BONUS: Ghost Coffee w/ MUMBOT | Completely Dedicated to the Pursuit of Art w/ Terrell Jones
Welcome back to another episode of NFT Catcher Podcast.
We'd like to remind everybody that nothing on the show is meant as financial advice.
And please, do your own research.
Thank you and enjoy the show!
Welcome to the Ghost Coffee Podcast, where I, Mumbot, will be speaking with guests who
I find inspirational, or will have some valuable experience and insights to share with other
creators like myself.
In our latest episode, we welcome the incredibly talented digital artist, Torrell Jones, as
a guest.
I had such a good time, getting to know more about him, his history, his journey, and am
excited about what the future holds for him.
Torrell's work is highly sought after by some of the biggest collectors in the space.
Recently, it was announced that Torrell will be collaborating on a very cool innovative
project with Snoop Dogg and Transient Labs alongside the artist's coley and alien theme.
From relatable nostalgic themes and pop culture references to exploring darker, more complex
themes, his work and the subject matter, mood, settings, color palettes, and clever concepts
are all a part of defining and contributing to a historical digital art movement.
Hope you will enjoy the show!
Hi!
What's up?
Hi, Ross!
Hey, how you doing?
Thank you for joining me.
I've been super excited to have you on the Ghost Coffee Podcast.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, it's been a real pleasure to be here, and I'm super excited for this one.
Awesome.
Yeah, thanks for making it work.
I know that time's tricky.
No worries.
You're really busy, and we both have a lot going on.
Yeah, so let's just get right into it.
First, I have a whole list of questions for you, but I would love to hear you just give
a little bit of a background of yourself and how you describe yourself as an artist.
Yeah.
So I'm through all Jones.
I'm a digital artist based out of Michigan.
I've been drawing, doing art my whole life pretty much, for as long as I can remember at
least.
Early on, I was super inspired by my aunt, my aunt Landa.
She's a super talented portrait artist.
She definitely was a person that always instilled that artistic side of me, and always was
giving me sketchbooks or notebooks or pencils, markers, all that type of stuff, art books.
Yeah, she was definitely the first person where I could look and be like, oh, we're actually
able to do this stuff with our hands.
Someone can make those porches that can look just like someone, and they can do that with
a pencil.
Yeah, she was definitely a huge inspiration.
I really come from an artistic family, really.
I think that I'm the one that really is trying to use it as a career path or in that way.
But my brothers and sisters, we always use to draw as kids.
We'd be sitting in church and drawing.
We'd be sitting at an old drawing.
We'd be watching Saturday morning cartoons, and then after they're over, we'd go draw
our own characters and stuff.
Art has always been a part of my life.
I think later on, I started taking a lot more serious, through middle school or high school.
When I started to get paid to do it in certain ways, I definitely wasn't going to pay a lot,
but certain friends would ask for a tattoo design or a character design or whatever it
was.
Five books here and there, I was like, yeah, that's perfect.
I think late high school, I started taking a lot more serious than that when we had
with my art class, we had this gala auction event, and pretty much we were all selected
to make works for it pretty much, and we went to the auction, and they would sell there,
and they were displayed there and all that.
That definitely made me, that's when I had started painting, and that was 2014, I think
by junior year, and that definitely gave me a whole different insight, with just that
different type of crowd.
There were certain things with that event, I didn't necessarily like, especially looking
back at it now, but it was still cool to have that kind of exposure.
At that same time, maybe like a little bit before that, I was definitely into sneaker design,
and that was something that I kind of saw as a path that I would be able to pursue after
high school, that still kind of included art, but wasn't necessarily doing album covers
or whatever else.
I started to do these workshops during, actually a little bit after high school, so maybe like
2018 or 2019, little workshops with like, Puma, I did one with new ballots, I interned
with them for three weeks with this place called Pencil Academy, that's like this sneaker
design school, and yeah, that was really super cool.
I think that doing those, I kind of found out, and like discovered through that that
I was like, I kind of want to tell my old stories, and make my old designs, I didn't want
to necessarily have someone being able to be like, no, change this, switch that, that's
not possible, flip this, do this, yeah, I was like, yeah, I didn't like that so much,
but it was still a really cool experience, and I definitely met a lot of cool people through
that.
I discovered NFTs later after that, the sneaker design stuff, that was like 2020, I think,
and late 2020, and I started to hear about NFTs, I'm not exactly sure when the exact moment
that I was exposed to it, but it definitely wasn't a foreign concept to me when I started
to see the ape selling, or some of those super early NFTs things start to pop off, I
was like, oh, you know, I can actually try to do that, let me go see what I can do, and
around the time foundation was like that, like super exclusive platform to try to get on,
so I was like, anybody having an invite?
