Hi, I’m Erick.

I’m an artist and the founder of Art Blocks. Most people here know me as Snowfro.

I make art with code, color, and a place for other people to participate. I’m curious about what happens when an artwork is more than something to look at: when you can change it, play it, make it with your hands, or give a part of it to someone else.

That name came from a snowcone stand I started in college, Snowfro Refreshments. I had a huge curly afro and spent my summer serving snowcones on Guadalupe Street in Austin, across from the University of Texas.

I grew up around ceramic tile through my family’s business. Color was something I spent a lot of time with long before I released a digital artwork. I was also interested in computers, taking things apart and copying programs in QBasic to figure out how they worked.

Art that gives you something to do.

A Friendship Bracelet begins on a screen and becomes something you can make in thread and give to a friend. With embroidery, I use code to draw in stitches. In LIFT, you return to a game each day to help a small character carry a heavy stone. The technology is different, but the invitation is the same: become part of the work.

I wanted someone to be able to collect the code, not just a picture of what it had made. That’s what interested me in blockchains: the work could still run, change, or give you the instructions to make a physical object.

Color and play are ways into these systems. You can enjoy what’s in front of you, then discover the rules, choices, and people that make it possible.

You don’t need to collect anything or know how the code works to be here.

Selected conversations, essays, and exhibitions ↗

Erick