Tyler Thrasher

This month at Awesome Socks Club, we’re thrilled to spotlight Tyler Thrasher (he/him), a visual artist, storyteller, and citizen scientist whose work blurs the line between science and art. Fascinated by alchemy, crystals, and the strange beauty of the natural world, Tyler’s practice ranges from painting and illustration to hybridizing plants and experimenting with chemical reactions. His October design brings his love of mushrooms and crystals to life in sock form (a perfect fit for the season’s mix of mystery and wonder).

Hi Tyler! In a sentence, how would you describe your work?

My work tends to walk the line between science and art with frequent fluctuations toward both sides. 

Do you have any favorite themes you enjoy working within? 

Esoteric and medieval alchemy are my jam. The narrative and visual elements of old chemistry pursuits have always fascinated me. Something about a bunch of absolutely obsessed and all consumed individuals blowing themselves up in the woods trying to make gold just makes for a great story. 

What mediums do you like to work in?

So many. I paint and illustrate. I enjoy working on wood panels and vellum. Whatever chemicals are in my cabinet such as sulfate salts and silica nano particles; and I also consider my work with plants and hybridizing to be a medium, so pollen, I guess?

As an artist, are there any tools you can’t leave the house without? 

My iPad. I do a lot of conceptualizing and color play on my iPad. I wanna say my sketchbook; I know that’s what I should say, but guess who never uses any of his 200 sketchbooks? 

If you were an environmental storytelling skeleton, how do you think you'd be found?

I would love to think that I perhaps craft my own tomb. In my dying chapter, I ask that my friends and family carry my body to a small cavern I had carved out with a secret guild of modern alchemists at the base of a limestone bluff. Inside are already prepared vats of chromium potassium sulfate. After my loved ones bid me farewell I pull a rope that dumps 300 gallons of crystal solution into the tomb consuming my body with boiling hot water (this will hurt a bit!). I’m encased in crystals. That’s pretty much it. The rest tells itself.

Do you have a dream project you'd like to work on someday?

I’m working on it now. It’s been my absolute dream to one day own a space that I can turn into an alchemical wonderland. I’m occupying a 4,000sq ft studio filled with thousands of glowing flowers, crystallized insects, all of my experiments, and so much more. The best part is this space will be a community asset. It will be a vessel for science communication, workshops, distributing resources to the houseless, and so on.

What is the strangest/goofiest (PG) fact about yourself that you're comfortable sharing?

So, I have a particular way I eat cookies. My friends and family have gone to great lengths to make sure I feel strange about this, but everyone has their specific method. I’ll take the driest, most WWII-rations-type cookie you can think of, like a chips ahoy, and I hold it under milk until it stops breathing (no more bubbles). I pull it out and suck all of the milk out and dunk it one last time to finish it off. This is not a strange or gross thing! I don’t get it. Me sucking the milk out of a cookie is no different than any one of you slurping fruity pebbles milk first thing in the morning!

What drew you to the imagery of October's design? 

Mushrooms and crystals are universally great things. There is no other explanation. I can’t find myself in the same room as someone who thinks mushrooms and crystals aren’t cool.

Can you talk a little about your design process? Where do you draw your inspiration from, and how do you workshop your design from draft to final? 

I draw all of my inspiration directly from nature and the things on my shelves, which is mostly nature. I tend to not sketch a whole lot. I like to just dive right in. Sometimes I’ll do some very rough shape layouts to keep SOME parameters, but that’s all very loose and theoretical.

Do you have a favorite feature of the sock design?

The color choice. I like a color limit, it’s fun and challenging and helps reign me in a bit.

Ankle socks VS Crew socks: What's your preference?

Ankle. Can’t have any distractions from my calves.

Did you miss out on Tyler’s October design? No worries—you can grab a pair while they last here. Get ahead of your FOMO by signing up for the monthly Awesome Socks Club subscription here!