NorCal and Shill
A podcast where NFT artists tell stories, hosted by NorCal Guy. https://twitter.com/GuyNorcal
https://twitter.com/norcalandshill
NorCal and Shill
Artie Handz - Collector
What happens when a legal eagle trades his briefcase for a canvas? On this episode of NorCal and Shill, we sit down with Artie Hands, the head of marketing at Verse, who shares his fascinating journey from a career in law to becoming a driving force in the world of NFT and digital art. Prompted by a Wall Street Journal article on Top Shot, Artie's curiosity led him to make some bold moves in the evolving crypto art space, including a memorable $20,000 LeBron James tribute dunk purchase. Learn how his academic insights helped him foresee the digitization of assets and navigate the initial thrills and pitfalls of this burgeoning market.
As the conversation unfolds, Artie offers a glimpse into the future of digital and AI-generated art, suggesting that these terms will eventually merge into just "art" as mainstream acceptance grows. We delve into the profound connections between artists and collectors that NFTs make possible, breaking down traditional gallery barriers. Artie also weighs in on the cultural shifts and regulatory needs essential for the crypto art space to thrive, addressing the importance of respect and measures to combat fraud.
But it's not all serious talk—this episode has its fair share of lighter moments too. We explore Artie's unique lifestyle as a private pilot and cattle rancher, his passion for fantasy football, and even his whimsical investments in otters and quirky NFTs. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just curious about the digital art revolution, this episode promises a mix of humor, deep reflections, and insightful predictions about the future of the art market. Tune in for expert advice, heartfelt anecdotes, and a peek into the unpredictable world of NFTs with Artie Hands.
https://x.com/punk7635
https://x.com/artiegalerie
https://x.com/verse_works
Who is this? Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Norcal guy.
Artie Handz:NorCal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy.
NorCal Guy:NorCal and chill podcast. So it's chill time. Norcal and chill podcast. What the sh, what the sh? Norcal and chillill Podcast. What the shill, what the shill? Norcal and Shill Podcast.
Artie Handz:So it's shill time.
NorCal Guy:NorCal and Shill Podcast. What the shill, what the?
Artie Handz:shill.
NorCal Guy:Welcome to another episode of NorCal and Shill. Today, we're thrilled to have Artie Hands as our guest. Currently the head of marketing at Verse, a dynamic art platform, artie will share his journey transitioning from legal career to delving into the vibrant world of art marketing, including his challenging but rewarding role at Verse and his own gallery. We'll dive into Artie's latest projects and explore how he navigates the fast-paced art market influenced by cryptocurrency fluctuations. Listen as Artie and I discuss things like fantasy football, our love for unique collections and experiences with NFTs, revealing the unpredictable and thrilling aspects of digital art. Discover Artie's personal story as a private pilot, a cattle rancher and his childhood passion for collecting. Join us for insights into the evolving landscape of digital art, the significance of AI and the future of blockchain art platforms. This lively conversation blends humor, deep reflections and expert advice, making it an episode you won't want to miss. So join us on this episode of NorCal and Shill with Artie Hands. Hey, artie, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?
Artie Handz:I'm doing great, doing great. Thanks for having me Very excited.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, I am excited to get some answers for these questions, to get your thoughts, your insights, um, it'll be interesting and, and I think, um people appreciate it because, uh, they generally appreciate your, your thoughts on the timeline I am.
Artie Handz:I am, uh, yeah, authentically, authentically honest, if not wrong, but at least I'm. At least I have you know. My takes are out there for all to see, I guess for sure, for sure so jumping right in.
NorCal Guy:What were your first thoughts when you heard about nfts and crypto art? Uh, I was I was.
Artie Handz:you know, it took me a while to get in, to actually like do it right, but that was for technical challenge.
Artie Handz:I was, I was all in because I my my how I got in was, uh, christmas, about Christmas 2020, a friend of mine that I went to undergrad with sent me like Wall Street Journal article or something like that on Top Shot, and I was I'm a huge basketball guy so I was like, oh yeah, what's this Like? Of course I'm reading this and it's like, ok, digital you know, digital cards, blah, blah, blah. Digital, you know, digital cards, blah blah. And I, you know, I think there's, you know, that initial leap you have to take right. But for me, I'd already taken it, because I had gotten an mba a few years before, in like 2017, 2018, and we had to write a paper in a class on banking and we had this thought piece right to think about the future of banking, yeah, yeah, and I said all assets on earth are going to be digitized to some degree like like your, your mortgage or your you know the deed offices, right, like those types of ledgers and things like everything.
Artie Handz:every asset will be digitized at some point. So I was basically like thinking I had no idea this was actually already happening at that time.
Artie Handz:Right, just kind of thinking like yeah like that makes sense to me as like a next step in kind of the evolution of how we deal with assets. So when, when I was like, oh, this is actually happening right now, I was like, oh, whoa, I'm brilliant, I'm jumping right in. I'm not not brilliant enough to go to like actually have gone out and looked and seen if it was actually happening then. And then I feel like my collection would be dope if I started in 2017. Oh, yeah, for sure.
Artie Handz:But uh, I gave myself a four-year, uh, non-head start and uh, but yeah, you know, once I, once I actually found it, I was just all in, I wrote up that kind of top shot, melt up and then and then said, where, where, where's, what's next? You know like, where do we go next and after about? I'm not super technical, so it took me like three or four weeks to spin up an eth wallet and figure out how to get actual money there and all that. Uh, but yeah, I was just, you know, just dove straight in nice, love it.
