We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nic Boone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nic below.

Nic, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I think if there is anything ive learned, its that meaningful projects arent something you control professionally, so much as personally. At any job, you have to find the joy and lessons you can learn while subjecting yourself to the needs of a product- but seeking fulfillment while doing so has historically been a bad idea. I speak from observation and experience when i say that so much time is dedicated to this idea that we might, as an artist, get the chance to work on a project we love, or at least once loved- that we lose sight of ourselves and our own vision, and I think many people, myself included for a time, fall into a pit of despair when the reality of the alienation from your labor sets in. Many of the Intellectual properties i wanted to work on have been run into the ground by short sighted money grabs, where the decisions are made by noncreatives in a desperate attempt to squeeze any profit that the name recognition from it may still hold. In many ways, this act has been a self destructive trait in entertainment and art- even when the intention has been to breathe new life into a project, the structure of the businesses tend to get in the way of making a good project of it. Even when you find yourselves among the lucky few who have this chance, it is more likely than not, you will be pushed out of creative roles and into more productive roles. This isnt because the most deserving and skilled artists get the jobs and the creative control- this is because the way things run now are primarily concerned with the desperate attempt to regain the rate of profit games used to make. There shouldnt be a shame in working on such things though- a project needs these things done in order to exist, and despite the creative hegemony seemingly being designed to make you feel a sense of shame that you may be relegated to some or another part of this creative process, to rob you of any sense of pride in your labor, there is actually a lot of beauty skill and value involved in this work. Some artists may find themselves far more interested in one or another role, but every artist on a project, regardless of discipline, should be able to put forward their perspective and contribute creatively. Too many people are too willing to turn their nose up to the work involved in an art job because it isnt *exactly* the thing they want. This is a mistake, professionally, and in terms of self improvement.

If you find yourself an exception to this rule, creatively fulfilled on a project you are invested in, then you are the envy of many artists in the field- and you should take pride in that however long it lasts- but I dont believe our worth as artists should hang on being someone who attains this, when so much of these decisions are a lottery- a matter of chance, and illogical, otherwise short sighted decision making from an investing class of ownership. We can, however, create projects for ourselves, alone or with friends, we can dedicate ourselves to outside the need for them to sell. I am of the strongest opinion that time and care spent outside the guilded cage of employment in games is where our passion should really be placed. Regardless of if you choose to just improve your craft, learn other elemenets of your craft, or attempt to learn enough of every part of what it takes to finish a game, comic, book, or film- and see that through to the end – the lesson you will come away with is that you are capable of learning, growing, and expressing- that you can and should have pride in your labor. That it is never too late to learn any part of the craft at a professional level.

Ive learned that hard work is a given, it is required of all of us, no matter the field of work. In art, the only thing you control in regards to your employment is how you put yourself out there, and what you do to continue to improve. Everything else is outside of your hands. Live life, and learn how to find things to care about and learn from, even when you arent in the place you want to be.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a professional concept artist in the entertainment industry, primarily working in games. After attending two different schools, and leaving both because of the high cost- I began working in tabletop and mobile games until I eventually learned the skills I needed to take on faster, higher quality, and better work. I have been learning game development in order to produce my own projects for a few years now, and hope to eventually publish something small on my own or with close friends. This has allowed me to tackle a lot of issues in my profession in a unique way because i can anticipate other issues down the line in other departments and give attention to certain restrictions that otherwise frustrate a lot of other more specialized people.

I am more established in horror art and related subject matters, with an emphasis on compositions and designs that invoke deeply personal feelings of dread and discomfort stemming from my lived experiences. Partially from being autistic and coming out as Non-Binary a few years ago.

I am also a very public and outspoken socialist. A lot of the subject matter in my art relates to my experiences growing up and influenced by my political perspective of the world. My critical positions again war, exploitation, oppression, imperialism, and the dictatorship of the owning class over the workers show up in my work in a deeply personal and abstracted form- where the political messaging exists as a kind of emotional note as opposed to the literal subject matter of the piece, existing on a kind of second track to the narrative elements of my work. I aspire to create things that feel like the pivotal moment of a story, which involves much of the work i make needing several layers or story or worldbuilding. It brings me a lot of joy and excitement when people engage with those layers- seeing them see each way a new part of that story is told is an immensely gratifying feeling, as much as hearing their own interpretation of what they feel about my work.

