NFT Creator

The Bored Apes founder was diagnosed with a heart condition with a 50% fatality rate. But things are looking up for Wylie Aronow and BAYC.

Bored Ape co-founder Wylie Aronow also known as Gordon Goner online struggled through a decade afflicted by an autoimmune disease before recovering to launch the worlds hottest NFT project three years ago this week.

After hitting stratospheric heights of money and success, with BAYC being feted by major celebrities like Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg, Aronow came crashing back to earth after being diagnosed with a heart failure condition in January 2023.

Being in your mid-30s and being told you have a condition that 50% of people pass away from within five years is hard to comprehend. Aronow has drawn upon his spirituality to help with the gravity of the situation he faces.

Read more

NFT collector J1mmy.eth trades like Warren Buffett, his collection peaked at $150 million, and he once minted 420 Bored Apes with Pranksy.

When the history books are written, and the documentaries are made on the formative days of NFTs, Jimmy McNelis, aka j1mmy.eth, will hold a special place in history as a creator, as a passionate advocate, and for having one of the greatest NFT collections of all time. 

An NFT OG who started his journey on Dec. 5, 2017, when he purchased his first CryptoKitty, the 45-year-old American is also the founder of Avastars, an early PFP project from February 2020 that set the scene for intellectual property (IP) rights being given to holders. 

That was popularized by Bored Ape Yacht Club and the 2021 PFP mania that saw IP rights for holders becoming the standard for most projects. Avastars was also a pioneer in putting the project on-chain, inspired by Autoglyphs, which minted 10 months earlier. 

Read more

Relentless & funny NFT Creator diewiththemostlikes says “good meat” instead of “gm!” and got on SuperRare thanks to DMT and a Hellboy outfit.

Mark Wilson the artist known as diewiththemostlikes has a truly unique style to his art and a presence that could be described as grotesque, performative, thought-provoking and hilarious all in one packet of rolled-up ground beef.

In a digital art market where supply can be infinite, the Indiana-based artist really stands out from the crowd with his ability to garner attention by often ridiculing the NFT space and eliciting both humor and sadness within his work.

An author of five books, diewiththemostlikes has a passion for not only visual art but also scribing his streams of consciousness. He originally minted his first NFT on March 26, 2021, on Foundation after a random account on X reached out because Wilson had made a joke campaign poster for comedian Eric Andre that went viral.

This dude reached out and just said, Hey, I have a Foundation invite. Would you want to mint a piece on there? I said I dont know what minting is. I dont know what Foundation is. I have no clue what any of this shit is, Diewiththemostlikes explains.

He said, It could be a good avenue for your digital art, so I said, Well, fuck it, man. Its not like Im not doing anything with it now. Its getting two likes on Instagram from fucking porn bots. So, whatever, Ill mint something, and maybe I can sell something finally as an artist that would be nice. 

It was a relatively slow start, but consistency and persistence positioned him well, and hes often received praise from other well-known artists such as OSF. 

Now knocking on the door of digital art stardom, diewiththemostlikes still hasnt come to grips with the position he finds himself in.

I still honestly cant really wrap my head around this shit thats going on. I just assumed I was gonna die alone doing something I hated. To be part of this kind of movement with all these other really insane artists who are on this crazy trajectory and who are constantly leveling up is really cool. Its pretty wild, he says.

Origin of catchy and cumbersome name

How did the name diewiththemostlikes come about? Well, in classic die fashion, theres humor and an underlying meaning.

Ive got the most common name to ever exist, Mark Wilson. When I was applying for apartments, people would think it was a scammer name because Mark Wilson is a super common name here in the States. They would do a background check and think I was a fake person. 

Im cool with my name… But diewiththemostlikes kind of came in, and its funny because its actually a really cumbersome name to say. A lot of people during interviews will ask what they even call me. Its a really long and kind of an unenjoyable name to say, but I suppose that I find comfort in that. Discomfort, if you will, or the inability to kind of determine what I should be called is awesome.

The name pokes fun at a world where we seek likes on social media for dopamine hits, which Wilson points out is a transactional existence.

