Erick Calderon (aka Snowfro) is the founder and CEO of the Art Blocks platform. He has always been interested in the intersection of business, coding, and art. Calderon worked for Apple and Google as a software engineer, co-founded a blockchain startup Tinker, and worked on a boutique ceramic tile business before founding Art Blocks.
Learn more about Snowfro in our artist guide below.
Photo: Erick Calderon
Intro to Snowfro
Erick Calderon was born in Mexico City, and currently lives in Houston, TX. He got the moniker “Snowfro” early in life from a snowcone stand that he used to run. He grew up working in a toy store and also had a job wrapping gifts when he was a teenager.
He studied International Business at the University of Texas before founding a ceramic tile business. He experimented with 3D printing and projection mapping as a hobby. Snowfro first discovered NFTs by seeing Larva Labs’ CryptoPunks on Reddit in 2017, and then found Autoglyphs a few years later.
As he went to claim CryptoPunks, he claimed a bunch of the rare zombie trait ones. He thought that this didn’t seem like a very fair randomized process, so he started digging through and claiming other ones he “curated” instead. This is part of what inspired him to create the Art Blocks platform. Snowfro also collects Meebits and NBA Top Shot collectibles.
In an interview with RightClickSave, Snowfro said: “Everything in my life has involved blocks, whether it’s tiles, three-dimensional sculptural blocks, or blockchain.” He was in the ceramic tile business for 20 years.
Some of Snowfro’s inspirations have been noted as James Turrell, an LED light artist, and Dan Flavin, who also used neon light bulbs to create his art. These inspirations were clear in the creation of his project Chromie Squiggles.
Art Blocks
In 2020, Snowfro founded the Art Blocks platform on the Ethereum blockchain after being inspired by Larva Labs. He realized the possibilities and demand for generative art, which could be authenticated using the power of the blockchain.
The platform allows both new and established digital artists to create and sell unique variations of their work. Art Blocks has done over 500,000 ETH of total volume and has drops multiple times per week.
Art Blocks moved to version “2.0” in October 2022. At first, Art Blocks had Series, which went from numbers 1 through 8. They retired this, which leaves these earlier Curated releases in a league of their own. At the same time, they also moved from Factory, Playground, and Curated collections to just Presents (combining Factory & Playground) and Curated.
- Curated: The highest-end projects. A curation board evaluates the project to see if it belongs in the broader collection of curated pieces.
- Playground: Reserved for prior Curated artists to experiment.
- Factory: Less well-known artists who are new to the platform.
Art Blocks Explorations was also added as a collection for 2.0. These are commissioned projects conceptualized and created in collaboration with the Art Blocks team.
In the heat of the Summer 2021 NFT bull market, Art Blocks was famous for its gas wars. Hopeful collectors would pay up in gas fees trying to prioritize their transaction over others, but many times they were left with empty pockets without an NFT.
Art Blocks changed their minting mechanism to a Dutch auction format in order to combat bots and save on gas fees. Since then, the platform has continued to fight back against bots, as it is a popular target.
Some of the most prominent works on Art Blocks include Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs, Ringers by Dmitri Cherniak, and Chromie Squiggles by Snowfro. Auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have sold pieces from the platform both individually and in bulk lots. Art Blocks has also partnered with galleries like Pace Gallery.
Chromie Squiggles
The first project on Art Blocks was Chromie Squiggles, which was created by none other than Snowfro himself in 2020. Squiggles have since become an iconic staple in the NFT and digital art world.
In the previously mentioned RightClickSave interview, Snowfro said: “Originally, they [Squiggles] were a proof of concept rather than an art form, but over time they became a recognizable thing that I’m now incredibly proud of. They were meant to be sweet and simple and clean, and they made people smile.”
Squiggles have dominated web3 culture. Many prominent collectors in the space like Punk6529 have impressive Squiggle collections. Other NFT collections have used Squiggle-inspired traits, and an English Football League Two Team (Crawley Town) uses Squiggles on its Adidas jerseys.
Chromie Squiggles
A Bold HyperRainbow Squiggle sold for $2.8 million in September 2021. This is the all-time high sale for a Squiggle at the time of this post. The lucky seller had originally minted it for $22 just nine months earlier.
Chromie Squiggles have done over 63,000 ETH in total volume. There are still a few hundred to be minted, and the collectors will be handpicked by Snowfro. The very last Squiggle will be donated to LACMA.
Squiggles have been a center point of an annual digital art event known in the NFT space as Marfa. Art Blocks’ official gallery is in the tiny West Texas town of Marfa. Marfa’s history of pushing the boundaries in art makes it a fitting home for generative art to thrive among artists, creators, technology enthusiasts, and futurists.
In 2023, Marfa weekend will once again bring together digital artists and NFT collectors. Squiggles will be seen all over the town. The New Yorker wrote about the unique event in 2022.
Friendship Bracelets
Snowfro’s second project on the Art Blocks platform was Friendship Bracelets, which came about in October 2022. This was a collaboration with artist Alexis André, created to celebrate the Art Blocks community. The project pairs creative coding with a beautiful spectrum of embroidery floss colors. Each member of the Art Blocks team designed and named their own color palette; there are 36 total.
The inspiration behind the project was also from Donald Judd, an American minimalist artist. On the Friendship Bracelets website, it states: “One aspect we admire most about Judd’s artistic practice is the elegance of design he effortlessly paired with the accessibility of materials that could be found at a hardware store.”
The bracelet claim process allowed for two bracelets per Art Blocks NFT held at the snapshot. Collectors were encouraged to gift one of the two bracelets to somebody else, in the hopes of spreading the Art Blocks love.
Not only are the bracelets digital, but they are intended to be physical as well. Each NFT comes with instructions about how to create your Friendship Bracelet IRL with only a few dollars worth of materials.
Rare Palette Bracelet #28062 Sold for 10 ETH
Art Blocks Secondary Market
Since NFT marketplace Blur came about in October 2022 and heightened the creator royalties discussion, there has been some uproar in the generative art space. Many don’t want platforms like Art Blocks to be on Blur, as some say it reduces them to token-farming “sh*tcoins” instead of individual pieces of art.
In the name of market share, even OpenSea followed Blur into reducing royalties to a 0.5% minimum. Artists like Tyler Hobbs have spoken out loudly about the importance of royalties, and Snowfro also believes in 100% enforcement of them.
In December 2022, Snowfro wrote a Twitter thread about his opinions on royalties.
To that end, Art Blocks recently announced its own secondary marketplace, which enforces creator royalties. There are three reasons why people would want to use this instead of another marketplace.
- Secure: Built on Seaport (which is what OpenSea uses) and aggregates other marketplaces with Reservoir.
- Authentic: Real Art Blocks pieces.
- Pro-Artist: Enforces secondary royalties.
Time will tell if collectors will opt to honor artist royalties by using this marketplace, or if they will opt for OpenSea to maximize their own profit returns.
Summary
Snowfro has done more than just create his own project and being a pioneer in the long-form generative art space. He has also been involved with organizations that offer education about tech and the blockchain.
Snowfro continues to elevate digital art and bridge it to traditional art galleries around the world. He also champions the artist themselves and fights for artist royalties on the blockchain.
For more information about Snowfro, check out the links below.
