Embark on an artistic odyssey with the multitalented Jeremy Cowart, as he recounts a voyage from photography faux pas to digital art dominance,. We're not just talking about a man with a camera; we're delving into the soul of an artist who transformed the pixels of challenge into a masterpiece of resolve. From the inception of Block Queens to wrestling with the web of Web 3.0, Jeremy's narrative is a tapestry of trials, triumphs, and embracing the absurdity of aging. Join us as we trace Jeremy's journey of self-discovery, a quest that led him to a community where his digital and abstract visions found fertile ground to grow, and where the pandemic's shadow cast a surprisingly luminous glow on his artistic endeavors.
Closing the loop on our exploration, we celebrate the intersection of the tangible and the technological with Jeremy's foray into augmented reality prints. Imagine a world where the digital art you adore springs to life in your living room, where AR doesn't just augment reality but amplifies the resonance of ownership. We're charting the course of art's future, discussing the ironies and implications of big tech's dance with decentralized dreams, and pondering the potentials of blending online influence with offline experiences.
Through it all, Jeremy's story stands as a beacon for the creative spirit, inviting us to witness how the boundless canvas of the internet can paint new realities across our walls—and our lives.
Jeremy links:
Website: https://cowart.io/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/jeremycowart
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremycowart/
SHILLR:
Website: https://www.shillr.xyz
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/shillrxyz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shillrxyz
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shillrxyz
Music by 800DB
Twitter: https://twitter.com/800dbmusic
Embark on an artistic odyssey with the multitalented Jeremy Cowart, as he recounts a voyage from photography faux pas to digital art dominance,. We're not just talking about a man with a camera; we're delving into the soul of an artist who transformed the pixels of challenge into a masterpiece of resolve. From the inception of Block Queens to wrestling with the web of Web 3.0, Jeremy's narrative is a tapestry of trials, triumphs, and embracing the absurdity of aging. Join us as we trace Jeremy's journey of self-discovery, a quest that led him to a community where his digital and abstract visions found fertile ground to grow, and where the pandemic's shadow cast a surprisingly luminous glow on his artistic endeavors.
Closing the loop on our exploration, we celebrate the intersection of the tangible and the technological with Jeremy's foray into augmented reality prints. Imagine a world where the digital art you adore springs to life in your living room, where AR doesn't just augment reality but amplifies the resonance of ownership. We're charting the course of art's future, discussing the ironies and implications of big tech's dance with decentralized dreams, and pondering the potentials of blending online influence with offline experiences.
Through it all, Jeremy's story stands as a beacon for the creative spirit, inviting us to witness how the boundless canvas of the internet can paint new realities across our walls—and our lives.
Jeremy links:
Website: https://cowart.io/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/jeremycowart
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremycowart/
SHILLR:
Website: https://www.shillr.xyz
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/shillrxyz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shillrxyz
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shillrxyz
Music by 800DB
Twitter: https://twitter.com/800dbmusic
GM, this is Boona and you're listening to Vaulted, a Web3 podcast series from the Schiller Archives. This episode was originally recorded on May 9, 2022, and features Jeremy Cowart, contemporary artist, whose work spans fine art, nfts, photography, social movements, humanitarian efforts, iphone apps, hospitality, augmented reality, performance, art and more. In this episode, we start off discussing its intro to photography, an in-depth look into his revolutionary art project Block Queens, the role of art in the metaverse, and much, much more. As always, this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied upon for financial advice. Boona and Gast may own NFTs discussed. Now it's time to grab some coffee and dive into this comfy conversation with Jeremy. All right, gm.
Speaker 2:Jeremy how are you?
Speaker 1:man, I'm so good. How are you? I'm doing good, man. As discussed a little bit offline, I love Austin, but when the weather changes the way it does, I'm not sure where you are. But when it changes the way it does, the body takes a little while to recuperate. So, feeling it, but happy to be here, man, how about yourself?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm in Nashville, tennessee, and much the same. It sounds like it's been the same weather here as it was there today lots of rain and storms. I didn't give much sleep last night, so I'm especially tired. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I got a little less sleep than I normally do, and my body's always very quick to remind me when that does happen. Man, I'm sure I know it's not that old, but I just turned 30, and I feel like after that happened, everything started to like. Everything started to affect me more, man. My knees started randomly hurting. My wrist is hurting today. Wait till 40 counts.
Speaker 2:Oh shit. I remember being 37, and somebody was like man. When 40 hit, my body just changed and I remember thinking, like that's only three years away, I'll be fine, like then we'd deal. And then 40 hit and I was like, oh crap, they were spot on. Like everything changed Anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, dude. Well, glad to be here, glad we can both croak and croak and ache together as we share some good content, hopefully provide some value, man. But, jeremy, I found you through Ben Strauss, one of the one of my very first people that I had on the podcast, super inspired by him, and we shared some of the same sentiment, man, but for those that don't know you, who are you, man, and what do you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a photographer and an artist. I've been around for a long time, you know, shooting and making art, and it used to be graphic designer. After that, I was a web designer, so I used to build and design websites for living. Then I started shooting just for fun, and then for a while there I was doing all of them combined graphic design, web design, photography, flash websites, if you remember that, gosh and so I did a lot of humanitarian work as well. So I've traveled all over the world doing photography, and then I'm also the founder of a hotel chain that will one day soon come to market, and I'm a father of four and married, and two dogs and a cat, so I am as busy as a gift.