Its a really interesting distillation of our transactional existence as a whole and kind of how fucking sad and depressing it can be in many ways. But also the beauty of it, obviously, none of us would be here; we wouldnt be talking here without Twitter. Certainly, my art wouldnt be doing what it was doing, or I wouldnt be able to impact anybody without a platform.

Finding a story in peculiar places

Observing society and its idiosyncrasies is a big inspiration, and his work often carries open or sometimes subliminal messages that make collectors really stop and think.

Of course, always the prankster with a dry sense of humor, diewiththemostlikes is quick to tie a bow around it with some over-the-top window dressing.

I would say theres stories in the most peculiar places. Theres a story in every sagging ass of anyone walking around the fucking dregs of this country, he says. Within those kinds of nuanced little wrinkles, scabs and wounds is where I thrive and where I love to exist.

This lens on life and humanity is often exaggerated… If you look a little deeper on my pieces, theyre definitely documentarian but certainly grotesque at a very surface level.

Good meat! Sublime satire

The tsunami of crypto X accounts posting gm led to a series of meat art.

Good meat originally arose out of a place of complete ridicule, which is where a lot of my art I feel like comes from. Its satire; its ridicule; its hilarity. I was really annoyed with the transactional state of everybody just saying gm, with nothing else to say. It was gm with a fucking coffee mug, and that was it. Then you just see gm, gm, gm, gm. It was just like, What the fuck are we all doing here? This is insane, dude, says Wilson.

So, then I kind of came up with good meat as a way to ridicule that, and I was posting art with the pieces originally, and then it kind of transitioned into now. Im just gonna post meat pictures now because that fits the kind of dull exchange. The dull morning exchange that we all participate in.

Its just like heres a big heaving pile of rotting meat. Enjoy it or dont enjoy it. Its all good. But its funny because now people will say good meat back, or theyll have their own good meat-inspired post, and its fucking super cool. I love that meat is infecting the space in some capacity.

Notable sales to date

Rapid-fire Q&A

Influences

I dont have a ton, honestly, and most of that is just because I dont have any art background. I would actually say, growing up, most of my influence was actually in the books I was reading. People like Irvine Welsh, Haruki Murakami, Michel Houellebecq, and, of course, Hunter S. Thompson. All those kinds of absurdists are where I love to dwell.

I should obviously mention Ralph Steadman, who is a fucking incredible illustrator. When I got into this space, somebody said, Your stuff reminds me of Ralph Steadman, and I think thats incredible.

Personal style of art

I think one word I would use is relentless. The style itself its funny; I never took an art class in high school and was described as adequate. Thats really the extent of my art history. I didnt study art. Its more or less I bludgeoned my way into making these things. Its been like 20,000 hours on the iPad and in my basement making canvases and acrylic.

Its just bludgeoning stuff out that I feel like has to come out or else itll rob me from the inside, so relentless and unflinching, I guess, are the two words that I would use. Theres almost a psychotic pursuit and an urgency to what I want to tell people.

Which hot NFT artists should we be paying attention to? 

Xer0x I feel like hes massively slept on, like horrifically slept on in many ways. Thats a guy whos obsessed with his craft, and he makes super deep, very personal pieces that are true artistic achievements.

Alien Queen Alien Queen is the shit, but shes probably not even up-and-coming anymore. 

James Bloom Hes a true blockchain artist. The dude is making these super technical and really fucking rad pieces that evolve and change based on interactions.

Notable collector 

I have to give a massive shout-out to SuperRare Zach. Hes been so nice and cool, and he onboarded me after this crazy absurdist tweet campaign to get on SuperRare. To get accepted to SuperRare, it was essentially a tweet that I sent that said I just submitted my application video.

It is me doing DMT and performing How Stella Got Her Groove Back while dressed like Hellboy or something. It was just like an insane tweet, and he just said, This is nuts. Youre on. Id already been putting in work and stuff, but I would say Zach is awesome.

Favorite NFT in your wallet 

Oh, man, I would have to say Pindar Van Arman made this dope ass quantum portrait of me thats super special. Its really goddamn rad. Thats probably my favorite piece that I own. Its a dope-ass piece, and he was so nice to do it. He didnt ask; he just made it. 

