The cryptonomist had the opportunity to go to the Castle Festival 2023, an event around NFTs organized by the famous artist Trevor Jones.
So we sat down with him and talked about his career, his events and his plans for the future.
Why did you decide to organize the Castle Party 2023 in Paris?
The idea of Castle Party emerged in 2021 after the fall of Bitcoin Angel. One of my big collectors jokingly said “You should have a castle party” and I laughed. But the next day I actually didn’t think it was a bad idea. It can be a way to celebrate and give back to the community and to the collectors, so I got a huge team of 2 people and we decided to look for a castle and that was in 2021. We decided to go around in the UK, and we destroyed a castle in Scotland. It was an amazing place and a fantastic event with 350 people from all over the world.
But the problem was it was only one night because it was open to the public so people were leaving at 5pm and we only had a few hours to set everything up, have a big party and leave by midnight to leave. So we decided to have another castle party in another country and find something we could do for 3-5 nights to have more time.
Plus you could have a drink and enjoy an evening full of fun. So we went looking all over Europe and it was hard to find a place that wasn’t open to the public. That’s why we decided to book it for 400 people, to make it an intimate party.
Will you donate the proceeds from this party?
A friend of mine passed away a year ago. He had a great influence on me and on the space. It was one of my first collaborations with NFTs and he died of cancer last March. It was very difficult for everyone because he was such a wonderful person.
So last year we decided to raise money and these 30 amazing artists here will sell their art for charity: 50% goes to the artists and 50% for charity. I think we have raised around €350,000 so far and there are still five days to party.
How is your collaboration with MakersPlace, who are also sponsors of this event?
I put some drops there. I’m very anxious with my drops. It depends on what I’m trying to do and what makes more sense, so sometimes I drop on Nifty Gateway, sometimes on Opensea or whatever, but I have a soft spot for MakersPlace because my first big drop was the Genesis in 2020 and it was 540 ETH that we put in that one drop.
How is your ETHBoy project going?
We reached the 4th and I think June 31st was supposed to be the 5th chapter but I put it on hold. I take a screenshot every day of the little ETH guy going up and down in this world, so I’m still gathering all the information, but only because it’s a bear market and the last two chapters haven’t sold.
It’s a difficult market. It will take me about three weeks to work on each piece and I had to organize the Castle Party, so I’ll wait until the market goes up again and then I’ll refocus my energy on the rest of the chapters.
What do you like most about the NFT space?
The people. The good people, because of course the space is filled with scammers and bad actors or greedy people, but apart from that there are great people, artists, collectors, and this whole experience is made to meet people and make friends and build real relationships to build. Online, on Twitter is fine, but actually having a beer with a friend and building that relationship is the best thing you can do.
How did you get into the NFT world and what is your background before entering the NFT industry?
I went to art school as an adult student and graduated in 2008, when I was 38 years old, and I was interested in bringing art and technology together. I started painting QR codes, I used augmented reality in 2013, so before everyone knew about AR, I was already making AR paintings.
But basically, commercial art galleries didn’t understand what I was doing, so I organized my own exhibitions, I had my own art gallery and I had my own wine and I invited my friends, trying to build my own community around my art and technology. It took over six years of always losing a lot of money, building on the possibility of art and technology eventually coming together. The plan was that eventually commercial galleries would pick it up with the “I love what you do” idea.
I had a very successful show in 2016 called ‘the art of political propaganda’, an augmented reality piece and it was the first time I made money as an artist so I was looking forward to finding a way to to invest. I looked at Bitcoin in late 2016 and then bought Bitcoin in 2017.
I lost some money, but I was in love with this technology, the kind of anti-government and anti-establishment. I felt like I could create a whole series of paintings that told a story about this space. I searched online and couldn’t find anyone in the world who did it.
There were people spouting bitcoin, but not traditional visual arts or oil paintings with a story in them. I think CryptoPunks were just dropped at that point. So I worked through 2018 and had my gallery launch. This time everything was sold online to anonymous people who paid in Bitcoin or Ethereum. It surprised me. Then in 2019, SuperRare, Knoworigin, and MakersPlace launched, bringing more artists into the space.
What are your plans for the future?
I like to be busy. I have a big drop on Nitfy Gateway on the 18th, John McAfee’s birthday. He was a genius, an instigator. In 2018 he invited me to his house for an art residency, but I declined because it seemed crazy with his lifestyle, drugs and prostitutes. I’m married, you know. But I wish I did because it would be great to meet him. We talked on Twitter, but that was it. It will be physical and digital, it will be about 65 prints and they come with NFTs.
Then I’ll do a drop at Makers Place in October and then I’ll have my bronze sculptures and I’m finally almost ready to get them ready to go and then I’ll figure out what the process is as NFT or just physical or both.
I am working on many things, I am discovering what is meaningful. I’m not the kind of artist who just makes work and puts it up every week or every two weeks. I like big projects. I’ve been working on pieces for about 2 years and I’m just waiting for everything to be done. I think patience is an important thing in space. Now the crypto market is terrible, ahah.