Oh my gosh, yeah, literally, like, there's this guy named Jordan is out, and I met him
through one of the sneaker events, and he's an artist as well, but some type of way
we both knew that we wanted to get on to foundation, and pretty much we had told each other
whoever finds their way out of foundation, we're going to help the other person get on,
so eventually, I think that he had bought an invite, and from then on, I was like, hey,
like, man, a piece, let me go buy your piece, so I can get that invite, you know, from you,
so into buying his Genesis piece, and he gave me the invite for that, and I probably meant
to that same night, but that piece that for months and months and months, I didn't realize that you
really needed like a whole community, and you needed like, to be on Twitter and active on Twitter,
and you know, and have teed Twitter and all that, I didn't realize, I was mostly on Instagram
with this, so I was like, I was like, why is it my piece selling? These eight apes are selling,
and like, I'm like, it's so relatable to Real, this is like, this is a very similar story as
me, I love to hear it. So yeah, eventually, I had quit my job a little bit after that,
that was March when I had minted, and I ended up quitting my job that I had for a few years at
FedEx, and made that same year. And pretty much, in quitting, I still hadn't sold an NFC
thing, so I feel like some people hear that I quit, and they're like, oh, he must have sold an
NFC, and then he was like, ah, but no, I still hadn't sold an NFC at that time. I pretty much
just knew that I wanted to pursue art, and I wouldn't really forgive myself if I never
like, took that chance, because I never really, I had done like commissions and stuff on the side,
like while I was still working at FedEx, or whatever other jobs that happened, I had never
said, you know, let me dedicate 24 hours a day to art. So I was like, let me just try this out,
like, and you know, if I fail, I fail, I can always go get a job, like I was doing great at FedEx,
you know, I was too good of a worker, really, but I was just pretty much like, let me try art. So
with that, I started to take my art more serious. I started to promote it more, you know, I started
to like actually be involved on Twitter and found art Twitter, and with that, and that's a really
cool artist along the way. Pretty much, I was put into different group chats, and those group chats
put me into, you know, NFT group chats, and eventually I was able to find collectors and other
artists doing NFTs, and I was lucky enough to get a bid, and you know, since then I was just like,
this is possible. Okay, let me just like put everything I have into this. So I think it's worked
out pretty well, but yeah. Wow. You know, it's like such a, I got chills when you were talking about
how like you, you had quit your job, and you were doing great at that job, but you were also like,
you had also been always doing art, and you had never done fully just art, and you just knew,
like you felt it, like you just felt it in your bones or something, you're like, I love that you
were also willing to like, find out, like if it's, if it's, if it does not work out, like if it
fails, like I just love that you were like, open to that. That's super cool. That's scary too,
though. Was it a little scary? Or you just really felt like you could, you really had a belief.
It was definitely scary in a sense. I think luckily I was a person that's lucky enough that I had
had money saved up to that point. So I knew that I at least had, you know, a few months or a
couple of months or however long that, you know, I could actually try this out. I knew that wasn't
that like, you know, be homeless if it didn't work out or something, but it definitely was scary.
I think the the scariest part is just the not knowing, and I think on the flip side of that, the
the reason why I kind of pursued it so hard or really thought that I could do it was just seeing
others be able to do it. And I feel like if I can see others be able to do something, and I could
kind of like look at what they're doing and kind of study what they're doing that I can kind of
figure it out myself. And then furthermore, you know, if I do get that first bit like I got,
then I'm like, oh, this is like something that's like a formulaic, like something that I can
actually copy and reproduce and, you know, go harder in this. So like I said, I'm just grateful
that it worked out. That's amazing. So cool. On that note, just like what one of the things I just
wanted to point out, because I think that will be very valuable to other creators who might be
considering, you know, maybe quitting their day jobs. I thought that was really cool to just note
that you had saved it, but saved up enough that you kind of gave yourself like a little bit of a
safe timeline there to go all in. And then it sounds like you really did go full on. Like can you
describe like what that really means? Because like for me, like I know that going all in like that,
it was like, especially because I have, I also have a family, you know, I have a family like,
have to be responsible for it too. So a lot of the steaks are high. So it's like really like no
days off, no breaks. Like it's like you really need to be in it to win it like 20, like you said
earlier 24 seven. And there's a lot involved in that. Like that I don't think a lot of people realize.
