“On demand generative minting represents a digital ownership journey staring from curiosity and delight that culminates in provable expression of individuality within a larger group.”
Erick has always loved the puzzle of code, and a live audio-visual performance introduced him to the idea of “creating art with code.”
Erick has been down several rabbit holes in his career, including massive projection-mapped installations for music concerts; hand painting 3D printed cubes; auto racing and its accompanying repair business; and a custom-made ceramic tile company. It was his friend PixelPete who said to him, “At some point, all of these things that you’ve done are going to culminate in something really special.”
Erick’s vision of an NFT minting platform for generative art came to fruition in 2020 when he launched the first version of Art Blocks. A massive flow to the platform required additional development. By February 2021, Art Blocks had become a corporation.
Under his handle Snowfro, Erick also created the Chromie Squiggle NFT collection to showcase Art Blocks as a platform and creation tool. The collection has since seen huge trading volumes, and Art Blocks adopted Squiggle #7515 as its official logo. A significant amount of Erick’s proceeds from Chromie Squiggles and other blockchain endeavors are devoted to charity.
In 2022, Erick announced a second Art Blocks project, Friendship Bracelets, in collaboration with Alexis André. “The project is a token of our appreciation to the creators, makers, builders, and collectors who have all contributed to making the Art Blocks community what it is today.”
In the same year, a multifaceted collaboration between Art Blocks and Pace Verso was announced. The partnership will release boundary-pushing generative NFT projects by Pace’s artists and crypto-native artists selected by and developed in partnership with Pace Verso. “This is an example of bringing the digital and traditional art worlds together. We plan on doing about 4 releases a year to bring artists from the Pace catalog onto our platform, where they can use the distribution model to reach new audiences.”
Crypto Investor Ryan Zurrer has said that Erick may be “the only person in this space who has a meaningful impact as a collector, artist, and a founder.”
Erick is an owner of WAGMI “We’re All Gonna Make It” United, dedicated to bringing web3’s most innovative ideas and passionate communities to the world of sports. In early 2022, WAGMI bought Crawley Town FC, an English Football League 2 club: “Together, we’re going to take Crawley Town to the Premier League.”
The Internet’s Team proudly displays a Chromie Squiggle on their team jerseys. And Pete is an advisor to Art Blocks.
