Macaboo, showing off his face for the first time ever online, works with surrealism and he just released an epic piece that you do not want to miss and today he is the latest interviewee of the CoinBurp NFT artist interview series.
Macaboo, thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us.
Congratulations on the recent release of “A01 — Seatangle” on Foundation, it looks awesome. How did you first get into creating digital art?
Cheers, was an insane amount of work haha. Always been an animator at heart, so my digital journey started there. Claymations, short films with mates and then moving into 2d/3d animation, I finally grabbed a Wacom for frame-by-frame animation. Started pumping out digital art and getting a lot better. Before the digital shift, my art was always pen and paper. For the next 5 years, I created animation assets digitally and refined my skills. Ever since lockdowns and loss of work due to covid, I’ve moved back into creating digital art once again.
I’m having so much fun developing my digital artwork and I’ve got heaps of ideas piled up in boxes.
Your work primarily consists of various surrealist pieces that are truly unique.
What are your inspirations? This could be artists (NFT or non-NFTs), TV shows, music, or any random thing on the internet!
H.R Giger, Francisco goya, Zdzisław Beksiński, Wayne Barlowe, Picasso and Salvador Dali. I’ve been inspired and taken something from each of those artists for sure. Graffiti of the world and tattoo designs also play a part in stylising my art look.
Dark sci-fi/horror, Dark souls, Bloodborne… anything with great concept design and dark undertones. Travelling for a year backpacking, drawing everyday and meeting other artists really inspired/developed the style you see now.
Heavy metal, djent and synthwave are my go-to while painting.
Mr.Squiggle (Aussie kids show) and Art attack were so influential to this day.
Do NFTs, as a medium, allow you to explore the tech side of your practice further?
Indeed, I’ve been a professional animator for 6 years now and it’s all been for corporate jobs. I can now express and explore mini concepts I’ve had boxed up for years. Making quick 5–10 second loops is just so exciting and keeps the work fresh all the time. That animated spin on static artwork really brings to life a new era of art ownership.
What is your work process from idea to finish?
Research for me is first, love to keep following new artists to get inspired. Color palettes and other ideas out there for sure are the starting point. I walk and bike around a lot. Sometimes a fence, roof of a house, puddle of water or a tree branching in a weird way will have an interesting silhouette to work with. I put a batch of these shapes onto the page, connect them and try to make the negative space interesting first. I can visualise a lot which isn’t there haha. For example, I had a picture of dried glue on the wall, the shape of it inspired 3 characters in my “Seatangle” piece. Everyday objects have the essence of the idea!
Color correction and time to reflect is the last stage. I like to come back to the piece over time and have it floating on my desktop, this way I can really refine the idea to finalise it.
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 still don’t fully understand it, haha. The Beeple story blew my mind. He deserved that break! And that’s why I think NFTs are amazing. Artists getting their big break and reaching a supercharged audience.
I’ve only been in the space for 2 months. The fact I am seeing so many artists finally get their limelight moment and completely change their life is amazing. So many artists have amazing work no one has ever seen or given any value to. NFTs give their work value and the collector enables the artist to pursue their vision. They invest in the artist’s future.
There are established artists in the space who were bound to be great in this space. But also, the sleeping giant that had work and life priorities has reemerged.
This space is insane and the amount of artists that now have a platform to showcase their work in this new medium has me inspired and excited. Crypto and NFTs together are such a breath of fresh air.
What are your other passions besides creating art?
Video games (bring on the new Elden ring!), even more so since the covid days upon us. Been a great tool to catch up with friends in lockdown, making sure our sanity is intact.
AFL football, basketball (play basketball also) and UFC are great to yell at. Haha. Fitness, exercise, meditation and saunas for the mind and body is a must. Cooking is just so relaxing and creative, it never gets tired.
Movies, cartoons, animations and TV shows. Need the escape and love a great story in this medium. Basketball shoes, the cheap version of owning heaps of sick cars, just love the design and contours.
This is something CoinBurp asks new starters in the company as part of their Q&A interviews that get posted on the blog, but the answers are always great! What TV show or movie are you ashamed to admit you love?
Only thing that comes to mind is Ink Master, because it's reality TV I'm ashamed. Hate the flexing and fighting, but can relate to the tight deadlines to create something. Has some great artists/designs among the bad ones too.
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.
Thank you for the opportunity!
Foundation: https://foundation.app/@macaboo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/macaboodesign
Easiest place to see artwork:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macaboodesign
Showtime: https://tryshowtime.com/macaboo
Hicetnunc: https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/tz/tz1avoR7K9pUJe9tqAwJEAa5teSE4ZZ4BKtc
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Macaboo_Design
A great friend of the art community:
https://twitter.com/kartikey94
His mother is fighting cancer & therapy is pending. He is struggling to raise funds for this & would be amazing if anyone could help out by buying a NFT piece (on hic et nunc) in the link:
There are pieces for 0.5, 1,2,5,7,10 tezos. Thank you. Link below:
** The above tokens are issued by Cede Fields LTD (a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands) and distributed by Kucoin and Gate.io.
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