Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life Podcast. I hope everybody's having a beautiful day. I hope the sun is shining. I hope the birds are singing. I hope the wind is at your back. I got an incredible guest for everybody. Today, I want to welcome everybody to an incredible individual, Nuwan Shilpa, the seeker of sublime visions. From the lush landscapes of Sri Lanka emerges a visionary artist whose canvas becomes a portal to the unseen. With each brushstroke, he dances on the edge of reality and dream, capturing the intricate beauty that lies hidden within matter and mind. His work is more than art. It's a revelation born from the depths of psychedelic and visionary states of consciousness. Nuwan, thanks for being here today. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you. It's super, super great to be on the True Life podcast. And yeah, I lost two words, but let's get into it. Yeah. So for those just tuning in right now, a lot of people know that I've been talking to some incredible artists about psychedelic artwork. And I met Nuan on Hex and an incredible artist community. And we've seen some of his artwork on some of the pages that I've had. Maybe we could talk a little bit about Nuan about how you got started in art, man. How did your art come about? Oh yeah, this is going to be a long conversation, I feel like. But yeah, so let me get started. So I think, let's see, where should I start? So I guess, like every other kid, you know, like I used to draw when I was small and all that, you know, like everyone does, you know, it's inescapable. And then... Here in Sri Lanka, we have these exam systems. So it's called the O levels and the A levels. That's kind of like semi-middle school to high school graduation, the equivalent of it. So during that time, I did art at school. So my basic part in life was, go to school, get a job, you know, do whatever, you know, that was the whole, uh, path. And, um, I would say when I was probably like, I might not have the numbers correctly, but, uh, there's a time when I started to, you know, like, uh, experiment with psychedelics, you know, uh, that's how it all, that's how it all started. I mean, it started with, you know, uh, The whole creative journey, I think, started with me hanging out with the sort of rock and roll crowd. And shout out to a band from Sri Lanka. It's mirrored, but it's called The Masked Damnation, one of my favorite bands. So I'm good friends as well. So the rock and roll community and seeing what they are doing and the whole creative movement and from that, just hanging around with creative people, you know, that's how it all started. And then I can say I had my first sort of cyclic trip just I said home courtesy of a bunch of my friends. They were like, you know, there's this cool thing, you know, you've got to try this out. And it was a wonderful experience. But I didn't I didn't realize its implications until like much, much later on. And then after my levels, I went to the States. I was in Buffalo. I was studying architecture for two years. And that was the time where, for the longest time, I lived outside of home. Oh yeah, quick interjection to that is, so I was actually born in the States. My mom and dad, they were doing their PhDs in the nineties and I was born in Syracuse, New York. and then they moved back to Sri Lanka so and yeah then I was I was born and raised here in Sri Lanka and then for my university education I come back to the US and I'm living alone and then I you know like start to sort of deep dive into psychedelics and it starts from there I would say the most, there's a few points that I would say one of the most memorable experiences that truly kind of got me into the entire thing is museum visits. If you are familiar with a museum, I would definitely recommend to anybody to visit that is the Albright Knox. uh a museum in buffalo uh they go by go as akg and they were closed for a while for animations and now they are in full force and so I uh it's like a vivid memory yeah so how it started was I got my hands on some acid And it was good. And I was like, wait a minute, if this is what I have been having before, you know, like, I was like, okay. And it was brilliant. And I was like, okay, if this is this good, we need to get hands on more. And there was like a small community of psychedelic heads and it was like um I remember like one another international student from like japan he was studying like mechanical engineering or something and there was an art student from brooklyn and sort of a few graduate students from like the philosophy department in buffalo and they like hooked us up and it was like oh this is like great and we got like a hundred hits of uh and I I said then like we had split it among us and I just had it in my fridge stored and it was like it became like a weekend thing you know I would just come from class and like what do I do this weekend you know instead of like cracking open and beer and sitting down I'd be like oh you know like pop one And architecture was super helpful also because I had to get a lot of materials and the materials were from this art store. And the art store had so much of art materials, basically. So I just got a bunch of acrylics, oils and oil pastels and all that. And I just started to experiment with it. And while I'm doing that, this museum visit, and we all decided to go to the museum. And we went. There's a park next to it. So we went there. We had the, that was a blotter. So we had the blotter. And we were waiting around for a good thirty minutes. And we were like, damn, you know, like nothing's happening. You know, maybe we were just like a bunch of college kids who were super excited. I think we were like duped or something, you know. So we're like, so we don't have anything to do, so let's go to the museum. I walk into the museum and it's like students discount we get the tickets go in and I'm right at the counter and this curator lady she asks have you been to the Albright Knox before and I'm like in my mind I'm like okay like I want to say no sorry I want to say yes and I just want to just go and explore on my own but suddenly I feel that I'm incapable of lying, you know. I'm like, okay, something's going on here. And I was like, no, I haven't been to the Albright Knox before. And then she pulls out this map of the Albright Knox that has the layout and it's in this isometric image. And I mean, it's isometric. It's supposed to be like an illusion. But I'm pretty sure the structure shouldn't be popping