yo mek welcome back again in our second interview

(because the first one was too wall of text, my bad wkwk)

LOL, let's goooo— second round!

let's start with why you choose pixel art? I know you since more than a decade ago and you never do one. I know you're good and (too) fast at drawing tho

Well, initially I wasn't really doing pixelart right— since I was doing my typography series with adobe illustrator.. but goddamn that felt like doing work again RIGHT after work hahaha.

So I was kinda did a soul searching, and pixelart just happened to be in the menu. The UI/UX of aseprite felt like a game so it refreshes me a lot.

Quite fortified by my interest in 8bit games too. Legend of Mana is a game that my sis and I played religiously on our childhood days haha

opening the same tools as your daily job, kinda destroy the purpose of doing this lol

and yea I remember you vomit when played FPS game so you stick to retro games with low bit graphics most of the time. can't blame tho, gameplay > graphics.

100% this! (although I still got jealous people playing the newer games though still haha)

there's still youtube for that

or are you still nauseated even watching youtube of them?

Oh for that I found a really neat trick haha— if I went fullscreen, I will have the nauseating effect still. But if I use youtube's mini player and reduce the browser size a bit, the effect seems to be gone hahaha

are you allergic to technology or what lol

your pixel art direction is very much to old masters right?

haha I wouldn't have know any better what's with this 3D-phobic 😂

And yes, I look up to old ukiyo-e and shin-hanga masters. Trying to align my journey to their direction

among all other old techniques, why ukiyo-e and shin-hanga? it definitely very rare pairing pixel with them of course, I can't even remember any that tried

I have been always interested with their visuals, (our studio got my mural with ukiyo-e style in it for 10 years afterall, haha)

And I found great resemblance on pixelart with the old technique— in the sense of the limited colour palette and how hard, blocky things (wood plank, and pixelboxes) could represent something's that sentimental and soft.

I haven't been perfecting the technique like how the old masters are, obviously— but I'm heading there haha

I can see that resemblance for sure

damn right the mural, I see it everyday until I forgot it's there

since I collect your works too, I see that you made quite a number of landscape as the subject, is it because ukiyo-e and shin-hanga has the same subject?

they actually varied quite a fair bit; portraits, natural landscape, citylife, theatrical, even porn— just like how oil paintings are; shin-hanga and ukiyo-e are hardly a corridor of style, but rather, a medium of art. In matter of which they does indeed share the same undertone since they were made using the same technique.

I specifically chose natural landscape as my main exploration since it somewhat distill me from pretentiousness haha. I feel like an artist couldn't draw nature at its best if they're not honest with themselves (I'm not haha, still trying).

yea landscape painting is pure visuals and somehow relies heavily on artists’ own mastery of composition and delicacies. but I see you did another bold and more contrasting work in another chain, do you think different chain has different taste? or it simply your own strategy?

I do believe so, albeit not as religiously— that each chain got its own flair of taste and 'expectations' on artists, which could coincidentally conceived by how the blockchain/marketplace itself shape their structure and systems, I think.

I don't really have a specific strategy in mind haha. Right now my focus is just branching to blockchain that I would be a collector into— in this regards, TEZ and SOL are two of my early choice. But I think I'm almost ready for ETH as well 🙂

you will be everywhere this year it seems lol

do you have a tips or magic trick in time management? you're too prolific it's scary man. you're like, 2 artwork per day?

Haha funny that came from you, who already knew me for quite some time— 1.5 decade already 😂

But yes, I do 2-4 practice daily— I usually call them a practice piece until a narration breathed into them on mint days, then by then I can call them 'artwork' haha.

Excessive consumption of daily caffeine really helps— And also learning from our real work for 12 years, I learn to appreciate and respect time more. Respecting it to the minutes, even.

how much "unminted" ones in the bag as of now?

I think just shy from 400 by now... these are the folders for my daily practices, not to mention the main explorations that I haven't even reveal just yet haha

in all seriousness, I think out of those 400, only 30% of them are good for mints— rest of them are quite sub-par to my standards

I'm itching to say our usual joke but I will refrain in doing so in the public 🤣 but MAN THAT'S SO FUCKIN LOT

I need them small cards on my wall

HAHA, could be too sectoral for lots of people to understand it really. And stay tuned for the cards, friend! We shall see how it goes for those small cards haha.

do you have any plan for other form of work outside pixel?

It will be hard for me to find something as profoundly positive to me apart from pixelart, really— but I'm quite open to ideas 🙂

Lately I've been contacted by a couple of people who's keen on making cross-stitch, generative art, screenprints, etc from my work. In which I'm very delighted to take part haha! Perhaps that'll be the closest thing I got now in web3 'outside' of pixelart

not that I will complain if you stay at pixelart hehe

I think that's it for now, I'm sure this won't be the first time we will do something together 😉

For sure! Been a very pleasant talk, old friend. Proud to call you one of the two OG brothers I have outside of my family haha.

