Third Eye LuSiD with Brandon Arnold & Dean McDonnell
Brandon Arnold and Dean McDonnell are psychedelic creators from St. Louis. Brandon's Third Eye Jewelry blends futuristic vibes with metaphysical intent, using many natural materials (super heady). Dean is the mastermind behind LuSiD, an ever shifting audio-visual experience spanning far beyond conventional genres or expectations (he's a one-man band).
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In this episode
Core themes
Visualization and Creating Your Own Path
Brandon described his creative process as writing down short and long term goals, then feeling as though he had already achieved them and imagining the results in his head. He credited his upbringing, saying his mother and stepdad met at a metaphysical school that taught Reiki and other healing arts, and that his parents told him college was never a necessity. Brandon explained that he started full time as an artist with little formal training, then added about 120 credit hours of art classes and specialized jewelry workshops over roughly eight years.
Electroforming and Energy in Metaphysical Jewelry
Brandon walked the show through Third Eye Jewelry, explaining that electroforming used chemistry and electricity to grow copper around objects such as honeycomb from his own beehive and crystals. He said he liked the science behind it and encouraged kids to stay curious about it. Brandon described a set of knives with teeth on the handle, saying their message was that energy is a full circle, so anyone who dealt damage would take some in return. Chance added that copper was good for circulation.
Selling Without Tricks and Pricing Custom Work
Brandon said he had always been outgoing and never liked pushing sales, preferring to tell booth visitors to touch the pieces and pick things up. He explained that most of his sales and buzz came through Instagram and Facebook, and that he often did not post a piece until it sold. On custom orders, Brandon said he only accepted ideas he found interesting and had time for, and that good custom work was expensive. Chance argued that clients paid for the experience behind the skill, not only the hours.
Dean on Making Music and Streaming Platforms
Dean introduced himself as a musician who played guitar, bass, didgeridoo, piano, and sang, and who played drums on a keyboard live. He said he made music because it gave him something that never ended, and that he stockpiled songs so a quiet release stretch caused less stress. Bandcamp came up as the best way to support him, and Dean said a monthly membership there cost 4.19 dollars, while he complained that SoundCloud charged him a fee before he could earn anything. He also described a new album and his Lucid TV videos.
NFTs, Art Basel, and Airship Banter
Dean said he and Brandon planned to join the NFT wave, calling NFTs not a real thing but still worth something because people believed they were. He described seeing an immersive 3D piece at Art Basel in Miami, projected on a giant curved LED wall and viewed with simple 3D glasses, as the most incredible visual experience of his life. Later the group joked about a mock rock pile documentary, talked about a trip to Egypt and the size of the pyramid blocks, and imagined an airship tour paid for with NFT money.
Quotes
“I knew the creative process of thinking what you want to create. You can write down short term, long term goals, but then the actual steps in creating, like feeling like you've already done it and just imagining in your head that you already have all this stuff.”
“Man, you stop and you were forced to stop. And it was such a nice breath for a while where we were just like, oh, thank goodness you can finally just chill, because before you couldn't stop because you had to keep going. You had already planned all these art fairs and festivals and shows.”
“I was really into sculpture, but it's hard to transport sculptures. So I started getting into jewelry because it's tiny. And I can put it in a case and I can travel around the world because I like to travel.”
“I'm not saying that these should be used in that way, but that's the concept and the message behind these pieces, that energy is full circle. So if you deal some damage, you're also going to get damage.”
“I've always just been myself. I've always been really outgoing. I've obviously learned some tricks over the years, but honestly, I don't really like to be tricky when I'm selling. I tell people when they walk in my booth, hey, man, touch the stuff, pick things up.”
“It's not just the time you put into the art or the piece or the service. It's that if you're full time with that and then all the experience that it required for you to get to that skill level, they need to be paying you for you to be who you are for your lifestyle.”
“I don't even tell you when I play your music at the end of my shows. I always shout you out and link it, but it's probably like once a month because there's always some new shit coming. It makes it easy to pick because I'm just picking something I'm into anyway.”
“You're the type of guy that will show the example of why it's maybe a good idea to not do the mainstream version of like turning kids into shithead slaves.”
“Stockpiling is the way to go because then I don't feel so stressed when I don't have anything at all. It feels just like the worst, no new music. And I'm like, what am I doing with my life? Like failing, it really does get pretty dire.”
“I love when anybody plays it anywhere. I really don't give a fuck. So I love that it's being played.”
“I hate that I got to pay them $16 for me to be even getting paid at all. So then you got to make that $16 back just to get it back to zero. It's like, come on, guys. You can't even make money off it unless you're paying them.”
“So we were at Art Basel this week, and this is the reason I'm uploading this NFT, because we saw something that was the most incredible visual experience I've ever experienced in my life, dude. I'm not kidding.”
Kyle and Serena Denton are community herbalists creating wild-crafted and organic plant medicines out of Milwaukee since 2015. I have used their teas and tinctures on an almost daily basis for years now. Kyle is a great friend of InnerVerse and has appeared on the channel more times than I can count. These products work, not in the allopathic "pharma-medicine" way, but in a terrain-support, consciousness bolstering plant-teacher sort of way.
