Bryan Brinkman's artwork is digital, colorful, and uniquely personal. The Omaha-born, New York-based animator and former television graphics artist has become a prominent figure in the blockchain art world. Although he is best known for his cute looping animations and clever visual commentary on Web3 culture, Brinkman is no stranger to creative reinvention.
Brinkman was the graphic artist behind the scenes of (The Tonight Show) and began minting NFTs in 2020. His early works were created as GIF animations, blending traditional animation and 3D rendering software, often using elements of motion, repetition, and visual irony. Over time, the scope of his work gradually expanded to encompass code-driven animation, dynamic, and interactive works.
Each of Brinkman's works is part of what he calls a long-term collection. His works are not independent of each other, but rather build on each other and complement each other, forming a layered record of his career and the evolving digital art scene.
He has released portfolios through platforms such as SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, and Art Blocks Curated, and has partnered with artist-centric groups such as The Memes by 6529, Noble Gallery, and ClickCreate.
In a recent conversation with OpenSea, Brinkman talked about how his work has changed since he started minting, what it's like to work full-time in the NFT space, and how he sees long-term preservation in a rapidly evolving digital environment. His perspectives will provide practical insights for artists, collectors, and developers working in or exploring the Web3 space.
Note: This record has been edited for length and clarity.
OpenSea: Let's start from the beginning. You grew up in Omaha, Nebraska - Warren Buffett's hometown and the unofficial center of long-term value investing. How did growing up in the land of Berkshire Hathaway influence your view of money, especially now that you work in the cryptocurrency industry, which is very different from Buffett's style?
Bryan Brinkman: Well, I don't think my upbringing influenced him. You know, in art school, finance is the last thing you learn. My parents were both accountants, so I grew up very frugal. My parents instilled a lot of financial advice in me, teaching me how to save money and how to manage money wisely, but I didn't start getting into investing until a few years after graduating from college.
That being said, Buffett is a really interesting person. I mean, they hold a large shareholders meeting every year, and people fly to Omaha, which is incredible. I know some artists who sell books, merchandise, and more inspired by Warren Buffett, which is like a Warren Buffett fan club full of art, essentially a comic con held just for him, a Buffett convention!
One of the interesting things about the cryptocurrency space is that it turns everyone into a financial expert. Each of us has taken a crash course in investing, taxes, and all sorts of things that I would never have learned outside of this space. Before entering the cryptocurrency space, I bought stocks here and there, doing some very simple things, but as an artist, I had never learned about going long, going short, and all those trading tricks. I've always just been figuring out prices and figuring out how to pay the bills.
OpenSea: Speaking of which, your career has been quite successful so far. Before becoming a full-time digital artist, you produced over 1,600 episodes of animation for (The Tonight Show), made music videos for (Sesame Street), and your short films have been screened at film festivals around the world. Now, you are minting NFTs, exhibiting works at Sotheby's and Christie's, collaborating with ArtBlocks, and curating 'Brinkman Manor' like a personal artist foundation. Do you see your work as a series of independent pieces, or as a long and evolving narrative spanning traditional media and the blockchain today?
Bryan Brinkman: Yes, I personally think that everything I create constitutes a bigger picture, a bigger ecosystem, just like most personal avatar (PFP) projects are a collection of 10,000 items - although my collection currently only has about half of this collection - each project in my entire portfolio is like a trait in this larger whole, so each project is a small piece of a larger puzzle, and that puzzle is the long-term art career I'm building on the blockchain.
And part of this challenge is how to preserve my work. Inspired by the legacy of traditional artists, I started thinking about how to do this on a personal level - whether it's reclaiming some of my work, or retaining a portion of the sales like an artist's sample, or retaining a portion to donate to charity, museums, or trade with other artists.
This approach gives me the flexibility to enjoy my current work while building a bigger picture that can eventually be passed on to my family.
OpenSea: As a digital artist, what does preservation mean to you? Does it mean on-chain storage? Metadata? Or something else?
Bryan Brinkman: I like the idea of permanent preservation through blockchain, but this is not always possible. Some of my work files are 50MB or even larger, and putting high-resolution animations completely on-chain - especially on Ethereum or Bitcoin - is not economically realistic. I will combine the use of IPFS, ARWeave and on-chain minting technologies as much as possible, and I am also working with projects such as OnChainMonkey to try to string together Ordinals inscriptions of animation frames. Although this is cumbersome, I find the technical limitations make me feel fulfilled in creation.
OpenSea: So do you enjoy the challenge of working within these limitations?
Bryan Brinkman: That's right, for example, Ordinals reminds me of the early days of NFTs, when animated GIFs had to be kept under 50MB. You would try to cram as much story as possible into three seconds. This challenge inspired many of my looping creation styles. Now, the same is true of Bitcoin Ordinals. My recent work “FL1CK3R” is essentially an animation pieced together from single-frame inscriptions. It's like a puzzle, but once it's completed, it's very rewarding.
