Lillyflow Posted June 6, 2018 #1 Posted June 6, 2018 Written Original by LORI BROWN - seen in Core Magazine - and still is my intellectual property. fun fact- I conducted the interview and I did the cute little art - > STELLA BELLE Normally when presenting a project to a large audience there are standard formats, lines to stay inside of and rules. Don’t forget the rules! The usual order of business in the world of crypto is highly subjective because cryptocurrency is still relatively new. Naturally, as the industry grows, things will be continually changing, especially when the world gets to experience a whole new sector of business. One area of new business is specific to creative arts as related to the cryptosphere. This branch of crypto business is a mixture of several, already interesting and diverse groups. In other words, two types are not enough to accurately depict the qualities these modern people share. For the sake of painting a picture of who they are, let’s go with two very colorful groups containing thousands of bright minds. First there are the free thinkers, misfits and wild ones - these are the people you might bump into at a Burning Man festival. Yes, it is true- they are actually a dominant part of the soon coming new wealth, get used to seeing this type in your daily feeds, they are your colleagues and your bosses. Then, in the other diverse group there are the highly motivated, suited-up individuals who know the proper way to cite sources and often have a diploma on their office door (or cubicle). This is a group who still understands the artist’s sub-culture within the crypto space. They are the business minded entrepreneurs who lead the way in terms of innovating and creating blockchain relevant tools or projects and they truly enjoy their misfit colleagues and they might even make an appearance at the Burning Man festival. albeit, in casual office clothes. Leah Stella Stevens, the Author of Uncrap Your Life is a pioneering mind who created a persona that has rapidly risen to the status of underground celebrity, as her alter ego- a beloved creature known by her pseudonym, Stellabelle. Stellabelle is a captivating woman whose fans are dutifully committed to her array of works in progress. Stellabelle was born within Steemit, the intricate, blockchain-based creative content platform that pays media creators and their active audience members. Stellabelle has created several projects, and her sphere of influence is enormous. Luckily, I was able to stop her for a few moments to get some juicy details regarding the Slothicorn phenomenon and the seductive secret that keeps us salivating, ironically. Read on to understand. The Interview Questions & Answers | A session with the queen of the “hot artsy chicks” and a respected female amongst the world’s most brilliant men and women, I introduce to you, Stellabelle. Question: What is your name? (Real Name - if you are comfortable sharing this with our audience.) Stellabelle’s Answer: My name is Leah Stella Stephens Question: When asked by a stranger in small talk “what do you do for a living?” What is the answer? Stellabelle’s Answer: I usually say I'm an entrepreneur. Sometimes I say I'm a writer/artist. It all depends on who is asking me. Now, I'm free to say "I am Slothicorn". LOL. Question: Name your most recent projects, briefly. Stellabelle’s Answer: At the beginning, Slothicorn was solely a Creative Commons Cryptoart collective. Because we were Creative Commons, our motto has been "Slothicorn belongs to everyone and no one." I also created the Secret Writer Project, which was I launched on Steemit last year. People sent me their deepest, darkest secrets which I copy edited and added images to. It was a fun and voyeuristic project which I loved doing. I split the Steem rewards with the secret givers. Right now I am mostly focused on solving the problem: how can talented artists use blockchain to earn money, so they can become financially independent? I'm thinking of building a similar community on the EOS platform, but I am in the idea phase only of this. Networking and finding others who are passionate about solving problems for artists is my priority now. Question: How do you define Slothicorn, the creature? Stellabelle’s Answer: Slothicorn is half sloth, half unicorn. The sloth part is humanity, in all its vulnerabilities. The unicorn part represents blockchain technology. And since the creator of Bitcoin, the first blockchain innovation, released the invention as open source, I wanted to follow in that direction and make our group Creative Commons. Having our work released as Creative Commons actually forms more social bonds within our group, as this allows us to share our gifts more easily, without friction. However, after some thought, Slothicorn is changing a bit to let artists decide which license to use. This means we will start supporting both full rights and Creative Commons. Question: What symbolism or significance is behind the mythical animal-hybrid? Stellabelle’s Answer: I did not originate the idea of a 'slothicorn'. I found it as a new creature on the internet, as I believe an artist came up with it. I still don't know who created the first one. Unicorns are known for their ability to transform a dull place into one full of unexpected surprises. I believe humanity is still in a sloth-like mental state, meaning, our minds have not been activated to achieve great things. This is because most of humanity exists in a state of suffering. Our creativity gene lies mostly dormant inside us. This is partly because of poverty, conditioning, our current system of commodification, and our decaying culture which exalts vapidity over intelligence. Most of us have not been encouraged to use our imaginations to guide us through life. I follow my visions which guide me towards actions, and this is a skill I've been developing for many years now. I only do things I feel are guided in this manner and I only work with people I respect and trust. This creates a happy life. Question: Tell us more about the phenomenon that Is named after Slothicorn. Would you call it a movement or a group? Stellabelle’s Answer: I think of it as a movement because anyone is free to create their own Slothicorn group anywhere, and on any platform. I intentionally made it cute to attract all people, including the