Killer Acid! At long last – I have been eager to interview you a long time now. Frankly, you are one of my favorite artists ever, and I've been tracking your work longgg before cryptoart was even possible. So I am thrilled to be able to do a deep dive with you here today. First of all, can you introduce yourself to our community? Where you are based and the mediums you work in?

Hey Dave, thanks for having me. Killer Acid is an art project I embarked on 13 years ago, but something I'd been thinking about in one form or other since I was a teenager. It started in a tiny room in Brooklyn and grew super slowly over the years into what feels like a proper brand. Currently we come to find ourselves located in Santa Cruz, CA in a 2500 square foot studio slash warehouse. We make paintings here, screen prints, digital artwork, and dabble in animation. We also design clothing and other merchandise. Always trying to think up new weird shit.

I love it all, and particularly love the clothing, I have countless pieces from the collection, including products like the Polaroid Camera and the wine glasses – my friends are always fighting over who gets to use those. Just love the visual world you created. You mentioned that this has been something you've been working on since you were quite young. Can you share a bit about when and how you discovered your own creative drive? Was there an aha moment or did you just ease into the act of creating?

It was really in high school when I got super inspired and was experimenting with mind altering substances and exploring art and music on a super granular level. I always have a notebook that I carry around and would draw in the park or in my friend's car or at the diner. Over time I stopped crosshatching and shading and really tuned up what I call the hard pressing solid line drawing style.

We grew up near the beach in Maryland and one summer my dad and I stumbled into this little screen printing shop. They had a lot of head shop hippie looking designs and none of the boardwalk gimmick crap. My dad showed the owner my notebook and I guess the guy was impressed because he asked if I wanted to make some shirts. So I went by there every day for a few weeks and learned the basics of printing and as an exchange for helping around the shop I got a box or two of T-shirts.

Those boxes ended up in the truck of my car, so for the next year or so I sold them at the park to friends, or friends of friends, or other random weirdos. The brand was called Craggy Sun. I guess I imagined the Sun was dead and made of rock somehow. They called me the kid with the shirts. That's how I got my first tiny taste of commercial success. But after that the road got long and weird.

I never knew that origin story, and love to hear it. Sometimes a creative kid just needs a bit of a push to realize that this type of path is even possible. I had my own experiences along the way that nudged me towards mine, and its why I try to do the same for younger artists who are just getting started. But I'd be remiss if I didn't ask...long and weird? Care to expand upon that last notion?

I was always a very emo kid. I experienced a lot of heart break when I was young, and moved to New York City at 21 without much clue and support. I lived in a rat and roach filled apartment for a long time, and had nothing for like 10 years. Looking back it's pretty funny to think how happy I was with nothing, or at least I wasn't worried about losing anything. I was in a few different bands, and I did a lot of art for bands, and toured the country a few times.

I learned a lot about business, or really what not to do by trial and error. I will say my favorite part about the music biz was making posters for shows and homemade stuff to sell at the merch table. After that all dried up my ears were sort of fried so I started hustling to make screen prints, T-shirts, and band posters. That's how I came up with the idea behind Killer Acid. It was originally called Rad Rox, some slang I made up about doing hashish knife hits, because they looked like little brown cubes. I wanted to make a merch booth without having to lug amps all over and play music. The name Killer Acid actually came out of a song lyric I'd written about scoring some killer acid when your parents are away on vacation, or something like that.

I really love hearing about the path you took, it makes the work even more impactful to see. It's no easy feat to make it in this world as an artist, and it feels so important to share that side of the story as well. Life has an odd way of unfolding, and we kind of have to move with the currents and swim where we can. Heartbreak has played such a huge role in my own expression as well so I can see how those threads can pull us forward.

I'd love to talk a bit about network systems and their impact and influence on our creative drive. Let's start where I first found you – social media. How has the arc of social media enabled you as an artist and what are some of the pitfalls of these platforms? Do you find yourself playing into the algorithm or do you just put out the work you love and let the rest be?

That sums it up pretty well. I feel like social media has been a real double-edged sword. On one hand, we have definitely benefited from feeding free content and humor out there for 10 years, but the mental health fallout is totally real and shitty. I've gotten to the point where I no longer make content specifically to post, and I don't look at it very closely, but I do still miss that dopamine swell of likes and adulation.

Zuckerberg and his ilk have permanently rewired our central nervous systems, and it takes a lot to unwind that. I think things really shifted when the tone became super negative and divisive, and that only accelerated during the pandemic.

It really feels like we are living in that Philip K Dick dystopia that Hollywood has been all horny over for 50 years. I remember reading theories about how time will feel like it's bottlenecking, continually sped up as technology advances exponentially. You have to try harder than ever to disconnect and get off the ride, and where will we go?

This was 30 years ago. Feels like we are in that blender now, but we haven't actually done that much to improve life on earth, despite understanding what needs to be corrected. I think making work that is critical of this reality is good. I would like it if humanity can be better, but that's rarely in line with economics. I will say one upside of social media is the large percentage of independent content and information we all have access to. By contrast, I conjure 1950s stock footage of people blissfully gathered around a television.