Speaker 1:You know, it's really fascinating man because, like we, I find myself having little time or like I find this space, or the web three space, consuming so much of my time and I have right now not dating and I only have a dog and I have a full time job and I'm like to the people like yourself that have kids, that have a family, that, like man, it takes a lot of discipline. So major props.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, and it's thank God. My wife is scaling back now with her work and so I can go even harder and I already go hard, but I feel like I'm pedal to the metal right now in this space, but I'm having a blast, so it's all good, amen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what it's all about. And so I want to get started, because you said you've been around here for a long time. You know, just even checking out your profile prior to coming here Looks like a mask, quite a filing, before you came into web three. So I want to rewind back really even to when you first found your love for photography. Man, like, what was that? Like, like, was there a moment that kind of changed the way you thought about it, or that you knew that's what you wanted to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually took one photography class in college and I made a deal, nearly failed photography. I just didn't get all the technical stuff and thought I wasn't capable of understanding the technical stuff. And so after that I was like, well, I'll definitely never be a photographer if I can't even like pass the glass. And it wasn't until years later, after being graphic designer, web designer and I'm about to really really date myself.
Speaker 2:But when digital cameras first came out which was gosh, really, 2001, so freaking, you know, 21 years ago it was a pretty obviously massive deal, like huge, and I was already a digital designer and a digital artist, and me Photoshop was what it did for a living. And so I like the transition from to digital photography for me was like duh, so, like, so easy and seamless, whereas the rest of the photo industry was like no, no, no, we're not going there, we're not going to learn this whole new way of shooting. And so I had this like massive, massive advantage, and so I just started like photographing my buddies, who happened to all be like musicians and creatives and and they would get like signed to record labels and then the labels would hire me, and then I accidentally like beat out this like well then, hollywood agent and her roster up.
Speaker 2:That's actually yeah, yeah, truly. And yeah, yeah, she calls me. She's like, hey, like your work's insane, I'd love to represent you. And so next thing, I know I have like this you know agent in Hollywood landing me like these massive celebrity gigs, and it was just, it was truly like all just accidental and so in bed to rewind a little bit the first, the reason I first bought the camera was to use it as a handheld scanner. Like I literally just wanted to skin in like textures and concrete and you know the ground and like whatever, like I just love scanning textures and so. But then I started photographing people and I don't know it just kind of all like it's a very organic, accidental road into photography.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. I mean there's a lot to. I mean there's a lot to go for there. There's a lot to, there's a lot. Just, you mentioned and you know, I think that's something that a lot of people struggle with when they're when they're entering into web three or figuring out what the hell it is they want to do.
Speaker 1:It's like it tried too hard to figure out. You know, like what it is that they need to do, versus just all the best stories that I've heard and the best stories that I that I get to talk to people about is it's all been, I think it's been planned, you know it's been like, hey, I found this and I accidentally did this. I had no intention of doing this, you know, and it kind of just happened, you know. So, you know. So, before this is going to, you know forgive my ignorance here I still I love photographers. I like to learn the most about them, most of my people having art photographers. But before the digital age came to pass, you know what was like the preferred style of like shooting, like, was it? You know, because all I knew, like I was nine at the time, you know, like all I knew was like the little Kodak disposable camera. I didn't really know of any technology part of it. So how were people doing what was like the preferred media?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess, just like in that, in the medium format, you know, and just the traditional, having your film processed and your scan, and that did do some shoot to that level, shooting medium format. And I remember, actually, my first photo shoot this was back when the music industry had something called money this label called me and hired me to travel to New York City with one of my favorite musicians already. So I was already star struck that I was going to go to New York. What's that? Oh, you would probably wouldn't know him. He was just a singer, songwriter named Stephen DeLopoulos, but at that time he was a big deal, and a big deal to me especially. And so, and so they were like we want you to get me in New York City which is already cool, because that was like I don't know 21 at the time, I was too early, young and we want you to just walk around for three days, which never happens anymore.
Speaker 2:Three day photos, your photo shoot, just go, yeah, y'all just go walk around New York for three days, shoot digital and film. And so I rented a medium format camera. So I had this big ass, amazing, you know, broncolor camera I'm sorry, not broncolor, that's a lighting brand, mamiya yeah, four bath, and I shot that thing. And I had my three megapixel Canon G one with me as well. This is, I mean, little Tony important, she did three megapixel images. Gosh, that's crazy to think about. And so I would shoot him with this like amazing to this day about us camera. And then it also shoot with this little three megapixel. He's crap.
Speaker 2:But amazingly, the label was actually really intrigued with what I had done with the point and shoot over the medium format. Yeah, while the thing about anyway, and so, yeah, I mean that was kind of my this weird bridge between shooting film and digital together, and then this thing just, you know, obviously became all digital until this day. I mean, I totally get the people that love film and the shoot film and I totally get why it's a vibe these days and totally get it, but I just still love the speed of digital. I love editing as I shoot in my studio and so I tether straight to my computer. Like within a fraction of a second I've taken a picture, I can look at it and edit it, and like I just prefer to shoot that way, so I'm all to this day very digital.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, and I noticed that we've kind of, you know we've almost in a weird way, we've gone so digital, especially with like the Web two and era where it was just like pedal to the metal digital. But I've so like in both me it's when you mentioned music a little bit both music and with photographers that I've seen is that like there has been like a rise of film coming back into the scene and also, you know, vinyl and vinyl and LPs. You know like sure, like I just bought my first record player, you know to to, because tool release the recent album on vinyl and as it well, I don't know vinyl, but now I need to.
Speaker 1:Yep, you know. So it's just interesting that, like as as as forward moving as we are and as as more the more we're diving into technology, it's almost like you just look at the market behavior, look at the way people are reacting to it. It's almost like there's a little bit of cry for some like a, some analog, or a little bit of like a traditional sense. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I mean it makes sense, like there's just always going to be something beautiful about things that are handmade and tactile and real and like just something you can experience. And I mean I have a vinyl. You know, got a bunch of vinyl records and players too, and I don't use them much, but when I do, it's like why don't I use this every day? It's the most, like it's beautiful to put the record down and you know the whole experience. That's who's it is. It's an experience that's not just hitting a button on Spotify and playing, you know, right. And the same goes for film. Like there's just so, it's just so beautiful and I even can still instantly recognize a film image when I see it over digital and it does look better still, but I still prefer my, my digital cameras.