NorCal Guy:Uh, did you also hold hold on the way down for the top shots?
Artie Handz:um, some of them, yes, for sure. Um, I, I remember I, I got, I bought, it was like it was so dumb too, because I know, I know how like things melt up and they're just like slow bleed.
Artie Handz:But I it already bled for a while, you know like a month or so, and then I really wanted the like, uh, lebron james, uh, um, kobe bryant, like tribute dunk or whatever, and so I think I paid like twenty thousand dollars for that. That might be the answer to the what's the silliest thing you bought even though you know it wasn't silly, there's sillier things. I bought that was just the like, biggest like, like. Why did it like? That was just so dumb, but yeah.
NorCal Guy:Oh yeah, that's pain man yeah.
Artie Handz:We're all, we've all been there. We've all bought some stuff that plenty of things.
NorCal Guy:For sure, for sure. So did you collect art or anything before you got into this crypto art space?
Artie Handz:Yeah, you know, as a kid I definitely collected a lot. I was a only child, so there's a lot of you know filling time type of things and I was very I love like organizing things. I actually see this in my six-year-old or three-year-old right now is the one who's doing it.
Artie Handz:He like organizes his cars in a rainbow fashion, all of his like matchbox cars and he loves like putting them in certain fashion, organizing them in ways, and I always loved the like process of like, no like. Only my Penny Hardaway cards go on this page and I have to like organize it from there to there. Like to like visually, you know it's like, I guess it to like visually, you know it's like, I guess it's like. You know. Proto curation, right right here. I want this one here. The one with the signature has to go in the middle, um, so yeah, definitely like baseball sports cards. I grew up in texas, so just like football sports fanatic, um, and then coins and stamps to some degree, because that was my parents and my grandparents generation things and they kind of like gave me their collections and so I I had some interest for it but it wasn't.
Artie Handz:It wasn't my thing, you know right right, the cards were, um, so, yeah, a lot of kids stuff and then, yeah, you know, you discover girls and life and all these other things that make collecting things a little difficult. Uh, yeah, and I've moved 15, 20 times too, right? So you know, I got some things at my mom's house but I have like a physical art collection of like seven or eight pieces of like some value. You know, stuff that I would pay someone to ship for me. You know what I mean, right? I guess that's the delineation of what's valuable, stuff that I would pay someone to ship for me. You know what I mean, right? I guess that's the delineation of what's valuable.
Artie Handz:I have a lot of other stuff like around around my house and garage that you know, if it gets a dent, I don't care, that's fine. Like you know, I'm I'll, I'll pack it myself, I'll be careful, but it is what it is. Sure, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely collected before, but nothing like you. Yeah, definitely definitely collected before, but nothing like you know, 3000 NFTs or whatever, how many ever pieces I have now the elimination of physical space is really, really allows you to get your freak on?
NorCal Guy:I guess it does. It definitely does To another level, for sure.
Artie Handz:So what are the best things about Web3 today? For me who's gone down the kind of art collecting and curating route, it's global access. Like I'm here in Marin County and you're in Chico, we're actually really close. I guess it's not a good example, but there's so many people all over the world and obviously that's not web three specific, but it's. It's such a cool thing when you're able to connect, uh, you know, through through the internet or whatever web two, it doesn't matter, but able to connect through all these people, um, doing these global things and making it all tokenized is just like it's just super um. For for me as an art collector, like you have that walled off kind of gallery system and you don't get to talk to the artists like here I'm talking to artists every day right get.
Artie Handz:You know, yeah, you know. You get behind the scenes everything. You get to see it being built, made, painted, created, coded, whatever you know. You get to see it all grow up. You're like a proud, proud parent. Sometimes you know when it releases, so it's, it's like a much deeper relationship than just the, you know, commodification of art that exists everywhere.
Artie Handz:And we actually helped do that too by you know the pure amount of stuff and how easy it is to make stuff on ai and all that, but it's, uh, it's. It's that connection and and the ability to like, form deeper connections around this art that that you know doesn't exist in your actual space. It's, it's crazy that we're doing all this for something that's not really so tangible right for sure.
NorCal Guy:So where do you see the digital art and nfts in five years?
Artie Handz:definitely, you know, growing um, you know I don't know how much damage the like 21 wave and all that did in terms of like perception, you know. So it's definitely like an uphill battle in terms of, you know, gaining I don't want to say institutional like recognition, but just kind of a broader perception, recognition of this is of legitimacy and like that the art being made here can compete with, with traditional forms of art, you know um, so I think that's although an uphill battle, I think over time, over five years, ten years, I think they'll be you know, breaking down that, that barrier of what is digital. You know we won't be saying digital art as much.
Artie Handz:You know right we'll just be saying art again, we won't be saying ai art as much.
Artie Handz:We'll just be saying art again. We won't be saying AI art as much, we'll just be saying art. And as more and more kids who are 18 are interested in this type of stuff, the artist age definitely skews younger here. So you see more kids coming up digitally, native kids. I think we're just going to see an explosion of things Like the next thing that brings in a wave like that, or the next two things, three things, whatever, like we don't even know what they are.
