devon dejardin on guardians + spirituality ahead of his NFT drop

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guardians: a metaphysical fusion of technology and tradition

 

Ris­ing mul­ti­me­dia artist Devon DeJardin entered the art scene with high acclaim in 2018 with his Guardians paint­ings which made waves with inter­na­tion­al pri­vate col­lec­tors. Now, as the cre­ative indus­try con­tin­ues to evolve along­side emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, and more and more artists are explor­ing the poten­tial of NFTs, he revis­its his orig­i­nal series for his first for­ay into the Web3 sphere. In a con­tin­u­a­tion of his jour­ney of heal­ing and intro­spec­tion, he takes on dig­i­tal tools of the day to tra­verse the bound­aries of both tech­nol­o­gy and tra­di­tion­al think­ing. At the end of March 2023, DeJardin is set to debut 998 unique NFTs inspired by his long time study of glob­al spir­i­tu­al tra­di­tions, gen­er­at­ed from an exper­i­men­tal, syn­chro­nous fusion of hand-built oil on can­vas and com­put­er cod­ed assem­bly. On screen, ‘the con­trolled and the ran­dom­ly gen­er­at­ed com­bine to form a unique work of art that goes beyond ‘meta’ and into the meta­phys­i­cal,’ DeJardin tells design­boom ahead of the collection’s launch.

 

On can­vas and screen alike, the LA-based spir­i­tu­al cre­ative explores the con­cept of guardians — ‘enti­ties that pro­tect, guide, and chal­lenge us to grow’, as he puts it — ren­dered in his char­ac­ter­is­tic cubist-influ­enced volu­mi­nous geo­met­ric fig­ures. At once archi­tec­tur­al, organ­ic, and intro­spec­tive, the new dig­i­tal works sit at a bold inter­sec­tion of nar­ra­tive and pic­to­r­i­al com­plex­i­ty, as he exper­i­ments with the bound­less, uni­fy­ing nuances of the dig­i­tal medi­um. The inte­gra­tion of dig­i­tal tools has ampli­fied my fas­ci­na­tion with the con­ver­gence of intri­cate visu­als and com­pelling sto­ry­telling, prompt­ing me to ven­ture deep­er into art his­tor­i­cal con­cepts of back­ground and con­text,’ he reflects.

 

With his debut NFT col­lec­tion, the artist seeks to trans­port his body of work beyond the scope of an exhi­bi­tion hall and show­case his high­ly sought-after phys­i­cal paint­ings in a more acces­si­ble dig­i­tal for­mat for the art and Web3 com­mu­ni­ties, allow­ing a wider audi­ence to reflect upon his mes­sage. To find out more about the col­lec­tion, its process­es and influ­ences, and the artist’s reflec­tions of fus­ing inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy and spir­i­tu­al endeav­ors, read our full inter­view with Devon DeJardin below.

devon dejardin on guardians, spirituality, and the metaphysical ahead of his debut NFT drop
all images cour­tesy of Devon DeJardin

 

 

interview with Devon DeJardin

 

design­boom (DB): Can you intro­duce us to the themes, forms, and sym­bol­ism behind your orig­i­nal Guardians paintings?

 

Devon DeJardin (DD): I have a back­ground study­ing spir­i­tu­al tra­di­tions from around the world, and a deep appre­ci­a­tion for the emo­tion­al, mus­cu­lar abstrac­tion of Picas­so, Nevel­son, Duchamp, Kras­ner. My paint­ings, draw­ings, and sculp­tures ref­er­ence the body, forces of nature, and the appli­ca­tion of phi­los­o­phy to lived expe­ri­ence. With a sense of geom­e­try that is both archi­tec­tur­al and organ­ic, and a refined palette, my main body of work mus­es on strength, fragili­ty, con­trol, and surrender.

 

Ulti­mate­ly, my work focus­es on guardians — on enti­ties and forces that pro­tect us, guide us, and chal­lenge us to grow. But often, our real life guardians come in forms we don’t rec­og­nize: chal­lenges that force us to learn new skills, loss­es that teach us emo­tion­al resilience, crises that show us our inner strength.

devon dejardin on guardians, spirituality and the metaphysical ahead of his debut NFT series
Atlantis NFT

 

 

DB: Revis­it­ing this series after sev­er­al years for your first ven­ture into the Web3 sphere, how has your view­point on its sym­bol­ism evolved between then and now, and how is that trans­lat­ed on can­vas vs screen?

 

DD: My re-explo­ration of this Guardian series high­lights the sig­nif­i­cance of spir­i­tu­al pro­tec­tion in our lives, as it sym­bol­izes the guardians that watch over us and guide us through life’s jour­ney. Each piece is a reminder of the nur­tur­ing and pro­tec­tive aspects of the human spir­it that help us nav­i­gate through life with grace and courage. With both can­vas and dig­i­tal, the worlds around these fig­ures have expand­ed along with the sym­bol­ism with­in them.

