gm once again, next editorial is here.

This time an amazing artist nostalgia photographer, Oak. To accommodate Oak's longer answers to my questions, I slightly adjusted the concept to make the experience more appealing to you, dear Reader.

Get your coffee and let's get to it.

First I have a small mental practice for you, try and recall your favourite Disney or Pixar cartoon movie. It doesn't matter which one it is and if it is from the '80s or it's the newest Inside Out 2.

Think of the magic in this movie, reminisce how the producers played with colours and compositions. Think about the way the movie makes you feel. When you are ready, try to focus on the trinity of photos below.

Did you find a similar feeling? I certainly did. I have known Oak, this Canada-based photographer for around a year, and whereas I have always liked his artworks, only in last month or so I had realized how special they make me feel.

Oak's photos are giving me that mellow peace of mind I tend to seek for in cartoons and children's stories.

Despite the motifs and visual styles of his artworks quite differ, you can spot a strong underlying theme, a certain feeling as if the worlds depicted in his photos came from some kind of a fairy tale. It's a timeless realm where each place or object has its' own soul..

Q:
Your photos look like strokes of sudden inspiration while you were on your way to somewhere, spontaneous and nonchalant. How do you get inspired?

A:
First I wanted to say thanks for the compliments and taking the time to really take a look at my work. I've always been inspired by the way the world just exists. Every home I walk past I like to believe there's a story there.

Families that have raised their children in those places, celebrating promotions at work, birthdays and anniversaries but also struggles, heartbreak and loss happen in these homes.

It really makes me happy that the work looks effortless because it feels like that. I have travelled a lot and lived all over the world, but this place is and will always be my home. I just want to showcase it a light that I think it deserves. We walk past the world and never really stop to just take it in and enjoy it because we are so busy, constantly in motion.

Photography has really taught me to slow down and appreciate little things. The warm light from a window at night. The shapes and colours of the city are just as vibrant as the people who live here. I find myself more and more just observing, looking for something interesting. Vancouver Island is a pretty magical place.

I do spend time on google maps just looking around my city for locations that seem interesting. Places and streets I've never been to or ones that I never took the time to really look at. We have a ton of history here so I pick a starting point, put in my earbuds and let my feet take me from there.

I try to shoot when I have no other plans or places to be so I don't feel rushed. I do have a camera with me wherever I go just in case. I think I've made significant progress in my understanding of photography because I do it everyday.

The first collection I explored was Efflorescence, a series of 9 artworks celebrating the nature reclaiming what truly belongs to her.

I must bow before Oak's ability to express the beautiful vibrance of the world we live in. My favourite touch about these artworks is the fact that most of the nature growing in the scenes are actually flowers, not just plants, and it gives the whole appeal of the collection tender and effortless feel.

I can't stop but thinking how it would feel to stand in there for a while, just admiring the beauty of those flowers, smelling them and touching the petals.

Q:
Your photos look like strokes of sudden inspiration while you were on your way to somewhere, spontaneous and nonchalant. How do you get inspired?

A:
First I wanted to say thanks for the compliments and taking the time to really take a look at my work. I've always been inspired by the way the world just exists. Every home I walk past I like to believe there's a story there.

Families that have raised their children in those places, celebrating promotions at work, birthdays and anniversaries but also struggles, heartbreak and loss happen in these homes.

It really makes me happy that the work looks effortless because it feels like that. I have travelled a lot and lived all over the world, but this place is and will always be my home. I just want to showcase it a light that I think it deserves. We walk past the world and never really stop to just take it in and enjoy it because we are so busy, constantly in motion.

Photography has really taught me to slow down and appreciate little things. The warm light from a window at night. The shapes and colours of the city are just as vibrant as the people who live here. I find myself more and more just observing, looking for something interesting. Vancouver Island is a pretty magical place.

I do spend time on google maps just looking around my city for locations that seem interesting. Places and streets I've never been to or ones that I never took the time to really look at. We have a ton of history here so I pick a starting point, put in my earbuds and let my feet take me from there.

I try to shoot when I have no other plans or places to be so I don't feel rushed. I do have a camera with me wherever I go just in case. I think I've made significant progress in my understanding of photography because I do it everyday.

I have never been to Canada but for some reason – probably my own ignorance – I have always considered the country being a frozen wasteland of nothing but grizzly bears and permafrost (exaggerating for dramatic effect).

Oak's technical skill and an artistic eye brings me to a comfortable realization that it's absolutely untrue, and that Vancouver Island and Canada offers a full range of colours easily comparable with the place I come from. His photos are warmly embracing and breathtaking in their simplicity. I can't stop looking at them.

Q:
The scenes from your latest analog photos (Solana) have very rose-colored bubble-gummy appeal. Is it just a great result of colouring experimentation or are you trying to depict something specific?