I also teach on my own time, and do personalized approaches to learning art for those who seek it out that come to an arrangement with me.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFT’s and crypto are scams, through and through, they are what is called a “greater fool” scam, designed to prey on those who have just enough money to invest, with the promise of short term gains- which leave them holding the bag that requires others to buy into the scheme in order for them to cash out. Many others have done much more exhaustive and in depth analysis and critques of this, some of which I will list below for the benefit of any potential reader. I believe that there is a lot of room to critique the existing gallery structures which existed until this point that drove many established artists to stake a desperate claim to crypto, but I have found that all it has done is create the same conditions, but with a different target audience. The people who were in control in the space this sought to escape from, are very much in control of this space as well. Somewhere between money laundering and selling bridges, NFTs are bound to become something that will occaisionally boom and bust every few years and they fall out of and reenter the public conciousness, before drawing the ire they rightfully deserve.

That said, there probably is a use for this technology for public good outside of the art space, and outside of the capitalist, business focused mindset. But so long as it exists within it, it seems to me to exist as a societal ill- making products worse, and attempting to make finite goods which can be copied and pasted and distributed en masse. Even from a consumer perspective, it isnt viable or desirable. From a professional perspective, I empathize with the artists who felt the need to try to capitalize on it, especially as the working conditions for artists continue to worsen- artists are finding themselves proletarianized. It is to be expected people will try to cling to material security. Residuals arent a thing really offered to artists any more, nor are stock options, whiole pay and hours accross the board seem to have been getting worse for almost 15 years or more. However, I believe that to get involved with such a thing is engaging with a fantasy of escape that ends up harming others for their own desperate grasping at material comfort- there is a certain justified ire i think makes sense people hold for artists in that space that their willful ignorance and refusal to engage with critically creates. The typical arguments in favor of NFT’s seem to put forward ideas i find distasteful about the deservingness of artists as related to success being tied to skill- and thru framing all problems with the world in the lens of personal negotiation.

Many of these same critiques are similar to the position around generative AI as well, which includes the rampant theft we see in both that is integral to their very existance. Primarily, the focus on people becoming so concerned with a “negotiated cut” that they cant see the pitfall of the material reality that most people will need employment to survive- and that work will be outright owned by their employers. No path to a better future exists thru this lens of personal negotiation- what we need is both harsh government regulation paired with a strong principalled organizations taking action to ensure the rights of artists. An arms race of anti ai tools vs AI is not a sustainable resolution to this issue either. If there is any hope to a better future, we would be wise as consumers and workers to resist NFTs and generative AI. The tech could have a use in improving our lives, and instead the owning class has saw fit to automate the things people actually find fulfilling as labor. It seems to me to be as useless as creating a machine that can experience worldly pleasure for you so that you dont have to. Whats the end goal? to have you get to what really matters- being a machine that is worked until you die in abject misery. If we build tech to automate labor, it should serve the workers by uplifting us so more of us can take on more creatively fulfilling work- not to relegate us to poverty. Not to benefit the owners of the tech company, by every worker in the world.

on youtube:

Is art still relevant, art is everything

Line Goes Up- the problem with NFTs, Folding Ideas.

Relevant authors:

Walter Benjamin [Art and the material context in which it exists]

John Berger [Art critic]

Antonio Gramscii [hegemony and ideas]

Michael Parenti [on invented reality and self censorship]

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe that society should take active steps in regulating or outright banning much of the generative AI space, for starters. Artists should also take more care and time in their lives to benefit those seeking to improve their art with meaninful and personal engagement in the betterment of the arts for us all, rather than becoming anti social. I think the average person could also stand to understand that the creatives arent the ones at fault when you have an issue in your favorite media- most likely, those choices are made by poor management and by curated demands from investors. Most people i meet want to make a good product, and are denied creative input- and do the best they can. I also think that society, as a whole, should become very concerned about the rise of fascism and neo fuedalism- and should take steps to educate themselves about marxism and its theories around art, philosophy, and ideas in order to be more ready to recognize the slowly festering reaction latent in what increasingly feels like an economic system corroding around us more and more every year. From an israel conducting an active genocide in gaza, one perpetuated by what by all rights should be openly recognized as a fascist state, to the rampant inflation and intolerable housing and education costs- the state of decay we find ourselves in is a dangerous one. If you want to support artists, support workers. supporting workers supports artists.

If, by any chance, you are one of the rare examples of someone who is owning class, who owns a company reading this, i encourage you to do all you can to improve the conditions for your employees, and strongly, strongly consider the path it will take to eventually converting your company into a worker cooperative- owned by everyone at the company.

Contact Info:

• Website: nicboone.com
• Twitter: twitter.com/nicboone
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@meatmademanifest

Image Credits
Nic Boone