No Paradigms: Artist Spotlight

No Paradigms' 3D models are creepy and adorable at the same time. Following almost no patterns, we see No Paradigms' art constantly evolving and are always excited to see what they sculpt next.

- zonted

The beauty of No Paradigms is their incessant work ethic on improving their 'craft' with a "do whatever it takes" attitude. No Paradigms sculpts whatever excites them most... and we often see them working into the wee hours of the night as a result of the rush of creating something thrilling.

🖼 view No Paradigms' art in the zonted genesis exhibition: https://www.cryptovoxels.com/play?coords=N@314E,583N,5U

How did you get into crypto (NFT) art?

I found out about crypto art from FEWOCiOUS, they were just starting with crypto and tweeted about it and I looked up what NFT meant. After doing light research I knew I had to get on it—I made 3D art so it was a perfect match!

I applied to SuperRare and waited, and waited, and waited some more, but sadly I never got a reply. I instead turned my sights to Rarible where I minted a few tokens before finally after 5 weeks(!) of waiting I finally got accepted to SuperRare.

Lots of artists are shooting for acceptance onto SuperRare, do you have any insights or advice on how to get onto their platform?

My advice for anyone trying to get into SuperRare would be to try and collaborate with artists that are already on the platform—that worked for me. I assume SuperRare gets bombarded with artist submissions so artists should definitely try to find another way to get their attention.

Seems like you came a long way since 3 years ago when no one wanted to buy your stuff for $25, what do you think changed? Why?

I was very inexperienced in the whole 3D art space. My renders were super basic with only spheres or cubes in the composition, but I knew that 3D art was/is the future or at least MY future.

I worked on my skills by practicing every day and watching countless of tutorials on 3D sculpting and Blender.

Sometimes the going gets rough and artists get lost in self-doubt. How were you able to continue putting in the work in the tough times?

I was very fortunate because even when my art was just taking off I had a few commissions coming in every week—maybe $100 a week from constant commission work, that allowed me to not take a part time job and instead I worked harder on my 3D skills.

And that self-doubt still lingers to this day, I feel like that just comes with the “job” but it should push artists to get better and learn more about whatever it is they are doing.

What inspires you to create art? Why?

I think a lot of the time I enjoy the challenge of making something look how I imagined it looking in my head. Or for example when I try to recreate a known character, I love the feeling of making it look how it should but also giving it my own twist.

A lot of my workflow revolves around trying to solve a problem, like a puzzle, maybe the answer is making the eyes of the character bigger or maybe if it made them smaller that would solve the puzzle.

Also music, movies, and old cartoons all inspire me. A lot of Kanye’s older music as well as his amazing cover art and album roll outs are very important to me.

Donnie Darko is one of my favorite movies and its vibe just inspires my work. And as far as cartoons anything and everything cartoon network from the early 2000’s

How would you describe your artistic style?

I would say it’s a mix of clay sculptures with a little bit of a creepy vibe. I enjoy making disturbing characters that leave you just a little disturbed, not too much just enough.

Do you feel like the “creepy vibe” is just a phase in your work? Why “creepy” instead of any other emotions you could evoke with your art?

I feel like that's how it started and as I evolved I kind of moved past it for a brief moment, but I do enjoy the creepy style on some renders. Maybe I do it because it's an easy emotion to make people feel.

Bearz! How’d that come to be? And when are we going to see a Bearz NFT mint?

One of my biggest inspirations is KAWS. He has a character known as “KAWS Companion”. Like my Bearz, the KAWS companion took inspiration from a known character and added their twist. KAWS took inspiration from Mickey Mouse and I simply took my inspiration from the classic teddy bear.

As I'm typing this I’m getting ready to mint my first Bearz NFT on SuperRare in the afternoon! With a physical piece included ;)

As far as we can tell, you’ve sold a bunch of rugs, stuffed animals, and shirts. What’s been your best seller so far? Why don’t we see you push more of that stuff out to your audience?

The plush toys are for sure the best sellers which sell out in minutes. The fastest to ever sell out was the lilac Bearz which sold out in 4 minutes!

I would love to constantly be pushing the Bearz but I love to make it a rare sight to see a Bearz art piece because if I use my character you know the piece has a deeper meaning.

How do you feel about the "abundance vs scarcity" debate? Would you artificially constrain the amount of art you mint to create more scarcity?

Scarcity is definitely key. I feel that if it produced more Bearz than I currently do and they didn't sell out as fast people wouldn't feel as invested in them as they do right now. That same ideology goes hand in hand with the NFT market. People feel special when they own something that's hard to get regardless of price.

What excites you most about your future with art? Where do you see yourself going?

Now that crypto art is a thing and I can take more time to work on personal pieces I'm so excited to work on some Bearz collections, with actual vinyl toys!

I really hope that I can host an art gallery with all my 3d sculptures brought to life—just huge No Paradigms pieces of 6 feet tall Bearz and crazy stuff like that.

Any shout outs?

Definitely! Shout out to FEWOCiOUS for getting me interested in crypto art!

Also Steez! Our collab was my first piece on SuperRare and right after that dropped I got accepted so I'm sure that had something to do with that!

And just everyone that enjoys my work! THANKS!

Notable past exhibitions / praise / press:

• zonted genesis exhibition
  1/1/2021—4/30/2021

The first ever ("genesis") digital art exhibition by zonted art gallery. The exhibition features sculptures, installations, videos, and digital creations by a wide array of notable international artists that are on the forefront of digital art.

Visit the exhibition here: https://www.cryptovoxels.com/parcels/3734

Support the artist:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/No_paradigms
• Website: https://noparadigms.com/
• SuperRare: https://superrare.co/noparadigms