Hello from ETHDenver!
This year, there’s a lot of pressure on the ETHDenver crew to make this community gathering the biggest and best event in ETHDenver history.
The Mint Gold Dust team checked into the VĪB Hotel. A short walk from the hackers at the #BUIDLHub building on Brighton Blvd in the RiNo Arts district.

Many of the local hotels in @RiNo are new and efficient. The Source Hotel is a 4 star hotel with a delicious restaurant and a hot tub on the top floor! At the base of the hotel you can find a marketplace and food hall, be sure to check out the amazing Reunion Bread! Small batch beautiful baked goods. Mmmmm.
The VĪB is a Best Western and does what it says in the name (~vibe~). There is a gym on the ground floor and a cute cafe with friendly staff. Brent and Preston at the VĪB have been exceptionally accommodating and helpful!
We quickly dropped our suitcases and went out for a ride on electric scooters to explore the venues and to discover new cafes and restaurants in the area.
Our first impressions were that there are plenty of construction sites and new buildings, a large number of cranes in the sky, and lots of art murals in the area where we are staying. Any city I’ve visited with this many cranes was going through a major growth phase. The economy here in Denver is growing quickly, it’s very obvious.



We screwed around on our electric scooters and rode over to check out the National Western Complex, the giant structure that has housed some of the largest event gatherings in Denver. This venue is a strong symbol of community here in Colorado, and it’s now the new site of the ETH Denver community.
We then scooted over to the Hacker Hall.
Greek food and taco trucks were waiting outside, prepared for the hungry developers inside the building. We entered, went through a secure checkpoint, and made our way to registration. We easily picked up our badges and visited all the tables that were displaying swag and information about the different teams BUIDLING.
There was certainly a buzz about the venue! People hugging each other, greeting one another from all over the world, excited to get started and happy to see familiar faces! Opening speeches were made, and the excitement began.
The space is similar to the Sports Castle from last year, but the devs are all on one main floor. It’s larger, with two stages set up specifically for project owners to present their work and their bounties.
We visited teams with bounties on offer. One that drew our attention was the Liquality team.

Liquality’s multi-chain NFT minting feature, and STK made it an even more interesting bounty to try to capture.
We spent time at the River House where Liquality has taken over a club / living room / bar space where hackers meet for breakfast and to begin coding for the bounties.
Some of the early arriving teams here are @ConsenSys, @Discoxyz, @Opolis, @metawebvc, @satori_nft @Valts and so many more, and we’re just getting started!
As we rode around to explore further, we noticed all of the murals, collecting names of artists and taking pictures of their creations. Many of the muralists in this industrial area have something special. Wide open spaces and new walls to tag!
The team visited the Blue Sparrow coffee shops and ate delicious salad and pizza at Cart Driver. We also enjoyed an amazing dinner at Uchi with friends.
In our downtime, we shopped at SteadBrook, as well as an outdoor vintage clothing marketplace in the side yard at The Denver Central Market. We found an amazing foosball table, friendly people, and strong, elegant jewelry at OXB. While eating french fries in the sun, we also shopped online at locally-owned Idiot Cult, for a refreshingly cheeky sample of the fashion flavor in Denver.
We enjoyed a magical evening at Nocturne Jazz Club, listening to live jazz while sipping champagne.
Our team is looking forward to a scheduled guided meditation and relaxation session at Pravana Massage.
One of the things that Mint Gold Dust is doing while we’re here is meeting with developers and artists from the Denver community to see how we can support them as well as collectors in Colorado.
In partnership with Illust, we’ve geo-dropped several NFTs around Denver.
We have a handful of pieces near Improper City, which is a great watering hole with an outdoor area for those who can brave the cold.


We went out on a scavenger hunt for these beautiful NFT assets, and they look fantastic placed in the real world. The amazing talent of the artists is showcased while the surrounding environment brings each work to life. Installations of this type make our reality even more layered and exciting, creating compelling images for us to interact with.
We still have 6 days of ETHDenver and multiple side events to attend with over 25,000 people! The State of Colorado / Denver has been put on the map by the Decentralized and Web3 Community!
Take a look at last week’s 79Au zine featuring the Illust <> Mint Gold Dust culture walk which showcases amazing NFT curations at venues around Denver!
