I can see you beauty on the big screen
I can see me fit in with a ring I can see you was left to the old girls with a dress better than Jennifer for never big things Kick your women you can hold your line You look good but show me you ride Train told me you know how to tie I can make you a celebrity yo I don't know you Play something so you ride Try with time, no they lie Twisting you toe to ride Make you a celebrity
I can't get you all say easy me be said to the bb's if we see bg I can't get you in the past is the beginning to the people don't know what you're gonna do I want to be a little cover down never take you from others I'll never know the brother pay you if you understand you can reach you girl y'all get a little hush in the style of shimba I can see you have this in future you#
GM GM fam welcome to the Shnuffalo and Shnuffalo paradox episode 24 with a very very special guest Vinny Hager welcome men how are you how has this morning been how has your week been
Things have been lovely. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to chat. On this lovely Friday afternoon. Things have been great. How about you? Love to hear it, man. Everything has been amazing. So let me quickly explain how these spaces work before we get started.
Basically, I'll be interviewing you for 25 to 30, even 35 minutes. We can go over to 40. And then we can let the listeners up if they want to add anything through the conversation, ask you anything or ask me anything. Is that good?
Perfect. Perfect. You ready to roll? Let's do it. Okay, so question number one. What got you to where you are today? What keeps you going? Oh, loaded first question.
I don't know. I think I have like a very strong affinity and desire just to draw and to create and make stuff. I've always had that since I was like a little kid.
And that keeps me going every day. I love waking up and looking at my to-do list, whatever that may be for that day and just kind of working through things, creating things in different ways and putting it out into the world. So that kind of kept me
me going and inspired and really interested in creating artwork and as many different mediums and materials as possible that's really inspiring and just doing that every day. I kept me going.
left to hear a Vinnie. So what did you do before arriving to Web 3? I guess I would be considered a Web 2 artist. I did murals still do
I create clothing, sold paintings, work some paper, traditional analog artistic materials. I also worked at a
my local skate shop in Maryland. I worked there for like five years, so I learned a lot of things about business there while making our work and skateboarding and things like that. So really always surrounded by creative things.
Love it man, you're connected to the source. What what this is maybe a difficult question or an easy one But what's the beauty of creating and maybe we can go creating in general but creating art? What is
the beauty in creating art or for me creating my own artwork. For you creating your own artwork and just to create in general. I don't know if I have an answer off the top of my head. Definitely a great question.
The the beauty I find it and it is like I think I tweeted it a while back But like I guess creating artwork is like the closest thing to like alchemy or magic You know and a crazy sense like you know, you're just putting on paper on canvas or whatever your medium is something that's in your head and you kind of creating it um
At a thinnero most and I think that's pretty beautiful. I think for me my artwork has brought me many things opportunities people friendships working partners you know my work has brought me all of that it's brought me happiness joy travel new experience
is all the above. So I think that's really beautiful. And it's smaller sense just me sitting down with a marker or pencil and drawing on a piece of paper brings me the most joy and it fills me with excitement as maybe
simple as it seems. And I think that's pretty beautiful and keeps me going in a lot of different ways. I think I have this like need and urge to always create whether anybody's looking at it or if nobody's looking at it. So I think that has led me to where I am today.
No, that's that's beautiful. That was very well said. I guess what has creating art here in Web 3? Show you or what have you learned from that experience? Oh another good question. These questions are great. I don't know. I think finding like-minded people
in this instance were interested in Web 3 technology, the intersection of technology and R and NFTs and all that stuff has brought me a buzzword but a community of people who I probably wouldn't know otherwise that are really good at a ton of different things. You know, I've met people that are really good at
that blender or other 3D software, I met people that are really good with smart contracts and like reading the blockchain. You know, all these kind of different avenues of things that I'm interested in, being in the space has led me to people that are really intelligent about those things.
that have allowed me to learn from them. It's allowed me to find really close friends, whether it's working business partners or just art friends or just like-minded people. I think the only things I think about throughout the day, a lot of the time, is creating our work and then
Is it going to be physical or digital or work and where does that lie? And that's super inspired by the things I see on my Twitter timeline or my conversations I have on or offline. And I think they're I think I'm rambling a little bit here. I can't remember the exact first question, but yeah.
No, you did good. I definitely understood that. I think we already touched on this. But what's the reason you do what you do? Why do you decide to when waking up, create art, or keep going, or open up your phone to check
crypto twitter what's the reason you do what you do? At this point I think my creating artwork is just like a crippling addiction that I have now a positive one but I just I love drawing I think it really boils down to that
and then the things that I draw, I am interested in expanding those into other materials, whether it's making a drawing, putting it on a t-shirt, making a drawing and making it into an architectural structure, making a thousand drawings and turning them into an NFT collection. I think I just have this
desire just to explore all avenues in my artworks since I've just been creating and working on artwork as long as I can remember from being a little kid I was definitely surrounded by artwork and creative outlets and things like that so I think it's a bit of I was born with it in a
weird sense I was brought up doing a lot of art and creative things and then doing it every day led me to starting to sell it and to find other people that are interested in it so making friendships from it and then just yeah crippling need to make stuff all the time
time, like I said earlier, whether anybody looks at it or if anybody cares or a thousand people care, I'm still going to make stuff. So I don't really know where that comes from other than, yeah, born with it a little bit, surrounded with it and then doing it every day. So I can't really see my life without it.
