Get to know 0009 in the second issue of Unknown Stories.
This is a new format in which I’ll present diverse members of the Web3 art community and their interesting stories to you.
Tell us a little about yourself and your story with art!
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and have been an artist all my life. The city's diverse subcultures played a significant role in shaping the person I am today. Growing up around the automotive restoration industry and custom car culture because of my father sparked my fascination with 3D shapes and forms. The vibrant graffiti art across LA taught me about color theory and graphic design, while visiting the numerous art galleries solidified my passion for painting.
During my early years, comic book art heavily influenced me, and I spent my days drawing characters like Wolverine, Spawn, and The Max. As a teenager, I immersed myself in the skateboarding and graffiti scene, which became a major influence on my artistic style. In my early 20s, I hustled to break into the LA gallery scene with my IRL work being centered around Acrylic, oil-based enamel, spray paint, but eventually, I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a car designer. I was Accepted into the automotive design program at Art Center College of Design, I graduated in 2012 and have been a professional car designer ever since.
It was during my work in an advanced design studio in the auto industry that I first encountered text-to-image AI image generation. Although the outputs were low-resolution at the time, I was amazed by the technology's potential. In 2016, I became deeply involved in the ETH and BTC ecosystem, eventually leading me to discover the amazing Tezos art ecosystem in 2022. This is where I first encountered contemporary fine art examples of AI collaborative artwork, and I fell in love with it. Since then, I have been exploring the tools myself and creating text to image based collaborative AI art. The art that the NFT world knows me for is a combination of collaging many AI outputs in Photoshop as well as sketching digitally over my work.
My AI collaborative art is inspired by the beauty of graffiti art and 90s street culture which is something that I have been obsessed with since I was a little kid. I thought to myself, what would conceptual AI collaborative art influenced by graffiti look like? How can it be interpreted in a new and fresh way? I knew I had to create a story around this. There is beauty in graffiti art and I wanted to demonstrate this via conceptual storytelling. I see many parallels between the subculture of the NFT world and that of the early days of graffiti, hip hop and skateboarding. That's where the idea of the "Vandal" was born. In the context of web3, a vandal persona could potentially be seen as an abstract representation of digital disruption or chaos. This persona may manifest through a range of creative means. From an abstract perspective, a vandal persona may be seen as embodying the disruptive and rebellious energy of the punk or avant-garde movements, but adapted to the digital age. This is why I include a hooded figure (THE VNDL) in the majority of my work along with waves of 3-d graffiti paint that fully immerse cities, its an artistic force that cant be stopped, just like the artist in the NFT world. Its a conceptual representation of graffiti seen through the lens of AI. I want it to represent the VNDL persona in web 3 in relation to subcultures like graffiti, skateboarding and punk rock. This is the world I am developing and exploring.
Artwork from the upcoming Urbn Artfct collection
What is the most absurd and / or funny story you experienced in web3?
The absurd moment that truly opened my eyes in the world of web 3 was the great GDAX flash crash in 2017, right in the midst of the early 2017 bull market. Everything was heating up. We were eagerly awaiting ETH to follow Bitcoin's lead. I was glued to my phone, constantly checking the ETH price. I remember driving home from work, stopping at a red light. I glanced at my phone to check GDAX, and then it happened: the ETH price plummeted with huge red candles, dropping from $319 a coin to less than a dollar a coin and back up within seconds! I experience my first cascading liquidation event, a flash crash. All I heard was a "honk" from the car behind me, reminding me the light had turned green. I looked up in shock, thinking I'd lost all my money, but I kept driving home. It was a huge eye-opener, but it also got me hooked.
Why are you in web3?
I entered into the crypto/web 3 space back in 2016, I couldn't help but notice the striking similarities between the subculture of the Crypto/NFT world and the early days of graffiti, hip hop, and skateboarding. It immediately captivated me. It was something very new and fascinating to me. The other part of it had to do with promising myself not to miss another golden opportunity. Growing up during the early stages of the internet era, where AOL chat rooms and Warez groups were something I was part of everyday, I lacked the knowledge, resources, and insight to invest in the tools at that time. I knew it was going to change everyone's life dramatically in the future but I was too busy being a kid. It wasn't until later in life that I realized the missed opportunity to potentially alter my own and my family's future. Recognizing web 3 and crypto as my second chance to gain control over my time, I knew I had to run with the opportunity at full speed.
Which art piece in your collection or portfolio would you choose for the whole world to see, and why?
My SuperRare piece, "dəˈsent," stands as a reflection of a toxic period in January 2023, characterized by heated debates over the integration of AI in the art world. This artwork illustrates the noise associated with the complex and nuanced nature of the debate. I view it as an important piece in my portfolio, symbolizing my stance as an analog artist embracing emerging technologies.
What’s your biggest degen story?
During the bullrun in late 2017, I downloaded metamask on my work computer and I was trading ICO shitcoins on DEX's all day while doing the bare minimum at work. I cancelled meetings left and right. Only reason I got away with it and didn't get fired was because I was the one of the top performers in my studio at the time. The hardest part was trying to see the reflection in my computer to see if my directors and coworkers were coming up behind me so I didn't get caught. It was also tough hiding my tiny trading screen in time when they did.
My other Degen moment was taking 3 days off of work during the 2021 bullrun to sell my shitcoin position in SHIB before the tippy top in 2021. I hated buying shit coins at the time (I only bought BTC and ETH) but I said fuck it and aped a good amount of money into it. It was an amazing feeling to time the top of SHIB, but the best part was getting paid by my job while doing it. I got lucky and it paid off.
What’s the oddest piece of advice you’ve ever received regarding creating digital art?
"Don't make your editions as good as your 1/1s." All of my art starts as a 1/1, and I will always do my best to make every piece I mint as good as possible.
Enjoyed UC