Divine Comedy
Divine Comedy is a series of 100 unique artworks that tell the tale of an artist’s journey through life and crypto art, each correlating to a canto of Dante’s classic work. Handcrafted over the course of 6 months using vintage Kid Pix software from 1993 – my first digital toolset!
The entire series is now available to collect, each work editioned on the blockchain as a unique erc-721 NFT.
http://divinecomedy.xyz
Divine Comedy is a series of 100 unique artworks that tell the tale of an artist’s journey through life and crypto art, each correlating to a canto of Dante’s classic work. Handcrafted over the course of 6 months using vintage Kid Pix software from 1993 – my first digital toolset!
The entire series is now available to collect, each work editioned on the blockchain as a unique erc-721 NFT.
http://divinecomedy.xyz
ARTIST STATEMENT
“In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray”
The Divine Comedy – Inferno, Canto I
The idea for this project came to me in the summer of 2024, after I read the book The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck. While I’m not typically one for the self-help genre, it came recommended as life-changing, and I felt like, yes, some change sounds nice.
The book uses Dante’s Inferno‑Purgatorio‑Paradiso arc to map the climb toward integrity. The author means this not in the sense of moral virtue, but rather the idea of aligning your inner and outer self. I was hooked by this notion, because, like Dante, I too am midway on life’s journey, having found myself lost in a dark wood of error.
The Dark Wood of Error. Inferno Canto 1 of Sarah Zucker’s Divine Comedy.
First, you are stopped in your tracks. Then, you go through hell reckoning with the error of your ways. This is followed by purgatory – a liminal time of healing, a fulcrum between the past and the future. And finally, you reach paradise, where you get to enjoy the outcome of your efforts and see how much richer your life can be when you are finally living in alignment with your truest self.
I have been editioning my art on the blockchain for 6 years, since April 2019. The hype and excitement around NFTs that exploded in 2021 brought a lot of new attention and support to my work, but it was also like trying to surf a tidal wave. The sheer force of it has been staggering.
I was well positioned for the moment. I had already found my voice, honed my craft, and steeled my resolve over many years working as an artist. I understood and had a genuine belief in the technology. And, as a mischief-maker at heart, my psychedelic worldview served me well in navigating the many twists and turns of the experience.
But, the wave finally broke. I found myself far away from where I had started, left to pick up the pieces and make sense of all that washed up alongside me. Asking myself, which adaptations truly serve me, and which were just survival strategies to keep my head above water? Now that things have settled: what kind of artist (and human) do I really want to be? What do I want to let go of, and what do I want to nurture from here?
The artist as a young artist-child (avec beret)
I knew I wanted to go back to basics for this project. After testing a number of workflows, I chose Kid Pix Studio (1993), my first digital art tool, to tell the tale of my own personal reckoning and transformation. This choice has meaning beyond the aesthetic, as the series acts as a channel between the adult artist and the inner child.
The works contain the same DNA as my long-running Videopainting style, as KidPix Studio and my Sony Videopainter originate from the same early computer graphic era. I relish the charge of minting these archaic pixels to the still-nascent future of the blockchain.
The day I got Kid Pix in December 1992.
And so, I set out on this quest in November of 2024, making an artwork a day (with some syncopation), until I completed the series in April 2025. There are 100 artworks, each correlating to a canto of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
I have woven a great deal of meaning into it; linger on the series as a whole or zoom into the details of any single canto piece and you will begin to see the hypertext throughout.
This is the tale I want to tell, not only of my personal experience, but of our collective journey. If you are in the world of crypto art, my hope is that you will see your story here. We’ve seen some weird shit, and now it’s time to reflect.
But, even in hell, it’s good to stay playful. To view even our own misdeeds and suffering with a wink. It is all equally sacred and profane – best to try and have a little fun with it.
Divine Comedy is composed of 99 still JPEG tableaux painted pixel-by-pixel, and 1 analog video artwork representing the ecstatic “Beatific Vision” as a grand finale. Each work is a single edition, minted as an erc-721 on a standalone contract.