A:
So I have gone back and fourth and experimented with a lot colour for my latest series. I really wanted to curate a collection that not only highlighted the diversity in architecture on Vancouver Island but also highlight it's charm.

I shoot with Fujifilm cameras and they have a lot options in-camera for you to mess with and create "recipes" that tailor to the results you want. I wanted bright and saturated colours because a lot of the locations here have that. I created some base presets in photoshop to compliment the jpegs I was getting out of camera, and really make the shots feel punchy but stay cozy.

The results have given me a very plastic looks to my shots, almost as if they were toy sets that you played with when you were a kid. Using composition techniques from photographers like Wes Anderson, Nicanor Garcí, Manuel Pita, and Sebastian Weiss I try make the images feel flat like you are looking at illustrations in the pages of your favourite children's book.

I will continue to work on this series for the foreseeable future as I still have so much left to shoot and endless inspiration here.

We took a little detour today with the editorial concept as I wanted to give more space to Oak's detailed answers. I was happy to do so, Oak is an incredibly talented artist drawing inspiration from some of my favourite artists of the world.

On his Foundation and Exchange Art pages there are many available pieces, and I advise you to take some time to scroll through the collections to find your favourite one. If you like fairy tales and great vibes, you will be satisfied.

Price ranges:
1/1s: usually between 0.5 - 1 SOL, 0.05+ ETH
Chains: Solana, Ethereum
Links:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Oaknarrow
Twitter profile: https://x.com/Oak_Arrow
Foundation: https://exchange.art/oak/nfts

Join 452b for having an exclusive first access to these editorials along with being able to chat with these artists in our Familia chats.

Curating community is the future: https://x.com/0x_452b

Our today's artist is Atmo. As a renaissance craftsman, his approach and art style draws from over a decade long experience with motion design and running his own design studio where he gained experience and collaborated with big international brands. Currently, he works with Razer and spends a lot of his time creating his cyberpunk art.

I have always been a big fan of this sci-fi, and discovering Atmo's dystopian stylization of the future hits exactly the right spot in this little bent of mine. The world of matrix green, worn out metals and toxic screen light is a future most of us probably do not want to aspire to. Yet Atmo's take on it is very visually appealing.

His level of technical skill is spot on. In 3D we use to say that imperfection is perfection, and seeing the depth of all the scratches, stains and dirts in his artworks really makes me lean into labelling it as such.

The art is perfect.

It implies an image of not so distant future – highly stylized obviously, why would anyone want to live like that? – where one is constantly accompanied by their devices. Submerged by the still life of silicon.
The environments in his art are tastefully populated by Asian-like fonts and characters that underline and further enhance its' overall futuristic vibe. Kind of a Neo-tokyo style if you ask me.

Probably a good take if we take into account the level of technological progress in the last few years or even months maybe. Stay aware and think of what we are actually building.

Upon closer inspection you can notice a fair number of almost military grade designs and concepts within Atmo's work. There is a lot of metal, radar UI animations, cams and a lot of weird handheld gadgets that probably nobody but the secret government agencies would ever be using.

Deep state conspiracies aside. As a boy I obviously used to play with military toys all the time. Plastic green soldiers or Alpha team in the Lego franchise. The little blocks painted as monitors were not so different from those in Atmo's art, and it brings me weirdly pleasant kind of nostalgia when reminiscing the days I played spies with my building kits.

Back to the art. In general all those grimy concepts are compositionally well structured and the viewer's eye transitions between the points of focus smoothly and without any necessary obstacles.

What I especially love to see is how versed Atmo is at post-producing his art. He uses α plentiful of visual effects including strong halation and glare (my favourites). Those are always by his side to help him deliver the final artwork with a tasteful dreamy haze.

The best way you can observe it is on well lit areas where the light very gradually blends between objects and merges them together visually.

Like this. Doesn't it soothe your eyes?

I started in this space with style very similar to his. And despite its' quite dystopian symbolism, I find these artworks having a very calming effect on me.

The colourfulness and palette range shows nothing less than an absolute visual geniality of the artist. Try it yourself, combine green/yellow with purple/blue. You will find out it's not an easy task. Atmo makes it look like it is, though.

Price ranges:
1/1s: usually between 0.5 - 3 Ξ
Chains: Ethereum, Tezos
Links:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Atmonez
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/atmonez
Twitter profile: https://x.com/Atmonez
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@atmonez

Join 452b for having an exclusive first access to these editorials along with being able to chat with these artists in our Familia chats.

Curating community is the future: https://x.com/0x_452b

This week I am taking a little detour from emerging artists. I had the chance and the pleasure of talking to Other World, who many of you probably already know for his deeply absorbing new-age-old-age mythical sceneries.

While I was doing the research on his art, I quickly realized that what I'd previously known as Other World was only a very limited sample of his broad style of visual experimentation.

