I have some big news to share: my animated piece All Cooped Up was selected for Our Art 2026, the sixth annual exhibition celebrating Northwest Arkansas (NWA) visual artists. The exhibition is presented by Walton Arts Center at the Alexander Gallery at Porter Art Warehouse in Fayetteville, and the animation will be on display from September 25 – December 20, 2026.
Out of 371 artists and 659 submitted pieces across the region, 102 works by 86 artists were selected by the Walton Arts Center’s visual arts committee.
This is a huge milestone for my practice: my first time exhibiting an animated piece in a gallery and my first exhibition in NWA after relocating to Bentonville in June. I am honored to be a part of this incredible event featuring talented regional artists.
Before living here, I had been visiting the area with my wife and kids for many years to visit family. Most people around NWA have a chicken story to share. The memories run deep in this region, and the raising of chickens is an important part of the local economy. My wife grew up on a poultry farm where her family raised tens of thousands of chickens, and she's always had funny stories to share about the experience.
Chickens are also very quirky, puzzling animals. From a distance, a flock looks like clones of the same bird. But if you stand there long enough, the crowd breaks apart into distinct individuals. Every bird has a personality and an odd nature.
That gap between the crowd and the individual is what All Cooped Up is all about.
There are 123 chickens in the piece, with 205 eyes staring straight out at you.
When you stand in front of it, the flock doesn't stop staring back.
Earlier this year, I left a corporate career to create BizarreBeasts full-time. Moving to Bentonville to establish an independent creative studio was step one.
While All Cooped Up was built specifically as an 80-second, seamless looping gallery installation, it uses the exact same creative foundation as the BizarreBeasts animated series currently in production for DCP+:
The Single Line: Every chicken began as a hand-drawn illustration and is uniquely layered to create the "puppet" that you see moving. The character will be a part of an upcoming episode of BizarreBeasts.
Software as Medium: To bring 123 hand-drawn birds to life without losing the original illustration, I built custom software to handle the rigging, movement, and infinite looping. This is the same technology I have been building to bring the BizarreBeasets characters to life.
Whether it’s a 12-week gallery installation in Fayetteville or the full miniseries streaming on DCP+, the core goal is the same: taking my raw, primitive hand-drawn art and building custom tools to bring it to life.
All Cooped Up is an 80-second, seamless looping animation. The camera slowly drifts sideways through the crowd, continuously moving and never arriving anywhere.
Because the piece was created specifically as an infinite, seamless loop for a physical gallery space, I won't be posting a full video clip of it online until after the exhibition opens.
It will run continuously at the Alexander Gallery in Fayetteville for twelve weeks, from September 25 through December 20.
Our Art 2026: Sixth Annual Exhibition Celebrating Northwest Arkansas Visual Artists
Presented by Walton Arts Center
Location: Walton Arts Center Alexander Gallery at Porter Art Warehouse
212 N West Ave, Fayetteville, AR 72701Exhibition Dates: September 25 – December 20, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, September 25 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
(Free event, timed entry. Get tickets here) 👈
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Saturday: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Thursday – Saturday: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
I will be at the opening reception on September 25, and will have a limited number of stickers made of the BIZARRE chickens to hand out, so come find me on opening night!
I'm the artist, animator, and creator behind BizarreBeasts ($BB), creating a universe where art and web3 technology converge. This is where everything I am intersects: a lifelong artist captivated by darkly humorous outsider art, a creative entrepreneur, a self-taught builder who coded 12 original games and an onchain miniapp from scratch, a musician performing original soundtracks, and a true BIZARRE believer in decentralized creativity.
This project was born from a vision of what's possible when an artist fully owns their creative universe, exploring the opportunities and economies that web3 enables to build a legacy of creativity and freedom for myself and the BizarreBeasts community.
In early 2026, I walked away from a six-figure corporate position to create BizarreBeasts full-time, and moved the studio to Bentonville, Arkansas. BizarreBeasts is an Arts3 Foundation A3 Startup Award recipient, earning $100K in funding for a ten-episode animated series currently in production, premiering on DCP+ at the platform's launch this fall as part of its opening slate. DCP+ is the streaming platform empowering independent creators from Decentralized Pictures.
My animation "All Cooped Up" was selected for Our Art 2026 at the Alexander Gallery, presented by Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, one of 102 works chosen from the 659 submitted by 371 artists, on view September 25 through December 20.
For more on my transition to building BizarreBeasts full-time, see my previous update: Going Bizarre Full-Time!
Learn more about me or see the paintings, statement, and CV at artist.bizarrebeasts.io.
BizarreBeasts is an original, art-powered ecosystem featuring hand-illustrated characters, animations, NFTs, and web3 games. With 12 games played over 255,000 times, hitting #1 trending on Remix, I've built a notorious community of 6,900+ token holders going BIZARRE.
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Ticker: $BB
CA: 0x0520bf1d3cEE163407aDA79109333aB1599b4004
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