this much out of the paper. I was like, oh, damn, you know. And then immediately, like vividly, what I remember is like she said, you are here. And I saw like a super well manicured, like red fingernail just coming at me. And I just jumped back. I was like, oh. And then only it hit me. I was like, oh, OK, now it's working. And I just quickly grabbed the map. And I just started, just dashed down the corridor. And I come to these stairs. And the stairs is, I don't remember the artist, but it's painted like an optical illusion. So when you straight look at it, all you see is a flat surface. And I'm like, oh, damn. It's like I've just taken five steps. And it hit hard. so I'm like it's like you don't mind me if I walk around when I talk right so I'm just like walking and trying to you know gauge my sort of physical body in this space and slowly walking walking walking and I feel like I'm just getting lower and lower and I feel like there's somebody next to me when I look at look at my right side I see like a family who had come to visit the museum and they're just looking at me they're just very casually just walking down the stairs and they're just staring at me like trying to figure out what's going on you know And I'm like, oh, damn. It was absolutely crazy. And you walk down, and you immediately come across this Jackson Pollock painting. And Clifford Still, also another artist. amazing work and that's when I realized okay there's something very you know like I mean it's all trippy and fun and all that but there's something really sort of profound you know in it you know I mean I mean It's very, very serious but super playful at the same time. Just because something is serious doesn't mean that it has to be very rigid or strict. And it was like everything at once. And I walked around the entire museum space. So that was one of the most profound intros. To speak to it, the first time I saw a Dali painting was there in person. And then Franz Klein, I believe. A lot of modern art stuff. And one of my favourites, I think had a lot of impact, was a conceptual artist called Sol Levitt. He has had a really big impact on my artwork and in general thinking as well. after that what happened was um yeah I might I've let you yeah I'll visit the museum story from time to time you know like uh within the entire span of my uh talk but uh yeah so that was a pivotal experience you know it took me like I don't know how much time I spent in the museum but I came out of the museum I was like whoa that was like too intense never again you know like never again and I went to the museum next the next week again on acid And it was brilliant because the moment I stepped in, I think the curators knew and one of the curators came and talked to us and she was like, yeah, come. And she gave an entire tour of the place and everything. So from the art side, that was it. And then at the same time, I was kind of dabbling around in sort of meditation, so to speak. specifically like Vipassana meditation. I had one of my long-term friends who was in Sri Lanka and he was in Buffalo as well. since I had like an abundance of acid what I did was I was like I was kind of like you know like the advocate for it I was like hey man you have to have this you know and I was explaining what's going on and one of my friends was like you know like some of this stuff you are talking about you know this is like meditative uh level stuff so I was like wait like let's do a let's uh test it out you know so I give him a hit of acid I take a hit of acid and you know like we are in the trip and I was like how's it going you know I'm like this like taking uh notes kind of model kind of like this old uh there's a video on youtube where like way back in black and white video have you seen like uh they're like okay now now we are is an artist uh like how do you feel after like half an hour of in this and so like kind of like that and that continued as well and then at the same time I was drawing and the apartment I was in I was with three roommates and the entire apartment started to like fill with art and everything and I found myself slowly disengaging with my university coursework you know because I had you know found something that I don't know. I had found something that even I don't know what it is, but something was there. And it was kind of, I think, in a way, even for me, it was pretty intense, getting way out of hand. And I was sending emails back home to my parents saying, look what I'm doing. And they're like, what's this artwork? What about your coursework? I'm like ah no you know like I couldn't tell them about psychedelics but I was like yeah whatever you know it's the art and all that and then one very sort of specific day like I was having a trip and I just thought like you know like okay this is it you know I have to make a decision and I thought that I would uh just pretty much the next day I went to university gave like a letter said okay that's it done I'm done with this and I came back home to Sri Lanka And when I came back home and my parents thought I was like certifiably nuts. Totally. And they were like, you know, like, maybe we should see somebody, seek some help. I was like, yeah. I mean, you have a point there also. But the reason I came was there's a pilgrimage in Sri Lanka that goes from Jaffna to Katharagama. Yeah, after the podcast and all that, I will definitely share with you these links. And it's with this kind of ancient narrative and you know hindu mythology and all that and it kind of super resonated for me and it's like and and the pilgrimage itself says if you are called for this answer you know kind of so I I felt like really I said I have to do this but when I got here I was like a bit late so I couldn't do the pilgrimage and I was like okay I don't want to do it halfway through and then my parents they I said, just go in. This is monk. You should go and meet him. And then I went and had a chat with him. And he's like, maybe the same thing that you're trying to do by walking like a few hundred miles, maybe you can do it in one place as well. I was like, OK, that's an interesting thought. How do we approach it? And he's like, why don't you stay over? So I stayed at this temple for like three months. And I just dived there. dived into my kind of meditative side of things. We had like chats on cyclic experience and all that as well. But it was more meditative. And I had my artwork along with me. The initial artwork that I started with, I don't think it's there anymore on any social