What do you listen to when creating art?

I love music. I mean, the absurd part of me would say that I create to Nickelback and Creed and fucking all those other dumb bands. But really, I listen to a shit ton of doom metal and death metal. Bands like Bongripper, Gate Creeper and Withered. Anything thats just slow, grimy and brutal is the only way that you can kind of describe it.

Links:

X: twitter.com/toadswiback 

Website: https://onetie-alltie.com/about/ 

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE

NFT artist Patrick Amadon is proudly “pro-rioter,” as Hong Kong Art Week discovered, and he’s at home in crypto, where everyone’s a rebel.

Patrick Amadon combines a passion for art and activism, and is articulate about how he intends for his work to have impact.

Self-described as a “digital disobedient,” the Los Angeles-based glitch artist has been no stranger to controversy, having made international headlines for his “No Rioters” digital billboard displayed at the Hong Kong Art Week in March that was eventually taken down for its political undertones.

He also made headlines when he pulled out of Sothebys first glitch show, taking a stance against a lineup of artists that featured no women or non-binary people.

(For the uninitiated, glitch art purposefully includes digital or analog errors.)

Like many other artists, Beeples historic $69 million NFT sale in March 2021 caught Amadon’s attention. He had been making digital art for over a decade prior but had no way to attribute value to it. 

When I saw all the press from the Beeple sale, I kind of brushed past the $69 million figure, that wasnt that interesting to me, but I do remember thinking, wait, somebody sold digital art, how does that work’, says Amadon.

I’ve been doing it for a decade but I got stuck in kind of no man’s land. I would make physical work but I liked making digital work more. My audience liked the digital work a lot more but there really wasn’t anything you could do with it in the art world. 

Digital disobedience

Amadon is a deep thinker and puts an incredible amount of effort into making his art purposeful. He also embraces much of the crypto ethos and believes those who are along for the ride are all in some way a little digital disobedient.

I mean, if you’re in crypto, it’s because you’ve rejected something. You’ve rejected something in the financial world, you’re embracing sovereignty, you embrace self custody, self reliance. There’s some social element that you rejected, that got you here to begin with.

I think we’re really disrupting a lot of these existing structures. Were causing hell for a lot of gatekeepers. We’re opening up the doors for a lot of artists. None of us here are obeying what we’re supposed to be doing. 

I feel like all of us really have embraced disobedience in a lot of ways because nobody in traditional finance wants you to think that crypto is valid. Nobody in the art world wants you to think crypto is valid. By virtue of us being here, we’re all disobedient if you look at what society has deemed normal and acceptable.

Art is a medium that Amadon values as a way to voice his passion for activism and for its ability to point out societal issues he cares about. He puts an incredible amount of effort into making his art have a purpose.

I like doing something that has a purpose for doing it. Often, I like using art as an outlet to comment on some socio-economic or political situation. Or cultural nuance or just something to needle the space a little bit, Amadon says. 

I think that the story of the narrative is the art and I think that the aesthetic is really just the voice that you tell it with. That’s why I think concept is kind of the most critical element of an art piece. It has to be saying something a lot of us can say the same thing. I mean, the aesthetic kind of becomes the voice of it again.

‘No Rioters’ at Hong Kong Art Week 

Embracing his digital disobedience and desire to use art for more than aesthetics, Amadon brazenly had his piece “No Rioters” displayed on a giant digital billboard above the Sogo Causeway Bay store during Hong Kong Art Week.

The glitch art is centered around a surveillance camera oscillating side to side but the primary provocation was showcasing the names and prion terms of activists in the pro-democracy movement from 2019. 

It was a billboard the size of the city block in the middle of Hong Kong Art Week which is sponsored by the government. I thought, let’s be a little disobedient. Id followed the Hong Kong protest in 2019 pretty closely. I’ve been a news hawk since the dawn of the internet so I wanted to put up something to honor the protesters, says Amadon. 

I put a giant security camera up there and then every 10th frame or so just flash protesters names, their sentences, and instances of the government beating up protesters, throwing them in jail. It’s all illegal under the Hong Kong national security law to put that in public and I had it on the biggest billboard in Hong Kong during Art Week for three straight days which was great.