And I like that you were talking about like you kind of had you could study what other people were
doing. You had maybe you looked up to some people who were who were doing it already. Did you have
anyone who is kind of like also sort of a mentor or anybody who, you know, that you want to mention
or no, nothing like that. I don't know that I had mentors necessarily. I think some of the first
artists that I really saw doing it that kind of like even introduced me to that world or, you know,
just seeing foundation period. I think poor Tefee, I'm not sure if people know, but he's a
super talented artist. I think he's one of the best artists that we have. And it's been this
current day. But him definitely Sean Williams, Corey Van Lue. I'm not sure who else. But yeah,
those are definitely some that I was like literally like on their foundations, reading their
descriptions, seeing how they're setting it up, seeing how they're posting it on Twitter or
captioning it or whatever else, seeing where they're posting their links and stuff. I'm a super
like, not to say copy, but I'll see what's working for someone and try to like fit it into what
I'm doing. Yeah. I wanted to chime in on that because like for me too, like there was a whole
period of time where I like you talked about that learning process. When you start to really understand
the best practices and when you when you've started to realize like, okay, I cannot put a link
in my post. I have to put it in the next, the drop down, you know, and all of the things that work
better, like having an image with your tweet will always perform better than just sometimes,
right? But that always like sometimes you could have a really good tweet and that pops off,
you know, then and there's like, there's just like all these little things that you do need to
learn and like having a pin tweet and what your pin tweet, what kind of copy you put in your
pin tweet? Like, is it going to tell a little bit about you? Is it specifically like relevant to
like what your work is focused on or like how long you've been in the space? Like things that are
are someone would find interesting, interesting and want them to to check out what you're doing,
right? And like, if you have a new artwork, like, how are you describing it? Are you just like,
here's my work, check it out? Like, no, you're probably going to have a title that's that's kind of
a cool title. You're going to probably have the image, not just a link. You're going to probably
have the link below so they can find the thing. You're going to probably maybe talk a tight,
have a little tiny bit of a description or something, right? Like, a couple hashtags maybe
thrown in there. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I just wanted to throw that out there since, you know, I think
that would help a lot of people. Do you want to add anything to that? Yeah. I would say just even,
you know, coming from where I did it or how I did it, um, definitely if you have someone that you
look up to, uh, that's doing something that you want to do, you know, not to say again, not to say
copy, but see, see what they're doing and see what that you can kind of translate or kind of fit
into whatever that you're doing. Um, so for me, like I said, it was just looking at how people were
formatting these things or like you said, how they're doing them and which steps that they're taking
at which times and all that. Um, and yeah, like I said, just see what works for them and see, see
what you can do to kind of fit into that world. Totally. Like, use it as a guide and that makes
complete sense. And we, we all need like guidance, you know, in the beginning of our journeys.
I definitely did and, and they were luckily like, there was a great community who was very helpful
for me. Like they remind me like, Hey, you didn't attach a link to that or, you know, they,
where's your pin? Come on. That's a bit to that. But you just mentioned like, if there's
anyone you look up to, I want to talk about just real quick, when we were at NFT NYC this year,
during that week, which was such a cool week this year, it was like super, it felt very like,
it didn't feel as crazy as the previous year, but in a way, like as hectic, you know,
and chaotic as the previous year, but it also felt like very art heavy to me.
I'm not sure. Yeah. Also though, when we were standing outside, I think more than one time,
I noticed like people kind of slowly come up to you like who were shy and be like, Hey, you know,
I'm a huge like fan, you're a huge inspiration to me and like wanting to take a selfie with you.
What, what does that feel like? And, you know, how does, how do you, how do you feel like kind of
being like this, this, this person that, you know, a lot of people look up to now?
It's cool. I definitely don't try to let it get some of my head. I don't feel like I'm like,
a god or something or like more, I feel no shortened person than other people or anything, but I
think it's cool. And it's cool to be in a position where I didn't necessarily have people,
especially when I was in like high school, I think later on, I kind of found, you know, certain
people, but you know, when I was like in middle school, high school, I didn't really have someone
that like looked like me that was doing what I wanted to do. So I didn't really have, you know,
a me necessarily to look up to. So I think it's cool that some people do have me to look up to.
Again, I don't, I don't feel like that makes me important or anything, but you know, if I can help
them or if I can make people's days better just by like meeting me or anything like that, then
I'll take it. But like I said, it's still like it's hard to get used to. I definitely like
will be walking somewhere or in an event or something. And so no, just give me this look. And then
like you're like, okay, they know me. But then I think people don't realize that, especially if
they're not, because a lot of people aren't docks. And then they'll look at you and go, ah, to
do you recognize me by my name? I was like, I like follow 8,000 people. Like I wish I could add
the brain to do that. But yeah, yeah, it definitely still catches me off guard sometimes. But
I think it's cool. It's super cool. Yeah. And I love how humble you are. It's awesome. And
refreshing. I think I think it helps to, um, I guess when you just, you also just seem like I don't
know, I just feel like you are hyper aware, though, of like what you just mentioned, like not
having that and recognizing that now you're like that, like not having someone who look like you
doing what you're interested in doing really. You didn't have much of that growing up. I also
am hyper aware of that being like mixed ethnicity, uh, growing up. Like I, you know, I can really relate
to that. There, there was like a wrestler that I used to watch. It's Ricky the dragon steamboat. He
was like a half eight, uh, who else? Like I was too young. Terrell's too young to remember. Yeah,
I'm trying to get that one. Uh, I'm super interesting though. I'm super interesting. But yeah,
you have to Google later. Yeah, that was he's an all-timer. He's an all-time work. Yeah, he had a
cool costume. That's all you need to know. Um, okay. Yeah, but like the dragon steamboat got you.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'll know when you see it. You're going to be, okay. Yeah. That's a cool
costume. That was in the 90s. And I like, I had like Jubilee from X-Men. She was Asian. Who
else did I have? I guess Brandon Lee. He was like, you know, they're very, they was like super few
and far between. Yeah. And then none of them were artists. So it was just like my, my random pop
culture. Like, uh, oh, that person kind of looks like me and they're on TV. Like,
like, you know, but yeah, no, I, I, I love, I love like hearing this. So, um, I feel like you're,
you're, I was talking about this on my panel at Vcon a little bit. How like we're not like,
I love that one of the things I love about Web 3 is that I feel like it fosters. It encourages
and nurtures like people not being just pigeonholed into being one thing. Like, I don't feel like
you're just an artist. I feel like you're more than that. I feel like you do a lot besides,
I mean, I feel like artists kind of have to today in general. Like we have to do a lot of marketing.