media or anything. It's drastically sort of different to my digital work. but then I was just dabbling in digital stuff basically like how the digital stuff came along was pretty much I wanted to have cool wallpapers for my phone and stuff and I've seen all this really cool stuff at this time I've seen like alex gray's work and all that I've seen trippy artwork But, you know, like, I wouldn't know, like, I'm like, yeah, I know that artwork, but I wouldn't know who Alex Gray is or Gai Gai is or any of these, like, you know, even like Dali and all that. I mean, to a certain extent, but it's just like, you know, okay, it's art still. And then, like, suddenly kind of it just started to sort of come out. you know as I just experimenting with the tools and everything and I was just pretty much blown away by what was like coming out of this whatever it is you know like just art like this crazy stuff that you know like I'm trying to tell people and people ask me what it is like I'm like wait like I mean if you find out please tell me because I have no clue idea as to what it is either you know it's just there and then I think along the way it got more sort of formalized and you know I started to do my research and then I started to realize wait there's so many people doing this so many people making super great art and it's not just a recent thing it's you know like lineages of artists yeah you know that you can trace to and people who have similar experiences and all that so then I kind of said okay now here is where I need to you know not just wing it anymore I need to sort of put my foot down and put some like solid study in so I start to do my research and all that and build kind of a solid practice. So this is like, mind you, this is like, two thousand thirteen. So, and it goes on. So I was doing, like, but there's one thing that I was like, I was hell-bent on just doing art. So, whatever it takes, you know. So I didn't take many, you know, like, I didn't take any job, so to speak. I was like, that's out. I was good in Photoshop and all that, so I would take freelance design on the side. But just kind of roughed it out for a whole bunch of years, I think, until sort of, which is when I was introduced to the whole digital, NFTs, blockchain thing. It's a great artist who was based in Sri Lanka at the time. He's now again in Sri Lanka, called Outside, O-U-T-P-S-Y-D. Amazing digital sculptor, artist, again, like a visionary. And he just dropped me a message and said, if you are doing this digital stuff, you have to look into what blockchain is and NFTs are. So I was like, all right. I looked into it, and he just guided me through the process of making a wallet and everything. And I was like, OK, cool, digital art. Then I realized, OK, I was doing it. That was one of the things that pushed me to start to do animated pieces also. And then, uh, I minted my like first few pieces and late, late and early I had my like first sale and that was like amazing. Uh, and it's like for like one, eight, when like it was like three thousand ish USD. So I was like, wait, wait a minute. Like now, you know, now I felt like, okay, it's like, I was like, first initial was like now I made it as an artist but then I was like oh shit now the journey starts you know it's like and and from there I was like you know like fully into it and and the technology itself like blockchain technology itself it was really kind of you know like I was like mind blown I was like wait technology can do this there is like a it was beyond you know anything that I had experienced in terms of what technology offers and like the idea of transparency provenance and this uh you know like immutability I think it's like a kind of like a time keeping uh you know time keeping it's a time keeping method you know like just like you know like I i like password back to yesterday I did my first bitcoin ordinal inscription um as well and that's when I I was guided by this um another artist and from what I realized I was like wait this is like the start of like a technological era you know just like we have like bc or you know ad you know the blockchain is a new way of this is a this is a time keeping method like inherently digital time keeping method you know uh that is being born from technology so yeah I think I went on a bit of a tangent yeah but uh uh yeah coming back to the whole psychedelic stuff yeah since I came back here I was able I just immersed myself in the whole psychedelic uh experience experimenting with uh mushrooms lsd dmt uh of course marijuana is always there I think that sounds like an eternally stoner in a way so and kind of finding sort of the parallels between the different substances and also like other practices like meditation and all that and even and and and being able to kind of uh the I think the core experience has always been trying to make sense of it you know integration has been the biggest uh thing you know like I think like tripping you know is easy uh it's not uh difficult at all however hectic it can get or whatever it is I mean it's just I mean it's just a trip but trying to sort of integrate what you right uh experience and move forward from that is the kind of tricky part and you know I found myself over and over again you know doing great and then you know coming back and I was like damn like you know one step forward and you know like eons back you know not a few steps sometimes you know and then you know like it's a very enlightening at the same time very sort of humbling experience so trying to navigate that and the art has been kind of the anchoring point that is where you know like I can ground myself to and Yeah, so that's that. And to jump into AI, and it's been phenomenal. I was like, where has this been all this time? I just didn't realize. It completely changed the perception of a lot of things. And a lot of the, that's one of the most interesting things is that vivid, psychedelic experiences that I've had and in kind of encountering some kind of you know uh sense of intelligence so yeah not to not to say of like in encountering like a physical being or something like that but that sense of encountering uh intelligence and the same I felt like the same with interacting with uh ai uh and art making tools and I feel like uh just diving deep into it and going through that and I just kind of you know the feeling is like oh wait you are also here you know like kind of like that it's like meeting me yeah it's like meeting an all a meeting an old friend you know like that kind of