Continuing our series of Q&A interviews with NFT artists we now have Joshua Squashua, the artist behind the upcoming project OnBoard NFT. If you missed our first interview with Kimosabe, you can read it here.
Why don’t you introduce yourself?
Hello! My name is Josh, so for some reason I named myself Squashua as an artist. It kinda fit with live caricature, which is what I did for years.
What is your art background? What got you started?
I always loved to draw. The idea I can make a living being something so fun seems like a glitch in the matrix, somehow.
I studied animation at university, and then got into doing street drawings of people, wandering around. It was a fun way to get to know the world around me. And that kinda evolved into being a street caricaturist, along with doing street art and watercolours
What attracted you to blockchain and NFTs?
I love the freedom and potential the space offers.
I’m still new to it all really, and learning about it more everyday. I first got into it after meeting Cardano Salad by my street exhibition, and having an intuition it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do something with this guy!
What NFT projects have you worked on? Any plans to work with others?
So Cardano Salad, Connoisseur, and I all co-founded OnBoard NFT
It’s a really awesome idea to help artists who aren’t so familiar with the blockchain onto it. We are going to release a genesis collection I’ve drawn, which is both a piece of art in its own right, and also will allow holders a whole range of awesome benefits, as we onBoard subsequent artists.
It’s definitely a really collaborative project in essence.
I’m so proud of the Genesis collection. We called it Furbles, and it’s crazy the amount of work we put into it!
We were recently featured as a rare trait in the Cypherkicks x Degen Crypto Club collection, which was our first ‘colab’ of sorts, but there are more collaborations in the works.
We’re always interested in hearing from projects regarding collaboration opportunities!
Any plans to do more solo work, maybe some 1/1 art?
Yeah definitely. I’m really excited to explore the possibilities of hand-drawn animation in the space, personally. I think the NFT tech opens up a space for independent animators, which is dope.
There are still a lot of artists that are hesitant to get involved with NFTs. There is a lot of fud around, calling NFTs scams etc. What would you say to an artist who was perhaps on the fence about getting involved with NFTs?
I’d understand their concerns, because like most I dismissed it at first.
For me, finding people with a decent ethos, who actually believe in the technology, really helped.
If more people see there can be a home for genuine and individual artists on the chain, then that’s great for both artists and NFTism
What did you choose Cardano to launch your NFTs over other blockchains?
I was purely lucky, in that I was introduced to it by Salad. I’ve come to love it – the collaborative culture and all the different original projects are awesome, as well as the technology behind it.
If you could work on a collaboration with any other NFT artist, who would it be?
Good question! So many dope ones! I’ll have to think about that. It would be cool to work with a 3D artist to visualise some 3d Furbles one day.
Do you collect NFTs too? If so, what is your favourite?
I absolutely rate the Claymates, just purely cool. And pendulum, uni25, Bored Claude, and Inside Out are all great too.
As well as so many others!
Thank you for reading, if you would like to find out more about Onboard NFT or Joshua’s work check them out on Twitter.
Before you leave, check out our CNFT calendar to see what projects are dropping this week.