Interview with Brellias

I'm Matías Vivanco Brellenthin, more widely known as Brellias. I'm a 24-year-old design student and artist from Chile. I've been experimenting with art since 2018, as a way to perfect my skills and to cope with boredom. My art consists of surreal purple imagery, deeply connected with feelings, experiences, dreams and nostalgia and it has led me to work in great projects with VHS Collection, Lil Nas X, Nissan, Coachella and more. I've also been in the NFT Space since 2020, enjoying the waves of the crypto world prices and an awesome community of artists and collectors.

I've always been creative since my childhood. My mom was also very creative and always handed me plenty of artistic stuff for me to play with, be it clay, paint, crayons, and other crafty things, so it definitely made me very comfortable around creating and imagining new things, and I always thank her immensely for allowing me to have that playful and creative childhood. Growing up I was known as the dude who drew, played piano, drums, guitar, took photographs, painted, and more. I enjoyed creating so much and it was so fun! I would have the craziest ideas and look at the world in ways that not many people would.

After high school, I immediately entered university to study graphic design, and I HATED IT. I felt like it was a waste of time and resources, and didn't feel like I was learning anything at all. So one summer, I started doing daily work in Photoshop as a way to learn new things, challenge myself to create something and be consistent. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, I started learning 3D in Blender, and fast-forward a couple of years, I'm creating animations for Nissan. My biggest issues as a day-to-day student were mostly trying to survive as an artist, but that hugely improved as I started to gain more recognition and entered the NFT world, where I could see that what I was charging for my work was severely underpriced.

I was introduced to NFTs for the first time by a friend, Fraemwerk, in a group chat in August 2020. He was telling us about this site, SuperRare, and how it was cool that he sold a piece for about $200. That was a lot for me at the time, so I went on to research and apply to a couple of sites, like SuperRare and Makersplace.

I got into Makersplace soon after and started minting some of my work that I liked. Makersplace was really cool because, as gas prices were really low at the time, MP paid the gas fees, so it allowed me to start the NFT journey with $0. I don't know if I would've minted if I had seen gas fees of $400, like in the past year, as my economic situation wasn't that great. The experience was quite nice, and I was well received, discovering countless cool artists and with many pieces bought by many collectors! I then got into Foundation, met many more artists and amazing collectors and grew many amazing opportunities, such as partnering with FOX for an NFT collection, exhibiting in Abu Dhabi Crypto Art Fair and of course, being allowed to exhibit at 0xSociety!

Ohh, that is such a difficult question, as I'm constantly exposed to many great artworks of an immense quantity of artists! But there is one that I really loved: You are the Universe, by Travis Davids. I've loved it since I first saw it, and occasionally, I get “an outstanding idea”, only to realize I was just thinking of that piece instead haha!

I can only say that you need to be patient, it is the most important thing. You need patience to master your craft, to get exposure, to grow your space in the community and to withstand the ups and downs of the crypto market. Other than that, just enjoy what you do and be yourself! I know it sounds like the most generic advice but it really works! Trust me... I'm a dolphin.