We have to write copy. We have to know a lot of behind the scenes tech. And I know for a fact that
you have some kind of a cool, like don't you have some kind of cool smart contract situation
sometimes, like, have you done any fun stuff with your smart contracts code or anything?
Um, I wouldn't say I'm a coder or anything. But, uh, yeah, I definitely try to play around with,
especially like the manifold features, any of those cool ones that I can play around with. Yeah,
I definitely try to implement that. See? I mean, look, if you ask my family, they're going to say
I'm a coder, but I don't, I've seen real coders. I don't, I don't consider myself a coder.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you. Yeah, like anyone else, a lot of people are like, oh, you sound like,
you know, they, when I speak, they're like, sounds like you're speaking an alien language. And then
just like, like proof of state, proof of work, they're like, what are you talking about?
Dynamic NFT static NFT, um, yeah, Rc 1155 ERC 720. It's not immutable. It's not immutable.
Yeah, you got to know that you got to stay plugged in enough to know like what some of the technical
stuff is. See, then when I, when I talk to you, suddenly, like, I, I'm not speaking like very
technically, like technical stuff. You know, the stuff, the doohickeys and all that. All that stuff.
Yeah. So, yeah, like, do you have any other things you're involved in? So we talked a lot about
your art. And I actually want to dig in a little bit more about like your subject matter. But,
do you have any other stuff that you just want to throw out there that you use since I mentioned,
being more than just an artist and other things? Do you have any other projects or anything?
I'd consider myself a designer. I don't necessarily know the qualifications to say that, you know,
necessarily. But I'd consider myself a designer, especially coming from a background where,
like I had mentioned, I was doing suit design. But even with like the commission work that I was
doing, I was taking on anything that I could get because I just needed the money. So even if
someone, you know, tasked me to do something that I didn't know how to do, I would figure out how
to do it. So, you know, that was like album artwork, brochures, business cards, you know,
wedding pliers, you know, anything, you know, portraits, whatever it was. I would, like I said,
if I didn't know how to do it, I would figure it out. So I would say designer, like you said,
I'm a coder, you know, I know all this. Yeah. I would say designer art isn't designer mainly.
Cool. So you, you, you stay versatile. Okay, just to go back into your, like specifically your art,
I actually, so I was like looking through your stuff. And I first just remember discovering you
in 2021. And I think like your older stuff, you could feel that nostalgia. I could feel that,
like, influence of like your Saturday night, Saturday morning cartoon. And something about it,
I felt like I was seeing a window into like childhood Tarell a little bit, like I don't know
what it was or the energy of it, something like that. But like some of your later, your newer stuff
is I'm feeling like a very mature direction. And the subject matter, like can you describe to me
is storytelling super important in your art? And how did this kind of like evolve? How did your
art kind of evolve into like the current subject matter? If there was, if there is anything to tell
about that? Oh, yeah, I'm definitely huge on storytelling. I think that's kind of my biggest thing.
It's just super fun for me to be able to tell stories. And, you know, even like that stories,
or having, you know, deeper messages, even just with an image, I always thought that was really
cool. But like you said, nostalgia was definitely a huge center of like focus for me. I'm a
super nostalgia lead person. So even like when you mentioned wrestling, like I'm super into all
that like old like Jeff Hardy, Ray Mysterio, you know, Shawn Michaels, like that type of era,
like even just me thinking about it, like I'm like, I love that type of stuff. But yeah, I'm a
super nostalgia lead person who just everywhere in my life, whether that be clothes, music, you
know, whatever else art that I'm into. So I do try to kind of connect that with people as well. So
like you said, with a lot of those earlier pieces, it was more so with the Saturday morning cartoon
type of feel or the Batman Halloween costume, all that type of stuff. I think now I still try to
connect with nostalgia book for me. Now it's more so like vintage cars or, you know, this character
over here is just like Miami Vice or, you know, it's different type of nostalgia, but it is still
in nostalgia. I think that the kind of through line through it all was just those first pieces were
a part of my joy and wonder collection. And I was also doing my good and evil collection at the
same time. And they kind of, you know, resembled each other in a way. A lot of it was like the portrait
of like the the kid, but I would say like the the good and evil was the ones with the devil and the
angel on the shoulder. Right. And then from then on at us, there's like an also between the two exactly
got it. Yeah. Yeah. And then like I said, from then on, going from evil and color, you know,
from good and evil to you, evil and color, I was really just trying to take those characters off
the shoulders and kind of making their own world or trying to see what they're doing when they're
on shoulders. So, you know, even, you know, with joy or good and evil, they still add my characters,
Evan and the angel and Damon, the demon or the devil. But with evil and color, I kind of just
flesh that out. So Damon is Damon Deville. And then I gave him a whole like crime family kind of.
