THE WHOLE ENTIRE UNIVERSE w/ Anik Malcolm – Ep. 1 ft. Alex Schaefer

ANIK MALCOLM (Host): Without any further ado, it is my sincere pleasure to introduce Alex Shafer. Alex is a familiar contributor to the Bitcoin art world with his plein air images of blazing fiat institutions, and he’s also been a fixture of the broader art world for many years in Los Angeles and beyond, with a strong following on X and Instagram.

Alex, how are you?

ALEX SHAFER: I’m great.

Chalk, Arrest, and Why Banks Learned to Ignore Him

ANIK: Straight off the bat — are you the only artist who’s ever been arrested for doing sidewalk chalk?

ALEX: As far as I know, yes. I’ve been arrested for different stuff too, but yeah — twelve hours in jail in downtown LA. Quite an experience.

It was around Occupy Wall Street in 2011. People were protesting in different places. For me, the focus was always the banks and the money — the root of the problem. I was lucky to find someone to film it, edit it, and get everything on video. As soon as word got out, a lawyer reached out pro bono.

At the time, LA was going hard on anyone protesting. The whole sidewalk chalk thing felt like such a no-brainer — because it’s literally chalk. At the end of the video it’s like: where’s the criminal damage?

ANIK: What did they officially hold you for?

ALEX: They tried to treat it like vandalism, but it didn’t stick. It was comical.

After that, I think the banks’ strategy toward me became: ignore. When the cops stopped me and then Homeland Security came to my studio, it turned into a huge story. I think they realized the more they tried to persecute me, the worse they looked.

In a way, that becomes part of the work: the performance, the act, and the repercussions. Where do the legal limits lie? What is protest?

I wasn’t thinking through every angle at the time. I was deep into plein air painting — taking supplies out, painting in public. I lived downtown, I was used to spectators. It felt like the perfect mix.

The overarching point in my paintings is to get people to direct their anger not at each other across the spectrum, but up at the root of the problem. The degradation of money touches everything — desperation, conflict, social breakdown.

Public Reactions

ANIK: When you paint in public, how do people respond to seeing your version of a burning institution?

ALEX: It’s crazy. Someone painting on the street is already unusual. People stop, look, then double-take and turn around like “Whoa.”

The last time I went out a couple weeks ago, people were basically cheering. And I’m convinced now the banks mostly ignore me. Anything they do makes them look worse.

I painted across from Bank of America — the security guard gave me a thumbs up.

ANIK: That says a lot.

ALEX: Early on, though, there was panic. A friend at a gallery introduced me to a guy from Ohio who worked high up at a Chase branch in Cleveland. He saw my burning-Chase paintings and his eyes almost popped out. He said the company sent an email to the entire list — total panic mode.

If I’m being conspiratorial, I wouldn’t be surprised if they used predictive policing — watching my phone location and trying to guess which bank I’d paint next.

Logos, Lawyers, and Depicting Reality

ANIK: You haven’t gotten legal threats for depicting logos?

ALEX: I haven’t personally. But I know an artist who paints realistic LA scenes — diners, chain stores — and he painted a sign perfectly. Lawyers sent a cease-and-desist for painting the logo.

After that he’d paint the sign so it suggested the brand but the letters were wrong — like it was AI.

Alex’s Background

ANIK: You’ve got a wide range beyond the bank paintings. Can you talk about your early beginnings and how you became a full-time painter?

ALEX: I’ve always loved the French Impressionists, the London School, Bay Area figurative painters — painterly painting.

I graduated art school in Pasadena in ’92 — illustration major. I did freelance illustration for magazines like Mother Earth News, LA Reader, Hustler — all kinds of different work. I even did a children’s book (The Wizard, written by Bill Martin Jr.).

Then I got absorbed into video games around ’93. In school it was basically: freelance illustrator or Disney. Nobody foresaw how big games would be. We had no Photoshop training, no digital art — learned on the job.

I worked at Disney about five years, then Insomniac Games about five years. We made Spyro the Dragon — around ’95–’96.

ANIK: What was the work like technically?

ALEX: Texture tiles were literally 16×16 pixels. You’d make wood grain, stone, grass — at that size.

I made good money, but I always kept painting. I tell artists: don’t quit your day job. You can do both.

Later I transitioned out of games, started substitute teaching at my alma mater, then got a full-time teaching position at ArtCenter. Taught there about 14 years — foundation painting, drawing, digital landscape. Teaching pulled me back into my roots.

And I was still teaching at ArtCenter when I did the first bank paintings.

ANIK: When was the first one?

ALEX: June/July 2011 — about two months before Occupy Wall Street. It was the zeitgeist. I caught the wave right at the edge.

Galleries: How It Really Works

ALEX: One thing I tell young artists: you don’t get into established galleries by cold-calling with a portfolio. Big galleries get endless people walking in saying “look at my work.” In my experience, galleries approach you — or you’re in an inner circle through friends and networks.

Bitcoin Art World vs Blue-Chip Art World

ANIK: You’ve seen both. What’s the biggest difference?

ALEX: Mainstream galleries are more concept-driven — ideas over images. It’s a battle between images and words.

The Bitcoin art world feels more traditional and younger. I might be one of the oldest artists in it — I’m 69. I feel fortunate I came into it when I did, because I was already grounded.

Bitcoin art doesn’t have to be literal. It can encapsulate the sentiment without painting logos everywhere.

Staying Fresh as an Artist

ALEX: There’s subject matter, and there’s approach. People ask, “Don’t you get tired of painting the same thing?” The subject might repeat, but the approach changes — more realistic, more expressionistic, experimenting with surface.

If “how you paint” fascinates you, you won’t burn out as fast as if it’s only “what you paint.”

The Blue-Chip Art Market

ALEX: I don’t have much respect for a lot of blue-chip gallery culture. A lot of it is a function of the financial system.

I know someone who worked in art shipping and handling for major collections. In those homes, a million-dollar painting can’t even be moved wall-to-wall without a professional handler because of insurance.

And there are games: buy something for $8,000, label it $20,000, then donate it to a museum and claim a $20,000 write-off. It’s ugly.

Process: Why Paintings Need Humanity

ANIK: Seeing your work in person was surprising — on screen it looks meticulous. In real life it’s painterly and fast, but still creates that illusion. How do you think about that?

ALEX: I want the painting to be good in person — texture, physicality, mistakes, fixing mistakes. There’s a destroy/create back-and-forth.

If it’s too perfect, the soul is missing. Especially now with AI everywhere — people crave the human.

Some painters work like an inkjet printer: tiny detail, row by row. I’m the opposite. I want to cover the canvas quickly, get it all on there, and refine later.

I love light. It’s magic: paint can look luminous with no electricity. Representational painting is a magic trick — fooling the brain that’s wired to read light.

Color is the hard part. People think they need perfect line first, then color — but a perfect drawing can become a cage. Most of the likeness and beauty is in color.

Let a painting be wrong. Degas is a great lesson — so many works feel unfinished, but alive. Sometimes a brushstroke isn’t “right” but has energy. Let it dry.

Work Habits

ALEX: If you put a stopwatch on a painting, maybe it’s 20 hours of actual work — but it might live in my studio for months. I keep five to ten paintings going. When one dries, I can return and solve a problem cleanly. Layering gives a surface that’s captivating in person.

One way isn’t better — just know your temperament.

ANIK: Alex, thank you so much — your time, your insight, your work, and your stories.

ALEX: Thank you for having me. Really good to be with you all.