Speaker 1:But if you're not doing what's right for you, then it's not, then it's not enjoyable, you're not going to produce your best work. You know, and you know that's the best part about this that there's not a. You know there's not a right way, there's not a, there's not a. You know a one path to get this done, you know, but I, you know, to dive in a little bit deeper is, you know, on human behavior. It's a little bit like, it's like it's experienced, but it's it's incredibly ritualistic, you know, it's like, I'm sure that you know like, like, when you take it out of the rice paper sleeve, when it's talking about the vinyl, and you, you put the needle there and you, you know it's, there's a, there's a ritualistic feeling in a, in a sense of like nostalgia that comes from that. And you know, I think the same thing every time I put an LP on this, like I need to do it more often. But it lacks the convenience.
Speaker 1:But, man, so we want to want to go back to your story a little bit here, and not that we ever left, but look into, you know, right around, when digital came to, came to fruition, you know, were you still like, were you like living on your own? Were you living, still living with your family? And you know what did your family like? Think about all this at the time, like when you started like making ways and like getting like making some explosions, like what was? What was the reaction there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got a child. I actually got married at a very, very young age or was 22 when I got married, and so I was married around that time and my wife, you know, she was like cool, yeah, do your thing, do whatever. My parents they were supportive to you. They're like all right, I just thankfully, I was very I've always had. This makes it be extremely curious, extremely driven and extremely ADD, and I think that welcome to Web three.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that can be a really good, a really terrible combination, and so, yeah, I just think the carosity really draws. In fact, more than ever, I'm learning right now, and learning, I feel like, is the key, the key to life, the key to succeeding, especially in this space.
Speaker 1:Dude, alan, you man, and speaking of this space, like you know how, how did you Like, how did you come into this? Tell me, tell me, you know, like we talked about it briefly a little bit, but just for the people and you know that didn't get to hear that what was kind of like your intro to the space, like and describe some of the feelings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's right around the year ago, I think in March, is when the people who's hit yeah, you and I talked about that offline, but, yeah, when that news hit, much like you, I was like what? Like? What in the world? How does a JPEG sell for 69 million dollars?
Speaker 2:I could not, could not process, could not understand, and and I was, I was a little bit like I don't know, probably like a lot of snooty, snobby artists like JJ, like whatever you know. But it is stuck with me, though, and it ended up inspiring me and I was like and then, I don't know, for some reason, I started thinking about like how could I make my photography more interesting than just a photo? Not that it needs to be, because just photos can be amazing, but I'm always just wanting to take things to the next level. So I was like, what do I do to to push myself? And so I started Experienic experimenting with this idea of Moving light through a still photograph, which is a strange concept, but specifically a portrait. So how do you move light through a still portrait, which, oddly enough, is good timing goes. Next week I'm releasing my super rare Genesis, which is what I invented one year ago.
Speaker 1:Um, I checked on your. I checked on your super rare page I'm like he doesn't have, like that was. I was curious to know what was what that was gonna be. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's next week. But I figured that out and I was Freaking out because it was a real as of that time it was a really, really big Deal that I still don't think people understand why it's a big deal, but I think they will soon anyway. So, like I start messing around with all that stuff, last year and then Somewhere in the summer this guy hit me up and he was like dude, you got to get into the space and I could help manage you and we could, like you know, just go all in together and I was still like on the fence but they kept pushing and so we finally met, decided to go in there, like me being the artist, they were the manager and then it they became just one guy. So then when guy was my manager and we put up a couple pieces on foundation and they did not sell, and so I was Pretty heartbroken for several reasons. Number one like it seemed at that time like everybody was selling everything. The vocabulary was so daunting I could not understand. Like somebody would text me a paragraph about the space and I didn't understand one word under the paragraph. I was like what meant? What alpha, what foundation, what token, why, you know, and so between the language, the talent, in the space of insane, everything was like 3d at that time. Well, I'm not a 3d artist, I'm not selling anything. I don't understand what anybody is saying, so I guess I'm out. But before I completely build out of like desperation, I put up like two series on open sea and One of them actually sold like a few pieces. I think I made like 12 grand, which is actually pretty dang amazing for, yeah, doing a half-heartedly and you know Mm-hmm. But even with those sales, I still felt like a failure because everybody else was like I just sold this for ten, eighth and I just sold this for five, eighth, and I, you know, and so I was seeing a lot of that. And so, anyway, long search, were I just quit Like a hardcore quit. Wow, Like out through in the towel, yeah, yeah, through in the towel.
Speaker 2:Didn't open Twitter discord, nothing like for months, yeah, so fast forward to December, this is like for four months later I got into Miami to our Basel and this this guy, raul, who's now a good friend, just kept hitting me up was like dude, let's get together and talk NFTs. And I was like dude, no, no, I mean, I was over it and no interest. But he was like really persistent and I'm so glad it was because we finally hung out and he started talking about gender to board and this gender of our thing he was doing with this artist. And I was like, dude, just stop there. Like what? Like what is gender to art? Like it sounds cool, but I don't know. Yeah, and so he got his iPad and showed me like one transparent PNG and draw blocks and I was like Everything else was from. That was a blur, because that's so deeply understood Genet of art. And like two seconds, because it is what I had been doing for, you know, the past 20 years and Photoshop, working in layers and transparent images and and Everything else after that was like a blur. And he was like, well, it would probably take a couple of months to like get you up to speed and and Learn all this stuff. And I was like, no, it's not gonna take that long. And I went home, went back to the hotel the night and like by that night, by the end of that evening, I had figured it out. And so that's when I like obsessively started learning podcast around the clock, back to Twitter, a few disc boards and then all the way through the beginning of January and just around the clock learning.