And then yeah, with a lot of my pieces, I do still I'm glad that I kind of set it up in a way where
I'm able to do a lot of different types of art while still all making sense in the universe
that I've created. So, you know, you have pieces that are like, you know, silly or pieces that are
like super just pretty, but there's also pieces that are kind of more violent or more depressing or,
you know, have like deeper messages and stuff. So yeah, I just really wanted to be able to tell
stories with more of a fine art touch to it almost. So yeah, it's a like a more sophisticated feel
to it. Yeah. So inspired by like the Hiroshima guys or Edward Hopper or David Hockney's of the world.
So cool. Oh my god, that's so genius. So genius to take the characters off the shoulders and then
give them like backgrounds. And I love the storytelling. I'm obsessed. So cool. And I actually,
I also do the same thing. I'll do overlaps between collections, but then also what you just said,
I think this is also helpful to I know some artists that are having trouble like allowing themselves
to break free of like their super branded style, you know? And I'm like in the same way that you
kind of created almost you created a collection to explore these more serious subject matters where
you could kind of not feel like it felt okay to kind of do more of something violent or something
like darker to throw it in there. It's okay because that that is part of this theme of this
collection. And I've also had I've done the same thing where I've like something about being able
to create a collection where that body of work is where I'm letting myself do something where I'm
experimenting or exploring certain themes or certain certain subject matters. It kind of allows
me that to like I want to be able to we are artists and we should feel in my opinion like art
should you should feel freedom like freedom to do these things as an artist like it's not the same
as being a designer. Yes, being a designer can help you. That is a skill and it's being a designer's
like I mean I was going to bring up something else but I'll wait a second. I think like you know
just like allowing yourself to feel free to explore anything that you want or any medium you want
even is really important. And yeah, I just know that that was a suggestion I had to somebody who
was like trying to figure out like how can I start I've always done like this really pretty
colorful like rainbows and like this theme but I have this other side to me that I want to explore
I just think it would like freak everyone out who follows me or who collects my work and I'm
and I'm like oh you just make a collection that's about this other direction you know but have a
little have something that ties them together just a little something that you sprinkle in there
you know but yeah you just brought you just totally described like a very perfect example of how
to do that successfully so that's awesome oh I wanted to talk about your also so like you're
I feel like your background and interest in like style culture and everything is also a huge
benefit to you like I would you say like you you your interests and you're kind of into cool stuff
I can tell so like you did that pop by cover and I was like oh my gosh this is so sick
like I was obsessed with that piece I do not I do not have the um I told you I have two kids I
can't be like bawling out and buying your your pieces you're there like a little over my budget
but that was such a cool piece do you want to talk about that and like how just like knowing
like your interest and how those things kind of affect you and like your overall I don't
say brand because you as an artist but I think it is helpful yeah a hundred percent I kind of
talk about this all the time and little snippets really but I think that I always say something like
talent is plenty but taste is like kind of rare or few I think that there's a ton of talented
people but I don't necessarily know that everyone knows exactly what's the coolest thing to make or
what's gonna you know connect to you with like the pop I think or you know certain shoes and
stuff that I've put into pieces people are like whoa I never have any shoes or like I had the
delorean in my piece solitaire and like I love that piece and I'm a super big fan of the delorean
as well or you know all these other shoes and stuff that I put into the art and a lot of times it is
kind of I don't even want to call it an easter egg because I feel like it's more out there than an
easter egg is not like something that's like hidden necessarily but I think that there is an audience
that is introduced to these things through my pieces but there's also people like you that kind
of know exactly what that cover means or exactly what I was going for with these other things so
I think culture is so important in art I always try to put you know whatever that I because I
like like you said I kind of I feel like I know what's at least cool to me I'm not gonna say
that it's cool to everyone but I like to think that I know what's cool so anytime that I can kind
of sneak those things in or you know put a Jordan for on these people's feet or you know sneak
you know 89 charger into this piece or you know all these like little things here in the
air I just try to like you know and like you said like certain people will be like oh what's this
or oh this is cool you know what inspired this and I'm like you know Popeye is like this is like
streetwear legendary just like you know but like you said with people like you I know that it's
gonna tick that part of your brain like oh like he did it he did the thing so yeah it's super
cool just having you talk to me at that at that point and you were like like I love the Popeye
thing I'm like yes oh and got it yeah I was so hyped when I when it just showed up on my feed
it's just like and then it was so cool wow well Michael's here too I wanted to ask my
yes I'm gonna I'm gonna chill out I've been geeking out this whole time so now it's all good I
do have a few classes first off this it's been awesome sitting back and watching this this is
what I love about ghost coffee podcast an artist interviewing another artist you know we've had
so many artists on I love we we ask all the questions but hearing you guys go back and forth is