I was mostly used to see his grand sceneries depicting biblical and other religious events, skilfully transformed into many colourful variations of what's true to humanity. In the perspective of a layman art appreciator in me, these were and are the flagships of his art. These are the body of art that Other World does.

These festivals of colours are always full of a plethora of cult-like characters he calls Fiends. They serve the purpose of showing the dark side of the human psyche. They are the darkness within us, artfully placed right in front of us so we can finally deal with them. We probably won't, though.

My questions on Other World and the answers to them came via a videocall. So while these are not word-to-word transcriptions, the essence of the conversation has been kept (and corrected by him).

Your art is obviously very mythological. Are you a big fan of myths or did this originate from some religiousness of yours?

• I come from a Christian family, but I'm not too religious. I always really liked the renaissance era of art, and I think my artworks come across so mythical because they are based on art from this time. The artworks reflect my views on religion rather than being religious themselves. The themes I base my artworks on are very important, but I am not trying to recreate specific events.

• My style came quite naturally. I started with digital art doing mostly collages and creating colorful and psychedelic works. I slowly started to incorporate illustration and it led me to where I am today.

  I played around with famous artworks from history. I used them for my collages and illustrated over characters to make them more recognizable and give a modern twist. My current style developed as a blend between classical and contemporary art.

In most of OW's pieces things seem to be happening all at once. There is no time for rest, not even for you to take a breath. These artworks catch you and exhaust you with details and symbols sprouting straight from the roots of the collective human character.

Do yourself a favour and spend a few moments observing this pool of humanity's (un)doing. The bold colour contrasts and tragicomedy themes are just the beginnings of what his art conveys.

Although the main (or should I say the most famous) body of OW's art are the diverse Fiend-filled scenes, his art is by far not limited just to that. My favourite little (not so little) surprise during the research was the discovery of his experimental contract.

Can we talk a bit about the experimentation? I saw your SR contract with like 250 experiments. Is fiddling around and trying new things the activity you spend most of your time on art with?

---

• I find experimentation very enjoyable and important. The Fiends - probably the main thing making his art so distinctive (author's note) - came to existence solely thanks to experimentation. I'd say that 80-90% of the creation time goes to making the planned artwork, which leaves about 10-20% of the time for experimentation.

• Obviously struggles tend to appear. Sometimes I have to work on one piece, but feel like working on another. Other times, experimentation doesn’t lead to a successful result and I feel like I should have been putting that time into an artwork that I know would have worked.

• That being said, experimentation is needed for growth and has led to the existence of my most beautiful works. Without experimenting, I would not have created the art that I am creating.

Other World understands and uses this whole contract basically as an on-chain provenance. I find that very interesting because despite this being quite an obvious use case for nfts, you rarely see artists minting for the sole purpose of keeping their sketches on-chain.

Talking to artists whom I admire and finding out they face the same issues as me is inspiringly grounding practice. It makes me understand that all of it is part of the game.

So, back to art.

You are by all means an artist. Although, you have also a very scientific background in biomedical engineering.. Can you tell what came first? Did you ever consider an art education?

• I have always enjoyed great art. For a while, as a kid, I wanted to be a cartoonist, but other than that, I never thought about art as a realistic career choice. That's where science felt more down the earth. I also used to go to private art lessons for less than a year and I learned some important skills, but ultimately, I didn't like that I was being told what to create.

• I feel like science and art are not so far from each other. Science is very analytical, but in my field it is also very creative in order to find solutions with engineering. My approaches to art and science are not too different. They both have analytical and creative aspects to them.

---

So for you and your life personally, are these two parallel or intertwined?

• Parallel, but they affect and help each other quite a lot. Lessons and skills from science directly help my art career and the same is true in reverse. Finding some success in art had given me confidence that also carried its way into my science career. Now that I am done with my PhD, I am glad that I pushed through and didn’t quit.

It's not easy for me to pinpoint any one feature in his art that should be my favourite, but there is one specific kind of detail that I find very intriguing. And that's the way of how the Fiends' robes are coloured. Not only are they colourful, but each of them is literally bathing in contrast colours.
Generally, we tend to see shadows as darker tones of the same colour. Other World's practice is not afraid of using contrasting colours to show shadows. You can see red robes with blue shadows, purple ones with yellows or greens with pinks. Majestic.

I have always been a sucker for myths and religion-y themes both in traditional and pop culture, and despite my current art style I have spent many years through-out my education drawing demons, angels, knights and other Other Worldly (hehe) entities. So these pieces touch my soul to an extent not so much other art does.

Dancing while the world burns, laughing while surrounded by death. Bliss and suffering, terror and joy. Such and many more paradoxes in his art invite us to see and accept the human nature in all its' beauty.

Sometimes people forget that we come to this world to learn and to experience it all. And I am infinitely grateful that art like this will be always be here to remind us.