Check out the Illust ETHDenver event maps here: Click to view maps.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Featured Artworks of the Week
Mint Gold Dust Culture Walk at ETH Denver
This year at ETH Denver, we will be working with our longtime partner, Illust, to bring you an Augmented Reality culture walk around Denver.
Illust is building the definitive platform for engaging online communities in the physical world through maps, blockchain, and augmented reality. Partnering with major music and web3 properties such as MF DOOM, Mesh Records, Parallel, and ETH Denver, projects use Illust’s tools to launch location-specific and token-gated games, maps, entertainment, merchandise, and points of interest for their communities.
“Mint Gold Dust’s Culture Walk map is an embodiment of the ETH Denver experience, pairing innovation with diversity across a broad spectrum of digital media. We can’t wait to share these experiences with first-time visitors and Denver residents alike, using the power of AR and blockchain tech.” – Rob McCarty | CEO, Illust.
For the drop, we have curated 3 collections at key locations around the city that can be viewable via your mobile device and the Illust Space web browser.
CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH:
Focusing on the current social inequities in the greater Web3 space, Mint Gold Dust aims to empower Black artists during Black History Month using our site as a platform to host and bring forth productive dialogue inspired by the works minted on our marketplace. Artists included in the drop are ChrisRogersArt, GoldiGold, and QueenEarth.
These works will be dropped outside of Jazz and Supper Club Nocturne in the RiNo Arts District of Denver.
MACHINE DIALOGUES
Machine Dialogues is taking a look at how artists in web3 are utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to inform their creative process. So many tools have become available to creatives, and we’re seeing a massive period of curiosity and experimentation across the artist community.
The selections for the culture walk are a part of a larger curation originally curated by JenJoy Roybal in October on Mint Gold Dust. Artists include Quantum Spirit, Rakkaus Art, Chazz Gold, 4everKurious.
Machine Dialogues curation will be located outside of the main ETH Denver venue at The National Western Complex at 4655 Humboldt St.
STREET ART
Street Art has a long history of community and self expression. It’s a way for artists to make their mark on their city and document grassroots history. Too often, these works are painted over and forgotten about, but by minting them on-chian, artists are able to track their work’s provenance and history in a very permanent way. For the third curation of our Culture Walk, we are excited to highlight some of the artists on our platform tracking and preserving their own history through NFTs. Artists include Everydayreasearch, Helena Martin, and BoogieREZ.
This street art curation can be found at RiNo’s Improper City, a local favorite for coffee, beer, and of course, street art.
Beginning February 24th you will be able to see all these works come alive in AR for yourself. To access the meta layer, you will need to navigate to the location, open up the MGD page link on Illust, and navigate to the pin points on the map. Once you find the work, your phone will become a gateway to another layer of reality, filled with artwork from the Mint Gold Dust platform.
Be on the lookout for the Illust Passport, which is dropping 5PM PT on Weds, Feb 22nd. https://twitter.com/illustspace
Can’t make it to Denver? We will be talking with Illust Space and some of the participating artists on Twitter Spaces on February 28th. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about some of the amazing artworks being dropped and Illust Space’s geo-spatial technology.
Check out these interviews with some of our featured culture walk artists: Chazz Gold, Rakkaus Art.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Love Letter from Mint Gold Dust | Valentine’s Day Curation
Love takes many forms, so this Valentine’s Day, we wanted to explore the different ways in which love is depicted and represented through the eyes of various artists on Mint Gold Dust.
From the romantic to the platonic, the familial to the self-love, this collection showcases the diversity and complexity of love in all its forms. We hope that these artworks will evoke emotions and provoke thoughtful introspection, inviting you to reflect on your own experiences and perceptions of love in your own life.
Romantic
“TWOGLO” and “The Butterfly Lovers” show two different sides of romantic love. One focuses on passion while the other focuses on hardship.
For Hynomancer’s “TWOGLO,” we see two lovers expressing their love through physical affection. This piece is a part of a larger series that explores how AI expresses love and sexuality.
In “The Butterfly Lovers” by Lily Honglei, the artist duo showcases the side of love that isn’t typically portrayed in a Valentines Day card. These two lovers have just moved to America in search of the idealized American Dream and have found that the dream they’ve imagined isn’t the reality. So now, they as a team must help pull each other back up and find a new dream together.
Self
“I Carnival” and “Inner Space of Touch” depict the magic and creativity that happens when you become at peace with yourself and ignore all other distractions.
Kilsypix’s “I Carnival” is a celebration of the artist undergoing an artistic evolution in the web3 space. The piece is a result of experimentation, exploration, and joy.