Speaker 2:And Then mid-January is when I met Ben Strauss. When I found this the same PC you found I was like, for all, this is how my brain works. Like we got a talk cuz I, this is just how I think. And so our first call is like three or four hours and we just hit it off and it felt like meeting my engineering soulmate and that, yeah, yeah, and so we were going to be working towards the Super Rare Genesis. Then I'm launching next week. But the code on Super Rare thought it wasn't ready and so I was like, well, I've got this sorry generative idea that I'm working on. He was like, cool, transient can do like the smart contract. But that seemed boring to them because they're always trying to do something like insane, you know. And and I was like, all right, well, we'll just start working together and build up to the Super Rare drop.
Speaker 2:So then I made this video an after fact showing like this weird 3d parallax effect where you can really go into the layers. And Ben and Marco hit me up and they really dude like we can't stop watching that video. My cool. I think it's cool too, like that'll probably be one of my Genesis drops or something. And they were like, no, like we think we can do this with your generative art. And I was like Just couldn't. I was like what you know? And they said, yeah, we think we can take all the layers from each of your queens and put them on like this camera I forget the words they used and make them all interactive and people could zoom in and zoom out and paint around them.
Speaker 2:I was like no way. And so we just like at that point it was just game over for for our collaboration and I mean we worked so hard from the next like six weeks straight Second half of January, all through February, launched February 21st on pre-date sales, and that's when the public got to experience what a black Queen was. And then remember that day, yeah, and then the next day that sold out In two seconds and yep, and that that was the official, like start of me becoming a deegan. I guess, yeah, man, because then I had to eat, to start like buying other projects, and I'm even like at this point I'm even bummed to have to like keep any money, because I just want to keep it all in the space like I love and buying NFTs. I love investing it's. It's such a weird thing, right like I look in my in a teaport boy and I'm like this is worth more than my house and it's just a bunch of J pegs. It's like crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I tell you, we have similar, we have similar Backgrounds, because I'm not sure about you, but, like I, I couldn't have given two shits about investing before the space came to fruition. I like, yeah, I'm not, I'm not a chart guy, I'm not like I don't like watching stocks. I don't like you know what. I still don't understand defi, because I still have that question. I always asked my dad when I was a kid I'm like, okay, but how do stocks just basically print money? Like, where does this money come from? And I, he could never really Answer what that meant to me, and so investing was never like. I said this what you're saying doesn't make sense. I don't understand. This is made up and the answer is yes, this was a really good lesson. Is that you know a lot of people don't understand the space at all and they're like why is it valuable? So, because a bunch of people assign value to it.
Speaker 2:You know and and why.
Speaker 1:Why is the dollar valuable? Because we said it is. You know, everyone agreed upon it, um, but I, you know what's. What's really interesting is that Because it's something that I preach a lot when I'm, whether it's IRL or with friends is that, you know, this is it's not just financial, it's not just culture, it's not, you know, it's not just technology and it's you know, it's all three.
Speaker 1:It's it's, it's got the finance leg, it's got the culture leg, and that, to me, is what makes it so special. And, you know, at times I've gone too heavy on the art side and just like done with you to like invest way too much and just like never had what, you know completely when it gets my plan, or focus too much on the technology side and like Forgot to have fun in the process, you know. Or you know focus too much on financials and stop, you know, like looking at the art and saw and just went completely into a rigid, you know rigid state of being. And I just really like to highlight that because, like you and me are very similar, is that this is a blend of all three and it's a perfect mix for people that are super add and super creative, you know, yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah so I, yeah, I feel at home. I feel like I've been in so many different industries in my career because I'm a big, I do a ton in public speaking, keynotes, I mean literally all over the country, and so in different fields as well. So I'm a speaker and teacher in the photo space. I'm just, yeah, I've spoken to a ton of churches over the years, a ton of Creative conferences, and so I've just been in a lot of different industries and they never quite felt like home. I was like I could, I could do this space. I couldn't make it work. But then, once you know last two months, I'm like Just found home, I found my people and like these are my people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, space is weird and we're all add and we're all like, but what I love about it is essentially, this is an idea space, like I. At the end of the day, what I'm passionate about is ideas. So whether it's a Dow, whether it's a PFP or one-of-one or like whatever, like it's all ideas and they're all brand new. I mean it's like everything is a first and I think they're all fascinating and that the Chance to innovate is like nothing I've ever seen in any industry at any time of my life. Crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's. We share the same sentiment and that is that it's. You know, I described the legs, but the I think that's to me 50% of what it means to me, but the other 50% is what we talked about offline is that there is just so much access To some of the brightest people and some of the best talent in the entire world, you know, and that and the fact that, like, that's a very limited window, a very limited opportunity I think you know that is what you know as well makes it more special for me, you know, on top of that is that, finally, the barriers have broken down. First, people who are just a bunch of little guys, you know, especially, you know, at least talking for personal experience to like, finally, like make a make, a splash on it. You know, but you know, one of I looked at some of your art and you, you, you did this block queens and like I was enamored when this project first dropped and it's because, again, very much anything that like very similar to Ben, it was just it.
Speaker 1:It stopped me in my scrolling. I said no one's done this before. This is super unique, super cool, you know, but I also noticed that before this, like you know, the Queens were something that like that's, that's already your style. Like I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into. Like you know, you have a lot of very traditional art that's similar to those Queens. So, like, where did that come from? Like, what made you want to start like drawing and taking photographs like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've now. I've just it's always been freshening because I never really felt like I belonged in the fine arts base because I was too digital and too commercial. But I never really belonged to like commercial or digital space because I'm too abstract, I'm too kind of out there and so a lot of my ideas it's just never had a home with my clients. And so Once I started wrapping my mind around generative art, I was just like, oh, now all of my work has a home. But to rewind, like during the pandemic, you know, all my photo sheets went away on my speaking gigs went away. Like everything went away.