We are just people aren't we, it's normal that we forget why we came.

While I was writing this editorial, I heard myself many times say something along "Jesus, how this can be so good?"

The work on this gave me a great chance to dive deeper in Other World's style that I have always admired. Both researching and writing this was an absolute pleasure. I am grateful, lfg.

Price ranges:
1/1s: usually mid to high tens of Ξ
Experiment pieces: Lower units of Ξ
Editions: Mostly up to 10 Ξ
Chains: Ethereum
Links:
Website: https://www.otherworldartist.com/
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/otherworld
Twitter profile: https://x.com/otherworld_xx
SuperRare: https://superrare.com/otherworld

Join 452b for having an exclusive first access to these editorials along with being able to chat with these artists in our Familia chats.

Curating community is the future: https://x.com/0x_452b

As I embark on the journey to write an editorial on Klaus's art, I find myself indecisive which of the elements of his style speak the most to me.

Is it his ability to combine seemingly incompatible sets of colours, the all-encompassing redgreenblues (RGBs) and the clever contrast play that follows their use? Or maybe is it another example of great contrast that appeals to me so much, the dynamics?

Spend a few seconds looking at any of his artworks. It is easy to get immersed in the flowingness of it. The single movements are jagged and wonky, yet the overall dynamic of most of his pieces is a smooth flow.

As I think about it, I think the most obvious winner of what's so great about Klaus's art is the fact that it's analog video. The second I found him on Farcaster I knew I had to write an editorial about his art.

For the last 2 years I have been a digital artist. Many times I had thought that I'd love to be able to create digital visual art in an analog way. I used to be jealous of the musicians, that they were able to fiddle some buttons and create art. I wanted something similar for visual art. And then I found Klaus. Klaus does that.

His style roots far back into his days of VJing (Visual Jockey), an underappreciated art form that creates the visuals you can see while raving in a club or on a festival.

When you observe his art and focus the attention on the overall aesthetics of what he does, you can pretty easily spot the effects of these underground (are they still?) influences.

The principle of how the analog-to-digital process works seems pretty straightforward. I will quote Klaus here:

You connect the mixer between TV and camera and then just point camera to TV to get some video feedback and use mixer to put some effects in between.

Simple, right? It's just mixers and other hardware altering the video signals.

However, in practice it feels so unreal. People nowadays are used to a life in digital sphere, a lot of them are even terminally online. What is fascinating to me is the barrier, the moment of transition from the physical to the digital. And that is where people like Klaus excel, where they easily catch my attention.

With his creations, he becomes the link between you sitting in front of your screen, and you as a pfp somewhere in the metaverse (ugh). Maybe his art even shows how we transpose ourselves to the digital sphere, a bit distorted and glitchy?

Klaus craftily creates an on point mixture between raw and noisy '80s effects and an alien-like digital cultures of early '00s. The result is a fascinating glitch amoeba in a crisp blurriness of a video signal.

He plays the game of contrast well. Below I summed up the contrasts I am able to see in his art.

Glitch elements Smooth animation
Physical world Digital sphere
Red Green Blue in their extreme tones

All of these work together amazingly and invite you to wander a bit in his sea of noise and colours.

I have enjoyed observing Klaus's art. Grateful that I had the chance to write about it. I definitely invite everyone to follow up on the links below and enjoy the animated versions. Maybe even scoop a piece or two, I will.

Before you do so, please consider subscribing to this newsletter. I drop it every two weeks and the goal is to support artists whose art I love and admire.

Price ranges: 1/1s on eth up to 0.2 Ξ, tezos pieces mostly around 20-30 tez.
Chains: Ethereum, Tezos
Links:
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/klauzzz
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/klazmandoo
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@klauzzz
Objkt: https://objkt.com/@klaus

Before the blazing hot waves of 2024 summertime come in knocking on our doors, I'd love to take one last look back over the cold winter months and reminisce about the beauty of a deeply sleeping nature.

Today's editorial will focus on a Finland artist Popsto, a Nature timelapse photographer from the frozen lands of Lapland, whose goal is to try and make you slow down. And he's damn good at it.

Technical skills aside, Popsto's talent very clearly resides in his ability to capture the essence of an exhale. His photos bring the sensation of the deep calm state that your body returns to when you focus on breathing out.

It might be the theme of Nature, the colours or the absence of people in his art (or combination of all those), but whatever it is, it awakens the primal instinct in me to return to the woods and live as a hermit. Too bad I'd die on the second day.

You would be surprised by how many colours you'd find in a land of snow and ice if you looked hard enough. Popsto's photos reveal the beauties of the northern lands, enchanted by the fleeting colours of the heavens above. There are hardly just whites and blues.