With the names being subtle and difficult to see flashing up in real-time throughout the artwork, the billboard stayed up for 72 hours before Art Innovation Gallery the gallery that Amadon had worked with to display the piece informed him that the owners of Sogo were concerned about the hidden political content behind the work.

The free Hong Kong press found out about it so they wrote an article about it and then the next day it was the BBC and the Global Press covering it, and the Chinese press counterprogramming it, saying I’m pro-rioter which I love because I am definitely pro-rioter.

So it got taken down by the government and I joined the list with Winnie the Pooh in terms of free speech expression being ripped down.

Gatekeepers get out

Amadon believes that the Web3/crypto space has a long way to go, but he’s equally optimistic about the potential of the technology to democratize the art industry, for both artists and collectors.

From a collecting standpoint, from an experiencing art standpoint, from a creation of art standpoint, its massive. You no longer need a brother, sister or cousin to be working at the Gagosian to get a shot at selling physical and be sitting at the main table of the art world, Amadon says.

It’s really tough to participate in the art world if you’re coming from a marginalized community or from a third-world country. What we’ve done with the technology is we really have flattened the space tremendously and we’ve allowed people like Osinachi and Ix Shells to participate meaningfully in the art world that would have been very difficult to access before. We are very accessible and very inclusive.

Doppelganger innovation with smart contract

In May this year, Amadon launched something unique with his Doppelganger drop in conjunction with Transient Labs. As an artist who is fascinated by the convergence of art and technology, Doppelganger explores what its like to link a nonfungible token to an array of art rather than point to a single image.

Because we’re just beginning to scratch the surface on what’s possible in digital art and what’s possible in digital art when it’s paired with smart contracts on the blockchain, I reached out to Transient Labs and had them build a token that points to an array instead of a token that points to a single link. Doppelganger was built on that.

The contract is artist-owned and essentially can include multiple images into one NFT. Users can pick which artwork to point to with the artist having the ability to add new pieces of art but can never subtract.

Essentially consider them frozen metadata. They will never change and only the collector has control over what it points to. As the collector you get to select what art you’d like to be displayed. I think were up to around 12-13 different pieces right now. I’m going to add another very shortly. I’m just going to keep expanding it because I can keep adding to it, but I can never subtract from it, he says. 

Notable sales to date

Amadons first Ethereum mint was ZoFo and his inaugural mint on Tezos was RGB Glitch 2013.

Notable sales include: 

Rapid-fire Q&A

Influences

I really like Edward Snowden and Banksy. Aesthetically, I grew up with all the abstract artists so that’s how I first got into making art. I really like texture and abstract art. People like Richter [Gerhard].

From within the [Web3] space there’s a number of people like XCOPY, Max Capacity and Kidmograph. There was a community on Tumblr that was making glitch work that’s all still here so it’s cool to see. I have known Pak since back in 2013 because the Twitter art community transitioned over to NFTs in a lot of interesting ways. 

Personal style of art

Glitches. But my background is in street art. I photograph it, I contribute to it. I’ve always liked graffiti. Glitch blended with graffiti.

Banksy was always the artist that I’ve most looked up to in terms of how they approach the art world and how they approach messaging from their art. 

Notable collector 

I have to say Anonymoux. Anonymoux has become like family throughout this process. He picked up a number of my 1 of 1s. The relationship between collector and artist can be really strong. The amount of support that you get from them really makes it possible to do this on a greater level. Just the amount of support that I’ve received from Anonymoux over the past couple of years has honestly been life-changing.

Which hot NFT artist should we be paying attention to? 

I would say one of the biggest initiatives I’m working on right now is the 404 catalogue. It’s a quarterly exhibition, anyone can enter one piece per artist. It’s an opportunity for artists to strip away any change, strip away platform. I just wanted to be completely agnostic, social media and presence does not matter, just art and giving artists the opportunity to be seen just for their art.

