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Damian is one of The Art Bank’s favorite artists in the Cardano ecosystem. Damian is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He’s a curious person that enjoys learning and experimenting with new things and is passionate about everything he takes on.
On top of being a superb artist and creator, Damian is also a mechanical engineer by trade specializing in numerical modeling and data science. He is also a lifeguard, and he used to perform in the circus! A man of many talents.
He started coding as a self-learner when he was only a child and even then enjoyed drawing and developing an appreciation for visual arts. Generative art appealed to Damian because it combines two of his favorite activities - drawing and coding.
He joined Cardano early in 2021 after exploring all the NFT and blockchain possibilities available for a generative artist. After trying out and then discarding several ideas, he ended up launching CardanoTrees, a pioneer project and the first of its kind.
CardanoTrees is a project based on four interrelated pillars: art, ecology, education, and innovation.
Art, by creating artistic NFTs that people can enjoy in a frame at home as a form of living art. These NFTs are not static images, gifs, or videos; they are evolutive art trees growing on the fly based on time. They grow, bear flowers or fruits, shrink in some seasons, and then grow again. They are never the same, and they will live forever in the blockchain because they are fully on-chain and do not need external support.
Ecology, emphasizing the importance of trees in the environment and collaborating in environmental care projects by donating trees based on the number of NFTs minted. Also, using a low power consumption PoS blockchain as a medium. You can hear Damian explain everything about the tree-planting initiative in the CardanoTrees interview.
Education, creating educational content and providing live video sessions about NFT technology, combinable on-chain NFTs, coding, and generative art and inspiring people worldwide to create their own art and projects.
Innovation, creating the first fully on-chain evolutive art in Cardano, and the combinable NFT technology that allows anyone to create their own artistic compositions and combine them with NFTs.
To create generative art on-chain on Cardano that was compatible with the current platforms and marketplaces, Damian used javascript to draw on HTML5 canvas. He also used python to make tools to automate some steps of the generation.
Damian is a natural sportsman that enjoys a variety of sports in general, which spilled over into performing arts to combine two of his loves again. He started learning performing arts in the circus as a way to get exercise in a new and entertaining way. What was initially a bit of a joke for Damian took a bit of an unexpected turn when he got hooked on performing arts and ended up practicing continuously for several years. Every year they would perform publicly and even at some birthday parties experimenting with different acts such as Chinese pole, static trapeze, aerial hoop, diablo juggling, and troupe acts.
Damian is exploring smart contracts technology on Cardano, and NFT use cases in real life. He also assured us he’s going to try and push the limits with CardanoTrees and transfer his skillset in the process. Motivating other people and undoubtedly inspiring many in the process.