parrott_ism: Inside Down, Upside Out

Excited to announce that our upcoming exhibition “SuperRare GenZs” will open on this Friday (Oct 30) 4-6pm EST.

Featured artists: blacksneakers, etiene crauss, Fakito, Fede Bona, femzor, fewocious, harvmcm, jonathanwwolfe, KaySha, MERCPIN, mushbuh, parrott_ism

Time: Oct 30, 4-6pm EST

Location: Decentraland SuperRare Museum (55,94)

Register: https://events.decentraland.org/en/?event=c083d94f-7e4c-4506-847d-3858022de819

parrott_ism: my art is a byproduct of my existence exploring all mediums

I was born in ‘96, so I’m just at the starting line for Generation Z.
I think we’re the last generation that will remember anything pre-internet/social-media age. In our developing years we experienced the explosion of the internet. We saw how it made the current school system obsolete. We saw how it changed the methods of communication practically overnight.

We’re the last generation that won’t take the internet for granted. But we’re the first generation that gets to utilize it’s benefits fully. We’re a generation born in liminality. One foot in the old world, one foot in the digital. 

The millennials created it, we adopted it and integrated it. The threshold state our generation finds itself in birthed my art. From the tools used, knowledge learned, and work shared. My career in full relies on the internet. Cryptoart is just another step deeper into that rabbithole. Cryptocurrency is a love child of the internet and I think almost all of Gen-Z’s art shares that commonality. 

I think that’s an ever changing answer. Artists create because we have to create. We create because it’s as natural a process as breathing. Art is a byproduct of our existence, like honey is to bees. Those who find solace in the arts do so naturally as well. Art cannot be forced in any sense of the word. Our role has been as it always has, to illuminate what we’re all collectively feeling. Artists bring our collective subconscious into popular culture. 

In a poetic sense, it’s all I’ve ever known. My first memories were of me drawing with my friends and listening to music. I became an electronic music producer at the age of 11 which continues to be a huge part of my life and artistic identity. It’s also what initially drew me to explore the world of digital art deeper. I couldn’t pay visual artists enough to create cover art for my releases. So I decided to take a stab at it myself. I fell in love and it became another way for me to express myself. My mission as an artist and musician has always been to make people feel less alone. To say – “Hey, you know those feelings you have? We all have them. Let’s do this together.” 3D art, writing, painting, music and photography are my different tools to express the same soul. 

My goal has always been to get to a point of freedom. A freedom to create what my heart wants to create, as much as I want – and to still provide for myself and my family. With crypto art I’ve finally been able to do that. In the few months I’ve been in this community I’ve learned so much more about art and created a network of like minded artists and art enthusiasts. It feels utopic. My plans are to dive headfirst into my work and bleed out my heart onto my canvas. I’m glad I’m able to do this with my friends. 

I luckily got my wild phase over with pretty early. I struggled with opiate addiction from ages 14-19. It humbled me, forced me to grow and look at myself honestly. A benefit of that, was seeing myself at a low point. I’ve seen how vacant I can be from my own life and my own choices. Ever since I’ve been clean I’ve made it my daily goal to never stop refining my process of betterment. If I can be better tomorrow than I was today then the future holds no bounds and the sky’s the limit. I struggle with writer’s block, self doubt, anxiety, addictive behaviours, imposter syndrome.. you name it. We all have our own venn diagram of struggles and victories so I try to compete with myself and no one else.

I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons with my dad so a lot of my introduction to art was this super fun fantasy world stuff. That always stuck with me. Along with a lot of scifi books I read when I was a kid. Modern influences of mine would be Peter Mohrbacher, Jean-Pierre Roy, Shepard Fairey and Beeple (who definitely made the idea of creating art everyday seem approachable). 

Throughout history I’m more drawn to landscape painters and surrealists. Dali, Charles. Russel and Claude Monet are some names that come to mind. 

There’s no formula anymore. I create art and set it free into the whirlwind of collective consciousness. Success is being happy. Being happy is having a roof over my head and food in my belly, and the freedom to create as much art as I can. 

The tools we have learned to use. Our generation more than any have adapted our creativity to thrive in the digital world. From memes to software to creative outlets and crypto art – our generation is grabbing ahold of our future and plotting course. Without art, music and theater humans are nothing more than wandering apes. I tend to lean into that we are not Homo Sapiens, for we are not inherently wise. We are Homo Narrans: those who tell stories. We may gain wisdom from these stories, but we are nothing without them. These stories, represented in countless mediums, are the footprint of humanity. As Plato stated “Those who tell stories, rule society”. Our generation is manifesting this future. 

I never had experience with the traditional art world outside of selling a few prints and participating in a local artwalk. I never had much motivation to pursue it. From the outside looking in it always seemed out of my reach.

The crypto-art world on the other hand is in my home-field! The internet. I’m all about it. I’m excited to see it grow, I know we’re still at the early stages. This is about the most excited I’ve ever been to be an artist in my life, I’m just happy to be here for the ride.