An ethereal blend of dark purples and blues adorn the Instagram feed of PHAZED, whose artwork celebrates connection, sensuality, and feminine gratification. The monochromatic designs are interrupted by bright shades of reds and oranges, symbolizing warmth and pleasure, creating depth to his intricate portrayals of bodies intertwined.
With nearly 200k followers on the platform, he has gained a loyal international fanbase from his home base in Ottowa, Canada. But, even hundreds of thousands of followers do not exempt him from censorship laws. As you scroll through his myriad of posts, there is one underlying pattern: a thin black bar placed atop areas deemed private. His captions always push the viewer towards his linktree to see the uncensored versions.
On Instagram specifically, nudity is only allowed “in photos of paintings and sculptures.” If PHAZED was to redact the black bar and bare his original artwork, complete with women’s nipples (gasp!), the post would be immediately deleted, disallowing for any engagement or revenue from his art. These excessive restrictions follow the introduction of FOSTA-SESTA, controversial bills set in motion to curb online sex trafficking, but have held negative implications for artists who rely on social media to gain a following and profit off of their work. “Whenever they take down my art or censor me, I make a big deal out of it, hoping that we might be able to change this culture of incessant censoring over time,” PHAZED told Vice back in 2015.
I first followed PHAZED four years ago, and have since been interested in who he is behind his art, and how he grapples with Instagram’s guidelines over his creations. Though I have never met him in person—or even know what he looks like due to his nonexistent personal appearance across his social media accounts—he struck me as soft-spoken and cautious upon our first conversation. In a series of exchanges over Instagram DMs, complete with smiley faces and copious apologies for both of our lagging responses, he explained to me that he rarely does interviews. This fact didn’t seem to suppress his answers, though, as he was extremely vulnerable and responsive to my questions, opening up about far more than just censorship.
This interview is edited for length and clarity.
SHAME: If you’re comfortable sharing, what is your name and age?
PHAZED: I am 32 years old, and my real name is Jean-Francois Painchaud. [Painchaud prefers not to use his proper legal name online as an extra security measure.]
SHAME: When did you get into art?
PHAZED: I started making art [when] I was a kid. My mom introduced me very early on, as she is also an artist. She also got me into piano at an early age, which led to my interest in making electronic music later on. I kept drawing traditionally (on paper) until the day I tried digital art with a tablet and a computer, which I fell in love with.
SHAME: How has Instagram's censorship affected you and your brand?
PHAZED: Facebook and Instagram have caused me the most issues over time with censorship, but thankfully I have not lost my pages yet. I simply post my work censored these days while providing links to my uncensored work. I do not feel safe posting my more erotic artwork on these platforms, so I leave it to my Twitter page and other platforms.
SHAME: What are the inspirations behind your pieces?
PHAZED: At a young age, I was mostly inspired by video games. I was not particularly drawing with a purpose, but just for fun and to try and improve my technical abilities. In time, I became more and more interested in drawing portraits, and real people I'd known. It's also how I ended up in my first romantic relationship; drawing a portrait of someone I had a crush on in school led me into a two-year relationship.
To give a better idea of what I was going through, I was struggling with social anxiety and depression for most of my early life due to childhood trauma and simply being a weird person that didn't fit in. It eventually took me down a path where I met a friend who introduced me to magic mushrooms [psilocybin] to see if it would help with my social anxiety and depression. That one psychedelic experience I had was life-changing—it seemed to have resolved my social anxiety entirely and greatly reduced my depression to a point where I felt I could finally see and feel the world in color again, and that I could trust people and connect with people without feeling like they are a threat.
This changed my art style over time, and my art became far more psychedelic. I think it started off unconsciously as I was trying to incorporate into my art how much of an impact I felt this psychedelic experience had on my life without being able to talk about it much publicly due to it being taboo. Something about this also changed how I experienced intimacy and sexuality for the better. I believe an artist is often attempting to express what is repressed at an individual level, or at the level of the collective, stepping into the unconscious or the unknown, and bringing back something from it into the conscious, to re-integrate what has been repressed.
For years, I drew more and more psychedelic-themed art, and I believe this is because I felt psychedelics were repressed and needed to be re-integrated into culture in a positive light for medical use for mental health. As time went on, it became less taboo and more accepted in culture, which I think is in part how my art began tilting more and more towards erotica and intimacy.
SHAME: What draws you to creating erotica-centered art?
PHAZED: I think what is currently repressed at the level of the individual and culturally is our intimacy and sexuality. Something appears to be deeply wrong in our current times when it comes to relationships, sexuality, and intimacy, possibly due to pornography, dating apps, and platforms like OnlyFans. We may be losing touch with what real intimacy is between two people, and this worries me.
I would never claim that I actually understand what I am doing or why I am drawing what I am drawing, but this is my best guess at the moment for what inspires me. Currently, I am drawing a lot of erotica and intimacy, with remains of my previous passion for psychedelic themes, which has led to this genre I have coined as "Sexydelic," as a kind of silly name for it.
SHAME: Is art your primary source of income?
PHAZED: For a while, it was all from my career in the animation industry, but in April 2021, I finally managed to quit my job to jump into making art full-time. So far, it's been working out well! I am mostly earning income from prints/merch sales from my Society6 shop, from Patreon, and the big game-changer has been collectors in the crypto space who have been buying my art as NFTs.
People can say whatever they want about NFTs and the crypto space, but the fact is, collectors in this space have contributed life-changing support for me doing what I love doing for a living, and I know many artists who have experienced this life-changing support as well from collectors in this space.
SHAME: Do you have a favorite piece?
PHAZED: I don't personally have a favorite piece of my own artwork. I don't actually reflect much on what I make—I detach myself rather quickly as soon as I finish and post my artwork and move on to the next thing. I know I have pieces that are far better than others, but I don't have favorites. The bad pieces are just as important as the good ones, as they often lead me to improve my work.
SHAME: Can you tell me a little bit about what you do outside of art?
PHAZED: Outside of my art, I am often finding myself researching psychology, philosophy, and subjects relating to mental health. I also enjoy making music, although I haven't posted anything new in a little while. I live on my own, and I enjoy the company of my two cats. I love cooking, playing video games, working out, and going for long walks.
I am trying to find some internal peace and be grateful for the good in my life, as, by default, I tend to easily slip into pessimism or nihilism, so it’s a constant effort on my part to be more optimistic, grateful, and to believe everything I do matters. To believe in my free will instead of everything being predetermined. I am working on myself and hoping if I can keep on the right path, I may be lucky enough to find myself a partner to spend the rest of my life with.