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AURAS BY JEREMY COWART

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Overview

On May 2nd 2023, artist Jeremy Cowart created his historic AURAS project, which which is now 10,000 completely unique NFT’s produced in 20 minutes start to finish without relying on generative code. It was the first time Cowart has ever publicly revealed his creative process that he has spent 10 years privately developing in his studio.
Captured as the default PFP, Cowart himself was the blank canvas, wearing all white, including a white mask. Cowart took rarity to historic new levels by turning them into a live performance… the lighting setups, the hats he wore, the photo editing styes, the robotic prisms, the body positioning, and the 150+ images projecting behind him and on his body all went into the rarity traits. Once finished, Cowart commissioned a team of 20+ people to manually assign the rarity traits since the entire project was created through analog methods.
10K in 20

A quick recap of Cowart's live AURAS event, captured on May 2nd, 2023 in Nashville, TN. Cowart captured 10,000 completely unique photographs in 20 minutes before a live and online audience. All videos have been created by Evolve Studios.
IRL Rarity Traits

Cowart has taken rarity to historic new levels by doing it all himself without a team, doing it live, and doing it without using generative code.

In PFP projects, rarity traits can be things like backgrounds, hair, the colors of the shirt or jewelry, etc. This is done with hired illustrators and then generative code to produce the randomized, individual tokens.

But with AURAS, it was all performed live. The lighting setups, the things Cowart did during the performance, the robotics he invented, the things that happened around him, the art projected behind him, in front of him and onto his body are all just part of the live rarity traits that are built into the process. This wild process is unlike anything the NFT community has ever seen before.
Meet the Artist

Jeremy Cowart has spent the past 15 years as a photographer, specializing in celebrity portraiture and humanitarian projects around the world. Before photography, he worked both as an abstract painter and graphic designer. All of these mediums came together in 2021 when Jeremy moved into NFTs with his projects Block Queens, Lightographs and now AURAS, all bringing something brand new to the space.
The Artist as the Canvas

Cowart himself was the blank canvas, wearing all white, including a white mask. He used his patent-pending lighting techniques, robotics, multiple layers of projection, including a state of the art 130-foot, 5 million dollar LED volume screen behind him. 
ARTIST STATEMENT

“It's remarkable to consider that, as individuals, we likely hold disagreements on over 100 different topics with any given person. Yet, it's often just one single topic that leads us to build divides, end friendships, cancel, mute, or unfollow each other. In today's world, where we are more connected than ever before, we paradoxically find ourselves increasingly lonely. We doom scroll endlessly and are plagued by historic rates of depression and suicide.

Moving forward, empathy is the way. We must strive to understand the unique journey that each person has taken and the context that informs their beliefs and values. Eagerly learning each other's story is everything.

These are the ideas that weigh heavily on my mind. It's not simply a desire to come across as a good person - I genuinely love and value people from all backgrounds and identities. AURAS is my creative attempt to express this love and to honor the diversity and complexity of the human experience.”
 - jeremy cowart
 
 
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