Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sascha Barnes. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sascha, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

All of my first clients were friends and friends of friends. But my very first client who was a stranger was a girl I met while I was sitting behind the Art building on UCLA’s campus. I told her I liked her tattoo, and she told me she liked my vibe, so we started talking. At the time, I was taking a digital photography course, so I told her about it, and she happened to be the lead singer of a really cool band called Annie Jets! She told me they were looking for a photographer, and I was looking for a subject for my final project, so BOOM— we joined forces. She was incredible to work with, just as effervescent as her first impression, and I was really happy with the way the photos turned out.

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

My name is Sascha Barnes and I love creating illustrations and motion graphics. I often combine visual and auditory forms of art, and I currently illustrate album covers and create motion visuals for musicians. A lot of my pieces are a cross between analog drawings, paintings, and digital renderings. I practice juxtaposition in both material and subject matter, with mixed media and surrealist themes. I love learning new things about the world and incorporating those ideas into my art. Being surrounded by diversity and different ways of thinking inspires me to be more experimental with my process of creation and to try new things.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Last year at UCLA, I took a class called Generative Art that taught us how to code systems that created multiple outputs based on a single function. Some of the most popular NFTs are the “profile picture” NFTs, where a buyer can purchase one of several randomly generated variations of a character model.

It was really cool to learn how to make a piece of art that can remake itself again and again. Making “generative art” made me think differently about how my art exists in the world and the life it can take on its own. But I think the real thing the class made me contemplate is how the insurgence of NFTs into popular culture highlights the wealth disparities in America.

Something that can’t be described, fully understood, or physically held by most of the population in this country is causing a very small group of people to make a very large amount of money. The “ownership” of these digital items is being sold for up to hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. For the most part, the people who buy and sell NFTs exist in a highly wealthy, tech savvy bubble. It’s an interesting but extremely gate-kept subculture. The process of learning to create NFTs itself was fun, but I found myself feeling wary of the exclusivity being perpetuated by this practice. I want to create art that anybody can access, enjoy, and understand.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I think people are more alike than they like to believe they are. We are all being influenced by the same set of biological needs. The way we react to those influences can be vastly different, but at our core, we all need to eat, we all need to sleep, and we all need some sense of social connection.

It’s interesting how it seems like everybody’s looking for love, but hardly anybody can actually find it. My theory is that you don’t really know how to love anyone until you know how to love yourself, and mainstream media is designed to make us dissatisfied with ourselves so we can buy more products. These products are sold as ‘quick fixes’, but are actually distractions from facing the root of our problems and insecurities, which can only be dealt with by looking deep within ourselves.

My goal is to create media that connects people back to their inner self. The work I make is typically pretty personal— stylistically if not in terms of actual subject matter. I reflect on things that make me feel embarrassed and share pieces even when I still feel vulnerable about them. My hope is that people will see how comfortable I am with my weird self and they’ll feel more comfortable with themselves. I try to create a safe space for people to sit with their deep personal thoughts by revealing my own deep and personal thoughts, and hopefully that can make people feel more open towards others and help create more love in the world somehow.

Contact Info:

• Website: Saschabarnes.com
• Instagram: @trippydigitalhippie
• Youtube: @trippydigitalhippie