Featured Artist of The Week – Chazz Gold
Chazz Gold is a photographer, DJ, addiction counselor, AI/Gan artist, and NFT creator and collector.
“I have been featured twice at NFT.NYC as well as NFT.LA with my Shapes of the Divine collection. The first time I was featured with Searchlight.Art and this past time with Sabat and spatial XR’s stratosphere show. I am involved with a handful of metaverse projects where I have shown work including galleries Cryptovoxel and Decentraland.”
Last week, the Cu3ntos collection, curated by JenJoy Roybal, launched on Mint Gold Dust. The collection features work from LatinX NFT artists reflecting on the role of cuentos in their own journeys and cultures.
Cuentos are passed down from generation to generation, and thanks to the Blockchain, these artists are able to immortalize their own cuentos, building out their digital legacies for the future. Each unique piece highlights the intersection of storytelling and technology while exploring themes of identity on a personal and cultural level.
JenJoy Roybal writes about the collection,
“Identity is a complex thing and the diaspora of Latinos or Hispanics is riddled with conflicting perspectives and experiences. The rise of the term LatinX came out of a desire to be more inclusive of people who self-identify as having Latin American heritage – who are also LGBTQ, or any other number of nuanced differences – and yet the term still falls short of properly defining the vast, multi-layered, global society. Perhaps we can look to sharing stories to better communicate our culture and identities, rather than labels?
Cuentos are often seen as children’s stories or fables that teach a lesson, make people cry or laugh or capture important moments. In this show, LatinX, Web3 artists were invited to explore cuentos with a personal take on the journeys they have witnessed or the ones they are on. The artwork at times reflects on favorite stories specific to their own culture, or were invented anew.
This is an invitation to a conversation and to the discovery of artists via their stories and the cuentos they love, including their own.”
Explore the collection below:
Creatress is a VR Performance artist at the intersection of virtual reality and fine art. Using a VR headset and a custom soundtrack to inspire the energy of spontaneous creation, she creates 3D abstract sculptures in front of live audiences.
Her latest piece “MesoMariposas” is an exploration of the Toltec and Mexica ancient belief that butterflies are the souls of those who have lived short lives. This piece is a mixture of 3D sculpting and AI.
Lucia Diaz is a first-generation Colombian-American and the Founder of LUCIA DIAZ, a Latina-owned business that empowers and honors Latinas through high-quality Illustrations. Lucia’s artworks are created with the goal of providing cultural representation and pride so that mujeres poderosas can see themselves represented in the world.
Layla Pizarro is a Visual Feeling Art researcher and artist who is constantly experimenting with new concepts, ideas, and techniques. For Cu3ntos, she has minted a photograph of maize that was used in preparation of making Humitas, a traditional Chilean dish, during the height of the global pandemic.
“Latin-American cultures have been teaching their children about maize for millennia through stories. These stories are taught in many different languages but share a very similar origin story of the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, and as you go down into South America, the Sun God. The importance of maize goes beyond nourishment. It provides the community with purpose, working all together to cultivate and harvest. Each generation of our community grows stronger, smarter, and more resilient, along with the maize and our traditions.”
JenJoy Roybal is an artist, urbanist, writer, editor, and digital content creator. She is inspired by humanity’s oldest stories and artworks related to sacred rituals and sacred space.
“Horse-man, Fire and the Book” is a part of her new series inspired by the cuentos and pueblo Indian (Hopi & Zuni) story dances. To create this piece, she fed an AI with the story as she remembered it from her youth. The output resulted in a piece that reflected the nuances of memory, time, and projection.
“The viewer can draw their own conclusions about what tale is unfolding – in that way, I love playing with my memories while others project their own.”
Born in Harlem, NY, Dr. Lemny Perez is an Afro-Dominican writer, actress, psychologist, abstract NFT artist & collector. She is a curator for the NFT.Tips Search Light Curatorial team & is the former Coaching Lead & Secretary Board Member at the Dream Conduit, a carbon neutral non-profit DAO. Her latest piece, “Mama ‘heard voices'” pays homage to those who battle severe mental illness in her family and beyond.
“Mama- Matriarch
Born Halloween, 1925
2nd youngest of 12
U lost both parents by 16
Had 5 kids & married for 66 yrsYou drank warm lemon water every AM,
used food as medicine
& were tormented by p-noid,
auditory hallucinations—”
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Did you read our interview last week with Trish Gianakas? Check out her interview in last week’s 79AU here.
