may have lost my eyesight,” said Ferrara, “but I haven’t lost my vision.”
Follow him on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/thespiritfromwithin/, and Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/jonpaulstudios.
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Joel Allegretti
J. Allegretti
jalleg630@gmail.com
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