Artie Handz:Yet there's, there's a lot of like rinsed repeat stuff right now, you know like this is another version of polymarket, this is another version of whatever, right, you know, there's sort of a lot of that. Um, there's, there's going to be some 17 year old kid who, like, brings out something and we're all going to be like holy, holy hell, like one, why didn't we think of this? And two, oh my god. You know like, yes, there's gonna be. Yeah, we just haven't broadened our imaginations enough. I think, you know, every time I listen to someone like um, it's, uh, ox113. You know math castles. Oh, my sonos is turning on.
Artie Handz:Um, I'm not quite sure how to help you with that um, I you know there's people who are just so incredibly smart who have like crazy ideas, like like math castles, and think about things and completely different and foreign concepts than than I can even really you know, understand, and those types of people are gonna come up with things that are just gonna blow minds for sure, for sure.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, there's a couple of those guys that uh definitely will be doing stuff. Do you have any concerns as, like, the space expands, gets bigger?
Artie Handz:yeah, um, I think one of the things I I'm I don't know if concerned or worried or just kind of interested somewhere in that, in that place, the when, say the next, like 10 million people come in all of a sudden for some killer thing, or if they come in and they don't even know they're using the tech, right, if it's, you know, like Popset or Rodeo or one of of these things like that, all of a sudden there's, you know, million people using this tokenized social media, but they don't even know it.
Artie Handz:What's like the culture that exists here for for good and bad? What does a wave of 10 million people like on top of what exists here look like? Is it, you know, because waves before then up, you come in and you kind of assimilate to some degree. Right, right, right, there's a, there's a new, new people woke up, came to our island and now, okay, now we'll help them. Here's where the fire starts, here's where this happens, join in. But if, if there's a wave, that's 10 million people on our little island of 10 000, what does that do to our little island?
NorCal Guy:yeah, that, uh, it's a good question. Uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't know. I don't know a good answer for that one.
Artie Handz:Um, that is, I don't either, I just like I like to like to think about those types of things and right then have no answers for them because because you know, if I had the answer for them I'd be on polymarket betting it right fair, fair, fair.
NorCal Guy:Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the crypto art space?
Artie Handz:Yeah, when I was thinking about this question earlier, the immediate thing I thought of was actually more we talked about a little bit already was actually like respect from outside. There's a million things within the actual NFT space. I wish there was more, or not more, which there is less. You know rampant theft and stealing and rugging and you know just like, yeah, people, most people losing money all the time. You know like there's just a lot of like stuff that isn't isn't great. So you know, as as a lawyer, I'm not like anti-regulation on everything you know. I just there is, there is some aspect of yeah, this is the wild west you kind of get. You kind of know what you're getting yourself into, obviously. So I would like to see some level of regulation or at least some teeth to some existing things, saying, hey, like you can use this in a crypto sense, you know yeah, there's just, there's just a lot of fraud, obviously.
Artie Handz:But yeah, um, but yeah, I just think you know time, time and like growing especially for artists, and just uh, trying to compete with the traditional art. You know, I'm trying to say I can, I can be in this museum, I can have, I can hold two week-long exhibitions at big uh galleries, like you know the gagosian, or like you know huge things, like, yeah, like we should, that's what we're striving to do. So I think respect is something that we should all be, maybe some of those two things are a little bit intertwined too.
Artie Handz:We'll get more respect as as less of the narrative, as as uh, you know, fraud and all this, all the bad things that are constantly pitched, is the don't touch. I mean I thought crypto was just total Web3, was just total BS and total Silk Road doing drugs, like the whole thing. Right right. I was like, oh no, it's gambling on cat cartoons. Now I understand what it is. It's not. There is a dark side, but there's mostly just a messing around trying to get rich side right, so does one e equal one e I mean, sure, from a mathematical perspective, one, one ETH equals one ETH.
Artie Handz:Whenever you test a law, you always try and push it to some extreme. So I always think of this in terms of, like, if this piece is one ETH right now, and that's $3,000, and say ETH goes to $100,000, and say ETH goes to $100,000, am I still going to pay $100,000 for this artwork that is more expensive, not because of the art doing anything at all, but because of the token underneath it. And my answer is no. So to me it is not one ETH. One equals one ETH. Right, right, there's, you know, one having art on a token and being priced, you know, with a token.
Artie Handz:Not usdc just kind of adds this like extra layer of crazy. You know, um, definitely, where it kind of it's sort of yeah, you know, like leverage bets on on that chain. At the same time, and understanding the macro conditions of of, yeah, do I really want to spend this ETH right now Because I think ETH is going to triple in the next month? Do I want to spend it on art that's not going to triple? You know that's always an issue. But then you know also the other way around once you hit that peak, you know it kind of like.
Artie Handz:I guess the idea is sell off and then stables and just convert when you want to. But it's pretty crazy when you're just trying to just buy art If you look back at it and think, hey, I've been doing this for three years so it feels pretty normal to me. But just get someone go talk to your friend Bob and Sue and be like hey, I'm buying art but I'm going to wait for a week because there's this like macro thing coming. I heard there's like this stuff from out of china you know like there's.
Artie Handz:There's actually like 14 decisions to make, for like every single decision you're making. We're just so like used to it and ingrained that we don't think about it.