Speaker 2:It's like what do I do? So I would just like come to the studio and just paint and draw and like make weird shit, and and come on me at the end of the day and feel like I just wait at my top because my wife's like, well, I sold a house today and I took care of the kids and I and I'm like, well, I'm made a stupid drawing. I mean right, but I didn't know during that time, I didn't even know what an NFT was, and none of us did during the pandemic, and so, well, very few of us, yep, but, and so I just felt like I was like just wasting time. But but in hindsight I was literally building black queens that entire time through the pandemic. I didn't know it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, the look like in my studio. I wish you could see the full view, because I'm just surrounded by walls Probably a hundred paintings around me right now, and those are all within the layers of black queens. And so yeah, it's just crazy to think like sometimes you don't know where you're going, but you just keep going and then you land somewhere. You're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this path led me to here, like it's incredible. And so, yeah, sometimes you just just keep walking. Gonna make sense Sins eventually.
Speaker 1:So exactly, man, oh, was that? Was that inspired by anything that was like going on in your life? Was it like kind of like an OT, like the Queen's concept? Was it just something that you just naturally like fell into, you know?
Speaker 2:It's just some I fell into. I heard a quote a couple years ago by Steven Pressfield and he said Some artists are expressing themselves. Like a lot of artists, they have these feelings and they're trying to, like, get it out on canvas to illustrate something, to say something, the message to convey. For you, the viewer, I am not the artist. So the second half of his quote says Well, says some artists are expressing themselves, the rest are discovering themselves. And for me, art is pure discovery, like blockwains. I'm trying to interpret it just as the viewer is, but I just know that it's, it's all in me and it has to come out, and so it's crazy and it's like I don't know where it comes from. It's just, it's just. All that work has been in me and it always is in me, and it's been in me since as long as I can remember, being a kid and making these weird abstract portraits that Nobody understood as well as myself. And so, yeah, I just keep going and keep creating.
Speaker 1:That's cool, man. No, it was because it's a very, again, very unique concept that I don't see you know a whole lot of, and so it's it's cool that you kind of just fell into it. You know, and I've lived, I've lived both sides of the coin. You know I've lived a pretty rough life prior to getting sober and you know I've lived a pretty amazing life. You know, after that and I that's to watch. To elaborate on your point is that you know If life can get that bad, it can also get that good.
Speaker 1:But just because it's not, it doesn't instantly happen the moment you take a step into the Area that you want to go, or just because it doesn't make sense in the moment doesn't mean that it won't make sense One day, one week, one year. You know down the road and, quite honestly, that's like cuz. I don't know if I'm still gonna build an e-sports team. That's like my pinnacle goal, like the whole reason why I started content and really the reason why I'm here. I Could have not predicted that I would have ended up here like I started back in 2017. Yeah, there's no way.
Speaker 1:And I was so nervous when I pivoted my brand to web3. Is that because I built an audience on gaming and e-sports and this I said what are people gonna think about web3? Like, what are people gonna, you know? Like, am I gonna lose my audience? Am I gonna do all this? But if I, you know, I looked at my you know some of my previous episodes and since I started, it was like Right, when I took a dip, when I turned to web3 and then all of a sudden, hockey stick growth up to the right, you know it's just like me. Okay, you know To your point it just. And to tell you the truth, like I, the podcast to me feels like such a little part of my story and like where I'm going with this, so it's really cool to like hear and see and watch you do that and it just happened at an, happened what?
Speaker 1:seemingly out of nowhere, and it's just a way of expressing yourself. And yeah, when it comes to evolving block queens, you know, like is it? Is it meant to be like? Do you have any plans to like evolve the project, to add some more like? I know and I try to tow this line carefully because I know the biggest utility with a lot of it is the art. You know, it's like just you own the art and this is a pretty fucking cool piece of art, you know. So that is, that is the base, core utility. But is there anything surrounding your community that you're wanting to evolve that to? Are you wanting to grow or you wanting to expand?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Several thoughts on that point. First of all, thank you for saying that, because I am in the camp of like I am the utility, I am the art, you know like. I so agree with that. I just think there has to be a clear line drawn, like if it's a 10k, then I think you do owe the world like I don't know. I don't know. It just seems like once you hit the 10k mark, like you're launching basically a company, the union to support long term. It needs to be. I don't know if you're gonna be making Millions and millions of dollars like I don't know, yeah, debatable thing.
Speaker 2:Um, maybe if it's so groundbreaking, then it is just it's in gay peace, like block quains actually, and I would have argued that this is innovative and groundbreaking and enjoy it. You know, like right, but they answer your question. I actually just announced, minutes before we started this, that there is a part two of Block Queens that I am unbelievably excited about, and every single Block Queen will now be an AR print, so an augmented reality print that you can have in your home. So what that means is here. I'll just show you, if I could please do, because that helps me.
Speaker 1:The viewers will be able to see us on camera.
Speaker 2:Alright, then I'll just hold this up to the screen here. So essentially, now, when you buy your AR print, you will do this, Alright.
Speaker 1:So right now it's going to show up blurry, but eventually it'll be able to like. Once we actually produce this, it'll be a lot clearer, so anyway yeah, you're.
Speaker 2:I mean it's like it's the exact same experience as a Block Queen online, but it's in real life and you're actually seeing the 11 layers of a queen come into your living room like across your living room table, like it's bass, shit, crazy.