(with the other one being Tito 😂)

MEK.txt twitter / objkt / fx(hash) / formfunction / exchange art

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The interview was conducted in order to welcome MEK’s new work in Nifty Gateway under spirouzi’s publication: spir’s shrine, titled The Absence of Heat

good evening Wrenn!

how's today weather in your area?

good evening spirouzi!

a bit cold lol. But it gets hotter when feb arrives 27 deg. is cold for me since we're in a tropical country 🤣🤣🤣

27 at this time? Looks like you live in a highland like me 🥶 Or maybe you are not in city center?

yesss. need my windbreaker when going out. Not in city center. So no tall buildings to stop the wind

are you actually my neighbor? that sounds just like my city

hahahaha maybe!

ok so from your brief description of your place, I now can imagine how you came up with all these comforting imageries

you live the life

Specially the farmlands. Looove the gold-like fields when it's harvest time.

yea now we are in different place it seems, I got no fields despite in the city side lol

so what makes you think it's a good idea to combine your image of harmony with AI? you make your work with AI right?

My idea of harmony is to make viewers remember their past memories. That you can still be happy even if you're alone. That's why the description of the collection is "A remembrance of your first encounter with solitude. A happy memory resurfacing in a mysterious way" I think AI really helps me a lot when it comes to portraying the kind of harmony I have in mind. And I want it to be like a "walk along flowers" mood. I want to make collectors want to touch the image of flowers itself.

Yes. The images are generated using AI, but the initial outputs are far from what I imagined is the best image to portray "harmony". It's bare and were either dark or doesn't have proper hue/saturation/exposure. That's where I use color gradings. Heavy color gradings and editing through Photoshop.

and AI is known for having distorted parts haha

the AI doesn't just spits out what you see as the final image of harmony. you really need to work and "collaborate" with it. and a lot of post-processing too.

whoa so your artwork (and big chance, most of top-of-the-shelves AI work) not coming out from the "machine" like that?

will you be willing to share the "right out of the machine" and the finished one? I think many people really want to take a peek on how AI artist do the work

and you know, AI got quite a backlash in creative community for its 'easiness' but personally I don't believe anything great and consistent, no matter what the medium, can came out from just an 'easiness', the work hour won't lie

Yes. A looot of work comes after the generation of image.

okayy let me find the pieces for the before and after

The base images generated by AI won't align with what I have in mind for harmony. So I think to make a great output using AI, you really need to put in the work. It's not here to make the work for you. It's just here to assist you. You're the main character. Not the AI.

Yes. I saw a lot of hate posts on twitter. I think AI artists really works hard and put a lot of artistic input to make their pieces beautiful. They're not just relying on the machine to do the work. And you'll definitely see the intricacy and quality of work of what serious AI artists puts out vs the one's using ai then just minting it as their final output (fresh from the oven - these are the ones who tried ai and then says it's just that easy to create)

hahahahhahaha peace out to those who hate AI

Yo the 16:9 is actually composite of 2 images?! That’s sick

Yes. They're two images. I was actually experimenting with landscape format for Harmony. My past trial on it was the connection was a bit obvious. (image below)

So this time, since the scene is on the mountains, I added layers of fog to mask the connection, as well as the yellow vertical lines that acts as a shadow/ sunlight. Edited out too a lot of extra flowers and grass to combine the two images properly.

This is where the connection happens.

I think the solution to connect the 2 pieces is quite successful since you didn't notice it 🤣🤣🤣

ah color grading act as a big part too to the solution. they're 2 different shades of green so I edit the yellows, greens, whites, and blacks, added contrasts too to make them look as one

Yes yes as one who dive into photography for more than a decade, I can attest there’s a ton of post processing works in here. 

Clone stamping, grain adding, color grading, you even do that contour lines in some part as aesthetic elements. 

This actually almost at the level of digital imaging instead of just an edit.

I love the crunchy effect the grain/noise adds. Makes it look like printed on paper even though you see it on your screen.

