Interview With Emotionull

Emotionull is a 24-year-old Crypto Artist and Metaverse Builder exploring the medium of virtual reality to create immersive 3D art. Emotionull discusses with MoFY’s Crypto Joe his early steps into art, and crypto, how he got into NFTs, and his ambitions for future media and expansions to his fantastic work.

Q: Describe your artistic journey and why you choose to focus on painting?‍

A: Growing up, I was living with my Grandma, who was an art teacher, for a good year or two. During this time I was exposed to the idea of having the freedom to create what I want and access the materials to do so as well.

What I am most thankful for is her giving me the motivation to create – but not force me to create a specific style or type of art, you know? It was liberating to be so inspired to create. I’ll always remember my Grandma for that.

I started diving deep into the art and doing daily pieces around the age of 18 when I was working at a restaurant and car wash. I started drawing in little notebooks (which I still have) and moved on to create full-on huge paintings.

The messiness and freeness brought me back to the child-like feeling that my Grandma gave me. Art in general connects me to her and being a child at heart.

Q: How did you come into the crypto world? What is your background?‍

A: It’s actually a funny story -I got into crypto because I was pretty heavily into web development and game server creation. I really enjoyed creating little niche communities on the internet, I even still run one to this day on Art Forums. My first ever forum was called Gaming Guard – it had a Minecraft server and the forum itself had a special rank and awards that could be purchased with PayPal or Crypto. I didn’t really know what I was doing with Crypto and ended up spending it on silly steam items/games. I mainly played with BTC but was pretty active around ETH. Sadly, I never invested at such a young age.

“Art, in general, connects me to my Grandma and being a child at heart”

Q: What got you into NFTs?‍

A: As a kid, I was so heavily influenced by tech growing up. I only wanted to learn more about how to apply tech to my art. I got into NFTs when I was still actively creating daily paintings. I took a shot in the dark and decided to mint my first painting on Sep-27-2020. This piece quickly sold to the amazing bergleeuw! Shortly after my second piece was sold to Colborn from MOCA and was added to the MOCA genesis collection. My third piece was sold to Lander who sort of took me under his wing and taught me a lot of what I know today. I am forever grateful for the amazing friends and people I have met along the way.

Another collector I would like to give a shout-out to would 100% be Moderats, they have supported me from the start and have always been extremely kind.

As an artist who shares their work via Twitter, learning from other artists and how they operate I think is how a lot of us learn whether we like to admit it or not. Learning from observing our peers and seeing what we can apply to our own way of getting our art out there. Another great thing about Twitter is it is a great place to find new avenues.

Q: What initially got you into 3D VR art?

A: I’ve always wanted to get into 3D art but it always seemed out of scope. The same goes for digital art in general. Digital Art never really felt the same as putting paint on paper. I missed that connection of throwing down paint and being able to feel, touch, and move it. It was definitely one of the harder things I had to get used to as I dived deeper into Digital Art. 3D in Blender modeling was not my thing, wasn’t my feeling, and I was sure as hell not gonna make the damn donut!!!

I enjoy learning in my own weird ways, and it felt too set in stone in the way you had to learn 3D. Joy always mentioned VR and how intuitive it was to make 3d art. I reached out to him for advice and he was happy to provide it. It was 100% a learning process and finding the right programs that worked well for me. Creating that sort of workflow in VR felt right to me, and was easy for me to understand and grasp.

Q: What caused you to switch away from painting?‍

A: When you have been painting your feelings and thoughts for 3-4 years daily, you start to have a bit of a massive collection. I currently have a full wall in a closet of around 300-400 paintings. I wanted to explore new avenues and maybe even lighten the mood a bit. Painting, it’s a way for me to express myself, but sometimes it feels as if the painting was leading to more negative feelings being pushed forward instead of letting them out. I wanted a change in the medium of my art. The idea and story that I was trying to get across. Does that mean I’ll never go back to painting? Fuck no! I love painting. It’s always good to explore new styles and mediums however during your creative journey as well. 

Q: As a fan of yours I appreciate how you created your own creative universe – the “Phettaverse,” like you said you’ve been inspired by Joy, tell me what about Joy’s style intrigued you.‍

A: Joy has been wonderful in the few times I’ve had the opportunity to speak with him. He is a really down-to-earth person who is generally quite nice. The notion of magic and a digital world where joy and happiness and spreading those feelings are the main focus is undoubtedly inspiring. I really appreciate the work he makes and evolves through his own unique smart contracts since it is part of the art. His artistic independence is inspirational, and I will always look up to him. Many people regard it as simply cool-looking art, yet he has made some significant thought-provoking pieces.

Q: What are a couple of your future plans for the Phettaverse going forward?

A: I’d love to see Phetta and his peers in some sort of art installation, simply my 3D art in physical form; it’d be so great to see little vinyl toys that people collect and save for years and show off to their children. It isn’t big, but I’d like to see it. I’ve started dabbling in more physical creative forms such as clay sculpting and DIY plushies, and while I’m not the best, I truly enjoy handling and playing with the materials.

Q: What advice would you give yourself following your first NFT sale if you could go back in time?

A: In order to benefit me in the long run, I need to understand marketing and sales. Maybe I made some pricing mistakes, but I wouldn’t alter anything because I’m satisfied with where I’m at and where I’ve come from, and I’m excited to keep developing it organically, flaws and all. I wouldn’t want to become a millionaire overnight or sell for outrageous prices. I want to be able to live happily and comfortably while doing what I love.

Q: Approximately 3 to 5 years in the future, how do you anticipate your art and Phettaverse creations offering distinct utility to your collectors?‍

A: The art and tale are utility. Each NFT expands on the concept of Phettaverse and shows how it develops into a more complex story and philosophy. The concept of utility and how an artist should supply it is somewhat overstated. As an artist, you’re expected to handle your own marketing, sales, customer relations, and financial management while still producing work. There should be more streamlined systems that assist these artists in providing the utility that collectors want, whether it’s passive income, DeFi related, or general utility like contract art, Dynamic NFTs, Evolving, and so on. These things need to be more open to artists who want to get involved without being held to such a high standard. In my opinion, MEME is doing an excellent job, but I would want to see it in an easier-to-understand format for collectors who don’t have a lot of DeFi expertise.

Q: What was your first experience in CryptoVoxels like?

A: My first experience in CryptoVoxels was purchasing a plot from Lander and exploring it for the first time; he showed me around his hidden maze plot, which had an empty plot right next to it; I believe I also purchased a number of wearables and swagged myself out that day!

Q: What would your crypto voxels plot look like if you could design it any way you like on your own? 

A: I’d like to create a 3d vox model gallery of characters or a 3d tiny world of small universe islands from Phettaverse.