The time-lapse character of his works naturally invite the viewer into observing beautiful natural phenomena in a condensed span of a few seconds.
Because of that, this format lays out an interesting contrast-play between the deep, immutable essence of the Mother Nature and her fleeting nowness. Simply said, it's all ancient yet so short.

If you spend just a few minutes on his Foundation page, you will easily notice an out-of-this-world vibe reaching across his artworks. It ties the photos together, subtly suggesting that none of it happens in our world.

And, of course, it does not. It is a whole another world. A world unfazed by our grand civilization, technology developments or politics. We – people – tend to think that the world we built for ourselves is the absolute pinnacle of creation. Yet standing in front of such untampered majesty of the Nature itself we slow down. As Popsto's work of art elegantly proves.

I'd like to mention that while I feel that Popsto has a great advantage in his environment, what he really offers us is the key to appreciate our own surroundings. The world is full of colours and complexity regardless of where you are. And if he is able to find depth in a land of snow, so are you wherever else in the world.

Lately Popsto has dived into the world of AI animation, which very cleverly follows the steps of his original landscape timelapses.

In his AI pieces we can see a unique approach to his standard themes of the Scandinavian ice lands spiced up with an interesting touch of his nation's culture. I am specifically caught by interesting animations of subzero bathing in ice lakes or famous finish saunas that I am yet to visit.

I probably don't have to mention that the technical execution of these is at the same level of quality as his timelapses.

I personally am very grateful for having linked with Popsto two years ago. He is an incredibly outgoing and friendly human being that I've been talking to often.

His self-proclaimed purpose of trying to make you slow down is a successful one, at least for me. The natural beauty he shows in his artworks invites you to escape the common sight of an average Joe and really appreciate anything you might find out there.

The wilderness is everywhere around us, we just have to see it.

I highly recommend following up the links below. Popsto's works are animated time-lapses and the still pictures in this email cannot do them enough justice.

Price ranges: 1/1s mostly in the 1-2 eth price range
Chains: Ethereum
Links:
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/popsto
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/popst0
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@popsto
Special editions: https://opensea.io/collection/special-editions-popsto
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/popsto

My today's victim is a warlock of mythologized nostalgia, colourfully talented and outgoing OMGiDRAWEDit.

A few months back a collector of mine reached out to me and shared his newest artist discovery with me. He said that he had found a great nostalgia artist and that we two should link up. Once I saw his art I had to agree. It hits man.

The style itself is a vibrant blend of sugar candy easter eggs balancing between the themes of Adventure-Time-like land of cotton-candy rainbows and a bittersweet realm of childhood nostalgia (the kind that we all carry within ourselves).
Both of those radiate their own magic, perfectly connecting together within each OMG's piece.

As you observe his artworks, you can see myriad of amazing sceneries, often happening in child bedrooms or living rooms. Yet they still make you feel you are looking at a boundless plane of infinitely interconnected details from both these worlds.

OMG's brilliant visual approach evokes a playful and joyous mood and spikes your attention for detail by serving you a sea of precisely composed details on a silver platter.
Just try it yourself, take a few moments and observe all the details in his artworks.

Incredible, isn't it?

What I personally really like about his style is that the rainbow colour palettes are structured in a way so the viewer doesn't feel overstimulated by any colour at any time. And that's one hell of a task for an artist using so many colours. Well done.

I always give artists a few questions to increase the impact of these editorials. Thinking of the questions for OMG was entertaining because I literally wanted to ask about everything.

Thankfully, he also kinda answered to everything in this answer haha.

One of the strongest selling (is that the right word?) points of OMG's art is his intuitive and very unique depiction of nostalgic events. Being a nostalgic artist myself I find it amazing seeing other people utilise this common human experience in refreshing ways.

As it happens with these themes, OMG's artworks extend far back to those honey-sweet times of '90s nostalgia of timeless days full of console gaming, having friends over and shitty plastic toys, uniquely spiced up with an occasional mythic battle ax stuck in a fabric of a velvet couch or a battle cry of a forest dryad howling from outside the windows.

Oh yeah and don't forget the magic doors behind the TV, what's behind them? Only OMG knows.

As a person who spends half of his time bathing in the pools of nostalgia and longing for the days long gone, OMGiDRAWEDit's art provides me with deep sense of calm and peacefulness of shared memories.

His artworks, worked through to the smallest details reflect the complexity of the world we live in. His pieces help me see the vibrance of it, its' happiness and joy. But I can also feel sadness, loneliness and occasional weight of misunderstanding the world as it is. I can feel it all, and I can appreciate the life for its' wholeness, the good and the bad.

And all of it thanks to OMG's Cotton-candy dream.