youth. But it is quite fierce in its intention and philosophy (the razor sharp claws signify this fierceness and determination). Our Creative Commons license allows other groups to use our art for their projects. The Slothicorn collective makes it possible to freely work with others, get help, find people who want to collaborate, no matter what country one lives in. It's definitely more of a philosophy than anything else. A Slothicorn collective could be formed around any type of project, like writing, science, etc. Slothicorn is synonymous with sharing and collaboration between the earth's people. Question: About other projects: What would you like to share with the readers? Perhaps the Steve and Stella show? Stellabelle’s Answer: The Steve And Stella show is a fun video series on DTube. I love to collaborate with others and I found the work of Steven Alexander on YouTube to be the kind of absurd thing I really love. I saw raw talent in Steven, and we decided rather spontaneously to create a show together. He and I share a love for the absurd, and we want to push the limits of DTube.....The Tim and Eric Show is our guide, and we want to develop something like that. We both love absurdity and comedy, the far-out stuff. Question: Ok. Confession time- if you are willing to divulge a fact for the audience, What juicy secrets do you have? Stellabelle’s Answer: All my secrets are contained in my book, Un-Crap Your Life: Navigating Life's Crappiest Situations. Shameless plug. But it's true, when I wrote this book in 2015, I reviewed everything I was ashamed of, or messed up, all my 'dark secrets', and I decided to just unlock the door of my intestines, and let the world see it. It released me from my neurotic tendency to hide my flaws..... Ok here's something which people might find strange: I have been practicing celibacy for 8 years. This has led me to a deeper understanding of life and how my mind works. It's safe to say I am close to mastering my demons, all of them. I feel that this celibacy phase must come to an end though, as I have already missed the Pon Farr cycle, which the Vulcans practiced: "Every seven years, Vulcan males and females become aroused. They undergo a blood fever, become violent, and finally die unless they mate with someone with whom they are emphatically bonded or engage in a ritual battle known as kal-if-fee." Question: What is your current relationship status (a popular question by my peers who are in love with you)? Stellabelle’s Answer: I'm interested in someone but in friend mode because I am not good at relationships, and never have been.....this is a sore spot..... A candid Intermission: Lorilikes aka lillyflow: 🦊Side note: Stella! Do you realize that you are a distinctly known role model and a source of many new ideas for me? Carl Gnash was the one who first people who introduced me to the universe that is YOU. I tend to resist the flow of popular thinking so I was certain I would not be impressed- since everyone else WAS impressed by you. I thought “How great could she actually be? What is all the fuss?” This position of mine was quickly, and easily dissolved and replaced by an affectionate purr- because… You rock! You really do, I am a huge fan and I am sort of star-struck. You are a genius- obviously. Thank you for your kindness and your bold, bare all style of inspiring the masses. Stellabelle’s Reply: Wow, I had no idea about Carl Gnash (or people) being impressed by me. Sometimes, it makes me feel uncomfortable, because I am just being myself, without thought of how I could influence others. I believe this all has to do with the fact that I have been a creator for most of my adult life, but have been largely marginalized in the shadows. I found YouTube in the early days, and have been creating videos for more than ten years, but because I'm not into 'branding', I never achieved great success on that platform. I am an experimentalist, and I use different tools, different technologies constantly. My experimental nature has never properly been branded, and this is why my friends who know me well call me a "Thought Leader", as I am constantly learning new things, utilizing my innate creativity, and sharing this stuff with people. My writing career began fairly late, as I was hired by a startup company in 2013 as a writer.....before then, I never considered writing as my strong point. I was doing visual art for most of life. Question: What can you say to your audience regarding the future of Steemit? Any additional thoughts? Stellabelle’s Answer: I'm very critical of people, especially those in power, so everyone should take this all with a grain of salt. I see a lot of immaturity at the top of the food chain. But anything is possible, and Steemit could succeed, it's true because communities are coming, and this could be the feature that makes it wildly successful. I'm hopeful. Plus, Steemit works. We have digital wallets and can send our friends in Nigeria 5 SBD in three seconds with zero transaction fees. This is a valuable thing that sometimes I forget about. But quite frankly, I have poured in almost two years of work into Steem, building up communities, and helping it grow. Stellabelle Continued: Many people say they found an article of mine on Steemit, and joined because of me. I have no idea the numbers, but I think it's a lot. I'm cautiously optimistic about Steem, and feel that DTube could actually become the dominant app on the Steem blockchain. It's growing in a viral way because YouTube just demonetized a lot of YouTubers, including myself! I didn't make a huge amount of money from YouTube, maybe around $1000 in total, but I just got the email from YouTube that my channel is being de-monetized because I don't have enough subscribers. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. DTube will capture all these people who have been dissed by YouTube. Question: How about the future of Slothicorn? Stellabelle’s Answer: Slothicorn has a bright future. It might take a different form, or become its own coin, who knows? My project is still very new and is in its growing pains stage. I really would love to partner up with a CTO or programmer in the near future. Thank you Leah ! Keep doing what you are doing. With love, Just Another Fan,Lorilikes, aka lillyflow
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