feeling so putting all uh that together and um yeah it's been great it's really great and um yeah so that's it is it's It blows my mind to get to hear the story of how it all began. Like, going to the museums, leaving Buffalo, coming back and telling your family members, like, hey, I'm not going to do these studies anymore. I'm going to do this thing now. That takes a lot of courage to do on some levels. But I don't think you can express yourself in a way that's fully you unless you have the courage to embrace this feeling and this presence of, like, I want to do this other thing instead. Like... It's really difficult, I think, for a lot of people to stop living the life they're living and live the life that they want to live. That's a hard thing to do, right? Yeah. I mean, it's a step, I think. I think, in a way, yes, that's this one step. But at the same time, I feel like the more I keep at it I feel like you know I mean I'm not I mean I I believe like that you know art is something truly great and this journey is you know I feel blessed but at the same time after a few years of doing that I'm like damn you know this is like the same thing you know I mean it's like I was like I guess what a second not a nine to five anymore but this is like a twenty four seven thing you know yeah yeah so yeah but it's so I think like there is a certain sense of uh yes definitely I mean to take that step you need like a sense of courage and all that and I don't for me I don't think it's personally I've uh you know like it wouldn't have happened uh for me, if not for the psychedelic experience. I mean, perhaps it's not the only way as such, and that's when I sort of decided, okay, like art, and that's where I'm going to sort of focus my attention towards. So it took me a while, and then I said, OK, what do I call myself? Artist, what, and all that. And then I said, OK, psychedelic artist. But then I came across the visionary schools as well. So then I was like, wait, some of the work that I'm creating is this. And also, so I'm like, OK, psychedelic visionary artist. I need to, that's my label, so to speak. And I think I kind of hit the spot with finding a good label. It's interesting to think about. There was a piece where you spoke about the intelligence that you encounter on psychedelics and the intelligence that you encounter in AI. They really are pretty similar on some levels. It's like a way to see your higher self and yourself in a third person all at the same time. It is like this evolution of consciousness. Maybe you could talk a little bit more about that. yeah yeah definitely so there's this one piece that I call uh it's called the agi muse I believe uh it's called the art agi as an artificial general intelligence and uh muse so the whole idea is that uh that there is just like the you know like we talk about the muse as artists right like and uh we are so comfortable in talking about the news when it comes to traditional mediums and all that. But when it comes to the, that I think partially comes from this whole AI argument, you know, like AI art is not art or like whatever that it's, you did it or like the computer did it, you know, like kind of thing. And it really kind of hit home for me there. And when I kind of was in this process, you know, like, And I come across this kind of endless source of inspiration. For me, that's what the Muse is, an endless, inexhaustible source of inspiration. And that was in the presence of a computer program. right and for me that doesn't uh it didn't kind of diminish the value of it or anything you know in fact you know I mean the whole idea is like wait if the truth or whatever this notion of the sublime is omnipresent and everywhere why shouldn't it exist in the ones and the zeros you know why shouldn't it exist in the digital you know you know it should be if it's everywhere then it should be everywhere so and it's and it's like it's the same kind of thing I think you know like And for me, that was revolutionary. And when I encountered that, I was like, OK, I had to make art about that. OK, so doubling back onto how that artwork was made. So I did a series called the Chakra Delic series. Those were seven art pieces, one for each of the chakras. I guess it's very cliche also, you know, psychedelic artists, missionary artists, you've got to have a series about the chakras, you know, taking some of this ancient Hindu mythology and all that into account. And so I made this series and then I did like I put all the sort of chakras together and like strips this piece called Biomechanical Enlightenment. uh and uh so I created that piece and it just turned out yeah you know like I was like whoa wait what's this that turned out and from that it kind of triggered the kind of series of I would say unlocked or whatever creative pathways that I had to kind of explore and through that I was just continuously sort of encountering this this inspiration of art about myself also. But I think by this time, I was kind of, even now I'm sort of convinced that what I'm exploring and experiencing is not necessarily sort of you know, like a reality or a reflection of myself, so to speak. I mean, the world is much bigger than we ever imagined. So these are sort of spaces through the psychedelic experience, through AI, through meditation, and we can frequently visit. So these are not hallucinations. These are kind of realities that exist and we can sort of parallelly kind of walk through and experience it. So that's the way. So I think that's where I am right now is that, you know, that seeing the kind of bigger picture and kind of, you know, trying to not necessarily place myself in it, but just, you know, like, explore it, you know, like, and I'm a big fan of Terence McKenna and all that, so I think, I still feel like sometimes, even when I'm tripping, I kind of have, like, a voice in my head, you know, like, I can hear Terence telling me to do something, you know, so for sure you know so so this uh so the the role that I've taken as an artist I think is very much defined by that as of the explorer also so sometimes it is not might not be in the best interest of my own well-being so to speak you know and I I truly I truly believe that as well you know I feel like psychedelics mushrooms MDMA all these substances have great potential in wellness and therapy but the whole point of it is not just to get well you know like I feel like there's something more beyond I mean it's like the substances or the the methods that unlock and love you to walk into another