I was about to expect something like this (Harmony #148) when I ask to do the work in 16:9 instead of your usual square, bits of kintsugi touch. But after you submit the work I thought, “oh maybe you found a way to make 16:9 without combining it, nice”

BOY HOW WRONG I WAS 

Perfect execution with the cloning and those lines 🤌🏼

Did you by any chance practicing photography? Maybe before Or are you actually a full time photographer in disguise lol

noooo hahaha. I donn't know if it's talent but I just know when a picture has an awkward shot 🤣

ah speaking of photography, family have an upcoming trip and I've decided to buy my first camera. what do you think is a beginner friendly/ entry level I could purchase? my friend recommends canon eos m5 and boyyy it's a thousand dollars here that won't break my wallet hahaha but won't compromise the quality of shots

I’m a Fuji guy tbh, and the one I use was in 1k range too 🫣 (mine is XT-1)

okayyy so the 1k range is just on the perfect spot?

Under 1k there’s X-T30 II & XE-4, both need lens unfortunately (but separate lens means better one and you can upgrade/experiment separately) If you want a grab and go it will be X100 series but you will stuck with 35mm lens. Might be a tad cramped if you wanna shoot wide landscape, need 24-28mm equivalent lens

okay will take note of this. sheesh that's a lot of upgrades in the future hahaha

okay back to the interview 🤣

ah can i tweet the nifty piece? with no hint of beinng minted on nifty of course

You can of course I’ll probably post this interview tomorrow too

right, back to the topic, yes having a better composition brain is an actual talent, and you don't need to be able to draw or paint or sculpt to achieve that. the handwork will help, of course, but not mandatory imo

it usually followed by the ability to edit/choose which one will be suitable to be presented or worked further

all in all, the creative process of AI is almost the same as photography as in

1. you produce many images with prompt / you take many photographs of 1 subject

2. you select ones that can communicate the ideas better (both are the same in each field)

3. you enhance the selected images so they can reach your vision even further

am I right about "you generate so many before select only one"? how many images you usually made for 1 spesific subject?

yes you're right

hhmmm my Soothing Meadows Collection (195/ed) generates 2,123 images.

but for a piece of harmony around 300-400 generations.

You select only 1 from 300-400 variations?!

yes. it gets frustrating when I don't see the right composition haha. sometimes I choose a piece, edit it all out and when I have the final output it just feels weird. I just start again and select new one from the pool of generated images I have.

😂😂😂

actually better than photograph, you don't need to go out there again to retake the shot lmao

do you have art education background btw?

don't get me wrong, I love this (web3) space because anyone can be anything in here, nobody will question your CV 🤣

Yes. I'm an architect that's why I put this in my profile  😂 I'm literally building houses lmaooo. And I love rembrandt (painter)

rembrandt - wrenbrandt - wrenn

Maybe I need memory booster lmao I already saw your profile before. I’m embarrassed with my own question

lol that's okay. a lot happens in twitter everydayyy

I always find people that have different or even opposite background with their current work always has interesting edge

All my years in uni really helped with my use of photoshop. I see architects on twitter who knows how to code. Maybe if time permits I will also try to learn it. No harm in trying everything.

Just need to put in the hours.

Oh so true! Another field that architect has a very interesting edge, gen art!

Definitely check out Isma Helio, Jacek Markusiewicz, Alejandro (ratchitect), and Dirbots from creative coding department

What’s with you architect, really, taking others job spectacularly

Not that I complain tho

oh wait I'll give them a follow

looks like I follow them haha

They’re tez famous lol

This is such a fun talk but I’m sure you need to rest at this hour, so let’s end our talk here. 

Thank you so much for your time Wrenn! (Both for this chat and for the artwork)

Okay. Thank you too for the time! Need to head to bed 🙏🏻🌼🌼

night Wrenn!

Wrenn twitter / objkt

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The interview was conducted in order to welcome Wrenn’s new work in Nifty Gateway under spirouzi’s publication: spir’s shrine, titled Sunrise Symphony

so, evening XALTED!

should I always use all caps when writing your name?

loh english wkwkwk uhhh yeah I guess hahaha

ok I’ll refrain from mentioning your name then lol

lol you don't need to for this purpose 😂

but what is XALTED really mean? Is a cheesy question, I know, is it from salted egg?

Ahahah it's from the word 'exalted' actually. I used to play Path of Exile and there's this item called 'Exalted Orb' and I kinda like the name and design

So I shortened it to XALTED to make it sound somewhat more esoteric lol

Oooo we got a gamer over here 👀

🤣 nahhh I'm not that much of a gamer, just casual gamer at best hahaha.

You do your artwork with code right? So is your coding proficiency came from your interest in gaming?

Not really, but I guess I'm always interested in new media in art. My first encounter with coding in general was only a few years ago; I was broke and jobless like many other art graduates lol. Then my friend teached me basic web dev, just simple stuff with HTML and CSS and it kinda goes from there

The funny thing is I never really moved from that basic knowledge of HTML and CSS for the next few year since my front-end projects rarely needs more complicated system haha. Javascript is something that I only learned pretty recently, until I found Cables with its node-based system and I abandoned hand-typing code for a while. Nowadays I try to re-learn JS properly from scratch haha

your broke-ness and jobless really paid it off now

I'm curious at how people draw with code, could you screenshot some behind the scenes of how you do it?

