Today we were joined by Jon, creator of the gorgeous ToddlerPillars. Discover how he get into the NFT scene in this incredible interview:
Jon thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us.
How did you first get into creating digital art?
I’m more of a traditional artist and have collaborated with digital artists and animators to bring my art and ideas to life on the blockchain. My background is in oil painting, sculpture and drawing, but I love a lot of digital art, especially animations and I’m so happy that NFTs have allowed digital artists to create original 1/1s so they can finally earn a living from their personal work without having to do commercial work for clients on the side. It’s a huge paradigm shift!
Your work ranges from style to style including your wonderful toddlerpillars, your latest PFP project, which is helping to build a strong sense of community in the NFT scene.
The reason my Toddlerpillars PFP project has such a different style to my 1/1 NFTs is that the Toddlerpillars have been illustrated by my good friend, Tim Molloy. They are based on a series of doll sculptures I made from 2002–2011 which frequently went viral in the early 2000s, but Tim has transformed them into something new with his unique style. I’m still very closely involved in the creative process as we frequently mash our brains together to come up with strange new traits. We’re making 888 unique traits for this project, which is kind of insane! This enormous variety will ensure that even the most “common” ones will look very different to each-other, but we’re also including a significant number of 1/1s traits to ensure there are super rares in the mix.
I’m so excited about this project and I’m kind of blown away by how active and passionate our rapidly growing discord community has become in such a short time. It’s like Toddlerpillars have become a magnet for lovers of absurd humour and comical horror as well as a host of other strange cultural phenomena! The community building aspect of PFP projects is really amazing! I really feel like I’ve found my people!
What are your inspirations? This could be artists (NFT or non-NFTs), TV shows, music, or any random thing on the internet!
I’m inspired by so many people! I own/run a commercial gallery which specialises in Surreal figurative art and I am inspired by many of the artists we show! When it comes to digital artists in the NFT space, I’m inspired by Sam Drew (Lumps), Mr Misang, Fergemanden, Marco Mori and many more. Musically, I am inspired by Tom Waits and some of my favourite historical artists are Hieronymus Bosch, Giuseppe Arcimboldo and M.C Escher.
How has your style evolved over the years?
My earlier work was darker and more influenced by underground comic artists, horror and psychedelics (haha!). These days my work is still very surreal, but it is much more peaceful and dreamlike (for the most part). The new Toddlerpillars project probably doesn’t fit into this pattern, but it is illustrated by Tim Molloy, so it’s very different to my personal work, even though Tim has been incorporating so many of my ideas into the work.
What is your work process from idea to finish?
I generally start with a sketch and find reference materials as an image evolves, with minimal planning. Then I paint the piece with transparent layers of oil paint. For my 1/1 NFTs on SuperRare I have been collaborating with my good friend Simbull, who has helped me animate my paintings. I’m currently working on a piece with a very different approach as I’m developing the entire composition in photoshop before starting on the sketch and painting. This is taking a long time as I’m getting a bit obsessive about the details. I guess I could potentially release it as a digital artwork, but I’m really excited to paint it! I’ll likely animate this painting as well and release it as a NFT.
Cryptocurrencies and NFT have been dominating the world news for the past year thanks to the meteoric rise of Bitcoin, Cryptopunks, and of course, the famous Beeple $69M NFT purchase. What are your honest thoughts on the cryptocurrency and NFT space right now?
I think Cryptocurrency and NFTs are here to stay and will be major disruptors in all industries. I think the crypto market will continue growing in cycles, with massive meteoric rises, bubbles, blow off tops and bear markets, but with each cycle, the bottom will be significantly higher, the bear markets will be shorter and eventually we’ll reach mass adoption and the market will stabilize.
What are your other passions besides creating art?
Art really is my life, but I’m also passionate about collecting art and promoting and selling art by other artists in our gallery. I’m also passionate about Cryptocurrency, dark british comedy and psychedelic rock.
This is something we ask new starters in CoinBurp as part of their Q&A interviews that we post on our blog, but the answers are always great so we’ll ask you too; What TV show or movie are you ashamed to admit you love?
Haha! I’ve enjoyed a lot of trashy reality TV shows in the past, like hoarders and my strange addiction. I can’t believe I’m putting this out there!
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for us. The CoinBurp team can’t wait to see you grow as an artist!
Post some links to where people can find your artwork and social media accounts. Also, feel free to shout out anything else you wish.
The Toddlerpillars website is in development, but below are a few places you can see Toddlerpillars for now.
Toddlerpillars on discord: https://discord.com/invite/D7xMa9pTF6
Toddlerpillars on Twitter: https://twitter.com/toddlerpillars
My personal website and bio is here: http://jonbeinart.com
My 1/1 NFTs on SuperRare: https://superrare.com/jonbeinart
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