Speaker 2:And obviously I'm not the first to do an AR print, but I might be one of the first ever to like offer it as part of the project At this scale, especially to do a thousand of these and to make a thousand 3D models that people will be able to have and enjoy. Like imagine having a huge part of your house and people are like, dude, that art is dope. And you're like, oh, wait till you see this. And you get out your iPad and like scan it and on your large iPad, like all the layers are like shooting across your couch and your space and you know it's like hovering over your dog and they're like what you know? Like that. That is what I can't wait to see, like reactions from all the, all the holders and seeing just from my energy, like I'm really fired up about this because I think it's it's where Block Queens needed to go into augmented reality and so, yeah, man, I'm pumped.
Speaker 1:Dude, I love that because I'm a huge fan that you know there's a couple narratives around the metaverse and like where we're going and Web 3 is it like a lot of people adopt this like ready player, one kind of like you know, you know goggles on head, you know narrative of like this dystopian future that we escape. You know, I don't really subscribe to that. It's not really my thing. I think Earth's pretty dope, I think people are pretty cool, you know, and the world we live in is pretty neat, and so I'm a more, I'm a bigger proponent, you know, not that I don't think VR is cool, that it's going to have its place. I think it definitely will.
Speaker 1:But I think, just from a personal perspective, ar even from the moment I heard of it before crypto and Web 3, I'm like this is fucking cool, like I like this is what I want, you know, and I always envision, like with whatever you know. That's going to be the irony, though, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and this is, like you know, the AR technology is, in my opinion, right now, better than VR. That's completely subdued to opinion. It seems like what a lot of people in AR are waiting for is, like these big behemoth companies like Apple and Google to release these AR lenses so we can use, so we can view our Web 3 creations with something from a big Web 2 brand. So it's funny because it's a massive conflict of it, like it's just a massive conflict of ideals and beliefs and values, but it's almost like we tow the line. We still kind of like need them to like evolve the space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah, man, I couldn't agree more. By the way, it's raining very loud. I'm sorry that's causing a lot of noise, all good.
Speaker 1:All good man, this is awesome man. So and I haven't seen the tweet so is this going to be for all original holders? Is there like a snapshot or is there any like? How are you going to be doing this? And there's going to be like kind of like the digital like is there? Is the NFT ID going to be on the AR print? How does that all work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you own a, if you own, actually, we're just going to upload all 1000 of these as AR pieces or just um, and you can just order your order, your Queens. And I thought about doing a whole thing where, like, each queen is only printed once ever, which you know makes sense in terms of exclusivity and value but at the same time as these are traded, um, you know, I don't, I don't think it's realistic to expect the first buyer to ship it to the second buyer and then, once the second buyer receives that, I want them to still be able to order a print and enjoy their piece, and so I'm just making them all available forever to order prints of and enjoy in their homes. And so, yeah, it's a, it's a no-brainer.
Speaker 1:That's yeah, and I'm glad you explained it like that, because that was always something that perplexed me is that even when I first started hearing about punks, you know it was like some people were getting their punks printed on like the. Some of them were getting printed on like this canvas or digital. You know this, this paper, and it only one was printed and you know that's always been the thing, and I've even seen some of the artists I've interviewed before. It's like they'll ship a physical print, you know with the one of one, but it's like what happens when you know if they sell it. You know it's like is that buyer going to send the physical along with it? Are they going to be able to redeem it again? I think what's unique here is the token ID and the digital. You know blockchain or the digital token that represents that whatever queen that they have, but the physical doesn't have to be limited you know yeah.
Speaker 1:I like the way you think on that, because that makes a whole lot more sense. Because I was really perplexed with it. I said what's the what's the way around this, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought I'm literally been brains from you about this for days on end and I finally just arrived at like, just up a little more and let people order friends. Yeah, I don't know. I mean just it would be way too much to to manage. Like, did this did? Did 563 mail their print to the person that bought 563? Right, like, there's nobody that can manage all that and screw it Like. And then, even if you do sell it, you still bought the print. So they're two very different purchases and so you deserve to keep the print they bought and they can still just be and it will still work as an AR print in your home. Then you're just saying I don't own the NFT anymore, but I still own the badass print, and so, yeah, I just think that's how it should work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I like that man. It's super interesting. You know, I want to. I want to hop to your Super Rare Genesis piece. Now, you know, when it comes to, when it comes to that, what is? Is that going to be a like? What's that going to be? Is it going to be a mix of block queens? Is it going to be inspired, like? I'm sure it's going to be inspired, at least a little bit by that. But tell, walk me, walk me through a little bit about what this is going to be.
Speaker 2:Well, click on that and, oh wow, once it loads, move your mouse, your cursor back and forth over the image.
Speaker 1:Holy shit.
Speaker 2:That is so cool, man. You are controlling the light in a portrait.
Speaker 1:That gave me chills. Dude, how excited I can, I can. I'm not even on the screen right now. I can, I can just hear it from your voice. But, man, how excited are you for this?
Speaker 2:I'm getting man Dude, so I can still explain that basically, people are going to be looking at a portrait of a human who happens to be my gorgeous sweet daughter, and they are. The viewer literally controls the lighting in the room on a portrait which I don't think has ever been done, ever, ever before. Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, no, that's incredible man.
Speaker 2:And there is just all kinds of cool trickery and that makes this work.
Speaker 1:Was this? Was this done with transient or was this like? Did you all work together with this, or was this completely?
Speaker 2:This is the perfect example of a partnership because, like most of what you're seeing here is all me and what I've been the transient added this perfect transient twist that made it just that much better than it already was. And so, like it's this perfect marriage of our minds where I bring innovation to the table, they bring engineering to the table, and it makes something that's better than both of those things.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be looking at this all night, man that's so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sure it isn't like when a first load that will just slowly you know it just slowly rotates on its own, which is really pretty too.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, man? No, that's. I've always wondered and I, you know, because I've seen, you know, I've seen your worse in blockings, of seeing transits work, and this is really cool to see because I was always, you know, I was always really curious about, like, how they would do that and how it really curious about how they would work with artists, because what we've also seen is, like you know, and even the smart contract where I like, uh, meant in my very first ever podcast episode, was done on manifold and like they're like a whole. Like you know, we, we create the contract. We, you know it was not super custom, but it allows creators to, meant on their own contract and not use OpenSea Foundation, all the traditional tools and you can do it what you want.
