On this transmission, I get to have a discussion with a friend I made through the NFT world, Argonauta. His Twitter username is fbspin, he goes under zendamage as an artist in addition to Argo, and has a real world name of Luis Orozco. We just call him Argo around here. I can neither confirm nor deny that he is a pelagic octopus.
I can however, confirm that he is an Ecuadorian web developer, artist, musician, and more. He has a very signature style in his visual art that we have come to know him for, as well as his very calm and collected approach to art and life in general. All of this serves to leave one with the impression of a very well grounded artist.
His early influences like Vaughn Bodē and Salvador Dali are a great peek into his appreciation, and inclinations with visual art. There is a recurring undercurrent of breaking rules in composition, color, conceptual work, and so on, that shows up in Argo’s work in its own way.
I find it so cool that like many others, Disney, Looney Tunes, and other childhood cartoons were there during his formative years. If you remember, Flashfox stuck with the Disney vibes, and Griff ran with the Sunday morning stuff from the 80s. Argo however, went a very different direction. I love the diversity that can arise from shared sources.
He has a way of seeing beauty in things most folks will gloss over. I think this is reflective in how a deeper inquiry with him brought us to the difficulties of being, or becoming an artist. The process looks different for most, but a sense of discouragement and doubt tends to be an experience the vast majority of creatives go through at some point.
Folks will tell you, “you can’t do things like this, you have to do them like that,” and this hurts even more when you realize they were just holding you back. It’s often very hard to find the right voice to listen to. And as Argo so eloquently puts it, it’s you; you yourself are the one that gets to decide what art is for you. Very healthy attitude to being an artist here.
To me, the themes in Argo’s work are dark and moody, laced with emotive highlights of hope. His signature style really stands out in its playfulness and his usage of color palettes etc, but he states clearly that he’s very serious about his art. I guess he’s very serious about having fun!
Themes of life & death are very complex frameworks, that are hard to find beauty in. Argo is the type of artist that is not afraid to explore the heavy stuff, and I think this is something that lends some insight into who he is as an artist more than anything else. He leans into the uncomfortable, and does something productive with it.
Talking about NFTs, Argo lays out the reasons why we all connected through it, why we stayed, and what attracted us to it. Lots of positive promises, coupled with a lot of uncertainty and doubt. It’s clear that for us, NFTs have had a positive impact on our view of art, and how we perceive things. As an example, he mentioned that he has learned to appreciate meme art through crypto art. Welcome to the memeconomy.
Touching on the problematic behavior inherent in social media, we visit a thing that’s been really frustrating for me to see happening. Artists have somehow fallen back into the trappings of gauging success by visibility and clout, which causes them to feel shitty when they don’t get engagement or sales. But the reality is simply that the tools we’re using to connect are problematic - all social media is a dumpster fire. We are the fuel and fodder for its burning perpetuation.
There is a popularity issue with the art world in general, and it translates in strange ways to social media interactions. Argo’s lesson here is possibly one of the most important ones an artist can learn: we have to remember to have fun. If it stops being fun, it’s not good for us. Sure, you can create to suffer if you’re into that kind of thing, but if you’re not having fun in your chosen medium, this may be detrimental to your mental and physical health in the long term.
There is an objective realism to Argo that I find very soothing, and grounding. I’m very appreciative of his common sense coupled with a calm approach to art and technology. My hope is that this discussion gives you some valuable insights to take with you.
PS. Please be sure to check out all of his work on Foundation that does not translate well to low res gifs; most of his work is very high resolution and animated.
On the next episode, I will be sharing my discussion with Maria Pleshkova. I consider her to be proof of the value of having joined the NFT space, as she is one of my favorite people I have connected with through it all. Her work continues to inspire and influence my own aesthetics. Check her out on Twitter, and take a dive into her body of work! It does not disappoint.
Transmission 13 - Argonauta