This one is the patch from "Here & Now" -- pardon the tangled cables, I'm not very organized haha. To create this I started by randomly scattering rectangles as grass and low-poly sphere as rocks. They were laid flat at first, then I displace their position with Perlin noise to create wavy peaks and valleys.

With my landscape works (Fever Dream Forest, Here & Now, and A Less Traveled Path) I already had a vision of what they will look like beforehand, probably because they were more figurative/representative. My creative processes aren't always like this though, I usually started with some basic texture and shape nodes in Cables, then adding more operator little by little, playing with the parameters to see what they look like. After I get something that I like, I recreate it in a new patch and fine-tuning it to create the finished work. Even before I knew creative coding (or noding), I rarely draw a sketch for my work. I guess I'm a materially-oriented artist haha. I always prefer to work directly with the material to get an understanding of its properties, limitation, and perhaps what it 'wants' to be. Then I try to work with it instead of against it or bending it to my will, kind of like I'm collaborating with the medium whether it's physical or digital.

damn even in node it looks confusing for me, can't imagine looking at p5'

*“I always prefer to work directly with the material to get an understanding of its properties, limitation, and perhaps what it 'wants' to be”*this is sublime, more so in digital realm. I mean you can't really "touch" it right?

props to people that can work with a medium that they can't even touch physically

Haha yeah but you can still interact with it. I found the limitations in softwares appealing, similar with the limitations of physical material. Cables is pretty powerful but it also has some limit as to what it can do; it's a higher 'language' compared to p5, so to speak. I also like to tinker with obsolete drawing apps on my 1st gen iPad from time to time, their limitation make it so fun to play with!

so you came from art school but not touching new media until graduated, what are your major back then exactly?

I studied Fine Arts in art school, focusing on ceramic art. Working with ceramics and clay influenced my perspective on material as a whole and how I treat it in my works. Ceramic has a long history of being viewed as 'domestic' material and is lower in hierarchy compared to painting and sculpture. Even within the ceramic discipline there's a hierarchy of clay (earthenware is considered the lowest, with porcelain at the highest tier) and my final graduation project reflects on that aspect. Each type of clay also have their own properties, and it's up to the artist to work with it or against it. This study of materiality of clay has formed my way of approaching any medium, including digital.

your practice is like stretching from one of the most ancient to one of the most recent, damn

Oooh you're right! I never thought about it that way haha, that sounds really neat

so do you think your work will be different, in a sense, that you trying p5 now?

I'm still at my early stage of exploring p5, but yeah I guess it will be different since Cables and p5 works differrently. I have so much to learn and keep up!

for sure, the road is still wide open upon you

I look at your past works, it went from quite an abstract form to suddenly figurative (of landscapes), and 3 collection at that. Why? Do you have special attachment to the theme?

Maybe not the landscape itself per se, but I guess I always have this fondness of magical realism. At the time I was looking at a lot of paintings, looking for inspiration. Particularly at Peter Doig's work, since he's also my wife's favourite painter. I really adore his way of blending and layering the paint, how he blend shapes to create a magical-looking landscape with no discernible distinction between objects. Everything blends together, sort of like a fuzzy memory. I also listened to Swans a lot, and one song that struck me was the one titled "Where Does a Body End?". It captured my feeling precisely, of blurred and hazy sense of our own state of being. And that's how "Fever Dream Fairy Fantasy Forest" was created.

The two following landscape works, "Here & Now" and "A Less Traveled Path" is sort of a continuation of that exploration phase. I try to not getting occupied with concept or narrative, to just purely express myself and also pursue the technical aspect of creating with nodes. It's weird in a way, when I let myself go the resulting visual is a lot more representative haha.

damn now I see Peter Doig in all of your work

I think that's the reason I always come back to Fever Dream Fantasy Forest among all of your work, the feeling of displaced reality gives a new perspective each time I look back

Haha yeah I think it's still my favorite work so far 🤣 I tried so many times creating something similar but always failed miserably

you will make better things going forward man, 100% positive

I think that's all for now, really really happy and thankful you could join my storefront genesis with my other favorite artists 🙏🏼

Thank you so much for having me, mate!

udah nih? wkwk

XALTED twitter / fx(hash)

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The interview was conducted in order to welcome XALTED’s new work in Nifty Gateway under spirouzi’s publication: spir’s shrine, titled There & Then