Speaker 1:But seeing what they're doing with transient, with this, is so much more than a custom contract. Like, yeah, exactly, this is this is really cool, man. I'm very grateful that you gave me a little little alpha and a little first look, man. Of course it means the world, but, dude, and this is all, is this going to be kind of like the theme for super, like your super airpieces? Is that like following something similar to this For a while?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to ride the horror because it's a. It's very new and very, you know, has not been explored before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure whatever like after you've done you're done exploring this area of you know of, of your, of your generative art, like I'm sure that's going to evolve something different, you know. So it's probably I'm sure you have some ideas of like what you're looking for at that Like cause you got a lot of. You probably have a lot of ideas, but I imagine the final product won't come until this is you've kind of like run, run the course. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And then I have another thing I'm trying to shoot this summer that's just more bonkers than this or black queens. I just have a lot of weird ideas and I'm trying to like either first to get to them. That's like my ultimate goal and I think I'm on track so far.
Speaker 1:Dude. Well, I'm telling you, man, the react hopefully, my reaction was what you, what you expected to be, cause this is, like you know, I've, I've, I've been very like I talk with people in discord about this Like I love PAPs, I love the communities that are built around them, they have their spot and they're super special and it's this, it's this identity layer of web three, you know, and it's there's something really fun about gambling. You know, like a general down some cartoon animals and you know like it's a lot of fun. But at this, at the end of the day, though, like I feel that there's two, it's too oversaturated right now.
Speaker 1:I feel like in 2021 it was really cool, like it was, it was all the PAP shit was so much fun, but I feel like 2022 it has to be different. I feel like it can't be. Obviously, people are still going to be releasing projects. Obviously, if still bought into them, you know they're still going to be there, but I feel like the something else needs to take center stage. I feel like there needs to be something different, because I've been super jaded about like I'm just like dude, like give me something different, like like we're, and you know what's really funny man Jeremy is like we are so spoiled because, like we're, we're playing with some of the coolest tech in the world and like, even with the generative PFP stuff and it being on chain, that's already boring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll show you one yesterday that let me see if I can find it real quick. I can't even like wrap my mind around what they're doing and I apologize, I don't even know the name of it because it's a bit weird Just have to show you and this might have to be edited out of the podcast as we wait for it to load, but it's worth sending to you. Gosh, that kiss, it's called something, and they're using like all kinds of weird math and stuff to create art. Like I don't get it at all, but it's one of the coolest things I've seen. The kiss, the kiss precise, it's what it's called, so I'll drop it here. The kiss precise, yeah, the kiss precise on OpenSea, so let me shoot it to you. Yeah, yeah, but it is so cool.
Speaker 1:All right, I got it, let me.
Speaker 2:No clue how they're doing what they're doing, but you're just reminding me of what you're saying. So this is a collection entirely generated by the smart contract code, by Divergence, and, as he says, yeah, I don't understand what's happening, but it's for sure it's a mouth yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really interesting to see the different types of art that are flourishing in this space and like a lot of it. In the traditional world you don't think you don't put art and math in the same bucket. Historically we've never done that before and I think that's probably why there's a lot of struggle with people to understand, like, why is generative art like super? Why is it considered art? It's math and it says they're completely missing the concept. So even with like CryptoPunks, it's like if you don't know the story behind that and what they represent, it doesn't make sense to see these like eight what seem to be low effort characters that was just a play project in a garage based off of a culture of people that were had, like, consistently been shit on and consistently lived on the edge of society, and so, like, when you understand how special that is and when you dive into the story of punks, it makes a lot more sense. But I, going back to going back to this, art and math typically don't go into the same bucket, you know it's. So I think that's probably one of the biggest challenges to overcome and you know I want to start, you know, wrapping things up a little bit here, Jeremy man, this has been, this has been so much fun Like this has been fun. I appreciate you coming on. You know so.
Speaker 1:When it comes to people that are, that are like entering into the space, you know, like, if I guess you know what. Actually, I want to ask one more question. It's not before we wrap it up. I see that you you have you amass, like when you entered into web three or like, or just looking at your social profiles, you know a lot of photographers that have interviewed grew their filing massive in Instagram, but I see you actually have a lot more of an audience on Twitter than you do on Instagram. Did you? Did you grow your audience on like? Was it natural to go to Twitter first or did you mainly build it on Instagram?
Speaker 2:Man, I was just always an early adopter of all of them, so I was on the player, I think the month they launched, which literally, literally, for like two or three years, people would make fun of me for tweeting. Like it was a joke for a long time, cause people would be like so what are you like tweeting about? Like your burger you had for lunch, you know? Like it's almost like NFTs now. Like nobody understood Twitter, they did not understand the point of it and so, but because I was brand new on Twitter and so new Twitter like featured me heavily, like for literally years I was like a featured. So in the early days of Twitter that categories you go under photography and I was like one of the first you know featured users and so I mean most of my following is from those early days of just being featured. So I think the majority of my following is like bots and big gallons and you know all that crowd. Like I'd love to know and how many followers I actually have. I'd rather, I'd rather like it show me the real amount of followers than like a bunch of spam and bots and whatever. I don't know. I mean maybe it's 3000 that are actually engaged, maybe it's 10,000. Like, I have, no, no reference point for who's actually following my Twitter, but it certainly, like looks impressive to have that many followers, but I know, like most know, that it's total BS. Yeah, and then on Instagram, it was actually the same way.