really special it's really really cool and I think it's actually kind of unique I keep trying to
think what other actual artists are interviewing other artists in the space and I'm not sure if
it's happening other than other than right here so there is there is a another podcast that I like
it's Matt Gondex podcast oh sure okay I'll clean break and hit his is is it's a very good podcast
I would say he's had a few web three guests I don't think that you know I'm I'm really trying to
like mix it up to right but I am also like kind of focused on um fidget and I hate that word
no one likes the fidgetal word but I am no one like what I am I know it's like no one likes that
word because because I am somebody who's been trying to bridge that gap that is like my thing so
anyway yeah anyway it's just all good but uh Tarell I've actually been going through all your stuff
this this most of this time your IG is sick like anybody should go to Tarell's IG and just
slow through it's all right and like pictures of you but like really cool stuff I love seeing
those early ones where it's like your NFT sold and you posted that like screen shot of that it's
pretty cool um but uh so I want to go back to early on it's always really interesting to me how
artists so you kind of came in and it was you and your friend but you didn't really know like
the influencers and all the people and you did you kind of you just started joining those communities
but you have like so was there a collector or a moment I see that like Vincent Vando
and and Faroque have collected you was there like a certain point where somebody collected you
and all the sudden it was like everybody took notice and all this like how did that play out for you
I think it kind of came in waves and definitely with like who you just mentioned Vincent Vando uh
he was definitely a big one that like I feel like um there's certain like taste makers almost uh in
this space uh exactly I definitely feel like he's one of them where you know if he collects a
piece then suddenly people are like oh like this this this this artist is important and I need to
collect them too like it is definitely that um I was super grateful for him I don't even necessarily
know um you know the moment that he found me but um thankful that he did uh he's been super cool
even just like we'll talk a lot just in the background just about like giving me advice on
different things or just talking through certain things and he's just always been super supportive
for me like before all of this so um yeah super grateful for him but yeah I would definitely say
that he's one that like definitely made other people take notice um let me see who else uh definitely
just some other just like artists and and other like collectors and stuff like following me or
you know reach me in my tweets or you know taking notice or you know a certain big collector buys
in the piece you know that'll definitely just like attract certain communities or you know I collab
with uh certain you know communities and that'll kind of you know introduce me to certain people
but yeah I think that the biggest like thing that kind of put a lot of people onto me or definitely
what a lot of people kind of talk to me about when they talk to me or tell me where they know me from
is my born to die uh in addition that I did uh last year uh I want to say that I was November
last year that's definitely one that like kind of I would almost say I don't know like this has
go like blew me up in a sense uh that's one that uh kind of uh almost formed its own community
in a sense of just people that were like owning that piece or um how many how many picked up that open
addition uh that one sold um 1139 uh in 20 20 pieces um nice wow yeah that was that was crazy
I still necessarily know how that happened but I was like I'll take it
that's wild and what uh platform when did you release that on uh that was unmanifold uh that was
pretty much to uh kind of bring in their burnt future uh I had been hearing about the the burnt
future uh for months and months before that uh thankfully I know some people on the inside so
they were kind of like let's say warning me but they were like hey like we're gonna have a
burnt teacher uh at some point like uh so just keep that in mind so um even just like from the moment
I heard that I kind of had the peace in mind I was like oh like burn sacrificial lamb and I was
like I'm gonna have one of my characters holding a sacrificial lamb and you're gonna have to burn it
and you're gonna get another piece and I'm like boom uh but at the time I was busy with a lot of
other stuff so uh it was definitely like always on the back burner like perpetually but I just
always had it in my mind like hey like you know whenever I get some free time I need to start to
work on that like burn piece but then you know um another one of those people that came out to me um
they're like hey like the that burn features coming out like what's in the next week so I was like
okay like let me just drop everything else I'm doing let me go get to that actually uh so the
sacrificial lamb I was like I don't want people to call peed on me uh because I'm making the
move burn this this lamb so I was like hey we making a robot and then I was like uh actually let me
make it a dollar like let me make it an origami dollar uh lamb that people are gonna burn since
they're technically like burning money so I was like okay that all kind of makes sense um and then I
had like my character initially I was gonna have my character Damon holy it but uh when I started
to think of it through all it's like it kind of makes more sense for my character skeleton he's like
a skeleton devil um to be holding it so I was like let me make it him holy it and um yeah really
I'm really happy with how I came out I'm glad that uh the people were happy with it as well
that's such a clever concept thank you it is it really can't be understated I'm sorry
I'm about I just wanted to say like that you have to be smart and an innovative creative
and clever you have to to be able to come up with that that's really cool and that was so
I was pretty early in in like you said you were one of the early early manifold uh burn feature uh
you know artists go ahead Michael sorry yeah I was just actually gonna say and it's for both