Price ranges: Tezos: ꜩ - ꜩꜩꜩ, Ethereum: Broad range from 0.0x levels to 1+ Ξ for 1/1s
Chains: Tezos, Ethereum, Base, Warpcast
Links:
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/omgidrawedit
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/omgidrawedit
SuperRare: https://superrare.com/omgidrawedit
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@OMGiDRAWEDit
Objkt: https://objkt.com/@omgidrawedit
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/omgidrawedit

Exposure and visibility is one of the key struggles of a digital artist. Being an artist myself, I know the joy of being appreciated by someone who enjoys my art.

My goal with this newsletter is to do the same, to pinpoint and elevate works of other artists. To bring more eyes to them, help them getting the attention they deserve. I also do a little interview with each artist. You can find that mixed in the newsletter.

If you haven't subscribed yet, feel free to do so here:

So, without further ado..

Sup @everyone, it's time for another editorial. This time it's gritty, lo-fi digital maestro Sluj. Let's get right into it.

Sluj has come to the center of my attention when he dropped a piece called “Bro wants in”, basically an ode to something I can't explain no matter how hard I try. This artwork is also a great introduction to his art.

Basically what you can see is a first-person video-game like point of view. You are looking out of the door into the dark rainy night, and there is a..

cat, with a pizza.. Exsqueeze me?

That was literally his first artwork that caught my attention.

Right on the first look it is very clear that Sluj enjoys using a certain level of shitpostism. It's all dark, grungy and raw, just like most of the shitposting memes out there. Yet a very real emotional value lurks behind these lumps of unsorted pixels.

In a very weird way, it awakens a deep sense of an affinity to the modern digital culture. The pixelated look alone brings the observer back to the ‘90s and early '00s, reminiscing of classics like GTA Vice City or San Andreas, I am sure a lot of us could go even further back in time to dig up older classics.

Q: Who inspired you in your style? I keep losing myself looking at your pieces. Guide us through your mind process when you work.

A: i find a lot of inspiration in my environment, especially in the music i listen to, the games i play, and the anime and shows i watch. inspiration is incredibly important to me as an artist. my art style is mainly influenced by the aesthetics of the ps2 (which is my all-time favorite console), the vhs era of the 80s and 90s, and the sci-fi genre. these influences give my art a nostalgic and retro-futuristic feel that i love.

my creative process isn't straightforward; it's not a blueprint that i follow each time. each animation i create follows a unique process, but if i were to generalize, my thought process would typically be as follows:

inspiration comes first, which gives me an idea. then, i write the script for the video, to capture the concept. after that, i move on to creating the storyboard, a crucial step that has significantly leveled up the quality of my art since i began incorporating it into my workflow. the storyboard helps me visualize the flow of the animation and refine the details. finally, i start working on the animation itself.

While reading Sluj's answers I have realized that his process resembles my own a little. It's diverse, chaotic, seemingly random.. That was a pleasant realisation which made me so bullish on writing this editorial.

Originally I wanted to comment that one special thing about Sluj's art is that it literally screams RGB. Based on the answer above it's probably the Playstation 2 inspirations I have been seeing in his artworks. After all, I spent a lot of hours with that console as well.

Q: What does RGB mean to you? Wrong answers only. Right answers only.

A:

Q: Alright then, keep your secrets. Favourite video game of your childhood? Why?

i played a lot of games when i was a kid, so i can't really choose a favorite. but i can tell you about the best ones i really loved back then. gta san andreas was amazing, downhill domination was so much fun, and cs 1.6 i played those games a ton, hahah! it feels like it was a long time ago, but i remember those days well.

Isn't this a beautiful synchronicity? I had already had the San Andreas part of this article written when I got the answers. Anyway I can relate to this a lot, I always used to turn on the cheat for high jumping bunnyhop and bike-parkour'ed all over the city. Legendary game.

It needs to be said that Sluj's style style is an epitome of digital art. A perfect blend of basic colour units (red green blue) of the first computers and TVs, often brought to perfection using a VHS grain effects. I am also in love with those glitch stripes that tend to appear on the screens of old TVs.

His art carries a certain calming aura, a sense of a deep rooted nostalgia that breaks through whatever the medium Sluj uses. Moreover, it complements it.

His short movie you only live once is an amazing example of this mixture of a native digitalism with something older, I'd even dare to say animistic, or tribal.

It is only about 20 seconds long, yet it keeps you thinking how all you want to do right now is to get out, touch some grass and forget the ones and zeroes for a while, and it does so by using precisely ones and zeroes (and a bunch of gritty pixels). Bravo!

Q: One last question. Bro wants in. Will you let him?

A: oh you mean that little cat? nah keep him outside

Price ranges: Quite wide range of prices on Solana ranging from 0.5 sol an edition to 20 sol reserve price for the short movie.
On Ethereum mostly between 0.5 and 2 eth for a 1/1. Although holders are quite diamond holders, secondary prices are usually 4+ eth.
Chains: Ethereum, Solana
Links:
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/smashdirt
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/smashdirt
SuperRare: https://superrare.com/smashdirt
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@smashdirt
Exchange: https://foundation.app/@smashdirt

Exposure and visibility is one of the key struggles of a digital artist. Being an artist myself, I know the joy of being appreciated by someone who enjoys my art.