NorCal Guy:Register that shit. Yeah, the classic. Oh, china banned this again. Oh, now it's legal again. Yeah, for sure, so does supply matter for an artist yes, but less so in the digital space.
Artie Handz:You know, I don't think the like laws of supply and demand have necessarily changed due to tokenization and digitization. Digitalization, you know, obviously, like we have mints that have had hundreds of thousands of tokens minted, you know. So it doesn't necessarily ruin the artist's perception or doing anything like that. If an artist had a hundred thousand physical pieces, that that's like insanity.
Artie Handz:Um, but to the same degree, I still caution artists to be like on the more you know scrupulous side of minting, because supply and demand still does exist and a lot of the times the arguments I see of like x copy minted this many, or like blah, blah minted this many, I'm like, yeah, this is the top person, this is the. You know lebron james, this is the michael jordan of crypto art. Right, we're talking about levels of demand that are 10 000. It's it's the demand that's different, right, the demand is 10 000 x of average struggling artist, x, you know um, so that you're you know if you have a high demand, I think the digital space allows you to do a lot more um, create a lot more without, without a negative perception, and just kind of creating a lot more, right, because of generative pieces and then ai stuff.
NorCal Guy:You can, you can just make more outputs faster, right, right for sure do you have any thoughts on additions versus one-on-ones and working them together in the process?
Artie Handz:yeah, I'm, I'm a I mean big fan of both, um, because, yeah, I guess, you know, from a marketing or sales standpoint, I think it's uh, it's really great to have things available at different price points for different levels of collectors. Um, you know, I like to, you know, get one of ones of, like, my very favorite artists, you know. But there's a lot of artists that I I like a lot and I'm very, you know, interested in them and and their journey and stuff. But I'm maybe not necessarily my exact vibe or I don't know, I'm just, you know, just not quite my favorite. I don't want to. I don't have infinite amount of money, I can't allocate it all to everybody, so you have to kind of do what you can.
Artie Handz:But, uh, having a market, play a market in different, different, uh, different price levels, I think is really great and important. Um, cause you want, you want the biggest, you know, the KOLs, the biggest people singing your praises, but you also want you don't want the, the little folk, you know, the masses, um to to have a negative, you know, super negative perception of you because there's no, no availability, or you know, you're just, I guess there's. Also you can go the fomo route. Oh yeah, if you're going the other way as well, right, but in in general, like, um, I think it's good to have have things available, so, but yeah then, as as I think I was like, oh no, the film route's super cool too. Like you know, joe p's has, you know, 20 pieces out there and everybody wants that. So, um, yeah, there's just, there's just different, different ways for for different people. I think everyone, I would never give, like everybody, the same advice. You know, I would give every artist you know unique advice to to to to them so yeah, that makes sense.
NorCal Guy:Do you have a piece of advice that you've been given, or like a mantra, that kind of goes through your head?
Artie Handz:Yeah, a lot of mine are. I tend to be um a little like hotheaded and like um a bit like Marty McFly. And back to the future. If anybody calls him chicken, he's like he's a hundred percent in it like ready to go knuckles up.
NorCal Guy:You know, I have the same type of like.
Artie Handz:All right, if you're coming after me like I'm coming after you. So the best advice I've gotten is usually stuff to help help me with that and it's you know. Sleep on it. Wait 24 hours before hitting send an email.
NorCal Guy:Right, right, that was, that was one that I yeah, I definitely yeah.
Artie Handz:Like you know anything where you're like an emotional, send you, anything where you're an emotional send, you're like, yeah, let's sit on that one and see if you really want to send that tomorrow. And if it does, if you do want to do it, then yeah, hit it. But a lot of times you're going to say something you can regret, so that's one. And then along the same lines, if it's typed, it's forever. So some things are better left, better left spoken and not typed.
NorCal Guy:I like that one, that one's good, that one's good.
Artie Handz:So if you could live or move anywhere, where would you live and why? Yeah, man, that's quite the question in this modern era of if my candidate doesn't win, I'm moving to blah, blah, blah. I've heard it from both sides of you know, if either one wins, I'm out of here. Right, right, totally. So yeah, everyone's talked about it, had conversations. For us there's a practicality thing of a wife and three boys six, three and two, so that actually makes some sense and not be a dream scenario.
Artie Handz:And then Fiji or Tonga, just totally unplugged and living the dream, but, um, I think my wife is half austrian, so I think that would be a pretty good option. Vienna's really, really cool, um, and then I'm largely nordic heritage and worked a lot in stockholm, so like, maybe stockholm, one of the nordic nordic cities, we're definitely like a big city folk. We need to be city adjacent. I'm I'm only like 15 minutes into san francisco, which is good enough, but I'm I'm even that I'm struggling a little bit when the bars close at 8 30 I'm like, okay, what's going on here, uh, but nice, nice, um, yeah, I love, uh, I love sweden.
NorCal Guy:I've been there once and I love stockholm a lot. A ton like I would love to go back.
Artie Handz:It was nice yeah, it's an awesome, awesome city, um and very it's fun to go at like different seasons too, to like experience the like dead-on winter oh yeah and and just like the in in the summer, like the people are just like so nice and like talk to you and are like very cordial in the winter. It's such a like entire populace, like change of, just kind of like cold walking by and cold personalities. It's like the like, not like seasonal effect, it's like seasonal personality disorder.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, it's it's a really really.