dimension I I don't think I it should be, you know, just parceled and given as something. Oh, no, this is something that's going to heal your trauma and go back to work the next day. You know, like I feel like there's much greater potential in these things. So like, yeah, sorry, Derek, I have a bit of a born to pick with the whole wellness industry and how it handles psychedelics you know I feel like you know like oh no I mean it's great that you can uh heal your trauma uh you know see oneself you know discover yourself see the true yourself but that is like the minimum that it can right you know that is like the and there's so much more to uh yeah that's like the yeah that's like the base level so you know like I'm like it you know it's like it's like the it's like I've been given like the key to unlock the universe and I'm like using that key to do like a scratch pad drawing you know I haven't even I haven't even found the door yet you know right right All sorts of crazy stuff, yeah. I love it. I love the way you explained it, too. Yeah. Totally. I love the way you explained it, too. For me, it almost goes full circle back to the first part of the story where you're exploring this museum on acid. But then later in life, you use the acid or the psychedelics or the mushrooms to explore this universal museum that's all around us at all times. And you can really get in touch with the paintings. You can really get in touch with the intelligence that's around us. It's just a wonderful way to look at it on some level. When I think too of the what you can learn. I think that the medical container that psychedelics finds itself in is such a base level as well. Like there's so much out there you can begin to explore. And it's almost like whether it's Terence McKenna yelling in your ear or whether it's a vision you see or a vision you experience, I feel like the world is trying to talk to us and we're just now learning how to communicate with it. It's these altered states that kind of allow us to channel that stuff. What are your thoughts on that? yeah yeah definitely I think that's that's where I think something that's uh personally like amazing experiences there's so many uh meeting so many artists from the nfp space who are in the sort of same wavelength and the psychedelic experience the visionary art experience and uh Being able to kind of, you know, I mean, that's the most of our conversations are about that, you know, it's like the visionary experience, the experience and the art we share. I feel like, you know, it's not like we have to sit down and explain the artwork to each other. But, you know, like we see the work and we resonate with it and we have a mutual sort of understanding with it. And I feel like that's the most powerful base level conversation for being human or whatever you know like even even like with there's a lot of my friends that we I do psychedelics with that I don't see eye to eye um on maybe some of the socio-political issues that's there but we can very well agree what's happening some of what's out there you know like it's it blows my mind you know like I I mean I would be like you know what the heck are you talking about this is not how it should be done you know like we can have you know like we fight We fight in this sort of three-dimensional world but we have nothing to kind of disagree on the kind of psychedelic experience and the places we go. So I think altered states of consciousness, I think it has that potential to show us that maybe that's where we have to begin. Maybe that's where we can truly find common ground. Because once you get there, that's there. And it is as real or probably more real than what we experience outside you know like uh so so I think I think that's where I think like for me like yeah in terms of altered states whether it is psychedelic induced or meditative experience induced you know like either way you know that's right I think that's where the easiest uh path to common ground so to speak you know like where we can kind of all all all agree on something I think that's where we would find that that space is uh there I think yeah what new one what does your process look like like when you're gonna start working on a piece is it like you research first do you take some psychedelic and think about it like what is the process for you when you start creating art yeah so um there's quite a bit of work that I've started with the photographs so I start with the photograph I just put it on photoshop i mirror it, I just start to generate patterns out of it. And then as I progress with it, I start to see shapes I start to see uh you know like uh just structures emerge out of it or just whatever it's about I would say about a good ninety percent of it like completely like intuitive you know like I don't yeah very rarely I sit down and say I'm going to do an artwork so it just you know like it just happens and and I have like a massive archive of work so it's like one piece I might just work on it for like few days or even like a few minutes and it's done and it just sits there for another two years and just like go through the computer and say okay I found it then you know like I work on it again so it's fairly intuitive but most of the time it either starts from a photograph and it can be photographs in the sense the most ridiculous of things you know sometimes I just like I'm just bored so I just go through the you know like photos that's on my phone and I find like an interesting rock part of a rock that's on the corner of a photograph that you know like it's very badly taken and it's like it's like the worst photograph that you can ever take it's not and that becomes like the base for this amazing thing that comes up very very I would say like concept of a pareidolia like when you look at the sky or whatever you know trees clouds you see shapes right right or and you just start to extrapolate, you know, like you make them more clearer and clearer and clearer. So that's why I think for me personally, I think I resonate quite a bit with the AI generated process. Process is also that it's like iterative. So you start with like a noise field kind of thing, and then you start to sort of bring out shapes. So similar pattern, even outside of the AI, that's the process. So it's a iterative process. uh even the even the sort of techniques that I use are just born out of that like you know like just experimenting on photoshop and later on kind of looking back now I can see like okay nowadays these sort of art principles that