My goal with this newsletter is to do the same, to pinpoint and elevate other work of other artists. To bring more eyes to them, help them getting the attention they deserve. I also do a little interview with each artist. You can find that mixed in the newsletter.

If you haven't subscribed yet, feel free to do so here:

So, without further ado..

Today it is my honour to present a great generative artist and an incredible person, Mpozzecco. As one of his collectors I feel like pumping my bags is obligatory here.

While staying mostly in the realm of generative art, Mpozzecco's works explore a broad variety of different visual styles across different colours schemes, levels of sharpness of individual elements or even the key emotions hidden within it.

After reading Mpozzecco's answers to my questions, I've come to noticing that joy from life is prevalent in his view of things. Same goes with our mutual communication on X. It has been very inspiring to me.

Your artworks stretch on a very broad spectrum of styles. Lines, dots, strokes. How do you achieve your results, do you strive for a goal aesthetic, or are you experimenting with code until you are happy with the result?

My artistic process is a blend of intention and experimentation. I often start with a core concept or emotion I wish to express, which guides the aesthetic direction — whether it's raw and chaotic or sleek and orderly. However, a significant part of my art comes from experimenting with nodes.
I tweak algorithms, play with randomization, and manipulate parameters until the visual output resonates with what I envisioned. It's a dialogue between my artistic intent and the serendipity of nodes, where unexpected patterns or harmonies can lead to the final piece. The goal is to find a balance where both the calculated and the spontaneous can coexist, creating artworks that are as much a discovery for me as they are for the viewer.

As you browse through all the artworks Mpozzecco has produced, you can see the changes in his approach every few artworks. Personally, I find that amazing. Seeing his style develop so consistently shows that his exploration is targeted and he is aiming to perfect his style with every output, and that is precisely what you want from an artist, no? (Making a mental note to myself to do this more).

I am a big fan of minimal ambient techno and Mpozzecco's art reminds me heavily of the hypnotic states that kind of music is getting me into. As long as you are able to spend a few seconds to watch some of his animations, do it. You will not regret.

What interests me is the wide variety of colours on your artworks, you do not resort to one colour palette and it's refreshing. Do you do any postproduction on your pieces?

Regarding color, I view each artwork as its own universe with its own rules and emotional climate. While I have base algorithms that dictate the structure, the colors are often chosen to enhance or contrast the emotions I want to evoke.
The colors in my artworks are raw and direct, reflecting the initial conditions and parameters set in the nodes. I choose not to engage in post-production, as I believe in the authenticity and immediacy of the colors as they emerge from the generative processes. This approach ensures that each piece remains true to its digital nature, capturing the genuine interplay between algorithm and outcome without additional manipulation, thereby preserving the original essence and integrity of the digital creation.

I love diving into artists' thought processes. It keeps me humble and appreciative of the amount of great minds that are present among us.
As it sometimes does, the Universe aligned nicely for this week's editorial. Mpozzecco is being exhibited this week on SXSW in Austin. The exhibited pieces are below.

Please do yourself a favour and see the high-res animation on the links below the picture.

1. Horizon Twist, 2. Gravity's Dance, 3. Boundless Horizons, 4. Independent Dimensions

The animation dynamics of each of these animations is a piece of art by itself. I am more of a calm, slow movements person, and I immediately felt connected to Boundless Horizons, so I bought one edition straight away. The vibrant, orange flames reaching out into the nothingness of the yellow background keeps me going.

If I asked you what emotions can I look for in your pieces, what would you tell me. What is it you are showing through your art?

In my artworks, you'll find an array of uplifting emotions: joy, wonder, serenity, and inspiration. Each piece is crafted to evoke a sense of positivity and reflection, inviting viewers into a space where they can find a moment of peace and a spark of joy.
Through vibrant colors, harmonious patterns, and dynamic compositions, I aim to create a visual symphony that uplifts the spirit and nurtures the soul. My art is a celebration of life's beauty, an ode to the resilience of the human spirit, and a reminder of the endless possibilities that surround us. I invite you to explore my pieces not just as art, but as gateways to moments of light-heartedness, hope, and boundless imagination.

In general I feel like Mpozzecco might be getting a bit overlooked by the market. Just by gliding across the surface of his portfolio you can find multiple breath-taking artworks, the kind I would consider buying a TokenFrame for.

There is a lot of his art available both on primary and secondary markets, and one of the big upsides I can see as a smaller collector are the prices. Despite it's astounding quality, Mpozzecco's art is often affordable, hence a great addition to your gen (or any other) art collection.