Favorite NFTs in your wallet thats not your own

Ana Maria Caballero, 1 of 1. I picked up her Ethereum genesis piece. She’s an incredible poet. We became friends early in the NFT space 

What do you listen to when creating art: 

I work completely in silence. If theres any noise Ill put headphones on noise cancellation mode. If there’s anything that’s distracting, I’ll be distracted. 

That being said, in terms of music in the space that I like, I would mention Mariana Makwaia, I think she is an incredible musician but also doing some really interesting tech things in the space. She used a Doppelganger contract to build her album. Each track has its own metadata all on the same token which I think is a fantastic use of the technology. 

Links

X: twitter.com/patrickamadon 

Website: patrickamadon.com

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE

Holders of pieces in OSF’s “Red Lite District” collection get a “till the day I die” commitment from the U.K.-based artist.

A self-proclaimed jack of all trades and master of none, OSF has become a prolific figure in the nonfungible token world in just over two years, trading his former life at Barclays to focus full-time on Web3, his digital art pursuits, his PFP project Rekt Guy and living the life of a degen collector. 

The self-deprecating 34-year-old Englishman has a Swiss army knife of skills suited for a modern world of creating digital objects being a self-taught coder, understanding internet culture, with an ability to capture attention and not take himself too seriously. 

While he wears many hats, OSF, the artist, has been featured at Sothebys and has sold multiple pieces for six figures. He describes himself most as an artist and project founder.

I find it really tough to classify myself as one thing or another, but its certainly a question I get asked quite a bit. I do have periods where Im more focused on certain things like trading but overall, an artist and project founder is the way I would describe myself, OSF tells NFT Creator. 

I hate the idea of constraining myself to one thing. I think its just probably a problem I have in life. My attention gets easily captured by anything really and as you probably can guess, I have ADD and all that kind of stuff. I do feel that I just enjoy lots of different aspects of the [Web3] space, and I kind of want to be a part of it all.

While initially a crypto skeptic, OSF cut his teeth in early 2021 when he bought some Bitcoin, but it was his good friend Mando who provided the nudge required for OSF to truly catch the NFT curiosity bug. 

It wasnt long until he found himself applying his past decade of experience as a trader in traditional finance to this new emerging asset class of NFTs. Originally minting 150 Bored Apes (0.08 ETH each) in late April 2021, OSF sold most of them about a week later for five times the mint price but remained a large Ape holder, teaming up with Mando in September 2021 to combine their collections.

The duo made headlines in February 2023, selling around 70 Apes at a healthy clip of 78 ETH each into Blur bids as liquidity rushed back into NFTs after Blur Season 1s airdrop occurred. Apes current floor price sits at 25.84 ETH, with NFT prices being down for most collections since that iconic trade. 

Its not like we were bearish on Apes. We werent even really bearish on NFTs at this point in time. I know it now looks like a great trade, but Id be lying if I said at that point in time, I think NFTs are going to go to where they are now. I didnt really see that; I only think that became clear later on, OSF says. 

In our old jobs, if someone could tell you youve made all this money, but you still have all this risk, and you can clean up that risk in two trades and just take the money, youd do it. You wouldnt think twice. 

Crypto culture, nostalgia and XCOPY

In a similar vein to the likes of Josie Bellini and Trevor Jones, OSF has leaned into crypto culture with a passion for nostalgia that shines through his work. 

This is exemplified by his art and Rekt Guy, his PFP collection launched in May 2022, shortly after the demise of Terra. Rekt Guy, a collection of approximately 8,800, was a free mint that saw its floor run up as most other PFPs went the opposite way. The floor still sits at 0.47 ETH. 

I really like nostalgia and capturing moments over time. Im the sort of person who looks through my photos from 10 years ago just to see what I was doing then. Ive organized my music into quarterly playlists. I have 2008 Q1, 2008 Q2 and so on. Ive done that since 2008 Q1, so its been 15+ years now, says OSF. 

When I listen to a playlist from, say, seven years ago, I can remember what I was doing at this time. I really like that idea of nostalgia and capturing moments and looking back on it. I think art is a fantastic way to do that.

As a fellow Brit, OSF said XCOPYs style of art and his ability to capture culture have played a significant role in his own creation process.