“Inner Space of Touch” by Giselxflorex seeks to understand the language of creation by looking inward. The work highlights the human ideals and symbolism that occurs with the touch of the creator.
Family
Arguably the most selfless kind of love is familial. Both of these next works were created to honor members of their family and the legacies that they may leave behind.
Dr. Lemny’s work “Mama” is a portrait of her grandmother who struggled with mental illness her whole life. With this work, Dr. Lemny hopes to shed light on those dealing with silent mental battles every day while honoring the legacy she left behind.
Dia al-Azzawi’s Freddie collection was created to honor his grandson. Dia has been creating art for over 50 years, and with the dawn of web3, he created this collection as a token his grandson can play with in the metaverse for years to come.
Nature
In both HyperAesthetics’s “Spring” and “Mother Earth” by TrishgaArt, the artists are celebrating the reverence and responsibility of the union between humans and the natural world.
Hyper Aesthetics’ Four Seasons collection highlights the beauty found in each season with his own unique style. The artist writes about his piece, Spring,
“I breathe in the Spring from my window.
See Mother Nature winking.
Flowers yawn at dawn.
And I smell them.”
“Mother Earth” by TrishgiaArt’s is a tribute to the beauty and biodiversity of our planet and is a call for us to take better care of the place we call home. “She has always taken care of us. Now it’s time we take care of her” – TrishgiaArt
Friendship
These final works by Lucia Diaz and Arabella are a celebration of friendship and community. They remind us to lift each other up and not to forget to have fun along the way.
Lucia Diaz’s “Wildy” is a portrait of fellow artist and creator Wildy Martinez. The portrait shows the muse’s joy, power, and creativity bursting at the seams. This work supports a friend’s dreams, power, and success.
Arabella’s “Smoking Section” makes the viewer feel as if they have interrupted two friends having a conversation and sharing stories. The power of community is not one to be underestimated.
Miss our latest artist interview series? Catch up on our conversations with Chazz Gold, Rakkaus Art, Arabella, Goldi Gold, and VanDi exclusively on 79Au.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Featured Artworks of the Week
Interview with VanDi
This week, we conclude our winter artist interview series with Marc VanDermeer, also known as VanDi. Marc is a multidisciplinary artist with an art career spanning over 40 years working in both digital and analog formats. He is best known for his multidimensional layered collages, which draw inspiration from nature, light, and color. For Mint Gold Dust’s 79Au, Marc discusses his journey from photography and film to collage work and shares more about his new AI project.
You originally studied Film. Can you share your trajectory from Film to your collage works today?
Some of the first work I did was anti war Vietnam cut-and-paste collages. I grew up the only son of an artist and a single mother. Art was served up daily, and even though we lived in a New York apartment, we rented a basement studio on Perry Street in the west Village. I painted and made collages up to my first year of art school. Along with my art, I wrote long prose and short content. In 1971 I went to the Philadelphia College of Art (PCA), wanting to be a painter. I was really into Abstract Expressionism. I loved the work of Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Ashville Gorky, Robert Motherwell, and Robert Rauschenberg. Rauschenberg heavily influenced my work, especially his work with mixed media and collages; I used his technique for lifting ink off a magazine’s photo with Acetone in my collages.

I still like incorporating mixed media with photography into my work. Most of these artists worked, lived, or exhibited in New York. Many would summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and my mother rented a small house and studio in Provincetown in the summer. I was enrolled in a summer workshop and lived on my own during the week. I was a precocious sixteen-year-old, so it was a blast. Many of my friends were the sons and daughters of the artists I admired. I got friendly with a guy named John Waters, who was working in a bookstore in town and starting to make 16mm films in his spare time. We all used to hang out at a dance bar called “Piggies,” so I suppose the first film seeds might have been planted then. My mother and stepfather exposed me to Film at a very early age by often taking me to foreign films with subtitles. I grew up very fast. Art Schools will let you pick your major in your second year. Instead, all students are enrolled in what is known as a “foundation year”. The idea is to expose the students to drawing, painting, and sculpture before they decide what they want to major in. Before starting my first year in late August, I remember wandering around the old part of Philly and running into a crew of guys shooting a film. Serendipity struck when one of the crew asked if I could hold up a reflector to light the shot. It turned out that these guys were seniors at PCA and were making a film. Long story short, we clicked, and they took a liking to me. I did some acting in their movies and crewed in my spare time. When it came time to announce my major, I chose Film.