the guys that's talking about it really can't be understated what manifold is meant for artists
uh hundred percent I mean I I said to somebody like and this might this might be a little crazy
but like it's almost like what it's done for web three artists is what like having art supply
stores did for artists you know 50 75 years ago like yeah really yeah and they do it for free they
give it to the artists for free you can use the tools for free like it it's incredible and just a
little bit of uh a little alpha alert we're having Richard on the podcast this month later this month
yeah that's a that's a grey out guest yeah I'm real excited for 100 percent yeah no I've been
uh lucky enough to run into him a couple of time at some of these events and yeah he's always
super awesome I've never got to meet Richard I'd love to meet Richard I know he was also a speaker
beacon as well he was he didn't get to run into him um but I I chat with uh white lights I'm white
lights sometimes oh yeah white lights as well I love the whole team I love every I know like
six of them like but I don't even know that they all like I don't know that if they know that they
all know me like cuz like I'll hit surge ones for like certain features or acid was certain
questions and stuff but yeah they're all like super awesome I think I've got like two that I'm
able to kind of DM if I if I really need to but um so far I've actually been able to figure some
stuff out on my own but like it would be like after I've already sent somebody a DM like hey I don't
know I do this thing I've been there yeah you've been there right um just shout out manifold man
this like yeah incredible they've come out with even new features there's one that I haven't seen
in action too much where like so if you're an artist and you want to put out a collection you can say
somebody can burn something not necessarily even from your collection from any collection
yeah yeah yeah so I'm waiting I'm waiting for it like a giant artist to come out like a real world
like whoever I don't even know who to say would come and say hey I'm dropping on manifold the only
way to get it is to burn a crypto punk oh my goodness and like you know what I mean like somebody
whose work is worth that much like yeah X copy yeah X copy like here's 101 if you want it
burn a crypto punk I like the cause of the awesome shout out the cause right it would be awesome um
and just come on there do something crazy like what would I or burn a board eight like yeah
put those contracts in the thing and see who does it first it's also the one I don't know if you
know that that that mechanism is I know it is I know it is yeah yeah because like there's the
ones where you can kind of like be like you know uh let's take an NFT catcher NFT and like you can
burn it is like NFT you can burn any it is against I know I know it's like so at me huh like
well why do you hate me yeah is that the controversial it's definitely like virtual I was excited
for us heard about it and then I definitely had some pretty interesting discussions and there
some good points made by different people for different reasons and yeah not everybody loves it
to be fair you know burning is weird too because it's not really destroying the art it's just
setting it to a while that nobody has access to yeah yeah kind of like yeah you know just one of the
oh go ahead what just real quick and then you guys can go on but what do the artists say I'd like
to know because because to me like I'm like whatever let's have fun burn a bunch of crypto punk
but what what is it that people say that is uh is the real controversy right so it's kind of like
the fear I don't want to say fear because it's not like someone's afraid they're just pointing out
like facts if someone if there's like someone who decides to just have someone burn your art
and it's a one-of-one or something that could really be you could start like an art beef you know
yeah I'd be like this hey this is a thing that like I really wanted to stay in play you know like
this is a one-of-one that like I meant a lot in like yeah if someone went ahead and
threw that into the burn wall it to get this other thing like what does that say about that piece
that you that was special you know it's kind of it is kind of weird so yeah I hear that I hear
that a hundred percent like I was picturing it with like collections and things like that but
looking at it from an artist perspective I definitely hear that yeah just like yeah just even just
having that thought of like oh this person burned my piece to get a piece from her like
it it it wouldn't feel good I don't necessarily know exactly how it feels but yeah I don't
I don't think it's all good it depends I think it would if there's gonna be nuances to it but I
think if if you didn't know you weren't made aware and you didn't you didn't approve it it would
definitely maybe hurt a little and be weird so I could understand that and I had that's basically
that that's the feedback I got from some artists who you know were one of had some one-of-ones and
they were like oh I hope that doesn't happen to me you know I would really hope that doesn't
happen to me are there anything like is there anything maybe you want to that you have coming up or
that you want to talk about that's in the works any alpha I got I got a few things I'm working with a
a big artist a musical artist that's in this space as well but on something that's going to be
announced I want to say next week so I won't say it because I'm not sure exactly what I don't
want to run the announcement or anything but I'm super excited for that it's going to be super
cool it's going to be a mix of like a web 3 web 2 type of thing with music and like I won't say
too much else but yeah that'd be really cool beyond that just for like me what I'm working on
I'm definitely having the third burn for burn to die coming up soon but before that I'm
going to give like a way like a lot of the entities there's going to be this piece that I'm
going to give away and pretty much people are going to be able to burn that piece probably like
a two for one or maybe like a three for one we'll see I'm not I'm not decided yet but they're