Artie Handz:Yeah, it's a great, great place. I love it there that's funny.
NorCal Guy:So if you were an animal, what would you be and why?
Artie Handz:I historically I've said cheetah because I always wanted to be like fast. You know, yeah, playing sports growing up. I just like want, want to be fast. And my six year old is definitely in that cheetah mode right now. He's like be a cheetah like run fast, like blah, blah, blah, but I'm 42 and my knees are seeing better days, and that was never that fast anyway, so I'm gonna go with an otter.
Artie Handz:One I think, think it's been implanted. I've been using otter ai for like zoom, calls for like notes or whatever, so I think that's just kind of stuck in my brain a little bit. Okay, but also I love those uh photos of like otters on their backs, like holding the hand of another otter. Oh yeah, it's like sleep on your back in the water and it just seems like they're. They're cute and happy Like they seem like they have a cool life.
NorCal Guy:For sure, they definitely do seem like they're like chill, they're playful. Yeah, it's a good time yeah.
Artie Handz:Like literally the definition of like no worries, yeah, like yeah, I see that.
NorCal Guy:So do you have a favorite movie quote or song lyric?
Artie Handz:I mean there's like a million. I will. Okay, we'll go with. Uh, this is to honor RIP James Earl Jones, just just passing yesterday. I'm gonna go with uh, if you build it, he will come, because I just like love, I love that movie, I love Field of Dreams. Um, I'm, I'm like, yeah, just like cry every time. I can't help it, like, uh, just the Americana and the father-son experience and all that, um, so there's that one. I wrote down another one, but it's like wildly inappropriate, it's just, it's just like what. What came to mind right when I was looking at the questions?
Artie Handz:and it's yeah, it's like it's an old bloodhound gang song, but it's, yeah, it's like totally messed up. Maybe I'll tell it to you off air there, yeah, there, yeah it was one of those ones where I was like I don't think I should say this, but this is what's what's coming to my head.
NorCal Guy:So oh, all right, all right, afterwards, afterwards. So what is the best thing and the silliest thing you've spent money on?
Artie Handz:oh man, um, I tried to keep it in in the nft world, um I you know, best thing I still would have to say is probably my punk. Um, I got it and I got it as like a birthday present investment, whatever for my, for myself, in 2021, may of 21, um, like right before they went, you know ballistic.
Artie Handz:Yeah, so that was, that was good um because I, yeah, I would not have been able to afford it for quite a while after that. Um, but the that I think you know brings you some form, whether it's deserved or not some form of legitimacy. Right Like right. You have a punk like there's you're, you're, you're a BFD, like all of a sudden, right. So definitely that. A couple other pieces, like I mean, I love so much of my art but the sort of bigger name things that have value or potentially will be important someday. I have a Joe P's, so that was a six ETH. Joe P's was quite beautiful. And then, yeah, gazer, number one by Matt Cain, which I bought off the Dutch auction.
NorCal Guy:Wow, Nice man.
Artie Handz:Those are probably my best buys in terms of uh, nfts and art, um silly do every. Everything I bought in february, march and april, uh was just total, total hot garbage. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, oh, yeah. I'm like, oh, what's this A fidget spinner? Yeah, let's buy it Like yats I mean that's where my name already hands came from, because I bought a yat that was the art diamond hands and I was like, oh, those are going to be initials. It'll be like art diamond hands, arthur de-moaned hands, or like I was just coming up with like the dumbest thing I could think of and then
Artie Handz:I was like, oh, it'll just shorten itself to art d hands, it'll just be art already hands. Okay, you know like it was. Uh, yeah, that's that's how the name came out. But yeah, just so much, so much dumb crap. I mean like pickles and oh, yeah, you name it Like I, we definitely definitely bought it. I think, yeah, the first nine months doing eight or nine months doing this, probably into like October of 21, november, I was definitely just buy like anything and everything, cause you, you didn't know it might, it was going to make money, right.
NorCal Guy:Like it's, true.
Artie Handz:Like the dumb thing is definitely did. It's the left side and right side of the curve, right yeah, standard deviation thing, that meme. The left side stuff performs just as well as the right side stuff In the last year, plus I'd say, even better right.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, yeah. No, it's been crazy, yeah, but definitely a list of silly things for sure what's?
Artie Handz:what's one of your silliest things?
NorCal Guy:oh man, you know it's got to. Oh you know, uh, it was like the Ape Sins and it was like apes but Simpsons and they're like rug pretty quick or it got taken down by like open sea pretty quick. But I was like, oh, they're kind of funny. I mean that's one of those left curve things. But yeah, it was great, it was.
Artie Handz:I remember there was one product that was like um, ape and punk, like baby combo things. You could have a combination of the two.
Artie Handz:Okay, if you had if you had, you know both of them you could mint one or whatever. And I, I was able to mint two of them for pretty cheap, you know like 0.1 or something. And then some, yeah, and somebody bought both of them for like one and a half eath and that was eath at like 4k too. Oh, wow, and it was. Yeah, you know, when you're some of the stuff you're selling, you're just like this is just panda mominium right now, like you're just trying to figure out what you know, just hot potato this thing to the next next person right, it is definitely that, oh man.
NorCal Guy:So this one's a hard one. If you could commission a piece and have two artists collab on it, which two artists would it be?
