after watching, and notionally investing in, the crypto space for a couple of years i took the leap into minting my own art as nfts. i’ve been on this journey for two years now and am more motivated than ever to keep at it. why?
i believe in myself.
myself as an artist and my art as assets. equally important to all that, i believe in you and the value your appreciation brings to my art.
“asset: a useful or valuable thing, person, or quality.” — oxford languages
i’m fully happy to share my work by making it available across the internet for consumption. please right click and save to your heart’s content. pin these works to wherever you store your inspiration and share them with your people. this exploratory flow of our shared visual language is inherent to the human spirit and is something that needs to be championed. art should be publicly viewable and accessible, this goes for physical, digital and everything in between.
the above falls down when work loses its provenance. making something publicly viewable shouldn’t negate the possibility for the world to recognize the origin of a work and the person who crafted it. in fact, it should do the opposite. by bringing the flow back to the artist, the audience is prompted to participate in the evolving value of the items they are viewing, downloading and sharing.
there are humans behind these creations.
humans you can connect with in ways never before imagined. the gallery has moved from flat artists statements to deep links connecting you with as much information as the artist desires to share. you can see their process, you can connect with their vision, you can buy their creations.
you can choose to adhere to the spirit of web3 and honor royalties so, as an artist grows an audience, their early works — for which they most likely made little to no money — will return a fraction of value back to that creator.
if you want a primer on the royalty conversation, there is a debate hitting the nft space of late and kofi has done a brilliant job highlighting the impact of enabling royalties for independent creators. check out their thread above.
value is an iterative conversation to be had…
…not a singular assignment to be made. after all, growth happens when boundaries are stretched and new connections are formed. connections with people, connections with art, connections with ideas.
the time has arrived where artists may view themselves as independent, public business entities. why not further diversify the patronage model by building upon the idea of the publicly traded company? where the company is the independent artist themself, and their art, the investors share? where the art traded is logged publicly + transparently, for all to see.
the technology of the blockchain, and the nfts that are written into versions of it, have opened up the possibility for the above to happen. it has been happening for a handful of years. things have now matured to a point where an artist can readily bring their art, whether physically or digitally created, to audiences in a way where they themselves become the platform.
rather than having to overcome the hurdle of standing up the technology themselves, the ability to mint an artwork means artists may now create a living record of an artwork in tandem with sharing it out to the masses. their work now leaves a breadcrumb back to its origin, the human behind it — an artist with which an audience can engage and support, or if you prefer analogies, take a position in.
we have entered a time where the provenance of, and a revenue stream for, artworks can originate with, flow back to and significantly impact artists in perpetuity.
i’ve made the leap into nfts because i want you to take a position in my future and the future of all artists. by doing so, you are laying a stake in your future too. growing alongside all of us, creating a world where independent creatives can breakout of the boundaries dictated by past structures and create new realities.
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thanks for being here + holding space for my art, all art, to thrive.
as always, see you next wednesday.
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boring, but essential disclaimer: nothing i write is meant as financial advice, nor does it represent the views of my current employer. always do your due diligence.