On the eve of the OKPC Gallery opening, I wanted to use this moment to tell a bit of a story about the “art” you’ll find in my OKPC art collection.
First off, I don’t consider myself an “artist.” A “writer” maybe, but not an artist! And alongside Dom, Gremplin, Numo, Braindraind, and more, the impostor syndrome is high.
But that’s the magic and joy of OKPC — it’s a little toy that reminds us that WE CAN ALL BE ARTISTS
OKPC has not only distilled down big ideas into tiny pixel canvases, the project itself has distilled the very essence of Web3: artistic ownership, trustless teamwork, permanence, and the beauty of permissionless self-expression.
So with that bit of context, let me present my “artistic” contribution to the OKPC Founding Artists Gallery.
Overall, my theme is the Distillation of Stories.
Scroll down for a little story about the meaning of each one.
→ View this collection on OKPC
What is OKPC?
𝙾𝙺𝙿𝙲 𝙸𝚂 𝙰𝙽 𝙾𝙽 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙸𝙽 𝚃𝙾𝚈 𝚃𝙷𝙰𝚃 𝙻𝙴𝚃𝚂 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙲𝚁𝙴𝙰𝚃𝙴, 𝙲𝙾𝙻𝙻𝙴𝙲𝚃 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝚂𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙴 𝙰𝚁𝚃𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙺
Like a little on-chain digital Etch-a-Sketch meets Gameboy Paint. This is a serious project, with advanced tech and exciting possibilities, all wrapped in a fun little toy.
Created with love by Scotato, Shahruz, CJ Pais + a dedicated group of on-chain geeks helping to bring it to life over the past few months.
THOU MAYEST (#1 of 8)
A journey from Trademark to CC0.
“Timshel” itself means “Thou Mayest,” something I picked up from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.
To me it’s the essential distillation of what I love about Web3:
- thou mayest buidl
- though mayest join communities
- thou mayest reinvent yourself
- thou mayest dream
SUP (#2 of 8)
Two curious creatures, learning about a new world
With the power of CC0 in our eyes 👀, we’re all embarking on this new adventure together.
How will ownership function, long term? How will artists get rewarded for their original works? How will the ecosystem evolve?
Learn more about CC0 here from Zeneca
FORTIFY (#3 of 8)
Castles and fireworks…
For most NFT projects, derivatives are like Fireworks 🎇 — homages to the core project. Fun, artistic, celebratory, usually one-off, side projects. In most cases, they end up lighting up for a bit then fading into the night sky (and that’s ok!)
For an emerging class of composable CC0 NFT projects, some “derivatives” are becoming Castles 🏰 — where the project is a foundation for builders to build. For projects like Loot, Nouns, Toadz, the derivatives are the whole point.
Learn more about this framework here (and in a 1,000 message thread in the Blitmap server)
To me, this castle tells a story of celebration, of collaboration and of building bridges into the unknown future.
POOH (#4 of 8)
“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart” - Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh just went public domain in January, so this feels to me like a perfect metaphor for the distillation of meaning through stories.
And putting Pooh on chain through this beautiful project just feels right. 😁🐻
UNSTUCK IN TIME
Poo tee weet?
These days, I often feel like we're in a time machine, seeing the future of collaborative, global creation.
This Billy Pilgrim reference is a nod to that time machine.
And Vonnegut (my favorite author) feels like a good metaphor for this project overall: deeply serious stuff, wrapped in something light and fun.
→ Collect UNSTUCK IN TIME on OKPC
NEVER WORN (#6 of 8)
What the “Six Word Story” is for writing, OKPC is for art.
“For Sale: baby shoes, never worn” is a legendary six word story, attributed to Hemingway.
To me, there is no better metaphor for the distillation of unexpectedly serious meaning into a cute little package.
#7 and #8 of 8 — stay tuned!
Hope you have as much fun with this as I am having.
The Magic and Joy of OKPC
Find me @TimshelXYZ
thou mayest