Love it man. So Vinnie, what has been your biggest takeaway on your work? Oh Wow another good question. Biggest takeaway I think that's yet to come.
definitely still exploring a lot of things recently, doing a bit deeper of a dive into my own artwork and like really kind of getting to those those questions kind of that you're asking like why do I draw this stuff? Where does this come from? Where does the inspiration come from? Why is it addicted? Why am I
I'm kind of figuring out all those answers now. I've been kind of doing a deep dive into a lot of my older artwork that's been done over the past six, seven, eight, nine, ten years. I've been looking at older works and
Just trying to like take a you know take a step back and look at it and go like okay Where did it where did this stuff come from in the orgins of my own artwork? It's fun You know if you do something for long enough You know you can it's it's great to look back and to do a bit of a deeper dive
So that's kind of where I'm at right now. It's been on the top of my head and been working on a small project with a lot of these archive drawings that I've worked on over the past six or seven years to kind of do a little bit of a deeper dive and do some writing about my own artwork.
Love it Vinnie, that was very well said. I think I'm gonna hit you now with maybe a little bit of a deeper question, but what brings you most joy in life? What brings you most joy in life? I would go with my first instinct would be to the other
ability to wake up every day and create our work in whatever capacity that I want to that day. And then I am very, what's a good word. I don't take that lightly because that's a very rare thing to be able to do in life is
to kind of wake up and be an artist, very special thing. And I'm excited that I'm able to do that every day and kind of work on my own schedule and feel comfortable in my abilities as an artist. And then I just want to keep doing art. That brings me
the most joy. And then of course relationships with people that are close to me, that's kind of a given. But yeah, definitely the ability to wake up every morning and you'd be like, okay, what do I want to create today? I feel like that's a pretty special thing and I'm fortunate to be able to be in that position. No, yeah, very well decided. It's a fucking blessing.
to wake up another day. Vinny, I talk about goals, habits, discipline, a lot in these spaces, if not in general. So if you can, what are your goals? Short term, mid term, long term. Yeah, goals are a
How long for me? I was talking to my manager, great friend Toby Lasso the other day in his business partner Matthew Morgan. We always have these kind of weekly calls and they were talking to me about goals. What are my goals? Short term or long term? I couldn't even answer the question.
Because I think my kind of attitude is always go with the flow. That's kind of gotten me where I am today in a weird sense. I'm never even looking back. I never really set big goals. Kind of daily goals, sure, but huge goals is
I haven't really set them too much. I have a few things in my mind that I'd like to achieve in the next couple years. But I think the bigger question of like, where do I see my artwork? Where do I see myself in 5, 10, 20 years? I think the only thing I know is that I'll still be making our work.
creating at higher scales. But definitely I am working on a goal making because I think life can hit you at all angles a lot of times. You can't plan for a lot of things. I've had some ups and downs in my life that at
that I couldn't, it was like totally out of my control that really threw me emotionally. So I'm like, dude, you can't really plan for everything. You can't really, anything that kind of happened at a blink of an eye. So I think this kind of go with the flow mentality that I've kind of had, especially within my artwork has, has helped me tremendously.
But as I grow a bit older, I'm at 20s. Gold making has been on my mind recently. I'm just trying to think with a bit more long-term timeline. But for the time being, I just wake up. I got my little to-do list for daily goals and things to get done.
Before a long term thing, I just want to scale my artwork larger and larger, but in what capacity that is, I think comes with time and working through it daily. Love it. So talking about daily goals in your to-do list, what is the day in life of a Vinny? And what do you enjoy most out of your days?
Yeah, right now I'm working. I'm just like looking at my little organizer right now. I'm working on these kind of like three bigger 60 by 60 drawings. I've got a couple meetings this afternoon and some emails I got to finish up. Just like these like daily things.
come up daily. I mean, that's why they're called daily goals, I guess. And those things keep me on my own kind of little schedule. It helps me achieve these bigger goals that end up coming to fruition. And yeah, I think there's a couple of questions you asked there, but I can't recall.
No, just what's the deal in the life of Vinnie? Yeah, oh yeah, you should I try to wake up super early. I don't really stay up too too late. Sometimes I have a late night just like researching or like I've been res-- I've been playing around with AI a lot recently which has kept me up late at night because it's both scary and incredibly
Inspiring so that definitely keeps me up, but usually I wake up fairly early a cup of coffee Look at my tabulis playing out my day and then take it from there When I when I'm not working on our work, which is mostly every day I try to go like going a big walk without my phone
and just look at the world, it goes skateboarding with some friends to get some exercise, go out to eat with my girlfriend, see my grandma, spend time with her. So those things are interwoven into my daily activities, but mostly it revolves around working on our work in whatever capacity that day brings.