I think that with the combination of ever-increasing lust and fever for generative art and his explorative spirit and thirst for trying news methods and styles, Mpozzecco has a great potential to grow and mature with the market.

What aspect of your life inspires your art the most? You can say more than one.

My life experiences and observations of the world around me heavily inspire my art. Nature, with its intricate patterns and chaotic beauty, often finds a way into my pieces, either through form, color, or underlying concepts.
Human emotions and the complexity of our inner lives also play a significant role. I am fascinated by the way our inner states can be abstracted and represented through different media. Lastly, technology and its impact on society inspire me to explore new forms and themes, questioning and celebrating the digital age we live in.

Price ranges: On Solana most artworks are below 10 sol, editions usually below 1 sol. Ethereum 0.2 - 0.5ish
Chains: Solana, Ethereum
Links:
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/mpozzecco
SuperRare: https://superrare.com/mpozzecco
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@mpozzecco
Exchange: https://exchange.art/mpozzecco/nfts

Hope you enjoyed the newsletter, feel free to subscribe if you haven't already. See you in two weeks.

Exposure and visibility is one of the key struggles of a digital artist. As an artist myself, I know the immense joy of being appreciated for what I do and what I try to say with my art.

My goal with this newsletter is to do the same, to pinpoint and elevate other artists' work. To bring more eyes to them, help them with getting the attention they deserve. In the end there is also always a small interview with the artist.

If you haven't subscribed yet, feel free to do so here:

So, without further ado..

This week's artist is Stefan Große Halbuer. I've been following his journey for about a year now and I have always deeply admired his attention for detail and complex artworks.

In his own words, this President of purple allows us to enter his visual genius by letting us dive into his imaginative illustrated worlds. These are created with precise, playful strokes, followed by mellow colour palettes usually consisting of tones of orange and purple.

His distinct style and well crafted worlds reminisce of traditional Japanese ukiyo-e illustrations and paintings. That is a great little plus for me as I'm a huge appreciator of these old art and graphic styles.

As with every other artist, you can see the development of his style. What originally started as a cyberpunk-ish vibrant purple illustrations developed into those atmospheric animations reminding us of what is really important, peace of mind.

Yet his style is definitely not limited just to that. It is not hard to get mesmerised watching those gifs, admiring thin, curly outline strokes wrapping around various elements in his pieces. Let yourself watch the strokes go from left to right and you will soon find yourself 'illustrating' the whole artwork again in your head.

Stefan also dabbled a bit with physicals, but probably in different way than you'd imagine. He came up with a colouring book of his illustration called Lines, and I absolutely love it.

Stefan is not really an emerging artist per se. His reach on X hits almost 40k followers, yet I think he is very much worthy of our attention, even if just to admire his absolute banger of an art.

What software do you work in? What is – in a very brief and simplified way – your process?

I mostly work with Procreate, but I also like Clip Studio Paint or Affinity Designer when I'm not on the iPad. For my animations, I work with After Effects. My process usually starts in my sketchbook, where I collect moods and ideas. The rest is simply sketching, outlining and coloring.

Colouring books – such a great idea for an illustrator. How did you come up with it?

Colors and color theory is a topic many beginner artists struggle with - I remember having a hard time figuring colors out myself (and I still sometimes find it hard now). I liked the idea of making a book that included both coloring tutorials and tips, and artworks to directly try these out on without putting too much thought into compositions and outlines. That's the idea that turned into the "Lines" book.

In your pieces you play a lot with the theme of Japan and Asia. Have you been there? Why is it so prevalent in your style?

I get that question a lot, it's a little weird but I haven't been in Asia before. I'm using some kind of "second hand inspiration", filtered through photos, videos and gaming experiences, to create my artworks. I'm fascinated by this kind of process, just as I'm fascinated by Japanese architecture, cars and culture, but I'd really love to take that trip for some first hand inspiration soon.

Do you have a goal where you'd like to see your art in 3 or 5 years?

I don't have a big picture, I achieved most of the goals I had in my 20s by now (the biggest one being able to afford a freelance life, ideally through art & illustration), which is incredible. I've got a couple smaller milestones I want to reach in the next years though - to name some of them: release another book/make my first comic, host my first solo exhibition, build up a nice YouTube channel, finish some of my ongoing series.

1/1s price ranges: Mostly in the 2-3.5 eth range. Historically some smaller ones.
Chains: ethereum, solana, tezos
Links:
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/grossehalbuer
SuperRare: https://superrare.com/grossehalbuer
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@grossehalbuer
Exchange: https://exchange.art/series/Singing%20Doors/nfts
Objkt: https://objkt.com/@grossehalbuer
Lines colouring book: https://grossehalbuer.gumroad.com/l/lines-book?layout=profile

Hope you enjoyed the newsletter, feel free to subscribe if you haven't already. See you in two weeks.