UNDRGRND ARTIST: TREESKULLTOWN
JULY 15TH, 2022
Each week artists are commissioned for a piece of art through the UNDRGRND Grant Program. 100 NFTs are minted and are randomly airdropped to UNDRGRND Membership Cardholders. To find out how you can be featured as an UNDRGRND Artist check out our Discord.
Everyone is telling their story to the world and waiting for someone to notice. Our inner expressions come out through our conversations, our actions, and our creations that connect to our cumulative, internalized experiences.
Many people still consider animation to be childlike, which is exactly the point of Treeskulltown’s art. The innocence and freedom in the colorful motion that brings to life the old paintings reinvigorates interest in the past that future generations may continually find bland as our world changes and becomes more digital.
Every Friday Treeskulltown teaches, with his son, children how to draw in his town near Lyon, France. For ten years he’s been passing on his knowledge but, as he put it, “we learn as much from children as we transmit.”
He believes that children have an innate ability to create naturally, instinctively, and authentically. With less influence from the world on what is right or wrong and minimal experience in people judging your work, children can create whatever their imagination tells them. Treeskulltown strives to maintain that innocence throughout his work.
Even the persona, Treeskulltown, he sees as a labyrinth, protecting his inner child free to create without pretense without judgment allowing him to bring to life whatever feels natural. Each series has felt like an organic iteration in his process; from his most personal fundamental essence of himself.
Perhaps this is the answer to understanding his series The Key of Amaranthes. His simple answer to what “the key” is, “us, we are our own inner gold.” Which fits into everything Treeskulltown creates and believes. In each of us is the child we once were. That child wants to be fed, nourished and survive in an increasingly harsh and adult reality. Adults tend to fight our childish needs and ignore that inner self waiting to be seen and heard.
If the viewers dig into the meaning of Amaranthes, you can find that amaranth flowers represent immortality in ancient cultures. The name comes from the Greek word for “unfading” referring to its rich color. We could even expand that interpretation and go into greek mythology. Amaranthus, a beloved hunter of the goddess (Artemis) of the hunt, after being killed by Poseidon is turned into her favorite flower amaranth. Even the seeds from the flower were used as nourishment and medicinal purposes in ancient cultures .
The freedom to interpret Treeskulltown’s work is part of the process and the story he is telling his audience. Create freely as children do, without restriction, see what you want to see, and let the work speak to you.
The repurposed paintings now will live forever on the blockchain because they were given an inner childlike persona from Treeskulltown. Which is the story Treeskulltown is telling us: live freely, innocent, and be true to your inner child. That is the key to your immortality.