 

DB: What new dimen­sions has this inte­gra­tion of dig­i­tal tools unrav­elled for you?

 

DD: The inte­gra­tion of dig­i­tal tools has ampli­fied my fas­ci­na­tion with the con­ver­gence of intri­cate visu­als and com­pelling sto­ry­telling, prompt­ing me to ven­ture deep­er into art his­tor­i­cal con­cepts of back­ground and con­text. Dig­i­tal tools have also revealed com­plex designs that can be inte­grat­ed and ref­er­enced for my IRL stu­dio process. It feels like mul­ti­ple extend­ed con­scious­ness, work­ing and aid­ing me in my next steps of creation.

devon dejardin on guardians, spirituality and the metaphysical ahead of his debut NFT series
Jun­gle NFT

 

 

DB: Do you think it is pos­si­ble for audi­ences to relate to such a heavy con­cept as ‘spir­i­tu­al­i­ty’ when dig­i­tal­ly expe­ri­enc­ing the art, which is par­tial­ly cre­at­ed through code?

 

DD: Yes, I think it is pos­si­ble. While code is often asso­ci­at­ed with tech­nol­o­gy and sci­ence, it can also be used to cre­ate art that can evoke deep emo­tion­al and spir­i­tu­al experiences.

 

Art cre­at­ed through code can be designed to con­vey a range of emo­tions, ideas, and con­cepts. For exam­ple, an artist can use code to cre­ate a vir­tu­al envi­ron­ment that evokes a sense of peace, har­mo­ny, or tran­scen­dence. They may also use code to cre­ate inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ences that allow the view­er to explore and engage with the art­work in a more pro­found way.

 

Addi­tion­al­ly, many peo­ple have already expe­ri­enced spir­i­tu­al and emo­tion­al con­nec­tions through dig­i­tal art. This can be seen in the pop­u­lar­i­ty of med­i­ta­tion apps, vir­tu­al real­i­ty expe­ri­ences, and inter­ac­tive instal­la­tions that aim to evoke deep emo­tion­al and spir­i­tu­al expe­ri­ences. There­fore, while dig­i­tal art cre­at­ed through code may seem dis­con­nect­ed from the spir­i­tu­al realm at first glance, it can still be a pow­er­ful tool for evok­ing deep emo­tion­al and spir­i­tu­al expe­ri­ences in viewers.

devon dejardin on guardians, spirituality, and the metaphysical ahead of his debut NFT drop
Devon DeJardin revis­its his piv­otal Guardians series for his first for­ay into the Web3 sphere

 

 

DB: Can you talk us through your cre­ative process of build­ing the NFT col­lec­tion, your expe­ri­ence of co-cre­at­ing with AI, and oth­er technologies?

 

DD: This dig­i­tal col­lec­tion is a ‘per­fect’ exper­i­ment. It is a com­bi­na­tion of hand-built oil on can­vas and com­put­er cod­ed assem­bly. Under­paint­ing and sketched stud­ies in com­mu­nion with sta­ble dif­fu­sion and quan­tum prob­a­bil­i­ty. Sable brush strokes min­gle with dig­i­tal brush­es. Art stu­dio space and pho­to­shop. The known and the unknown. The con­trolled and the ran­dom­ly gen­er­at­ed com­bine to form a unique work of art that goes beyond ‘meta’ and into the meta­phys­i­cal. The Javascript that com­pletes the cre­ation destroys itself after gen­er­at­ing nine hun­dred and nine­ty-nine mas­sive canvases.

 

DB: Going for­ward, will you con­tin­ue to expand your Web3 explo­rations? Where will Guardians lead you next?

 

DD: I see myself con­tin­u­ing to push the bound­aries in all facets of art. NFTs and Web3 will be an exten­sion of my cur­rent IRL prac­tice and will be used to cre­ate more immer­sive expe­ri­ences… worlds around my work. This is an exten­sion of my paint­ing and sculp­ture prac­tice and an avenue that I firm­ly believe will con­tin­ue to expand. I feel that it is impor­tant for artists to con­tin­ue to touch and inter­act with cur­rent world tech­nolo­gies while main­tain­ing the path in real life they set out to create. 

devon dejardin on guardians, spirituality and the metaphysical ahead of his debut NFT series
Orig­i­nal NFT

devon dejardin on guardians, spirituality and the metaphysical ahead of his debut NFT series
Lava NFT

devon dejardin on guardians, spirituality and the metaphysical ahead of his debut NFT series
Park One NFT

 

 

project info:

 

name: Guardians

artist: Devon DeJardin

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