Artie Handz:yeah. So I I tried to uh, this is a really tough one, um, I tried to do one, one foot in the digital art world, one foot in the traditional world and do do kind of a combo thing here. Um, so, in in our world, I picked, uh, william mapan. I think his he's a generative artist, french and he's just fantastic. He finds a way to make coded stuff look like not alive, but like real, like the painting that looks real, like there's actually paint there, that looks like it has structure, and I don't know, I'm just fascinated by the way he makes inanimate things feel actually there, like digital things feel present, you know, um, and then the traditional artist is very, very big julian morettu.
Artie Handz:Um, there's this piece called stadia 2. That is like my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite thing, um, and it's, it's like all these colorful shapes and it's an abstract piece that makes it look like a giant arena, like the Coliseum or something, and it just feels so fucking alive, like I don't know. I don't know how best to explain it, um, but it the way that she makes something static feel alive and moving, I think would be a really interesting combination with, uh, william's way that he makes things that are, that are non-existent feel, feel there like I think that'd be a really interesting space for them to explore together yeah, I can see that, if you want to get their agents together and set it up nice, solid.
NorCal Guy:Is there an interesting fact about you that people may not be aware of?
Artie Handz:you know, I'm sure, but I uh yeah I've been trying. I tried to be like pretty open. I think that was until the recent doxing situation. I was you, you know, allowed myself to to like talk about myself more than I would have normally. Um, so I've been pretty open with stuff. But yeah, I'm a, I'm a private pilot, so I fly small planes. Um, and then I'm a fifth generation cattle rancher.
Artie Handz:My my entire family is from northeastern Wyoming, we have a 37,000-acre cattle ranch out there that I help work on the back end. I do some legal and accounting and stuff for, but some other family members do some of the more rough and tumble stuff. I'm a city slicker so I come drop in with the kids for a couple weeks in the summer. These days, but I have I have castrated quite a few calves in my day. I've dehorned things, I've branded thousands of cows. I've done the. I've done the, I've done the deed.
NorCal Guy:Yeah so I.
Artie Handz:I feel like I'm real, but, um you know, the people there think not quite as much, but that's all right, fair, fair, fair, understandable. Oh, that's awesome so do you have any questions for me? What's your plan with CMC down? What are you going to do For everyone listening? We're in a fantasy football league together and I don't think that's necessarily your uh topic du jour no, yeah, yeah, it's gonna yeah, like I'm gonna have to do some research, man, I have no idea oh man, it was not.
NorCal Guy:It was not ready.
Artie Handz:I you can usually, off the cuff, answer something, but that one I'm going to have to the answer is there is no answer, because when you use the first pick on Christian McCaffrey and he doesn't, they say he's not playing 30 minutes before a Monday night game. You just got to bend over and take it, man, that's just what it is yeah, I know.
NorCal Guy:So, yeah, hopefully changes next week.
Artie Handz:That's, that's. That's the good thing about fantasy. It's, you know, 17, 17 battles. So you don't gotta there's no emotional baggage into the next, next week, you know.
NorCal Guy:For sure, for sure, oh man.
Artie Handz:So any other questions? Yeah, um, I wanted to ask you about about your collection, um, a little bit, because I think I don't know, I think that we have different tastes, a little bit, like I'm like the weirder the better, you know, like very, very out there. So I kind of wanted to hear your thoughts on on the kind of like where you think the art scene is going to be in five years and the kind of growth of the digital artists here and and also like who's who, who are you? Who you've been buzzing on, like what's, what's been something that you've been like Ooh, that's cool recently.
NorCal Guy:Oh, I mean, I mean, man, it's hard to say. I mean, as the space grows, I mean AI is definitely going to be have a bigger part of it. What that means, I don't know. I mean it's weird kind of thing because, yeah, I mean it's just a new category that we're not used to yet and I guess we'll have categories or definitions. If there is, like AI type photography or ai generative or ai assisted coding, I have no idea how it's gonna, or if it's gonna even devolve into that and be just ai art, all of it, or yeah, who knows um. But as far as artists, um, I deaf beef, um, I just got a uh hash mark from him, so it was on secondary, so yeah, was that?
Artie Handz:was that the famous lost hash mark? It was the famous lost one, yeah yeah, that's a cool story um death, death, beast, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome yeah like so cool, the like physical integration and kind of like the whole spiritual journey and stuff of that one. And was it chile? I forget all that.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, it was down the Patagonia, you had to go to get that and I was definitely not able to do that, but thankfully one came up on secondary and yeah, so definitely been looking at his stuff a lot lately and looking at his other stuff to potentially pick up something else. Who knows, there's a lot of good stuff there is potentially pick up something else.
Artie Handz:Who knows, there's a lot of good stuff.
NorCal Guy:There is.
Artie Handz:I can never think of the names of collections off the top of my head. I have one. It has pieces. What's it called? It was the one where they, like people, could take like photographs or whatever.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Artie Handz:And it'd be like they get sharper as it went on. You know, right, yeah, those are really cool. I was allowed to, like take one of the photographs.
NorCal Guy:Oh sweet.
Artie Handz:Which was cool, yeah, and then, yeah, have one of those. And yeah, if I had more money I would definitely buy more deathbeats, that's for sure yeah, no, I've been looking at those ones a little bit um.