I agree with so much of what you say here, and have similar concerns with the state of these systems. Its literally why I started ALLSHIPS – to carve out a space for longer conversations and the human voice, free from the pressures of random social spheres.

Despite the flaws – what are some of the positive aspects of having the ability to reach such vast audiences?

That's very cool. I really admire this platform you've created, both online and IRL. The website is beautiful and so was the zone you created at Art Basel. I think I have two viewpoints always competing in my head. One is this stoic doomsday voice that has always been there. But on the other hand, I am always trying to create some humor, entertainment, or joy out of that darkness.

I yearn to entertain and enlighten, to bring some color and weirdness into otherwise beige and sterile cubicles. To adorn people with colorful clothing with weird messages. To find fellow travelers aboard this ship... We've seen the truth of creation and have been flung across boundless space projected inside our own heads, yet we must toil on this world of rules, laws, and algorithms. Might as well have a little fun in all this!

I just love that perspective. To bring a bit of light to darkness, a bit of joy to cut through the ever-present anxieties of life – what better purpose for art could there be?

I think that is what art is ultimately for. Some kind of beacon, whether it's heavy duty or just jokes. Both are important. I'm naturally more a jokes guy, but inside I am admittedly kinda heavy. I have a lot of big water sign energy. I feel like I carry around an ocean. Once in a while on a beautiful day the clouds part for me and I get a lightning bolt of divine clarity.

My hope for the cryptoart space is that we can help to gain leverage for artists, to decouple them from models based on click rates and advertising, and to align incentives within creative communities to create a healthier ecosystem for all involved. How has being involved in this space affected your own creative path?

Getting involved in cryptoart community luckily happened to Killer Acid slowly over time so I feel we were able to get established at our own pace, and made connections and a reputation when the stakes were low. It has definitely helped us continue to decouple from the traditional illustration world and art gallery models, and learning how to manage multiple currencies has made our business more agile. While it's nice to be completely autonomous, I believe some of our best work comes out of collaboration, so I am always looking for really good people to work with.

These are crazy times to be working as an artist. There are more tools than ever at your disposal. Memes have become mega charged. Information is cheap and everywhere. You have to protect your brain and keep your eyeballs lubricated.

My favorite thing about this new art space is all of the amazing work I've discovered and collected, and the artists I've supported from all over the world. I had a pretty extensive traditional art collection going already, so some day I'd love to have a room in a public museum to house it, a merging of physical and digital work.

To me one is not more worthy or valuable than the other. People who fade digital art and confuse it with 'monkey jpgs and crypto bros' are doing themselves a bit of a disservice. There's an epic collection of Alexander Girard's in the folk art museum in Santa Fe. That's something to aspire to, though I might need to keep my own career trucking along for another twenty years so someone with deep pockets takes notice and finds my narrative worthy. Or maybe not. Not anymore.

So well said – and yes, watching your development in the space was an inspiring thing to see in my own journey. I feel like you've moved with intention and care through all the phases and it has set a really good example for others.

Lastly – what advice would you share with someone who is earlier on their creative path? It’s no easy feat to commit to a creative career, and you've built a really beautiful ecosystem of support. Any guidance for those making their own leap?

Here’s a few thoughts… Take your time. I worked day jobs for the first 7 years of Killer Acid's existence and was able to build slowly in the background with less pressure. Of course there's no need for something to take that long, but that worked for me. I was able to test out what made sense for the brand, and what didn’t.

My goal was to try and have the business double every year, and that’s how it’s gone, though we started out making around 10k that first year. You do the math. I had big dreams but very modest goals. I’d suggest taking a well-rounded approach to an art-driven business. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, and don't put all of your trust in one system, or one partner. Try and create diverse revenue streams so if one head of the snake is cut off, you’ll still have others to slithering out.

Your work has tangible value. Artists shouldn't be required to work in exchange for product, white list spots, or promotion. It’s not always about the money for me, but when I see billion dollar brands asking for free work it makes my blood boil just a wee bit. I will say most folks are pretty all right, but once you get burned a few times, your tolerance for bullshit gets really low.

Don’t listen to this, or anything. You have got to, above all else, follow your own intuition.

My final thought is, be kind like The Buddha, flexible like Gumby, and tough like Tony Soprano. And smoke weed every day. Unless it makes you paranoid. In that case, take a break, go outside, hike a mountain. I imagine you have more better ideas than me. You’re gonna do great!

Wonderful and actionable advice. Killer Acid- thank you so much for taking the time to share such deeply insightful ideas with us today. I think I can speak for everyone when I say your impact on the world of art has been such a positive one, you inspire me and so many others I know to make the art we beleive in and put it out into the world. To the reader, make sure to connect across the internet with Killer Acid via their Twitter and website.