Jerry Saltz, the famed American art critic, once told Patrick Amadon “this is zombie formalism; you need to start over.”

Prompting Patrick to combine his political passion for social justice with his aesthetic passion for art, the feedback helped make the humble Angeleno a heavyweight in the digital space. He’s now in high demand for art and beyond, working with charities and others to elevate under-represented voices from around the globe.

This wouldn’t have happened without NFTs. The glitch artist left the space in 2016 for a mixture of personal and financial reasons. Mainly personal, but he knew just as well as anyone: “there was no path to money in digital art.”

He came back in 2020 to learn that the world had changed. Going down the NFT rabbit hole, Patrick spent full days getting to know people, exploring OpenSea and Objkt, before beginning to mint. Speaking to Misan Harriman, he discusses his early influences, how he fell in love with glitch art and his aesthetic journey, and building a proper artistic community in web3.

Our favourite quote? “A lot of people around the world come up with a way to sustainably support their families via art, but there's so much more work to do. We can't lose focus on that.”