Love it man. So what what What makes you balance everything you do like habit-wise what makes you avoid a burnout? Oh, yeah, I've talked about that a little as well. I think I think I have the opposite of
of like artist block or burnout, I have like crippling inspiration. Like there's almost not enough time in the day for me, not enough people to help me, not enough resources. Like I think my ideas are just they come and they come and like last night I was kind of laid up in bed.
Kind of wide-eyed because I just had like a thousand different you know ideas for things to create And it kind of throws me for a world when some people go like oh I'm bored or I don't know what to make I have artist block and I just think now with there's you know that
thousands and thousands of different artistic materials and mediums and thousands of different artists to look at and get inspired by and so much knowledge and information out there about whatever topic you want to create around. That's where I get caught up, you know, I just can read for hours about AI.
and find it incredibly inspiring or read about an artist from the 60s. You know, whatever it could be, I find myself getting really inspired just by doing research and that almost, you know, keeps me up at night because I just want to create a bunch of stuff.
That's beautiful, they were almost at the end. So for this kind of last question, I do want to invite people up to speak if they want to add anything to the conversation, ask you or I anything. So this last one is maybe a little bit subjective.
Well, let's give it a try. So, is there any advice you'd like to leave the people listening to this show right now or to the recording? Any advice, creative advice, painting advice, life advice, making
San which is advice, whatever you want, let it go. Yeah, I think for artists, whether they're starting out their career or they're just making stuff for fun or they're in the middle of their career or they're at the peak of their, whatever it may be, I think that's maybe the only
advice that I can give is about art and creating if that. But I think like if you have the desire to always be creating and you just want to create art and whatever capacity then you should kind of follow that instinct and just keep doing it. Not don't really care about social metrics.
followers or likes or even monetary, you know, if you want to be an artist like, you know, it's all right to have like a day job and pursue your art after hours or whatever, but I think if you want to be a full-time artist, it's incredibly possible now with the internet and all of its resources. And you should just keep creating, creating
around yourself with like-minded people and people that you can ask questions to and learn from surround yourself with smarter people that are better than you at certain things. That's what I've always tried to do and it kind of helps. You have to kind of put down your walls a little bit and just keep doing what you want to do.
and whatever capacity and trying to think about the things that kind of surround it, especially when you're like posting your artwork on social media, people will get pretty discouraged if, you know, their post only gets one like or one retweet, which I think is a little silly. But if you have the desire
to keep creating and making your art you should just keep doing it and sharing it and good things come with With Tarn. It's beautiful, beautiful, sad Vinnie, do you know who Rick Rubin is? Of course I read his book. Oh yeah, beautiful book. You're a good one, yeah, a lovely lovely book. I highly recommend that.
everybody as well. For some reason you kind of remind me of a little bit of Rick Rubin not really him but your work and how you connect to your work. Oh well that thank you for saying it. Yeah of course Vinnie I'm trying to open this tradition here in my show I don't know if you've heard of the
podcast the diary of the CEO. I have, yeah. Perfect. So I think you're aware that at the end of the show, they're asked a question by the guest beforehand. Correct? What was that again? Can you reset it? So at the end of the show of this show,
show and I guess the diary of the CEO. Steven, the host, asks their guest who's there right now, a question that was left behind the guest before. So I'm doing the same with you. I have a question here from my guest
from Tuesday. And I want to shoot it towards you. Are you ready? Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it. Perfect. So what does true happiness look like to you? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind, which could change, true happiness for me would be somehow
how I live along illustrious, illustrious is that the word artistic career and then when I'm like 75, 85 years old, luckily, or hopefully I make it that long that I'm in, you know, the south of Italy or the south of France and I'm just oil painting. It's pure
bliss and I just learn by then in like 60 some odd years who knows if oil painting will be a thing but it'd be interesting to revert all the way back in my old old age to find pure happiness in painting a landscape outside and you're up somewhere that sounds lovely
But before then, I've kind of paved my way as an artist and helped other artists and continue to create. I think that sounds like happiness to me. But for right now, not thinking long-term, happiness for me is kind of what I touched on earlier, spending time doing what I enjoy, which is creating art
work in a bunch of different ways and spending time with my close loved ones and my life friends and family. But mostly it revolves around creating and in a bunch of different ways. Beautiful Vinnie, I guess that's it. This has been a beautiful episode. I guess no one wants to come up here
anything so to close this episode off I'd love to end with an outro song but chosen by the guest so please anything. Hello, first thing that comes to my mind is a song by Miles Davis. Whatever song by Miles Davis comes up it's like somewhat some
mole jazz would be lovely as an outro song. Okay let me see my L-E-S-D-A-V-I-S. Perfect. I guess I have this most popular song over here. I'm gonna play it. Thank you. Any so-so much. Thank you for having me.
I mean anytime. No, I'm gonna do the song. What a lovely outro song. Got a love. Thank you, somebody's ready. Yeah, thank you.
Good, that's good painting.