Hello all! Today I have a chance to talk to a favorite artist of mine, the brilliantly surreal Sean Mundy. Sean has a work that is embedded with metaphor and meaning, careful constructions of circumstance that leave the viewer thinking about all of the symbolism that abounds in these images. Let's dive right in.

First off, can you introduce yourself to our community? Your name, where you are from, and the mediums you work in?

Absolutely! My name is Sean Mundy. I was born and raised in Montréal and am still based here. I'm a visual artist, and I refer to myself specifically as a photographer and digital artist since I manipulate my images to create the final images after shooting them, so not "pure" photography in that sense.

You do it well, your work is such a provocative blend of emotions and references. I'm wondering a bit about where you draw your inspiration from. What creative forces did you encounter early in your career that helped define the particular brand of surrealism you deal in?

Thanks so much! I definitely caught wind of a lot of early self portrait photography on deviantart and flickr back in the day, and that's what first really intrigued me / got me into the more concept-based images that are staged as opposed to using a camera to document the world. Later I discovered working artists like Storm Thorgerson, Nicolas Alan Cope, and Petrina Hicks which sealed the deal for me in terms of finding a visual style. There are definitely more artists I could reference but those three were central to my core inspirations when I was first trying to develop any semblance of a style.

Eventually I gravitated towards focusing on loose themes and concepts like isolation, conflict, collectivism+individualism, so visual themes like this inspire me greatly today.

Well those themes certainly come through, you are quite effective at evoking the feelings you instill in your art. What was your first exposure to NFTs and the world of Cryptoart? And what has been your experience with this all so far?

I started hearing and reading about them in December of 2020, first seeing artists from my city like FVCKRENDER and Aeforia post about tokenizing artworks and ethereum and such. I was only really seeing 3D artists working in the field at the time, and I hadn't found any photography really. But after learning about the basics I saw the potential and figured I should delve deeper into the world of NFTs.

I was fortunate enough to be onboarded by my fellow artist/pal Nate Hill, and I got on to SuperRare in February and OpenSea a few months later.

It's been a wild ride and genuinely a game changer for my trajectory as an artist. I work with a few galleries and before NFTs was relying solely on them, independent sales and commissions, and print sales. Now I have exposure to an entirely new market and paradigm where artists are really being supported by a whole new world of collectors and supporters- and its really amazing.

The community of artists uplifting each other and looking out for each other is really refreshing as well. Like any space there are blind spots and shortcomings but for a very new space the opportunity for artists is unreal and the friendships and connections to be made with like-minded creatives are astounding.

Can you speak a bit about the differences in experience between web2 and Web3? Making art for attention economies vs making art for the crypto space?

Definitely. The two different paradigms don't necessary inform *how* I create my work (or not yet at least, I have some projects in mind that will be more intentional in relation to NFTs and web3), I just make the art I would normally make. However scarcity and intention are much more important in web3 in my opinion, and for that reason I'm very selective about what I mint.

When I do release a piece or rework a piece as an NFT (making video versions of stills and adding music that I compose and produce for it), I'm really trying to select for or create my best work that encapsulates what I'm working towards in my practice.

So as far as releasing images go on platforms, in a way NFTs are almost like an extension of my portfolio. IG and Twitter will be more or less everything I make, experiments and failed attempts at shoots and such, but what gets minted is heavily curated.

I'm still very much a newcomer in the space and figuring things out as I go though, so I'm looking forward to experimenting more with crypto/nft native projects that actually are integral to the artistic practice itself.

What advice would you give to someone earlier on their creative journey? Both as a creative in general and as someone new to the NFT space?

I would advise to fall in love with the process as much as you can and remind yourself constantly about why you started. Most of us start from really pure places where we just want to make art and get something out of our system, but years in you can often forget that and get so caught up in the day to day and get in really bad mental states if you aren't doing as well as your peers.

Focus on internal validation and personal benchmarks as much as possible that are immediately within your power as opposed to arbitrary goals that rely on the participation of other parties (sales, etc).

Specifically for NFTs, depending on your level of interest or exposure to the space, be sure to expect nothing and appreciate everything. The space has a lot to offer but simultaneously it is very new. It's better to find like-minded individuals and support one another and lift each other up than to try to make it "work" for yourself alone.

Don't try to ride waves, stick to what you love that makes you stand out. It might not result in the most success immediately but you will feel much better about yourself if you stick to your guns and feel good about what you're doing regardless of the outcome.