Cory Sea is a digital artist and jazz guitarist whose creative journey began in childhood, inspired by his father who was a painter and art professor. With a BA in Art from the University of Michigan and an MFA from the University of New Mexico, Cory’s path has always been guided by a desire to bring beauty into the world. His shift into digital art began in 2008, when he was invited to create visual content for a relaxation DVD for hospital patients in Australia. That experience marked the beginning of his deep engagement with digital media.

Cory now creates digital images daily, using programs like Vue Infinite, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Designer. He often enhances his work with hand-drawn details using a Wacom tablet and incorporates found images, reshaping them into layered, meditative scenes. His art brings together technical skill with emotional resonance, aiming to offer moments of peace and reflection. He shares his work regularly on social media, where he’s built a supportive community around his calming and imaginative visuals.

We asked Cory about his art, creative process, and inspirations.

What was it like growing up with a father who was an art professor? How did that environment shape your own creative instincts?

Since my father was an art professor and practicing artist, our home was always filled with his work in the form of drawings, paintings, woodcuts and lithographs. In addition, my parents’ social life revolved around artists and other creative people (also generally university instructors and professors) such as composers, architects and musicians. In my Junior year in the Fine Arts program at the University of Michigan, I also took my father’s class in Design and Composition. I passed the course!

The shift to digital art in 2008 sounds like a pivotal moment — do you remember what it felt like to make your first digital piece?

The shift to digital art was quite exciting, although also challenging. The first digital art tool that I became familiar with was Vue Infinite, a digital scene building program that has been used to build landscape and other scenes in many movies, including, The Pirates of the Caribbean II, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. My first digital art project was to create an animation for a Relaxation and Guided Imagery DVD that would be shown in patients’ hospital rooms in a private hospital in Perth, Australia. My wife, who worked at the hospital, had received a grant to create this DVD and she asked me to create the animation.

You mentioned that creating beauty has always been central to your work — how has your understanding of “beauty” evolved over the years?

My understanding of beauty has widened to now include various forms of art that I might not have considered beautiful in the past, or that I was not very familiar with or art that perhaps I did not know even existed. Some examples of art that is new to me include beautiful paintings on streets and buildings and art created by people who find objects by rivers or on beaches. Finally, I am appreciating kinetic art more and more.

How did your experiences as a jazz guitarist inform the way you approach visual composition in your digital artwork?

I have always felt that my music and my visual art are a continuum rather than separate from one another. There are certainly rhythms, improvisations, passages and spaces in both music and visual arts. At times I have combined my images with my music. I did this at an exhibition in southern Portugal years ago and look forward to doing this again in the future.

What does digital art allow you to express that traditional painting or music might not?

For me, digital art holds many advantages over traditional graphic art methods such as painting, etching, engraving, silkscreen, lithography and drawing. Even though I appreciate these advantages, I continue to have a deep appreciation of traditional techniques for the production of graphic art. One advantage for me is that I can use a digital element in a number of images. Another advantage is that it is easy to edit colors, shapes and sizes. A third advantage is that digital art can be easily fabricated on different materials and at different sizes. Some of my favorite materials for my digital art are perspex, vinyl on foamalite and high quality art paper. A fourth advantage is, that like lithographs, silkscreens, etchings, woodcuts and engravings, digital art can be produced in editions, making it available to more people at a lower cost.

What is a profound childhood memory?

I remenber the smells of the turpentine, linseed oil and oil paints that my father used in creating his paintings as his studio was always in our home. Even as a young child, I was excited to see his final creations and then to see them placed on our walls.

What is a fun fact about you?

As my father served in the Coast Guard during WWII, he was given the GI bill after the war was over. The GI bill provided funds for veterans of WWII to study professionally in their chosen field. My father chose to use this money to go to Paris and study with Fernand Leger, a well-known French artist. Information about Fernand Leger can be found in this Wikipedia entry. Since I was very young at the time, the only school that my parents could find for me to attend was L´Ecole Pour Jeune Filles (School for Young Girls)!

What else fills your time when you’re not creating art?

For many years I have performed as a musician in hotels, restaurants and in concerts. You can learn more about me as a musician by visiting my two music websites: for my work performing popular music and for my work performing jazz.

I have also had a lifelong interest in helping people heal and grow. This interest has been amplified ever since I met and married my wife, Maryanne. When I met her, she was 27 and had been labeled “permanently and totally disabled” by the US government as a result of extreme chemical sensitivity. She lived in a room called a ‘bubble,’ which held three chairs and a lamp. With my help and her own determination, she went on to recover and serve others in their own personal growth and healing.

During our life together, when we were living in Australia, I obtained a second degree in Psychology and I also trained and became licensed as a Naturopath. These qualifications not only enabled me to continue to help Maryanne, but also to open a clinic in Perth, where I practiced for a number of years.