The genesis for the entire raffle project came at a time when Mad King was making a series of mirrored paintings, which weren’t getting the exposure or traction he was looking for.  His younger brother Anders suggested that if he wanted to get more instagram followers he should paint a shiba inu instead of kittens to tie into the meme culture and the crypto community. His immediate response was that if it brought wider exposure for his work he’d make a painting just to give it away… and raffling it for a noble cause even better.  Another friend suggested if he was gonna raffle might as well make other prizes “gamify” it properly, which seemed simple enough though the project continued to grow in depth and complexity… not to mention the unexpected legal hurdles just to be able to raffle off some art for the benefit of multiple charities.

At around this time with Beeple’s sale of Everydays for millions and NFTs getting a lot of traction in the news people kept suggesting he should mint some NFTs and cash in.  Philosophically he wasn’t going to make any that didn’t tie into an actual physical object and if he was going to make some it was going to have to be something special.  He then set out to design a painting that could be animated and used for a variety of different pieces of merchandise. He enlisted the help of Kevin Kerndt, dear friend and a regular at his sunday brunches, the first of many friends that he would have to rope into the project. Core to his early brainstorming and development of the project was his “dream team” Rick Boykin, Andrea Li, and Kris Collins (AKA MOVAX). 

TO THE STARS centerpiece and grand prize for the raffle, painted on mirror and wood veneer with a reverse intaglio CNC’d acrylic frame.  The single most expensive painting he has ever made.  Compositionally it is meant to resemble currency and because of his love of remixing some of his work he then made variations based on the color palettes of the world's various currency PLEASE HODL for the US green back, Huhmann TranceFur for the EURO, and s.h.I.b.a I.n.u (so her I be and I now understand) for the YEN and other golden currencies.

He then set out to make 28 different products of merchandise in 7 categories; Giclées, bandanas, pashminas, beach towels, Yoger mats, pins, Deciders.  Moving the project incrementally forward when time and resources allowed. One of the unexpected challenges to the project was just how to legally go about doing this.  He figured being a board member at the Phoenix Asylum, the 501c(3) maker space where his studio is located at, that getting a raffle license would be an easy thing… not the case.  It was only through the dogged persistence of his fellow board members Sam Ley and Madalene Fetsch that this was to be achieved.  This involved having to rewrite the Phoenix Asylum’s bylaws to include raising money for other charities, getting the game master certification, and applying for the raffle license on 5 separate occasions.

Through the course of the project he had to wear many new and different hats some of which were surprisingly ill fitting. Thankfully he was aided by his friends and community; PRYDE DESIGNS for believing in this crazy project and building the raffle site, Crissie Jackson, John Heenan and Erin Morgan with their photography and editing prowess, SP3KTR and Torae Amore aided in designing the pins and coins, Sean Gruchic of Tanzanite Productions tirelessly helped through numerous samples before they found products they liked, Brandon Brown and ((DIVERSE)) offering moral support and their musical prowesses, Eric hegernes helped with building the frame for the painting, Oleksi Burdii with his moral support and keeping it all in perspective, Shana Boutté modelling, Cassandra offering her sex priestess voodoo,  and Brian Smith supplying the giclées.  And of course none of this would have been possible without the help and support of his two very lovely and talented art assistants Cristal Aurelia and Juj Glosserman.