are going on like symmetry and you know like depth and all that but when I sort of entered it it was not a kind of conscious decision so like it's not like I learned something and then applied it I've just been like you know I was like okay I was like visual I think it's just just guided guided by that you you can kind of see when something looks good right like yeah so that's like the yeah yeah just jumping back into like a mechanos uh one of terence mckenna's quotes uh from one of his talks I think uh the um I think he quotes McKenna, that goes a long way, like McKenna quoting Plato or something, you know. Something he says, you know, when trying to discern what reality is, he thinks like, you know, what's the good, the true and the beautiful, you know. When he says like, what is good? And it's very tricky to figure out what's good. It's very tricky. And what is true? uh it is very difficult to figure out what is true but what is beautiful ah that's not that difficult you can see it you when you see it you know it you know and to quote mckenna again he says you know it's like well if you have bad taste you are doomed forever you know so so something something like that that that uh that sort of the approach and to it is uh fairly intuitive you know like guided by you know like uh um and you know like I I mean I still use like I'm sometimes I use like ratios and this whole I mean even the golden ratio thing you know like I mean I love it but at the same time I was like I just realized there's nothing I can do which is going to be outside of this thing in the first place you know so it doesn't really matter for me to you know like I love to sort of contradict myself, you know, and I think that's where I derive a lot of um kind of uh happiness from so to speak you know being able to contradict myself and uh growth comes from there I mean I mean I mean I mean yeah like I mean I'm an absolute hypocrite in that sense but I think it's uh I mean it's been it's been working out for me so far so let's see I love it. There's so many brilliant parts to that. I always get so excited to hear about someone's creative process and the way they see things and the way they create things. You said you use Photoshop. Do you use Unreal Engine or what are the kind of programs you use to finance things? Photoshop and for AI, Stable Diffusion. And shout out to... uh elo elo elo projects he's on twitter um elo and uh thorman jeremy thorman for creating a amazing uh um ai model called etv um etv and this like uh the latest iteration is etv eight and that just truly unlocked an incredible uh like I was using this bunch of I mean there's still great a lot of great models but this was like something else you know like a true like you know like a it's like a visionary engine kind of like and it's been that's been my like go-to model most of my work has been kind of processed uh through that and yeah great great community once more you know that's where we were kind of uh experimenting like in and out on discord taking the time to do another shout out to some great artists on the digital and nft art space geedra geedra blick uh ferociously amused Natural Warp, Jeff Draubot, Shazgo, that's an amazing community of artists. I probably missed like a bunch of names but you know like so that's that's been something it almost and when there's times that when we used to spend quite a bit of time on discord you know like working together yeah just each of us working on our own work and then kind of you know collective kind of learning and I feel like that has been extended out so yeah when somebody learns something uh we kind of learn it too you know like I don't have to kind of learn it from scratch again to again one of not making uh rupert rupert shelldrake with the morphogenetic the idea of who's called morphogenetic remorphic resonance so like so if i do some cool art thing and I discover something I feel like that's been sort of not just me you know like that knowledge is shared among like a field and like all like another bunch of artists so anyone who has access to it or that kind of intuition you know like intuition is not like a personal thing it's like a you know like a field so to speak so I think yeah So yeah, the process is that, and Photoshop, stable diffusion, and for animations I use like After Effects. And, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, it's like I can barely kind of keep it together in the with the two d you know like yeah ghidra does some incredible like three d work and it just you know it's just like you know like I just look at some some of some like great three d work and I'm like ah okay like okay and uh lane again lane he's on twitter he has some incredible three d work I just look at it I'm like okay Maybe it's time for me to just stop doing this and I'm just going to go watch some TV for some sanity, you know. So it's like that. But definitely, it's really something that I'm looking into and collaborations. That's something that I've been working on. I think the tools are pretty much out there now and it's accessible to anyone. and even even here in sri lanka some of my close friends and artists that I've been like working with for a while they've some of them adapted like ai like incredibly fast you know like who are who have not been sort of artists or anything they've been like people who've been writers who have adapted AIR because they have the know-how of the language. And they've been like, I'm like, how the hell did you do this? It's just like, what do you mean? They're like, yeah, they still can't draw for shit, but for somehow you know like you know like picking up like a you know like still be like drawing stick figures but with ai they just uh are like masters you know like so yeah so it's tools and Tools are brilliant. And I think there's something, just to double back on that, in a recent conversation with another one of my friends, and it was, we did a small exhibition here in Sri Lanka some time back, with an artist collective, and I had some of my work, and this whole AI art, what about it, do you think You know, like, how much of it is the computer, how much of it is you? You know, like, kind of thing came up. And then I was trying, on the fly, I was trying to figure out what to say about that. And I feel like there is the best example I could come up with. Let's say if you have a piece of charcoal and you are drawing with the piece of charcoal. And over the years, over the years, or the time you spend with the material, you find