Speaker 2:I was on Instagram immediately when they launched and built the following really fast. On Instagram, like went to 40,000 followers it felt like in two months and then they were actually yeah. So, anyway, they were featuring me heavily and, like, I grew up following like 40,000 followers in two months, but at that time, I had actually had an idea to build my own social network. It's crazy, is that my sound? And we did. We.
Speaker 2:I had this idea to build an idea sharing app very similar to Instagram, but had the idea before Instagram. And so we what we thought would take six to nine months, actually ended up taking four years. And so, during the time that we were building my app, I just quit Instagram, and so, had I stayed on that early momentum, I have no doubt that I'd have millions of followers, cause I was scaling so quickly and they loved me. They were like featuring me, like crazy. But I was like no, I'm building my own app, so I'm just going to quit Instagram. And then when I did launch my own app, it actually blew up and we were like number three total in the app store. Mashable wanted to buy us. I mean, it was a big deal. We had a super strong user base and to this day I grieve that we ever like even shut her down cause it was TikTok, a decade before TikTok.
Speaker 2:I mean it was so it was so, so freaking ahead of time. I even like recently, tweeted that I was like this app was so far ahead of its time and, to my both delight and sadness, the marketing guy at Instagram just recently, like a few weeks ago, he quote tweeted me and said agreed with me. He said this app was so far ahead of its time. I was like, oh shit, like even the freaking Instagram director is like, yeah, you were ahead of it and so anyway, but I I took off a long time from Instagram and got back on once. It just felt like the rise of Instagram was inevitable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, I think, the lesson here from what I when I'm learning anything from what you're saying, is that you have really good ideas that just require a little bit of follow through and a little bit of patience.
Speaker 2:It's a story in my life. Yeah, thankfully I'm sticking with, like, the biggest idea of my life, which is this hotel chain. I mean, I've got 10 years now building under my belt and we're well unaware and so that's incredible, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, you got no shortage of things that you, that you enjoy, man, and like, like I said, whether it was recorded, whether it was not. Man, I always look up to people that, like can participate in this space the way that you do, and also have a family, have a life, have outside business ventures, have all these things in addition to it, cause like this is a, this space is it's soul sucking in like the best way possible, you know. And so major hats, major hats off to you, man. Do you have any like? Just to just to say, on the topic of web three, do you like have any ways of infusing any sort of like cool digital art in these hotels or like any sort of like random things that you've learned from this industry that you could help evolve some of the the IRL seen forward?
Speaker 2:Say that question one more time and just fully understand it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so do you like with this hotel chain is like pretty physical, it's obviously physical and it's, you know, current, current state. Do you have any anything from web three that you're going to try to bring into that hotel, Like any sort of like?
Speaker 2:you know, what I mean Like where, where it even began, like endless, endless, endless, endless ideas and just like, oh my gosh, on utility, on on the roadmap, on AR, you know, art on the walls, VR experiences having a purpose token. I mean perhaps events, live events, I mean virtual events, a purpose metaverse. I mean, yeah, there's, there's, no, there's no shortage of vision there, and that's why I'm choosing to really really stay into this space, because I know that's where it's all headed and I can't wait to like bring all of my experience and knowledge into the hotel.
Speaker 1:For those reasons, that's so cool, man. Thanks for thanks for chatting a little bit of light on that, because to me, that's the best way to on-ramp the public. You know, the public or the people who aren't first movers, or the people who, you know, don't want to do their own research and read a bunch of white papers and, you know, read about Pondynomics is that provide them a cool experience and the technology behind it won't matter. Like three letter buzzword, won't matter. You know, I've learned that from interviewing people in the games. You know people that are building blockchain games. He's like one of his things is like I don't, I don't want to. I don't mention NFT or Web 3 or wallet anywhere. Like, if you don't create a fun game, people aren't going to come back. You know, and so you know. Same thing with that is like if you create a cool experience, like if you create a fun experience, people aren't going to give two shits about how it happens, just that it happens you know, so, massive massive props to you on that man.
Speaker 1:But, Jeremy, let's, let's go and wrap it up. I'm actually about to go to yoga and about another hour, man, it's been one of my.
Speaker 2:I love that. One of my, I was just reading a text from a wife and she's like where are you?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, cool, man. Well, you know that's the real boss of the house, right? So, yeah, man. But Jeremy man, again it's been, it's been a treat having you on. This has been a shit ton of fun. I'm so glad. I'm so glad you connect, like I'm totally going to reach out. I'm glad you connected with me, man, because this has been. I think this is going to be really good for a lot of people and I had an absolute blast, at the bare minimum.
Speaker 2:Yep, same here, man. Thanks for having me on Monard, very cool.
Speaker 1:Cool man. Yeah, this is going to be a fun community. But last last piece, man, really, where can people find you? You know? Where do you want people to go? Where are you the most active? What, what, what collections? Where do you want to send people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I built a link just with all my, all my stuff. Cowardio, that's my website, so cowardio slash hello. And then I'm Jeremy Coward on all the socials.
Speaker 1:Sick man man was the first mover, so he got the actual handle.
Speaker 2:Yep, I'm trying, I'm trying, and now I want just Coward. I've got Coward on most of them, but I'm still working on a couple. Anyway, thanks again man.
Speaker 1:Cool, by the way. Just hang out for a little bit right before so it finishes uploading and then we'll. We'll sign it off, man. But, jeremy, it's been a treat man. Thanks again for coming on, of course, thank you. Thank you for listening to the Schiller Vaulted Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. As we close out today's episode, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite audio platform and leave a five star review to ensure you never miss an episode and to help others discover the Vaulted Podcast as well. To stay updated on upcoming episodes, as well as our weekly Twitter space schedule, be sure to follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at Schiller XYZ. Once again, thank you for tuning in and remember, if you're looking for it art is everywhere and it's up to us to appreciate and explore the emotions it brings to our lives. Until next time, this is Boone signing off.