JUMP FOR JOY
2023
Singular algorithmic output 1 of 1
Often times while teaching coding courses, a student exibits that spark of joy upon realizing the limitless and creative potential of the computational medium. Jump For Joy depicts that moment when the laptop becomes an art tool, or when learning to code equates to learning how to draw with a pencil, an exciting moment of realization.
Jump For Joy was auctioned by Christies on January 31st 2024 as part of Creating Connections: Digital Art For Connectivity, with proceeds going to charity benefiting GIGA, a UNICEF initiative.
Minted on Foundation.app and stored on IPFS
Contract Address:
https://etherscan.io/nft/0xC6A38156b91Bb4e487377Bcb2B93cb2E21D20348/1
SVG Link:
https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmP7FoZsT6z5CsUw4rMvuGhbwi9psqHkvGwdRE9Z8Bepe6
Metadata:
https://252je4afubl6cwiqxm3aevpoehflfqbemy5uszod5r3abncn432a.arweave.net/13SScAWgV-FZELs2AlXuIcqywCRmO0llw-x2ALRN5vQ
JUMP FOR JOY
2024
Limited print edition of5
Signed and numbered
20 inches by 24 inches
Black ink on Rives BFK paper
In the Fall of 2024, I prepared a small screen-printed edition of Jump For Joy. The original digital artwork is full of detail and a printed version would help capture and showcase it. With permisssion of the owner I had the graphic produced by a local print shop in Houston Texas. Of the five prints, the first one was gifted to the owner of the original digital Jump For Joy artwork. The remaining four prints were sold to community members during the Art Blocks Weekend event in Marfa Texas. Each of the five prints are equipped with a digital certificate of authenticity in the form of a NFC chip affixed to the reverse of the print. Anyone in proximity to the artwork may scan the chip to see a photograph of that particular print along with certificate details.
Certificates are on the Base Network
NFC Chip:
Transient Labs T.R.A.C.E.
Minting Wallet:
0xed126ccb3fa900ab32cfe9ebb1f812f1038af0b8
SPIRE / BOKASHI CONE
2023
Series of 52 unique digital outputs
Spire, (later renamed Bokashi Cone), highlights truncated cones painted with soft gradations of color. The truncated cone as a shape with its smooth upward sloping sides symbolizes stability while its symmetric nature around the vertical axis imparts a sense of balance. The soft gradating color with subtle transition creates a calming effect that further grounds the cone giving it portrait-like quality. Bokashi Cone explores variations of these elements and on occasion warps and distorts the cone in playful gestures. The gradients are inspired by those seen in Japanese ukiyo-e prints for example in the depiction of sky. The gradient techinique in the world of wood-block printing is ocassionaly referred to as “bokashi”, meaning “faded”.
Minted in collaboration with Proof for Grails 5
Contract Address:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x92a50fe6ede411bd26e171b97472e24d245349b8
ELEVATE HEART
2023
Series of 1000 unique digital outputs
It is no secret that my brother Erick Calderon also known as Snowfro is the founder of likley the largest on-chain generative art platform in the blockchain space. It has been my special honour to have witnessed his rise to success first hand and up close. One trait that I noticed in Erick is the way that he champions others and helps lift people up by bringing positivity into the world. Elevate Heart is an ode to that charachteristic and symbolic of Erick’s positive spirit. A character lifts a heart high above its head, uniquely and repeatedly. Through a techinque of erasure, sketched lines are drawn and erased in perpetuity in this animated artwork leaving behind traces that accumulate into abstract compositions.
Minted in collaboration with SquigleDAO
Contract Address:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x77d4b54e91822e9799ab0900876d6b1cda752706
BOSQUE DE CHAPULTEPEC
2022
Series of 100 unique digital outputs
Bosque De Chapultepec is inspired by a landscape painting by my grandfather of the famed central park in Mexico City. His painting style was rich with impasto texture created using a palette knife and he used colors that evoked a sense of depth and mystery. Bosque De Chapultepec is a reinterpretation of his subject matter combined with an algorithmic computer graphic circle-packing style. As I as making this work, I realized that the circle-packing texture was similar to the sprinkles texture found on Mexico City’s famous Garibaldi pastries, which I grew up enjoying as a special treat. During the exibition of Bosque De Chapultepec, visitors were presented with a Garibaldi pastry to enjoy while viewing the artwork.
