Without having any say in the matter, my story begins in a small town in southern Romania in the mid-1970s. I say this because I really hate to define myself by things I didn't choose, like nationality, region, religion, the language I speak or the football team my father supported. However, this is part of the story. I grew up in Ceausescu's Romania, where having parents with connections in "the party" was always an asset. I didn't have any, and this sometimes led to very conflicted feelings during my childhood, but this was normal for many children at that time. Although my working-class family initially had absolutely nothing to do with the arts, art crept into my environment through an unlikely combination of circumstances. One day, a drunken painter forgot his tubes of oil in my grandmother's garden after buying (illegally) mediocre homemade brady pomace. When he never came back, my mother picked them up and started painting, then took some evening art classes. So, I grew up with my mother interested in art and she occasionally painted impressionist oil paintings and watercolors. This may have played a role in my recent discovery of generative art as a new passion, but it's hard to say for sure.
Growing up, I was fortunate to have several key figures in my family who shaped my direction by constantly advising me to "get out of this town." There were two main ways to do this: sports or education. My father really pushed sports on me, and I think it definitely helped me in many ways, including allowing me to travel the country and expand my horizons. However, it didn't work out, I guess in part because my last coach was nothing short of a bully, and I was too young to deal with it. But it was for the best, because it forced me to refocus on my studies. Before high school, I was passionate about two things, anything computer related and anything nature related. I was not confident enough in my mathematical skills so I chose the path of nature conservation and ecology. I took a BSc and an MSc in ecology in Bucharest. I almost dropped out at one point, as I was disappointed by the low quality of the teaching, which focused only on memorizing information, but the prospect of a scholarship abroad allowed me to continue my studies during my master's degree.
Finally, in 2001, I managed to get my scholarship and went abroad to Germany to do the practical/experimental project of my MSc. Here I participated for the first time in experimental research and discovered the scientific method. I realized that this was what I wanted to do. Then I continued with a PhD in ecology in Germany and several postdoctoral positions in the UK and France before getting a permanent research position in Montpellier.
I first heard about NFTs via CryptoPunks probably around early 2018. My first thought was something along the lines of "this is crazy!", but it intrigued me enough to dig deeper. At the time, I was already on board with some of the ideas behind blockchain technology like decentralized funding, secure voting, supply chain tracking, proof of ownership, etc. but no one really knew if this technology can deliver on its promise. While I think the jury is still out on many of these promises, the rapid adoption of blockchain technology by the digital art environment via the development of multiple decentralized platforms to showcase the work of generative artists while providing a much-needed solution for tracking authenticity and royalties has already shown that it adds significant value to digital artists.
Regarding my beginnings in generative art, I'm not particularly proud to say that I only started to get interested in it around January 2021, and that was by chance while looking for some tricks to plot with R, a statistical software regularly used by ecologists. It took me several months before my first real attempt to do something with R myself, and I met my first collectors on Hic Et Nunc. Soon after, "fxhash" appeared and I was quickly drawn to the idea of long-running generative art. This forced me to self-teach p5.js, a JavaScript library for creative coding, which quickly became my primary means of creation. That being said, while one might think I'm an experienced programmer, I have no formal programming training and am aware that I am unable to write very elegant code. I'm still working on my toolbox.
As for my artistic style, I am particularly drawn to abstract art. Although it is less easy to grasp than figurative art, I really like the fact that it is open to interpretation and gives the freedom to explore and assign its own meaning. Some of the long-running generative series I've published on fxhash are in this vein. I'm thinking in particular of one of my favorite series, entitled "Lost in the multidimensional planes", in which I try to create both the feeling of smallness and the feeling of being lost in an infinitely vast universe. But you have to let yourself be taken by the drawing. It will speak to you in your own language and take you somewhere, but only if you engage with it.
For now, I am enjoying my new hobby and the journey that comes with it. I can't wait to see where the 256ART chapter will lead.
