Joey Allen Takes Us INSIDE The World Of Art And NFTs

Learn How This North Carolina Native Creates Art That Inspires

Who are you and what do you do?

Joey: My name is Joey Allen. I was born in King, NC and I live in Pilot Mountain. My artistry name is Joey Allen Creations and I have been a full-time artist since 2014.

What’s the worst thing you ever did as a kid?

Joey: I’m thinking of what I can say that wouldn’t get me in too much trouble now…ha ha. I guess I have vandalized some things and that kind of ties into why I am into graffiti now.

Is using a projector to make murals cheating?

Joey: Every artist has a different take on that. I feel like, for me, I like to be able to do everything in house if that makes sense. I know I’m relying on a tablet but if I can rely on the least amount of technology possible then that’s what I’d like to do. Now there’s no shame in my opinion on those who do use a projector because typically they are sketching up something on a smaller scale and then if you’ve done it, you can do it bigger. It’s time consuming to have to sketch it out small scale and then have to sketch it out large scale again. A projector makes it a lot easier and faster for people that are doing it and don’t have a lot of time.

How do you go about creating a work of art?

Joey: Honestly, I try to pull inspiration from every day life. I spend a lot of time in nature. I get my family out on hikes pretty often. When we’re out there, I’m just constantly looking at stuff to pull inspiration, new ideas or concepts from. I feel like I’m always working in my head. I don’t have a rhyme or reason for how I go about it. I feel like it’s just a constant thing. My oldest son is all over the place. When we’re out in nature, it’s fun for me to snap some pictures of him just to get inspiration for figure structure and the ways that humans are supposed to be positioned. There’s a lot of inspiration that comes from him.

I have always been kind of fascinated with nature obviously. For me, something that is universal is clouds. It’s something we see every day but overlook. It’s nice to create a character based off of something that we find every day in nature.

Joey Allen explaining why clouds were the inspiration for his latest sculpture (the cloud character “OTTO“).

Can you explain to our viewers what a NFT is?

A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a cryptographic asset on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other.

Source: Non-Fungible Token (NFT): What It Means and How It Works (investopedia.com)

Joey: Sure. I can try. It’s essentially like a certificate of authenticity for a digital piece of work. It stands for Non-Fungible Token (NFT). Once upon a time, digital artists did not have a way to sell their work or get paid for their work. With blockchain technology, people can “mint” or create a piece of work on the blockchain for a specific type of cryptocurrency. For example, I have a collection on the Ethereum blockchain so that people can purchase my work with Ethereum crypto. It’s nice for the artist because I get paid for the primary sale but for every secondary sale, I get a percentage of that royalty as well. It’s passive income when you’re working on that type of stuff, and it allows me to be able to have funds to push other projects. That’s the easiest way to break it down and there is a lot more to go into. But “NFT For Dummies”? There you go!