Art News

First-ever NFT digital artwork from legendary Texas artist up for auction

The original artwork was discovered after Daniel Johnston's death.

Courtesy of the Daniel Johnston Estate

Fans of legendary Austin songwriter and artist Daniel Johnston can now collect a truly unique piece of his work.

For the first time ever, the Johnston family and the Daniel Johnston Estate will release one of Johnston's previously unseen original works of art — titled Daniel Johnston is Alive Somewhere — as a nonfungible token, or NFT.

NFTs are digital tokens tied to assets — like rare art — that can be bought, sold, and traded. The Daniel Johnston is Alive Somewhere NFT will be offered exclusively via a 24-hour auction through the Foundation.app platform beginning Friday, April 9 at 2 pm. The piece is one in a series of NFTs Johnston's estate plans to release.

While the medium may be a bit more state-of-the-art than collectors of Johnston's works are used to, the original piece, discovered after the artist’s death, is unmistakably Johnston, featuring a multi-colored army of his signature "friendly frogs" backed by a keyboard excerpt from Johnston's perfectly eccentric "Fly Eye" groove from his 1985 musical release, Continued Story.

Even better: The frogs, whose animated eyes blink, seemingly ask, "Hi, how are you?" then reply, "Fine, thank you."

"The foundation for this piece is an original Daniel drawing that was found shortly after his passing in 2019 — a message to us all that his spirit is very much alive," says Dick Johnston, brother of the unconventional and beloved artist.

Johnston was born in California and died in Waller, Texas, but Austin was his adopted hometown, and his influences and art remain a quintessential and exceptional part of the city's culture and lore, his best-known piece being the Hi, How Are You mural — featuring his trademark frog — on The Drag. (And if you don't know the work we're referring to, you might start with a viewing of the wonderful documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston.)

"I often say, only half-joking, that Daniel was the original file sharer," says Johnston's longtime manager, Tom Gimbel. "He would walk up to people on the street and say, 'Hi, how are you? I'm Daniel Johnston and this is my new album,' and hand them a cassette. What was most important to Daniel was for the world to receive and enjoy his art and music. He was always open to embrace new technologies if it was a way to deliver more art."

Coinciding with the release of the first Johnston NFT, the Johnston Estate is also launching a new website that will sell a gallery of Johnston's original pen and colored-marker drawings.

And if after reveling in all that art you still haven't gotten your Daniel Johnston fix, head down to Austin, to The Contemporary's Jones Center, which will host an exhibit titled “Daniel Johnston: I Live My Broken Dreams,” the first major museum survey of visual art and music created by the artist. It runs from September 11, 2021 through May 20, 2022, and is sure to be a fitting tribute to a creative Austin genius.

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Season of Love

Dallas-Fort Forth theater stars 'sleigh' with original holiday album

Cherish Love Robinson Love's Holiday album

Photo by Jordan Fraker

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Move aside, "Jingle Bells." Members of Dallas-Fort Worth's theater community have debuted a new holiday album full of original songs, all spearheaded by singer/musician Cherish Love Robinson.

"A few friends invite me to their annual Christmas parties, and I’m usually the last one to leave, hanging out at the piano with a group of others, singing holiday classics," she says. "Every year, I promise myself I’ll record a Christmas song, but either I remember too late or forget altogether. Then in January, after watching a documentary about Quincy Jones producing ‘We are the World,' I realized I’d been wanting to do this for years."

Titled Love's Holiday, the nine-song album was recorded, mixed, and mastered entirely in Dallas (in the digital liner notes, Robinson dedicates a special shout-out to Oak Cliff). Robinson fully composed and produced all the tunes, with rapper Cya Fix collaborating on the song "Better."

"I didn’t want to hassle with licensing or digging for public domain songs, so I made the decision to create original material instead," she says. "I just started writing like a madman and didn’t stop until June."

The song list spans comedic — "A Birthday Christmas," "Broseph & Mary" — to soulful with "I Pray" and sassy with "Slayeigh." Songs like "RSVP" and "Home" evoke classic Christmas vibes.

Frequent theatergoers will likely recognize many of the singers, including Justin Locklear, Lee Walter (as Jada Pinkett Fox), Brett Warner, Quintin Jones, David Lugo, and Dallas Theater Center Brierley Acting Company members Blake Hackler and Sally Vahle.

Area musicians like pianists Rebecca Lowrey and Cody Dry, guitarist Ian Ferguson, bassist Benjamin Brown, and fiddler Kat Glaze lend their talents as well, with Robinson herself accompanying several songs on keyboard and percussion.

"When I sat down to think about who I wanted to collaborate with, I was lucky that everyone I asked said yes," Robinson shares. "I didn’t just want to work with talented singers; I wanted to bring in musicians who really inspire me as well."

Cherish Love Robinson.Photo by Jordan Fraker

Some of Robinson's notable onstage work includes The Witch in DTC's production of Into the Woods, Doloris Van Cartier in WaterTower Theatre's Sister Act, the rock musical Hundred Days at Circle Theatre, and Theatre Three's original musical Solstice, which she also co-composed.

Robinson's voice and vocal production have been featured on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and HBO’s Big Little Lies, with superstars Erykah Badu and The Roots of The Tonight Show, and on The Colbert Show as a background singer. As a producer, she has crafted and arranged vocals for artists such as Elle King, The Texas Gentlemen, and Paul Cauthen.

"My favorite time of year starts with my birthday in October, and it spans all the way through the holidays until New Year's Day," Robinson says. "Those months are absolutely my favorite. I have to remind myself not to start listening to holiday music too early!"

Love's Holiday is available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, and can be purchased for digital download here.

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