NorCal Guy:Those are chrono photograph chrono photograph, photographs, yeah yeah, yeah those are really cool. So those are cool. And then I I have a Series Zero synth palm as well that I got early on and I don't know. Oh, and I have one of his vinyls too.
Artie Handz:I have a signed vinyl, nice yeah.
NorCal Guy:Yeah. But, yeah, just been following him. Yeah, I don't know who, uh, right now is really standing out um where?
Artie Handz:where are you looking right now? What? What's like your? Are you on super rare? Are you on just twitter? Are you on rodeo, like? Where are you? Where are you vibing?
NorCal Guy:oh, I mean rodeo. I have been actually like doing like daily mints on there from artists. I mean I feel it's an interesting thing. I don't like. I feel like artists should probably get paid for that a little more than nothing. But if they're going to put out some work that I think is interesting, I want to go collect it, because it's little for me to do and potential for games is there.
Artie Handz:Yeah, totally. I haven't done much on Rodeo. I've done a little bit on Zora and a couple things on Zero One, which is the same thing, I guess. More or less the same model, I don't have any overwhelming problem with it. My biggest concern is, for most artists is anchoring themselves to Zero Because it's like the like, okay, like I.
NorCal Guy:I obviously no names no, no, nothing, nobody did anything wrong or anything like that.
Artie Handz:It just is what it is of. Like I see an artist that I'm like oh, that's super cool and I've seen it on rodeo. And then I see it for 0.4 eth super rare and it's the one of one. I'm like yeah, I could get four of those ones that you just dropped on rodeo. Yeah, you know what I mean. And it's it's like am I, am I proud that? That's how I think of it.
NorCal Guy:Like no, not exactly.
Artie Handz:I'd rather be like yeah, I want to give this artist some money, you know. But like I, you know, I don't don't have the infinite coffers either again. So hopefully one day we'll have mania again and I'll get some infinite coffers, but in these days it's not possible.
NorCal Guy:So yeah, no, fair. Yeah, no, it's. I don't know it's interesting. I'm not sure you know the platform is interesting it's. I mean, I do have like some dislikes about the platform itself, but that's just UI stuff, so it's not like anything special.
NorCal Guy:I mean I don't know, I don't know. Sometimes I mean because also, my other thing is, like ETH is so cheap to transact on right now, like why don't I just collect on ETH instead of Layer 2? But you know, hearing some of the arguments, you know, 10 years from now, whatever, only institutional-sized people are going to make transactions on layer one because it's going to be so expensive, which, yeah, I guess. So Maybe We'll see.
Artie Handz:Yeah, we'll see.
Artie Handz:We'll see yeah we'll see, we'll see. I don't know. Is it going to cost $1,000 to trans-ex something on Layer 1? Is it going to be so expensive that this theoretically generational art can barely be moved because it's so fucking expensive to move it? I don't know. We, you know, like the, I don't, I don't like know enough about, like, what is technically possible, or or you know, like how to, how any of it actually works right. I just don't, don't, not not technical, but I think that like um sorry, I just lost my train of thought.
NorCal Guy:This is excellent podcasting, um yeah, no, because we were just talking about the institutional costing a thousand dollars, or many times that, to move something. What are we going to do with the art that's on ethel l1?
Artie Handz:yeah, yeah, I mean, can we, or can we bridge the stuff to l2? I mean I don't like, I don't know what. What even happens is like, uh, if tezos dies, you know, I know a lot of people who just won't collect on tezos like what happens? What happens then?
Artie Handz:um, for sure, you know there's all kinds of stuff that I it's so makes this space like nuts. I'm like super risky and all of that, but at the same time, if you're the right type of person, it's just like too much, it's just yeah, there's nothing else quite like it, it's just so, so exciting.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Do you have any other questions?
Artie Handz:I think. I think that's it. Do you have any hot takes? Yeah, I want Tezos to die. I think that would be a good thing. Fair, I mean, I love Tezos. Don't get me wrong. I have like 22-2300 pieces of work on Tezos. I'm the Tezos collector of the week. I've got given 500 tezos. So I'm not speaking ill of tezos when I. When I say I want tezos to die, it's more of a thought, thought, think take product thought process of the value that I have on tezos is it's a lot of, it's a lot of artwork, mostly like low value stuff over over you know 500 different artists or so and the value of of it all being like a snapshot in time. Tezos 2018 to 2027, rip Like that's the kind of meme joke I think would actually be of more value to me than whatever the potential long-term financial value of.
Artie Handz:It would be like the it being a complete thing and it existed, and like Jimi Hendrix had here's his cat, here's his library and then he tragically died, but we never saw old Jimmyimmy, we didn't see old kurt like we don't.
Artie Handz:You don't know how people age right, like there's that forever young thing to it, I guess, where I think it would have more value and more, maybe even more, cultural relevance. If it was the thing that came and went and there it was then, then if it uh died a slow death like there's enough valuable art on there that I think there's enough people would run nodes to like make it functional forever, I don't know how you'd have to trade on it, you're just having to use like billions of Tezos to do it or something. I don't know if that had no value, but I think it will always be there, but I wonder if it'll be like a sad place to be eventually. So I kind of want it to die and have like a blaze of glory and uh but I mean this in the nicest way possible like I love it.
