We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joseph Penner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Joseph, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
My whole life is a risk.
I’ll never forget when I was 16, my parents asked me what I was going to do after high school. I answered, “college?”
They both laughed. My grades had slipped from Bs to C-, my assumption was pretty humorous.
School wasn’t really my thing. I liked getting high with my friends and going skateboarding, and my grades reflected it.
My parents never went to a State University. Both of them were 1st generation born to immigrants. My grandparents all took a risk just to be here. I would be the first in the family to graduate with a four year degree. That’s all my mother asked of me; was to get that degree for the family. I had been saving money my whole life for it.
I worked hard my last year of high school, loading double class schedules to get the credits I needed to graduate on time with a decent GPA. Working my way in, I received an art scholarship to University of Oregon, where I eventually graduated with BA in Anthropology.
Ever since then it has been a swing for the fences! I had saved a lot of money working through college to pay for tuition, but after graduating my family had come together to pay it off debt free. One could say this is where the risk really. starts. With my families blessing I left to be an “artist.”
I had a clear road and a bag of savings. I drove clear across the country juggling fire, performing my music, and handing out comic books I was making while on the road. Searching all across the country to find if I fit in more in other art scenes. No such luck, I returned to Oregon. Strike 1!
Working every restaurant gig that exists I maintained meagerly in Portland until I knew I had to take my next big risk: Cannabis cultivation and processing. Trimming weed was easy money back in those days. Every season I was able camp on a farm for 2-3 months, work and get paid. I used that money to fund a business selling hand made clothes at festivals. Boy, what a risk!
It was risky business, but the funnest business. Spinning in a cycle, getting more entrenched in the cultivation than the clothing business. Trim weed, get paid, go to every music festival we could, and sell clothes! That was every year for 3 years. Eventually I was asked to be on the grow team year round. This was the risk that was going to pay for my music career,
but things didn’t go well on the farm. I moved to the SF Bay Area before realizing I was never going to see the money I was owed for working that season. Strike 2!
I still was able to eek out a living working and performing with a Hip Hop non profit. As we grew as an organization I focused more on my career than my music. After 3 years growing their Events program, I took a job coordinating student events at SFSU. Booking talent for those students reminded me that I only got into events in the first place because I wanted to perform.
This was now 10 years since creating my comic books and traveling the country. I threw an art show at SFSU telling the backstory of the characters from those original comics. That was my good bye party. If I was serious about entertaining people with my creations, there was only one place to go: LA.
By far the biggest risk was moving to Los Angeles. I didn’t have much of a network, just one guy who said he could plug me in the animation industry. But then the unthinkable happened:the pandemic hit in 2020. Foul ball!
The industry I was hoping to crack into might have been on pause, but when one door closes another opens. The NFT boom was just starting to get started. My cartoon animals were right at home in that ecosystem and I took my second largest risk when I launched my own NFT project. I didn’t knock it out of the park, but I did get a base hit.
With multiple cartoons, toys, and games being supported by our community, there is momentum! Risk isn’t just a game for me, it’s a way of life. It’s in my blood. I will continue taking risks for the ability to keep pursuing my art and music until I can no longer swing at the plate.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Drawing comics to make my friends laugh in elementary school was my first conscious creative endeavor, but I was always very interested in music from a young age. For a talent show in first grade I performed a rap verse from my mothers gospel album. In high school I kept drawing comics and freestyle rapping with friends, but it wasn’t until college when I started taking the music more seriously. I saw two guys rap battling outside of a concert venue, and instinctively went to battle both of them and won. One of the guys in the crowd asked me to be in his rap crew and I never stopped putting out music after that.
My music can be found on Spotify or other streaming services under “JPZ” and “Gringo Latino” of which I am 1/2. I also have 8 songs under the group “The 9th Chakra” for the TezTones project which can be found on YouTube and Objkt.com.
After my art show in SF, I knew I wanted to animate my comic characters that I had been drawing for 10 years. I formed Cool Crocs NFT in Dec 2021. You can see our proof of concept pilot animation and products that I have created at shopcoolcrocs.com. Plushies, original card games, clothing designs, and our brand goals can be found there.
As an unconventional and neurodivergent artist, I am creating a cartoon world. Cool Crocs is only one of the stories from this planet. Eventually, there will be a theme park dedicated to these characters and stories. One that focuses on mixed media live performances. Think of a cartoon Hip Hop opera.
Proceeds of this will go towards revisioning the education system, especially for neurodivergent students, and social equity programs that tackle prison reform.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
Most people misunderstand what an NFT is. Verifying digital ownership has never been previously possible in the digital art world. That is what started the NFT craze in the first place.
Since we increasingly live in a digital world, this transparent proof of ownership can and is used to create community/fan bases all over the world, allowing for special perks for holders.
For example, all Cool Croc holders were able to claim subsequent NFT drops for free. Those that sent their physical addresses were mailed our first original card game, as well as our plushie. Early holders were mailed hoodies.
Theoretically, it is similar to investing into an artists journey. As more of the Cool Crocs world is developed and the community grows, the NFTs should increase in value. Think of them as digital rookie cards of athletes. However, unlike a physical card, I can see how long each person has held their NFT due to the transparent nature of the blockchain, and reward those who were early supporters.
It is an invaluable tool for artists to interact with their supporters and profit off of their own success. In the traditional art world, once I sell a painting to a collector, the collector receives all the profit if the value increases and they resell. NFTs allow for the programming of digital sales’ royalties automatically go to the creator. Meaning if the art increases in value and the buyer sells, the artist gets a percentage of that sale, and every subsequent sale in perpetuity.
This is vital for the full time artist to make a reasonable living.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I want to change the world.
Only now in my late 30s do I realize how naive and idealistic that mission is, but it doesn’t mean I’ve stopped that mission.
As a species we have the technology and ability to solve all world problems like poverty and hunger, however, a small percentage of people are hell bent on control and power. People blame human nature, but it is not in the nature of all humans.
Education that actually benefits the student is something I am passionate about.
Prison reform and ending the slave labor loophole for corporations to exploit the racist legal system is another.
The ending of weaponized food that the FDA is allowed to push onto us, and creating an intelligent system that links the production of food to the healthcare system in a way that actually demonstrates care for health, yet another.
Unfortunately, due to the current capitalist control structure, a lot of money is needed to overcome these broken systems that only benefit an elite few at the expense of the majority of the planet.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shopcoolcrocs.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephpennerart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JPZ.CoolCrocs
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephpaulpenner/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JPZ_jaypeezy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzuc6Spwy4uveor2rAJe8Gg