The works are now available to collect. Existing collectors of my work are allowlisted, and new collectors may inquire to collect.
The Integrated Self. Paradiso Canto 29 of Sarah Zucker’s Divine Comedy.
PROMETHEA
Promethea – Open Edition Title Card
My new collection, “Promethea,” debuts on Nifty Gateway today at 6:30pm ET. I am immensely proud of the work, and the multi-layered meaning that channeled through me.
It is a story at once ancient and familiar: a musing on the mystical power technology has to lift us beyond the realm of the animal and into the divine.
The series – a triptych of VideoPaintings and a title card – is inspired by the myth of Prometheus. Regarded as the father of technology, his name means "foresight."
I love the old stories, because they remain widely accessible cultural touchstones. Their ubiquitousness allows much room for play.
My Promethea also plays with Fire – the OG technology. The advent of Fire marks the dawn of human civilization. It's the essence of catalysis – a liminal substance, both physical and incorporeal at once.
And yet, if not handled with expert care, Fire can burn down everything it helped to build. With great power comes great responsibility. But I feel much is made of this aspect lately – critique is the most facile form of expression, after all. And so, with my Promethea, I wish to lean into an unbridled vision of technology’s power for positive transformation.
Snatched – VideoPainting #1 from Promethea
In "Snatched", the 1st VideoPainting, I show Promethea as gaining access to the gods' reverie. Clever Promethea knows just where Zeus keeps his fire, and wastes no time in appropriating it.
Empowerment is self-bestowed upon those who do not fear to seize it.
Promethea’s Fire – VideoPainting #2 from Promethea
In "Promethea's Fire," the 2nd VideoPainting, our hero delights in wielding her will in the world. She brings back the fire to the human realm so that others may use it.
The great movements of progress are ignited by individuals acting out slivers of divine inspiration.
In the myth, much is made of the hero's suffering. The punishment for stealing fire is to be bound for eternity as an eagle eats his liver daily.
Such a drama queen!
I feel, in showing Promethea as a woman, the suffering is implied. We are, after all, bound to our bodies. Cyclical body horror is no stranger to us!
Unbound – VideoPainting #3 from Promethea
And so, in "Unbound," the final VideoPainting, I skip to my interpretation of a lesser told part of the myth.
This is a story of Techgnosis through personal revelation. The fire of the gods allows us to transcend the limits of our own bodies. We can become unbound!
There are layers hidden within the series. It's not my place to be prescriptive of your experience. I invite you to investigate them for yourself.
My hope is that curators will feel inspired to do their invaluable dance and place the work into context within its lineage.
"Promethea" was minted as erc721s on a standalone Manifold Studio contract (View the full collection on OpenSea), and will be sold through ranked auction and open edition on Nifty Gateway.
The ranked auctions start at 6:30pm ET and run to 8pm ET. The open edition is priced at $1370, and mints from 7-7:05pm ET.
View and Purchase the Promethea Title Card Open Edition here.
View and Bid on the Promethea Triptych Here.
Madame de Gateau
Laisse-moi me manger comme un gâteau – Let me eat myself as cake!
MADAME DE GATEAU is a signature VideoPainting I created in my Hollywood Studio in 2021. This organic channeling of the camp feminine is a celebration of self-sovereignty – and self-consumption.
I took some inspiration from The Edible Woman, a Margaret Atwood novel I read in college that left a huge impression on me. It examines how women are traditionally consumed by society, and at one point the central character eats a cake she baked shaped like a woman as a metaphor for her own empowerment.
I see this piece as a spiritual descendent of Ouroboros, my 2020 VideoPainting currently in the Metapurse collection.
On a personal level, the concept makes me giggle a bit: I used to be exploited as an artist in the days before I could develop support through NFTs. And now, no one can exploit me… but me!
And of course, there’s the reference to that icon of royal excess, Marie Antoinette. I don’t seek to condemn or exonerate her, but I do feel the decadence she personifies and the precarity of her status are relevant to our moment.
Largely I’m tickled by the cake-like personal fashions of the 18th century!
