1/1 Artist Spotlight: Thierrrrrrrrry

ONE37pm's 1/1 Artist Spotlight is a series that focuses on giving love to 1 of 1 NFT Artists. Whether they're from the traditional art world or just got started in art through web3, we want to highlight and help you get to know those who are up and coming.

A 1/1 NFT is a unique, one-of-a-kind digital collectible where no other exists other than the piece itself. We hope to introduce you to talented and incredible people in the NFT space and the reasons they love doing what they do.

Thierrrrrrrrry is a French Quebecker artist in constant back and forth between the material and digital world. He uses experimental art to mix the media he's working with to redefine and to express his own voice.

His next drop will be on February 6th. The collection, «Polaroid Studies: A one frame story», is a continuity of his previous work on Polaroid where he creates unique textures and colors with his manipulations. Less abstract than his others artworks, these figurative photo series will use the poetry of daily life as main subject.

ONE37pm had the opportunity to interview him about his background, interests, art style, and more.

Do you prefer physical or digital?

I don’t think I have any preference between both. I see this as a conversation between the digital world and the physical world where I always do back and forth. In my work, I love to start working with physical matter or analog stuff and then digitalize it and push my vision with the computer. For example, when I work with Polaroid Film, I always start by doing physical manipulation but after this, I scan the Polaroid and work the colors and the light Photoshop. So
basically, the picture that you see online doesn’t look the same as the physical one!

How would you describe your art style?

No matter what kind of medium I am working with, I’m always pushing to go toward Experimental Art. I love to do a thing like it’s not supposed to and to think about the mediums in different ways. I want to try new things and go beyond theory to make my own definition of the mediums. My biggest motivation in art is to be able to make something that is not usually working, work. This is how I create my own definition and how I push my vision into the art
world. I think that I need to do this because I’m from a conservative place. I feel like there’s a majority of people in my hometown that just want to live in a «perfect» world and don’t want anything else. They don’t want to be confronted by differences and they just want that the thing is like they are «supposed» to be. Not everybody from my hometown is like this, but it feels like a majority of people are thinking like this, and I don’t that reality is like that.

Who or what are some of your biggest inspirations?

To me, being a French Quebecker is a huge part of my identity and it’s pretty important since we are a small minority in North America. The vivacity of the culture in Quebec is the reason why I love doing art today. Our culture is important and it is thanks to our beautiful artists who celebrated our identity. I could name a few names like the experimental director Arthur Lipsett, or the musician and sound art artist René Lussier. They both have a way of organizing so much
eclectic things together to create some very experimental pieces of art. I also have to name Antoine Larocque as a big inspiration since I started doing art in my teenage. His photography and the honesty in his work help me to think way deeper about what art and photography can be and he’s been in my thoughts since I started my artistic journey.

What is your favorite piece?

My favorite piece is «Quand tombe la neige» because I love his minimalist aspect. I think that Minimalist Art is something pretty hard to do and I am proud of how this one turned out. Also
but mainly, it’s my favorite piece because of the way it blurs the line between photography and painting. I’m saying that because even though it’s on a polaroid film, there’s no reaction to the light on the emulsion, so there’s no photography. I only worked with the chemicals of the Polaroid, I used glue as the matter I was working with.

It’s named «Quand tombe la neige» and it means «When snow is falling» and it's a reference from a 1961 Canadian documentary of science popularization about the phenomena of snow. What do you hope to accomplish in the next year? My biggest objective for the next year is to push my artistic vision and sensibility. I also want to have new influences from any kind of art, but also from anywhere in this life. I know that I will experiment with a lot of new stuff this year and that I will improve my technical process. If I can do all these things this year, I know that great things will happen. I don't know exactly what, but I know that my art will live in this world and this is the important thing for me.

When do you feel most inspired to create?

It’s pretty hard to tell honestly since a huge part of my life is around creation. I mean, I’m studying Digital Art at University, I have my own practice as an artist and I still do direct for some creative photoshoots and videos so I have to create every day. But even without all this
workload, I would need to create every day. And when I talk about creating, it’s not necessarily about concrete work, I think creation can also just be when you are lost in your mind thinking about things or when you are with some friends joking around, or even when you are cooking! For me, creation is a very large subject that can be anything that anyone wants it to be.

Who are 3 artists you have your eyes on at the moment?

I think it’s the hardest question that you asked me. The first one who is coming up in my mind is Tjo because his art is incredible, but mainly because of is one of my best friends.

I reach him at his apartment like 3 times a week to have breakfast with him and to play checkers (I still never won against him). There's always a part where we go into his office and we talk about art. I love his point of view so much and I feel very lucky to see his art involved day after day. So with this context, it’s pretty hard to don’t have him in my eyes!

Another artist that I also love a lot is Shorokh (@Shorokh69), he’s from Ukraine and I love the way he’s working collages in the video.

I don’t know him at all but I would like to see him win, his aesthetic is awesome! There’s also Julie-Mae (@Juliemaexart) that I love so much. She’s one of the first people that I talked with in the space because she’s speaking French like me. She’s so talented, there’s a lot of
expression, emotions, and surrealism at the same time in his painting and it impressed me a lot.

She’s a very talented artist, but she’s mainly a high-quality person; she’s kind, funny, and very generous. I love her a lot and I want to see her win a lot.

What advice would you give to an artist starting in the space right now?

That’s a good question since I still consider myself an artist who is starting in the space right now, all that I did until right now is part of the beginning. But if I could give advice to another artist it would be to keep it simple, to do the art that you see and that you need to create. Don’t focus on your sales, but on your art, and be kind to others. If you do those simple things, good things will follow without any doubt.

Would you rather be relatable or aspirational to your audience?

I don’t know if it’s a good answer, but I would like to say that I want to be relatable with my message and my voice for my audience. I want them to be touched by the subject of my art. And I would say that I want also to inspire them but more with my vision of art. If can inspire people to do experimental art and to try new things with their art, I would be proud of what I accomplished.

Follow him on Twitter and Foundation to stay updated on his work.