Minted in collaboration with Bright Moments
Contract Address:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x0a1bbd57033f57e7b6743621b79fcb9eb2ce3676
MARFA YUCCA
2022
Series of 390+ unique digital outputs
Commissioned by Art Blocks as part of their Explorations series, Marfa Yucca juxtaposes images of soaptree yucca plants with Donald Judd inspired arrays of cubes. Both the Yucca plant and Judd’s minimalist cube structure are emblematic of the far west Texas town of Marfa. On various trips out to that region, I studied the growth patterns of the plant and even witnesses a mass blooming field of them, which which left me in awe. The stark difference between the organic forms of the plant and the rectiliear geometric scultpures by Donald Judd led me to explore ways in which they could indeed compliment each other. Marfa Yucca is a collection of flowering desert yuccas in geometric boxes.
Minted on Art Blocks
Contract Address:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a
REALLY RANDOM ROCK
2022
Series of 350 unique digital outputs
Each Really Random Rock is an algorithmically created rock form designed specifically for pen-plotting. The inspiration for the project comes from equating the uniqueness of any particular rock with the similar uniquenss of any blockchain token hash string. The project also stems from my personal long-time facination with Chinese scholars’ rocks which were prized for their evokative shapes and rarity. RRR consists of a blobby rock form within a gridded environment. To me, the grid represents the mathematical side of nature while the rock represents the organic. These two opposing elements find harmony in a pleasing composition.
Minted on the Plottables platform
Contract Address:
https://etherscan.io/address/0xa319c382a702682129fcbf55d514e61a16f97f9c
THE GEN TRILOGY SET
2020 - 2021
Three projects comprising of various series sizes
Genesis
2020
Series of 512 unique digital outputs
Gen 2
2021
Series of 256 unique digital outputs
Gen 3
2021
Series of 1028 unique digital outputs
At the end of the year 2020, Art Blocks, a platform dedicated to artists working with generative code as their medium, made a large debut on the “NFT” art scene. Included in the platforms launch were three projects, one of which was my own: Genesis. This moment marks the beginning of what would eventually become a set of three generative projects: Genesis, Gen 2, and Gen 3, which I commonly refer to as the Gen Trilogy set.
Genesis was created years prior in 2017 as the proof-of-concept project for the Art Blocks platform. The conceptual nature is in how it takes a token hash string of a blockchain transaction as input and interprets the string as a visual composition of lines, grids, triangles and color. This very concept of hash string interpretation is the very core of the blockchain-based generative art movement.
A few months later, Gen 2 was created as a further exporation of the hash string concept, but this time including movement and interaction. Taking inspiration from a Chinese garden, Gen 2 consists of a randomly genereated graphical bitmap form that is veiled behind a bitmap curtain. Clicking on the curtain reveals the form in its entirety and brings it to life with subtle movement.
The third project in the set, Gen 3, takes the exploration into the realm of written words. Playing with the idea of meaning itself, three words randomly selected from a predetermened pool are composed into a verse. The words follow an adjective + adjective + noun format resulting is a phrase that seems illogical upon first reading it, yet gains plausibility and meaning to the viewer upon hearing or seeing it in repetition.
To commemorate the completion of the three generative editions, I published GEN TRILOGY CATALOG in Fall of 2021. Copies of the catalog were distributed to various collectors.
Minted on Art Blocks
Contract Address:
Genesis: https://etherscan.io/address/0x059edd72cd353df5106d2b9cc5ab83a52287ac3a
Gen 2 & Gen 3: https://etherscan.io/address/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270
Code-based visual artist working with blockchain
Education
MFA University of Houston
2020