July 8, 2022 / By Artchild
Welcome to the very first dispatch of The Playground, our weekly newsletter! With the launch of Artchild coming up in August, we wanted to take a more active role in speaking to our beloved budding community. A great way to do this is a weekly check-in. We know plenty of newsletters exist that round up what’s happening in the arts. But we figure there is room for our taste making and hope that you agree.
A few weeks ago a special friend of Artchild, TJO, stealthily revealed some epic artwork in a tweet. This piece, at first glance, appears to be a new work by TJO, who sells art on Superrare. However, while staying true to the TJO aesthetic, this piece is not just a 1/1 work or edition series for sale, but rather the cover art for the newly released Cochise album entitled ‘THE INSPECTION.’ Signature TJO collage made up of incisions, colors, and doodles overlay a photo of the gritty psych-rapper Cochise underneath a magnifying glass.
This marriage of music and art is quite the fitting one. As an Artist TJO does not play around, his work is undeniably raw without concern of touching on the darker side of life. The same can be said of the music of Cochise. There is an energy found in the music and artwork of each respective artist here. An energy that is too hyped to be bogged down by the darker subjects that their art speaks to.
Hats off to Cochise for deciding on fellow rising star TJO to create his album art. The Florida based rapper clearly has good taste. He has been quoted as a lover of Japanese culture, in particular anime. The Cochise website features an album announcement video of the rapper dressed up as the one and only Bob Ross. We love the nod to Bob—Cochise is clearly a man of culture and taste.
As you may be aware, we are big proponents of accessible art, specifically through editions. By making his album cover an actual work of art, Cochise gets to express himself not just through written word but through art to accompany it. This is edition art on a mass level if you think about it. Millions of Spotify accounts will be sporting the TJO cover artwork on listener’s phones, computers, and car stereos. We are very proud of our friend for this mass exposure and are sure that the fans will want to know: who did this dope cover?
We’d like to close this out with a massive congratulations to TJO for his all time high record sale of a 1/1 work titled Look at us we’re in love on Superrare. While these unique pieces by TJO are inaccessible to many of us—the latest selling for a whopping 16.28 ETH (approximately 20,100 USD at the time this note was written)—TJO’s editions can be had at a fraction of the price here. Claim em’ while you can, Artchildren.
PS: Subscribe to Artchild to receive The Playground straight to your inbox. It’d be an honor to have you join our community. :)