My painting professor Harry Soviak was very disappointed when I told him I would major in Film. He thought I was very talented and told me I would eventually return to painting. He was right. The Film department was chaired by the late and highly gifted photographer Ray K. Metzker. Photography was a required study for anyone majoring in Film. So I studied photography under Metzker, who would later be my most influential teacher. Ironically I had very little interest in photography and would do the bare minimum. Metzker took no prisoners, and in those days, there were no social norms about humiliating a student in front of the entire class, and I was known as the “Prince” because I acted like a Primadonna and didn’t do the work to back it up. That class of twenty students became superstar commercial photographers. Ray K Metzker is recognized as one of the great masters of American photography, best known for his black-and-white semi-abstract photography.
How did you first get into the NFT space from there?
I’ve always had a strong interest in tech, naturally looking to create something original. NFT Art is a relatively new art form, although it’s been around for some time. Technology and Art have been joined at the hip going back 17,000 years; early prehistoric cave dwellers discovered that charcoal, iron oxide, and Ochre could be used to paint on cave walls in southwestern France.
In March of 2021, I came across the work of two digital artists, Pak and Beeple. Beeple has been posting new pieces of Art daily since 2007, but what vaulted Beeple into NFT history was his piece “The first 5000 Days,” made up of individual art pieces spliced together like a mosaic tapestry. At the same time, it’s quite a marvel but not his best. It will be remembered for making the acronym “NFT” a part of Digital Art history after selling in a Christie’s auction. For me and many others, it piqued my interest in NFTs.
Since 2001 I began thinking of myself as a Digital Artist. One of my first shows at the Agora Gallery in New York was titled “Pixel Perfect.” Back then, I made collages out of my photographs by mixing painted elements and individual splices from my photography. My work was unique, and most people didn’t understand Digital Art. Digital photography was early in its technical cycle to be what it is today. I knew of only one other artist doing the type of work I was. Two of my earliest are titled “Metropolis” and “42nd Street.” Both comprise photo elements of textures, graffiti-rusted metal spliced together into recurring themes and color schemes to create an aesthetic whole.
Since my work is digital, NFTs are just another way to authenticate and tokenize to present my work.
NFT Art is just another extension of tech’s relationship with Art to create something new. The space is most exciting because it’s a level playing field. It brings well-deserved recognition to a new group of programmers and digital artists who the art world had yet to recognize in the past.
Can you tell us more about your upcoming project, “Love in the Time of the Robot” and your experience working with AI?
I’m currently working on a project titled “Love in the Time of the Robot,” which is an all AI prompt art project. There is much controversy around AI art, and I’m figuring out where I line up. On the one hand, AI art derives its style from the style of many great illustrators and digital artists. Then again, as in the music industry, “sampling” is now an accepted norm in hip-hop. But there are degrees as to when it stops being a “sample,” and it becomes plagiarism. I am what some artists refer to as a multidisciplinary artist in that I paint, photograph, sculpt, and film. I am currently experimenting with AI art and, therefore, have decided not to profit from any art that is created by an AI.

I’ve always been a fan of science fiction, literature, and art. I am also obsessed with Robots and how these machines will affect the future landscape. As I mentioned earlier, I used to write and thought I would be a writer despite poor grammar and spelling. Many of the art-oriented schools I attended in my youth did not focus on spelling and grammar; instead, they stressed ‘stream of consciousness.’ My writing played a big part in why I chose to major in Film over painting in college, figuring I would someday direct the movies I wrote.
When I first started experimenting with AI prompt art, I went through hundreds of pure junk images. I wanted a particular look, and my Robot had to be part metallic with lifelike features. Still, after several months of trial and error, my Robot images began to work. I wrote a short story around my concept. This was before ‘ChatGPT’ became the topic of discussion at every Thanksgiving day dinner. The open-source online program called ‘ChatGPT’ has an artificial intelligence bot that can answer questions, write essays, and program computers. The bot remembers the thread of your dialogue; it has since been changed for expediency’s sake as it kept crashing by overwhelming demand.

Still, in the early days, you could ask the bot to use your essay or story and do a rewrite, repeatedly enhancing it. I entered my story into the program and asked the AI to rewrite and improve it. I did this six times, each time editing the story and evolving it. No, there is no robot apocalypse. In my story, the Robot evolves over the years, gains sentience, and becomes more human, including our human desires.
