A conversation with Snowfro: democratising art, navigating success and the realities of gatekeeping

Jamie and Jay sit down with artist, founder and all-round legend, Erick Calderon aka Snowfro, to discuss all things generative, Art Blocks, Generative Goods, the difficulty of wearing multiple hats, the weight of people's expectations and dealing with competition in the space.      

01:02 - Welcome Snowfro 

01:40 - Bringing the energy and shaping culture 

03:45 - The headspace of a founder vs an artist 

05:25 - Being pulled in different directions 

06:38 - The core goal of Art Blocks 

09:00 - Democratisation of the art 

12:20 - The importance of a longterm perspective 

13:35 - Thoughts on the traditional gallery model 

16:50 - Not leaning into FOMO as a platform 

19:58 - The responsibility that comes with success 

22:09 - How to deal with the distribution of audience attention among projects 

24:00 - Why the Art Blocks schedule has slowed 

26:18 - The still-unexplored potential of generative unchain art 

28:04 - Extend your time horizon 

30:20 - AB Curated, AB Studio and moving forward 

33:21 - How to think about competition 

44:50 - The power of generative art and blockchain as a distribution mechanism 

46:56 - Navigating the success of Squiggles 

50:00 - Collecting, Selling, and financial realities of a digital art platform 

52:19 - Artists and projects that are pushing things forward 

55:40 - The intersection of AI and code based work 

58:58 - A new solo project and the power of constraints 

01:02:13 - Juggling AB, Generative Goods and an art practice 

01:05:15 - The Generative Goods philosophy and connecting with a different audience 

01:15:15 - Different view points, different business models and creating upside 

01:22:40 - Snowfro debrief 

01:24:20 - The realities of gatekeeping 

01:29:00 - Orkhan's Rêveries 

01:37:30 - Technical issues with the minting process 

01:40:20 - The semantics of gatekeeping 

01:44:55 - Artist highlights 

Snowfro: https://x.com/artonblockchain

nikita diakur: https://x.com/nikitadiakur 

Spencer Yan: https://x.com/spncryn 

Marcela Bellini: https://x.com/studiobellini 

Joain: https://x.com/0xjoain  

LEGIO_X: https://x.com/legio_x_ 

Jesse Draxler: https://x.com/jessedraxler 

Petra Cortright: https://x.com/petcortright