going to be able to burn that for like a badge I've had these badges and I'm going to do stuff with
those later on but yeah it's going to be like an entry to be able to get these badges for free
I'm not going to be like selling them pretty much people are going to have to burn they're going to
get these pieces to burn just from owning any of the board to die pieces or like the burn pieces
or anything so that's going to be super fun I already have it finished I think I want to finish
the burn three first because I want to be able to announce like the date of that as well as
being able to you know do all this other fun Bernie stuff but yeah that's pretty much
what's next on my plate I have some other stuff coming up but I don't I don't ever know what I can
like announce or you know hint at or anything you're fine you're fine let it go let let you know
let us be your outlet no super cool I'm excited about the music thing I wonder what that's
going to be yeah I'll maybe tell you how to energy okay cool also how do people find out about
the giveaways just pay attention to your Twitter or yeah I would say pay attention to my Twitter
I have a discord but it's not necessarily open to everyone yeah I think it's only open to holders
for now but yeah definitely just stayed like tuned into my Twitter I'll try to you know yell it
from the mountaintops when something is happening but yeah Twitter turn those notice on turn those
notice on I'm just talking about food or
music or just stuff that doesn't matter I don't want people to be like oh tomorrow's gonna
uh he's just talking about you know plantains again yeah like yeah so yeah I don't think enough
of what I say matters uh for them to so yeah please please don't turn on my notifications
anytime anyone says like they have my notifications on like I'm sorry let me just say sorry
for now let me say sorry for the past and for the future for whatever else I'm about to tweet
awesome super cool okay well let's see I want to ask you some random questions now
okay what is your favorite song um that's a hard one uh you know coming from a big music guide
you know that's like a song of the moment really uh I would say right now it's probably still
this is probably my favorite song for a while but I'll just use this one because I don't have
anything better uh but um Jane remover uh codec moment oh yeah it's like it's definitely an
acquired taste I definitely don't you know suggest it to everyone but yeah it's definitely like
super like beautiful and unique to me oh I'm excited to check that out all right what's your
favorite food pizza but I'm a huge fan of chicken a huge fan of cereal okay uh yeah but yeah
I would say overall pizza you can't go wrong with pizza you're you're from Michigan is it
Detroit style pizza or do you have a Detroit style pizza this Detroit yeah it's better than
New York Detroit's better New York um it depends on what you're trying to go for in the moment
because I'll say like New York is a lot more like they're usually thin and stuff and I would say
Detroit style deep dish is like like that's like the thickest pizza you can get so yeah it just
depends on how much bread you want to eat that I hear that very diplomatic answer I love from
Detroit pizza yeah I was in Detroit wars yeah I was in Detroit last September and uh enjoyed a
nice amount of Detroit pizza all right oh yeah no I was gonna oh hey mama I got my mom about
I'm cutting you okay if you were in a survival situation okay and you had to go on an island
and you could only bring I'll say like five things you can only bring five things with you
what are your five items you want to know it's funny um I watch shows like naked and afraid
and alone yes yes survivor all that type of stuff so uh I know the best answers but I'll yeah
I would say like flint you're gonna need a good like some of them use like machete some of these
like axes some some blade I'm gonna need some good blade uh definitely cordage you need some
cordage uh you said an island so I want to say a fishing net okay smart and oh actually no
no I'll take it back to fishing net because I have cordage I can make a fishing net out of the
cordage um see I got two more I would say a a tarp for shelter and an important one I hope
you're gonna say it hold on now that's pressure hold on I'm not gonna say what you want me to say
I'm gonna say a spice rack I'm a super big uh food fan so I'm gonna need the food to taste good
I can't just eat anything but what were you gonna say yeah it's something to boil the water with
oh no I'm gonna die no it's only raw fish for me oh no food will taste good yeah no a pot yeah you're
right yeah okay take away the spice rack give me a pot I guess oh you're so bland but you'll survive
yeah awesome this was such a pleasure to have you on seriously it's a pleasure to be here like
yeah thank you so much I don't know do you guys want to do do you have any other things that you
want to join in oh what do you think about what is that thing called the new smart contracts that
are coming out you know the ones that hold NFTs ERC it's like it's almost like a wallet it's called
an ERC 6551 you know about this I can't no idea check that now now you're the one speaking pig
Latin to me I know I know I have to check that out yeah I haven't been glued in as much as I need
to yeah I'll have to check out you said what's what's the numbers ERC 6551 and it's it's based on
that other thing that you probably heard about that was being announced a little bit was a big
answer the four like from like two months ago like February they were like people were like talking
about this this new thing that was gonna change the need for a wallet basically I'm gonna have
the research yeah I got I got a lot of homework after this all right cool anyway thank you so much
this was awesome thank you for having me yeah so everyone Terrell you can find Terrell Jones on
Twitter and on Instagram at Terrell Dom we will provide links to Terrell's socials and to some
of his collections in the description of this podcast thank you so much to Andy at the NFT
catcher podcast for powering this episode shout out Michael Keane Jennifer Suto mom bot world and
ghost club thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed this episode thank you for tuning in
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