So I now have an illustrated short story. The images revolve around the story and stages of robot development. While my views are altruistic, I gave them away in batches of one hundred which sold out on Showtime within days. Minting is free, costing fractions of a cent to mint on the Polygon MATIC platform.
Enjoy our discussion with VanDi? Check out the rest of our interviews in this series from Chazz Gold, Rakkaus Art, Arabella, and Goldi Gold exclusively on 79Au.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Featured Artworks of the Week
Interview with Goldi Gold
This week, we continue our interview series with artist Goldi Gold. He is an artist, illustrator, graphic designer, and entrepreneur whose portraits shine a light on contemporary icons and heroes.
Originally from New Jersey, he has called Georgia home for 20 years. With a resume that includes work with Georgia State University, Creative Loafing, Art Beats + Lyrics, Spike Lee, The High Museum, and others, Goldi is a generous and supportive part of the Georgia art community and is always giving back to his fellow creatives.
Keep reading to learn more about how Goldi found his style as an artist and what inspires him.
How did you begin your journey in web3?
As a digital artist I’ve always had art on the web. Once I learned how to actually upload and post, I added my art on multiple platforms. Especially when I was blogging heavily to promote myself and other people’s content.
So entering the Web3 realm was familiar to an extent. It was just learning the new rules of the land that was actually in my favor as a digital artist. I’m still learning though. Things change in a blink of an eye with time online so it always feels like I’m playing catch up.
How did you find your style as an NFT artist?
Just by constantly creating and consuming everything around me at the same time to create. Life is definitely a big book of inspiration, and how you see it and gain from it will reflect in the world you create. I just so happen to see it digitally with a lot of extra colors and thick lines. So it actually works hand and hand with doing NFTs. New world on familiar grounds.
What inspires you about painting portraits of icons and heroes?
It’s honestly creating a creative visual version of a personal story that the public might know or not know about. It’s also like extending their story into a better understanding to the masses. That’s why I tend to use rarely seen photos as reference to create the artwork. It definitely adds value to the expression of the art physically and mentally.
Any new projects you want to tease?
I have a few new projects in the works and a bunch of collaborations. I can’t really tease anything because then I’ll be obligated to deliver! I already have to deal with that doing with commissions, but I always stay in tune. The goal for 2023 and beyond is to be better on all levels.
Enjoy our this interview? Check out the rest of our interviews in this series from Chazz Gold, Rakkaus Art, and Arabella.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Featured Artworks of the Week
Cementing a Digital Legacy with Arabella
This week, we are excited to bring you our interview with Arabella. She is an artist and author living with terminal cancer, navigating what that means for her digital legacy. Her work combines interests in portraiture, visionary art, the history of medicine, and biomorphic abstraction. She combines her traditional oil painting background with love of digital art to create vibrant her vibrant NFT portraits. Learn more about her process and story below.
You often talk about leaving a digital legacy. Can you share what that means for you?
My future is precarious having terminal cancer, and after all of my paintings sold when the news was out, I was left with no inventory. NFTs, were in a way, a solution to a problem both in regards to my digital legacy and the future of my artwork.
While I have an arts organization in Cleveland where I live that will take care and keep whatever works of mine are donated (along with press, photos, ephemera), there was no way of taking care of my digital legacy. I had an idea to delete any trace of me online after I am gone, with the exception of my website. But many people seemed to object to this. Instead, having a little ecosystem of collectors that carry my legacy in the digital space is a pretty cool concept. And my most recent work has all been digital, not oil paint.
The thing is, most people do not understand they are leaving behind a digital dossier of their life online, so why not make certain what happens to it? I’ve had many artist friends pass away, some are still celebrated and some are totally forgotten. Culture is so fragile, and we don’t know how long this infrastructure will last, but I’m big on recording things for posterity. You never know when there will be renewed interest from later generations; I’m at the age where movies and documentaries are being made about my friends and family. Perhaps you may have a retrospective, or a book published, and to have blockchain records will only help.
What inspires you about portraiture?
Portraiture has always been interesting to me because every decade seems to have its own aesthetic through the ages, as does each artist. No one person ever creates one that is the same. My favorite female artist is Tamara de Lempicka and she influenced the way I do my portraits because it was so different. Now that I am painting digitally and not with oils, my style has changed to meet the technology in a way. Portraits are for me the ultimate test; you can be doing it for years and still be learning.
