In 2021, I am working for the Solana Foundation as one of its first contractors, on design, branding and community management. I also contribute to projects such as Degen Ape Academy and Aurory, with visuals and marketing activations. It is in this ecosystem that I meet my future business partner and begin wanting to create a world of my own.

Lucid Drakes will become my artistic legacy, but also an adventure that will change me as an artist, entrepreneur, father and business partner.

At first, we plan a collection of 10,000 characters generated from a shared silhouette and accessories assembled by a script. I like that framework: a fixed starting point, plenty of freedom within it.

I start drawing the elements and send assembled characters to my co-founder to show him what I am working on. Looking at those first images, we realise that each one is taking its own direction. What I am creating makes us want to rethink the project.

So instead of producing 10,000 variations of the same character, we decide to let each Drake become a unique piece.

This shift to unique pieces also lets me introduce a hermetic and symbolic dimension to the project. Number symbolism, invitation by existing members and secrecy become elements of the same language, present in the artworks and in the way people join their circle of collectors.

Acquiring a Drake was meant to be a journey: discovering the project, understanding some of its codes, making connections. Being able to pay was not enough to get one.

I wanted that discovery to begin before someone even owned the artwork. Hidden references invited people to search; joining through existing members brought encounters and trust into play; secrecy kept curiosity alive. The collector gradually entered the world.

This approach allowed us to build quietly, giving the images, conversations and word of mouth time to find their way.

Lucid Drakes grew out of a desire to build and explore my own visual legacy: being able to move between digital painting, 3D, collage and photography.

I brought together my pop culture references, street art and the designer’s instincts I had developed in agencies. Each character lets me explore an idea through several layers of interpretation.

You can stop at the colours and attitude, recognise a childhood memory or a cultural reference, then discover a more personal stance in the details.

The Drakes do not necessarily share the same technique or aesthetic. What connects them is more a way of building an image: layering signs, subverting references and leaving several ways into the same artwork.

#008, El Barto: anatomy of a Drake

#008, El Barto, offers the keys to this approach.

It revisits a familiar scene: Bart being punished at the blackboard, made to copy a lesson that the gag turns on its head. Here, “Gaz fees are scam” shifts the scene towards the rivalry between Ethereum and Solana.

The “Djiiz was here” in Posca slips in my street art past and my rather mixed relationship with school. Even though I ended up spending more than ten years in Master’s programmes, as a teacher this time…

On the visor, Bart’s B is built from upside-down McDonald’s arches. That easter egg carries an idea I care about: a rebellious path can also lead to success. I was thinking particularly of people who had left school and found their way elsewhere.

In this character who refuses to fall into line, I also see the possibility of inventing your own place.

This logic runs through the collection: references echo one another and take on another meaning together. Even the number of pieces, 69, contains a symbolic key.

Some artworks continue the game in their metadata: poems, openings, links to videos or music. These elements invite you to keep exploring beyond the image.

Everyone discovers a part of it according to their curiosity, references and personal history.

For almost a year, we released one drop a week. People were waiting for the character; we still had to surprise them.

I invented accessories, mixed techniques and reworked compositions until the Drake had a presence and something to tell.

That rhythm gradually gave the world an identity strong enough to travel across media, from digital painting to clothing, then animated experiments.

That is the freedom I want to preserve: discovering what my characters can become as the tools evolve, and what they can mean to the people who make them their own.

You can see the complete collection here: Lucid Drakes | Gallery