OpenSea: Your early work explored the NFT medium itself. You created some articles on Gas fees, wallet stress, and crypto culture. How has your perspective changed since then?
Bryan Brinkman: At first, I was just documenting my experiences. NFTs were my Sunday hobby while I was working two jobs. Over time, I started to think more about how to build a coherent narrative between works. My 'Self-Assembly' work with Christie's is probably the most 'me' piece. It's a self-portrait made up of past works - visually showing how each piece I create becomes part of the whole. It reminds us that everything we create adds weight to the story we carry.
OpenSea: What role does the community play in your process now, especially since you left your television job?
Bryan Brinkman: The Web3 art community is more creatively stimulating than anything I've ever done. At NBC, you make graphics and maybe see a tweet or YouTube comment. Here, I can receive real-time feedback from collectors, artists, and developers. I have collaborated with dozens of creators - some for artistic creations, some for platform ideas. We have a common motivation and curiosity. You are not just creating art, but also helping to shape the infrastructure of a new medium.
OpenSea: Given this, how do you choose which projects to support?
Bryan Brinkman: I look for projects that feel new, exciting, or that highlight important elements of this space. I try not to advise on too many projects, but I actively provide feedback to platforms because I want to make this space better for everyone. As for my own work, I tend to favor platforms that help with narrative and marketing - it's helpful if someone can help me conceptualize the work, so I don't feel like I'm just self-promoting.
OpenSea: Your work seems to combine humor with more in-depth commentary. Do you think satire is a core part of your art? I want to ask about the Razzlekhan portrait you created for CoinDesk's Most Influential People list. That piece made me laugh - it showed the absurdity in the best way.
Bryan Brinkman: CoinDesk invited me to join their Most Influential People list and assigned me to create a portrait for her. She was one of the people they selected that year, so creating with her as the theme was not my artistic choice, but I went with it. It was fun, and it was interesting that I finally had the opportunity to connect with her and meet her, which was great.
OpenSea: That's crazy. Did she give you any feedback on this piece?
Bryan Brinkman: She said, 'I like the hairstyle - it's just that you made my hair colorful, and my hair itself isn't colorful.' I said, 'Yeah, I know, that's how I used it.' She thought it was okay and generally liked it, but she was a little picky about the hairstyle. She didn't seem to mind that I made the reflection on her sunglasses look like prison bars, which was a relief.
OpenSea: That's great, now let's talk about your broader work, you said (Brinkman Legacy) is about preservation, what does it actually look like? Are you thinking about it from the metadata level? Is all the metadata on the chain with the items in your legacy? How did you make this decision?
Bryan Brinkman: Currently, I have some on-chain projects. The challenge is that artists often create across platforms, so we don't have complete control over how the work is preserved. We need to piece the work together, enhance its stability as much as possible, and prepare for the eventual takedown. The real question is, how do we fix it? This could mean packaging the NFT, re-minting the NFT, or finding other solutions. I've always believed that as long as I'm around, I can fix any problem. That's my interpretation of a 'lifetime guarantee,' but once I die, things get much harder. Hopefully, my legacy and other plans will help someone properly preserve these works.
What initially attracted me to blockchain art was that it would last as long as Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other blockchains continued to run. Hard drives and tapes don't last forever, but as long as the internet and these systems can continue to run, digital art has the opportunity to survive for the long term.
OpenSea: So what's next for your story? What should collectors know? And what can they expect?
Bryan Brinkman: I've been doing some collaborations recently. My collaboration with Josie Bellini and Drifters just came out, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's reaction.
I also just collaborated with Eddie Wharton on a piece - this interactive data art piece depicts my five-year journey working in the NFT space, and you can click through to see my work releases over the past five years, which is a really fun way to look back.
Recently, I've enjoyed finding ways to highlight past works, just like releasing new works. I have several projects launching this summer, and I'm very excited about that. I'm planning a unique exhibition for a gallery, and...and some other things that I probably can't reveal too much about right now. I feel good about this summer. Usually, this season is slower, but now it seems like everything is starting to heat up - who knows?
OpenSea: That's so exciting! Where can everyone follow your work?
Bryan Brinkman: Twitter is best. I also have a collector's edition Discord account and my website bryanbrinkman.com.
OpenSea: Bryan, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights with us. We are very honored to be able to explore your journey and creative vision.
Bryan Brinkman: Thank you for asking these thought-provoking questions. It's always nice to look back on where we've been and look forward to where we're going. I hope everything goes well in the future, and thank you again for interviewing me and inviting me to participate.
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