Tell us about your recent NFT all female group show?
I am part of a collective called the Super Psychedelic Sisters. Initially, it was a way to onboard other women, but then I realized we could create an immersive show with the goal of not only onboarding more women artists, but being the first show like it in the Midwest and beyond. This wasn’t a typical white cube with monitors exhibition like we’ve seen so often. We created a psychedelic garden along with physical art.
The event went very well, and as a result of that show, I am helping curate a Dark Art NFT show at my gallery in Buffalo, NY this spring. They are a pop surrealist gallery, and it is a great match!
What’s one piece of advice you would give to fellow artists?
Don’t ever copy someone else’s work and try to pass it off as your own, no matter how much you think you altered it. I see so many new artists in the space doing this. Study art and design history, and yes, use images to practice, but you are only hurting yourself by passing it off as your artwork. If you think no one will notice you took liberties with a fashion editorial buried in a 1996 copy of Harper’s Bazaar, you are wrong. Visual memory is a powerful thing, but don’t worry, you will come into your own style.
Enjoy our conversation with Arabella? Check out our interviews with Rakkaus Art and Chazz Gold on 79Au or find them on the Mint Gold Dust marketplace here.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Featured Artworks of the Week
Mint Gold Dust Marketplace Update
We are happy to announce we are renovating the Mint Gold Dust marketplace for an exciting 2023. Firstly, we will be focusing on a more streamlined user experience with features such as:
- Universal Profiles
- Memoirs on Chain
- Optimized Decentralized Metadata
- Online Auctions
- Tokengated Experieinces
- ERC-721 Contract Implementation
A note about the update from our Head of Smart Contract Development & Auditing, Casmir Patterson: “We’re committed to bringing a more decentralized vision for Mint Gold Dust to unleash our community’s potential and creativity in the Web3 Space. Building an immersive metaverse user experience encompassing new technologies like Galleries that use advanced geo-location technology provided by our partners, to revamping our bespoke Curated Spaces, and giving more power to our artists is our ultimate goal.”
While this update is taking place, we have paused all minting on the platform through the month of January. During this time, all other marketplace features will still be available including memoir writing and collecting.
We are excited to share with you the renovations of Mint Gold Dust this Spring!
Rakkaus Art is a multimedia artist focused on connection, creation, compassion, and storytelling. Today, she shares her thoughts on AI art, her inspirations, and what she’s working on right now.
What inspires you about storytelling?
Many of the stories that live inside us can only emerge through creative expression, whether you mean to or not. Oftentimes I don’t even realize I’m telling a story until it’s finished. Painting is very meditative and a kind of intimacy with your soul that only shows up when it’s ready. I love an audience and telling a good story, and the actor in me wants to make sure you experience it as I did… in my art, you get to be there from the end, then experience feeling…and decide the story for yourself.
How has experimenting with AI been for you?
I haven’t done much with the AI generators, but I’ve tried my work in some of the filters with added descriptions to see how it morphs. As a mixed media artist, I love finding new tools that might add something new to my work. I have a couple ideas up my sleeve as to how I could potentially incorporate it in the future.
What are you working on right now?
I’m working on a lot. I will likely start sharing more of my VR creations this year, just thinking of fun ways to bring it into the space. Otherwise, I continue to work with the human figure, abstract portraiture and digital experimentation. I enjoy discovering ways to emulate the feel of my IRL pieces through texture, brushstrokes and layers. I have started to introduce more elements of collage. I’m also very excited about launching my new fabric line and home decor designs this year.
Enjoy our interview with Rakkaus Art? Check out our artist interview from last week where we talk with Chazz Gold about all things AI/Gan art, his photo bashing process, and more here.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
Interview with Chazz Gold
Today, we’re chatting with AI/Gan artist and photographer Chazz Gold about his journey into Web3, the tools he uses to create his pieces, and the intersection of AI and Photography. Keep reading for an in-depth look into Chazz Gold’s artistic process.
How did your journey in Web3 begin?
My web journey started in Clubhouse rooms in early 2021. At the time, I was working on a coffee table book concept with a project called “Shapes of The Divine.” When I got into web3, I decided to take that project to another level.
That project consisted of collaborating with over 150 different psychedelic, visionary artists from around the world and using their art to project onto the female form.