there is some kind of... um intuitive kind of there's something that the charcoal says back to you kind of you know there's a sort of material intelligence yes that you know that you can listen to uh so similarly I think in days like so kind of like there's something inherent thing uh with all materials so that's I think that's where I will like the more you use it as I think that is why when you say we are kind of gaining experience or expertise is not just us but it is that sort of material speaking back you know I think there is something like that within the computers and the digital tools as well you know so there's a there's an inherent intelligence within the material itself so the tools we use are not just inanimate things you know it's just uh it's just we haven't spent enough time with them or something like that so so I feel like really that's where you know like I even with even with the ai stuffs that's what I'm trying to do I'm just trying to spend more time with it you know like yeah and that's where it comes from I guess in a sense like just like people or anything else you know it's time it's a matter of it's a matter of time and when it comes to art and the expression I think it's and it's definitely something beyond you know like or beyond or it's more than us or me or anything like that the same relationship that I have with my creative tool I feel like something is having with me when I'm working on the artwork So it's like, yeah, so that's that. I'm just trying to move through that. And at the same time, you know, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you got to pay your bills, you know? And find a way to do that as well. And find a way to sort of channel that into, you know, like, recently I had like a trip and I was like you know I was like wait a minute all these uh you know like you do you do like a good dose of uh acid then you kind of like you know like wow this dimension that dimension and all that stuff this trip I was like no I'm gonna trip on acid and I'm going to work on my finances you know I'm trying to get my life together you know I mean what's this all this time I'm doing mushrooms Mushrooms have never told me about how I should, you know, like get my, you know, like mundane life together. Like, okay, I'm done with, okay, just let's pause the unlocking the mysteries of the universe and for a bit. What can you tell me about, you know, like next month's phone bill, you know, like what do I do, you know, guide me there, you know. So and it's been great and it's kind of like you know like uh again you know it's uh it's it's that you know like bringing that uh playfulness and uh you know kind of uh you know like that fun element into the whole experience and you know like uh it's like super serious but at the same time it doesn't mean it has to be you know not fun and then I think that's where that's why I like the side story again but um I've seen some of these like buddha images you know like uh that has like a slight grin on the mouth right I'm like what's this been all about you know so it's kind of like that so some of the stories that I've been told is like it's I think that moment of enlightenment also there is like a dream kind of realization but it looks like realization of ultimate truth is like damn it, it was this all this time? If there is one thing for sure that I can guarantee in all my kind of trips and cyclic experiences is that the universe truly does have a sense of humor. Truly does have a good sense of humor. You know, I'm blown away by so much of just learning how to use the tools, seeing them. But when you spoke on community, I have only begun to stumble upon some of the great artists in the NFC community on X. I think it's like the next salon. In my opinion, the most creative artists that are really pushing the edge are on that NFT community. There are so many talented people that are putting out so much incredible work and they're all working together and they're willing to share and inviting people in to help. It's such a stellar community. Most definitely. I think that's been one of the strongest points for me being in Sri Lanka. for a long time since I came back pretty much from like twenty twelve onwards I mean whatever interactions that I've had with the art community but it's always been like you know like it's uh very less I don't they I don't have an affinity group of artists with the whole very similar interests and all that here and that's where I mean through nfts and blockchain and x And that's where I found my community. So I truly felt what exactly the kind of internet and this whole networking thing has in store. So, you know, it kind of really gave me hope and pulled me kind of out of that. I was like, okay, now I'm not, like, I don't, I was like, you know, what is this, you know, there is the people who are doing all this artwork. I was like, oh, shit, there they are. I no longer even, you know, it's no longer even a concern, you know, like, so. true yeah cutting cutting edge uh yeah I think like you know almost it's like kind of being at the fringes you know yeah and we are always you know like uh pushing uh you know like uh pushing outwards yeah yeah like this like the eternal fringe so to speak you know like because you wouldn't want to get comfortable in the same place and then like moment you like find something great and it works you would want to stay there for a little bit you know experience it but then you just move forward again you know like so that that amount of kind of innovation and passion and being able to sort of connect with the community of people who are that sharing that is has been through uh to the through the internet through nfts blockchain space I'm pretty sure there is uh like uh I mean it's probably like the same community when it comes like physical artwork and all that also but for me being in sri lanka I mean I don't have that opportunity and all that so for me uh to access that I think I mean I mean it's a technological solution that I've been able to come to terms with so I think uh yeah I mean for I mean the word community gets thrown around a lot in twitter and all that but there is once you kind of see past all that there is like a very strong sense of community oh I mean guess what I mean that speaks to itself because this meeting yeah the other other meeting and this podcast is a result of that itself right yeah so yeah sorry I interrupted you go ahead yeah No, not at all. I'm just curious to get your thoughts on what do you think, or