Artie Handz:You know what I mean, like I'm trying to. I yeah, I don't want to seem harsh or like mean or say anything bad about tesla. That's just kind of a a think piece of it yeah, yeah, no, that's interesting.
NorCal Guy:I mean, the thing about like these alternate chains is you know the security of them ultimately, um, you know, if they grind down, slow down enough, you know, someone potentially can hack it with some a 51 attack type of thing and just screw everything up, um, so, yeah, that's always a concern yeah, you know I don't see if who knows, I all this stuff.
Artie Handz:So you know it's like thinking about the 12 different routes everything could take at the same time. And it's, you know, in my, in my new new job, at verse, where we're, you know, releasing art all the time and it's like how much you can't plan. You just can't plan that much stuff. You know it's like let's plan 12 months. You know, normal business you're running. Here's our 12 month plan, 20 more formulas plan here. It's like, yo man, you've got a three month plan. That's a long-term plan. Like everything changed and sifts so fast. You know I've had releases where it's like e dropped fucking 20 the day before. I'm like who's gonna buy art right now when they're 20? You know, when people are holding a lot, of, a lot of their own money in this asset, like what? How are we going to sell this tomorrow? You know like there's just it's so insane here it's impossible to plan too far ahead right for sure.
NorCal Guy:So do you have any projects you're working on? Anything you'd like to discuss about your sphere?
Artie Handz:yeah, yeah, no, I'm so, yeah, new new job at verse, the art platform. I'm the head of marketing there now and in that role I oversee all the marketing for Verse. And then also we have an in-house gallery that we kind of separated for branding purposes, called Solos. We did like a big release for Yoshi Sorioka this past week. We have some super cool stuff I can't quite talk about yet coming out in the fall and in the new year. And then I'm also like I've been running my own little gallery, arty gallery on Verse for like nine months or so now and I have done three releases. Artie Gallery on Verse, for like nine months or so now and I have done three releases, kind of taking it slow and easy and just doing my thing. But I've got a couple of releases over the next two months and the next one is just in 10 days and it's called the Book of Hope by the artist His handle is at pale Kirill, his name is carril simenovich and it's a.
Artie Handz:It's a series of 50 pieces, uh, ai assisted, um, these kind of dream collages of of basketball and castles and and like basketball courts that are stretched and shaped over over, just like non-existent planes, like it's just this like dream place to be um, and it's the it's it's a really it's a really interesting visual series and, um, there's a lot of like personal story in it and I really connected it due to like what basketball means to me and um to the artist, as he had like a I'll let him tell a story in our spaces but he, you know, had like a back brace or like a neck issue where he had to wear that for a while and basketball was like one thing. He could shoot hoops or whatever and he played with his friends and it was like a kind of you know, an allegory for for breaking free from, from the shackles of that, and basketball was like his, his hope, and like he dreamed to like be out of that. And it's, like you know, very, very like personal thing.
Artie Handz:So, being able to bring. I'm just, you know, as I said, I'm a big sports guy. So being able to bring, like a sports story that has a lot, of, a lot of meat to the bone, I think is very interesting for me. That has a lot of meat to the bone, I think is very interesting for me. I think a lot of time in the art world you get a lot of the like oh, you know, oh, sports games, you know, like that type of attitude to sports, Right? So yeah, to try and give a series about basketball some like actual love from the art space, I think will be fun.
NorCal Guy:Awesome, Well, nice man, Um, great. I look forward to seeing more about that and, uh, congrats on your uh position with verse. Appreciate it, Thank you.
Artie Handz:It's uh, yeah, no, I, I used to be a lawyer, so I you know, taking, taking pay cuts and all kinds of stuff in the best way possible.
Artie Handz:Right, I felt like I was here with like one one foot in, one foot out, like for too long, and it was. You know, some people would say is this the best time to do that? And I'm like, yeah, it's, I can't like wait any longer. If I don't, if I don't do it now, it's like I won't do it. And I'm like, yeah, it's, I can't like wait any longer. If I don't, if I don't do it now, it's like I won't do it. You know what I mean, right? So I wanted to no regerts, as they say, no regerts sweet, well, arty.
NorCal Guy:Um, I just want to say thank you for your time today. I really appreciate you coming on being a guest and getting your insights and thoughts on stuff, so thank you again thank you, I really enjoyed being here and it was, uh, it was fun to chat longer.
Artie Handz:Uh, you know, chat for a while. We've been tangentially seeing each other here and there, I think, in different groups and stuff, and always been been long been a fan of your epic collecting and just shouting out the space and being such a like positive role model. Is that a weird word? Yeah, role model for, for, for young collectors everywhere. Wow, as us us gray hairs kind of can say right uh-huh some little gray beard action for sure.
NorCal Guy:Oh man, thanks, uh. Wow, appreciate that awesome. Well, you have a good day, man, you too.
Artie Handz:Who is?
NorCal Guy:this. Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy?
Artie Handz:NorCal, guy, norcal guy NorCal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy, norcal guy Nor NorCalGuy NorCalGuy NorCalGuy NorCalGuy NorCal and Chill Podcast.
NorCal Guy:So it's chill time, norcal and Chill Podcast. What the f*** what the chill. Norcal and Chill Podcast. So it's chill time, norcal and Chill Podcast what the f*** what the chill.