Adding to the already psychedelic nature of art I was using as projection, I began to mask out my subjects and use them as backgrounds. Then, I’d mask them out again to animate the backgrounds and take still photographs, adding motion to them in a cinematographic style using applications like Motionleap and Plotagraph.
The “Shapes of The Divine” project still lives on OpenSea as a collection. I have been working on taking a few pieces at a time, moving what is not collected onto my own manifold contract, and putting them back on auction on the platform.
25% of the “Shapes of The Divine” project sales are donated to a local women’s shelter for survivors of domestic violence.
How did you make the transition from photographer to AI artist? Do you find that there are similarities between the tools?
I discovered GAN art through Clubhouse. Those were the days of Snowpixel and Night Café. Google Colorful existed back then, but a lot of us did not know about it yet. I actually released a whole project called “Portraits From the Parallel Universe” on OpenSea. That was all portraiture AI artwork that I had generated with Snowpixel. It wasn’t long after that I had heard of photo bashing, which is using photography and running AI text to create image prompts with the photograph as an initial starting point.
I do find that there are similarities between the practice in the tools. I still use a lot of Photoshop to change any parts of an image I think needs modification. I still use my Lightroom catalog as a place to store, organize and keep track of all of my AI-generated images, and keep the original photographs for comparison.
Can you walk us through your process of Photo Bashing?
These days I use Google Collab folders, made by pharmapsychotic and his models. I have a heavy interest in cyborg, cybernetic beings, and the divine feminine; the mixture of those things inspire me to make art and helps me envision what the future looks like. I find it interesting that I’m using AI to create images that are very futuristic.
As for photo bashing, I use the initial image by uploading photographs onto Google Drive or Google photos and then use the web address of that image and put it in the Google collab folder too. I’ll play around with the different levels of strength. You can use a percentage of every initial image by using a decimal point system and providing the level of strength of the initial image as part of your final image.
Many of my initial photographs are pulled from my database of the “Shapes of The Divine” project or portraiture that I have done with models and friends. Being that many of my photos already have a professional look (and with the case of the “Shapes of The Divine” project, a colorful and psychedelic nature) the female form stands out prominently. They’re easy to use as an initial image or a basic shape of what I want the subject to look like.
I also create my own sacred geometry Mandela art using many different apps on my iPad, and sometimes I use those as initial images for my work. Everything that is minted on Mint Gold Dust was created with that process, rather than using base photographs of an actual person. I also involve very complex AI prompts to generate the images that I make, which I affectionately call prompt craft.
Have you read the last 79Au post on our New Year’s curation? It’s all about rebirth and renewal. View our latest article here.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.
New Year’s Curation – Reflection and Rebirth
From all of us at Mint Gold Dust, we wish you and yours a Happy New Year!
At the start of every new year, there is a lot of talk of reflection and transformation. This cycle of the death of the old, and birth of the new. Sometimes, this transformation and rebirth comes from a redirection, a moment of enlightenment, or even a death of the self.
To celebrate the new year, the Mint Gold Dust team has curated a selection of six artworks that remind us of the power of transformation. We have a lot of exciting things coming your way in 2023, and we look forward to having you on the journey with us!
Butterflies are universally viewed as a symbol of ultimate transformation. For this work, artist Butterflies in Space Joe created his own Space Opera using AI tools. In many ways, the dawn of open-source AI tools has ushered in a transformation in the Digital and Traditional Art space.
In this piece by Chazz Gold, we see the Celtic Goddess Cerridwen undergoing a transformation born out of enlightenment, wisdom, and inspiration. This work reminds us that in order to welcome our new self, we must say goodbye to the old.
“Keep Going” by Rakkaus Art is a personal piece about the artist’s battle with JRA at a young age. The treatment for this bone disease was to inject gold into their body weekly. As the artist got older, they compared this treatment to the Japanese art form of Kintsugi, the art of repairing something broken with gold. The act creates something new out of the old while celebrating the imperfections.
One cannot be ready to face their new transformed reality without first engaging in self reflection. Giovanni De Benedetto’s “Premature 106” invites the viewer to reflect on our relationships with ourselves and fellow human beings, entering a meditative type state.
Rather than a straight line from life to death, “A Golden Return” by Hypnomancer depicts our life’s journey as paths merging, circling, and diverging with and around each other. We might enter as one person, and exit as another, but we must never forget the path that got us there.
Have you read our 2022 Yearly Wrap up? Check out the some of our notable 2022 collections in the last 79AU post of the year here.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.