in your opinion, what is the difference between LSD, acid, or, say, mushroom? Do you have an affinity for one, or do you feel like you learn different things on one, or are they slightly different states, or what do you think? I think they are quite... They have similarities, for sure, in the experience itself, but let's say, I mean, LSD, acid, I mean... uh we say and uh acid is the I mean my my I have an affinity for acid I really like uh lsd um mushrooms I mean not to say that I don't like the other ones but you know like if I had to if I had like a if I had to pick I would always go for the I think it's a it's kind of personal preference maybe you know like uh but uh and DMT. That's the kind of the holy grail of things. I mean, I've just had like two trips so far, but I think they have been, I mean, again, these are, that's the thing, since these are like kind of substances that are still illegal and there's so much of difficulty in getting hands on them, so I haven't been able to, but... otherwise I think I think there are differences but but also quite a bit of similarities also but yeah so I would say uh yeah like top well yeah for me it's always going to be like acid because I've been able to do a lot of like that's that's where I have my most experience in working with the other ones not so much but I would say mdma is also something that I really enjoy that has like really incredible potential I have I mean I would not know to talk about its sort of physiological implications or anything I'm definitely not qualified to do that to any of these things but you know like uh you know on an experiential level I would say I mean they have similarities even among the like visual experiences a good way to actually approach this if you are familiar with the qri uh qualia research institute by emil um on x please check it out qri incredible so they are working on you know like part of the thing is about these cyclic experiences is that they are so profound and all the time but we don't have the language to talk about it right so you ask someone how how was the trip and they're like man it was like uh you uh you know like it's like whoa it was great you know it's like what for like seventeen hours of your trip that's all you have to say like oh no it's like okay it's like what do we uh say you know like so to be able to uh kind of recognize the visuals the trailing patterns and say like okay I experienced the training. So that is one level of visuals. Then you experience like a close tie visuals of like a kaleidoscope. You have a terminology for it. So then you kind of are able to talk to someone and say like, OK, like I was doing this. And then in this point in time, I had this experience. So kind of like building the building, that language that we can kind of just kind of little bit past that stage of just being astonished by it and wordless you know like I mean I mean it's difficult to talk about but how else are we going to talk about it you know like without language so building that vocabulary and I think what the like through psychedelic art and uh what all of us artists are doing is building that uh kind of vocabulary you know I think yeah kudos to alex gray for kind of uh you know like just building that kind of framework uh for being able to kind of like a guide almost or to be able to kind of look through It's such a brilliant point. When I hear you explain it and coming off my own experiences, like the geometrical images you see, the visions you see, it sort of is like an alien language trying to teach us how to speak, how to communicate. And if you look at the world, language is our best asset. and it really helped us communicate in the world, I really feel like we're only beginning to speak. Like we've only learned like adjective. We haven't even learned how to put sentences together yet. And the psychedelic experience is teaching us like, okay, you guys have mastered the adjective. Now we're going to put a noun in here and it's going to come together and you're going to learn to speak. Yeah, it's definitely, most definitely, yeah. It's unbelievable to me, like, just to see where we're at and through the artwork that's coming out of all the communities and to see all the people out there. And I got to say, Nuan, I put all the links to your work in the show notes, and I would encourage everybody within the sound of my voice to go down and click on it, to reach out to you, because I think that the work you're putting out there, for me, it's mind-blowing. I love to experience it, and I want to say thank you for that. for creating that and totally honest yeah yeah it's amazing and shout out to the entire nft nft community oh yeah doing this same thing man they're doing great incredible work and um but as we're as we're coming up on this hour right here no I just want to give you an opportunity to first off I want to say thank you and kill and give you an opportunity where can people find you what do you have coming up and what are you excited about So most of my work is on my website nuwanshilpa.com and if anyone wants to reach out they can just sort of directly reach out through my email or pretty much every day. I think I'm like an I'm addicted to twitter but I think this is one of those you know like healthy uh you know who said who whoever said that social media was bad has never you know truly experienced it I think you know kind of like that so I'm always open to conversation and uh you know like uh conversation collaboration all sorts uh easiest to reach is through my email or uh twitter My work is on my website. I'm actually working on trying to get my work into like physical stuff. So like large scale prints and all that at the moment. So hopefully soon. So that's part of my like long term plan. I was like, yeah, now I'm felt like, OK, now I'm getting somewhere, now I need to kind of pick it up a notch and get into the whole merch thing and all that. So that will be happening soon. But yeah, through X and my email and through the website would be the best way to get in touch. And I'm always welcome conversation at any time. I love it okay well Nuon hang on briefly afterward but to everybody else within the sound of my voice I hope you have a beautiful day I hope you go and you check out all of Nuon's work I hope you decide to kind of turn your head towards the world of artistic movement and I think that the world will open up in front of you ladies and gentlemen that's all we got for today I hope you have a beautiful day aloha all right thank you