Lawrence Rogers also told us how he found inspiration in a Bonsai Tree
As part of our series to reach out to web3 professionals, influencers and developers, we’ll be talking to crypto artists and collectors. In this interview, we discuss with JacksonNFT creator Lawrence Rogers how he got involved with NFTs and what inspires him in his work.
Now that the initial hype around NFTs and blockchain-based art has died down, web3 creators have the time and space to find new ways of using this new medium.
Lawrence launched his first collection, called JacksonNFT, and was as surprised as anyone when it sold out in minutes and appeared in our NFT rankings. DappRadar took a look at the collection before it minted and had a brief chat with Lawrence a few days before launch.
Now we’re diving a bit deeper to see what inspired him to create the work and what his plans are for the future.
How and when did you learn about the NFT space? And what influenced and inspired you to create your work?
I’ve been exploring and building in web3 for about a year. Late last year I was working on a cooperative game for twitch streamers to play with their audience, and started considering making it a play-to-earn game, where the streamer and their chat earn together when they play well.
At that point, I started going down the rabbit hole! I joined a Web3 engineering fellowship called Macro (https://0xmacro.com/) and started getting really pumped learning about the nitty gritty of blockchain engineering.
But at the same time, I was disappointed when I saw projects out there that weren’t really taking advantage of the blockchain or innovating on top of it. That’s when I started developing concepts that I thought could use blockchains in new ways.
How would you best describe your style?
My goal is to explore the opportunity to create meaningful art that is interactive, community-created, and blockchain native. As for artistic style, JacksonNFT was visually very clean, abstract, and gallery-aspiring. I may keep that style for future collections or expand more!
How often are you working on your NFT art?
I’m working full time on NFT art!
Aside from being a creator in the space, do you also collect NFTs?
I’m not a huge collector so far, but I do window shop, especially at artblocks!
Are you a fan of any crypto artists in particular and what is it about them that you’re drawn towards?
I love generative art that is simple, intuitive, and impactful. Some of my favorites are:
- Rafaël Rozendaal and his collection Corners
- Emily Xie and her collection Memories of Qilin
- The creators of https://ikani.ai/
Are there any crypto artists you’d like to collaborate with?
I’d love to collaborate with any generative artists out there who would be interested in transforming their generative algorithms into ones that are interactive or that grow over time based on mints or community interaction.
What do you consider as the most influential works of crypto art, both for you and the industry?
Ogcrystals was one of the first projects I saw that tried to incorporate on-chain data into the artwork (although I’m not sure if it is the first). Another similar project that inspired me was themetagame.xyz, which has a few collections that have different interactive elements.
Obviously you just did the JacksonNFTs. Do you have anything else in the works?
Jackson is a genesis project for a series of works that I’m developing with similar concepts—enduring, interactive, meaningful art that is uniquely made possible by blockchains.
Most immediately, I want to expand on Jackson to push the concept of art that evolves over a long period of time. With the genesis edition, once minting is completed, the works will be static.
Over time I want to work towards capturing my Bonsai Tree inspiration to create works that feel alive and are attention worthy for hundreds of years.