I would say XCOPY is definitely an inspiration obviously, the style of the art but also the ideologies I love. I love looking at his pieces through 2020. Theyre very British pieces that you wouldnt really get unless you were living in the U.K. during COVID-19; maybe the Aussies would, too, he said.

I think that thats what I love. Thats what art is. Its like when you see something and just really connect with it and get it. I think pieces that can capture culture in moments in time end up being the ones that are iconic.

With my art, I think I just recognized that, and I saw thats how XCOPY did it. I guess I wanted to do the same thing, and half of it was because I thought it could be successful. But half of it was really just for myself.

Red Lite District commitment till I die

OSF loves to experiment, and for holders of his collection, the Red Lite District, it comes with a till the day I die commitment, with OSF promising a new piece of art every single month until his time on earth concludes. 

The story behind RLD, an edition of 210 NFTs becoming an airdrop ticket to free art, involves his brother-in-law, who really liked what would become the first airdropped piece: Fuck Cash Grabs. 

OSF wasnt as bullish on the piece initially but was inspired to create it off the back of many NFT cash grabs, such as Pixelmon. His brother-in-laws praise eventually convinced him to release the piece, but instead of selling it, he decided to airdrop it to everyone who held an RLD.

After a couple of days of the first piece [Fuck Cash Grabs] being airdropped, I was like, wow, the price of this piece is almost the same as the price of the Red Lite District. I thought it would literally just be one of those things that was worth zero. People really valued it, and I thought that was really powerful, says OSF. 

Thats where I thought I would just do it as a monthly thing for anyone that holds an RLD edition. After I airdropped the second piece, Professional Degen 3, which is really good and was supposed to be a 1 of 1, I think thats the point where people realized. They were like, Oh shit, this RLD should be worth quite a lot because youre going to get this stream of cool art.   

Following the commitment of art forever to RLD holders in April 2022, OSF continues to get asked if he can really keep that promise. 

I have zero doubt in my mind if I can keep it going or not. I dont feel like creating a new piece every month is a strain on me; I really enjoy it. I have hundreds of ideas written down, and its probably my favorite part of the month. And its also my favorite way to release art because [when] contrasted with a 1 of 1 or an edition, theres an expectation. For example, what price will it sell for? Will the edition sell out? Have you looked after your collectors and all that kind of stuff, OSF tells NFT Creator. 

I cant guarantee that when Im 105, the quality of my art is going to be as good as it is now; who knows? Going back to the nostalgia thing, I love that in 10 years time, Im going to look through seasons one and two of airdrops. Right now, in season two, it is so early, but Im going to be able to look back on all these things, and itll be like a monthly document of either my life or the crypto space or whatever it is that Ive drawn for the rest of time.

From an early morning gym session to Sothebys

OSF has hundreds of art ideas in notes but loves the spontaneous nature that art can bring out of him, like the piece he did titled Carnaby Street, which ended up selling at Sothebys for $75,600 in December 2022.

The origins of Carnaby Street is a great example of how things often happen in the moment for me. I rocked up to a Barrys boot camp class and turned up too early. It was about 5 am, and I was just sitting outside Soho in London, which is usually extremely busy. It was dead. There was no one there. Sunrise was approaching, and there were all these purple lights, and I remember thinking, I have to draw this now, says OSF.

I had about an hour to kill, so I pulled out my iPad and sat down on this bench in my running gear, drawing this thing while people were coming through collecting the bins and stuff. That Carnaby Street piece only would have worked in that setting because I was actually just drawing it in the moment.

The reality is, though, occasions like that are few and far between. They can be magical pieces when it happens, but often there are blocks in the artistic process.

Notable sales to date

Rapid fire Q&A

Influences: 

I really like Alpha Centauri Kid. I think the reason why I really like him is because I think he is someone who just puts out art based on his own personal feelings or emotions or whatever hes going through without really caring about what anyone else will think. 

I see a piece of his, and it just goes deep. He does things on his own terms and his own rules. Hes just like, Im just creating stuff that I want to create, and here it is on my terms, and if you want to buy it, you can buy it. If not, then not.

I also like the way he gamifies things and makes people feel a bit uneasy sometimes. I think its brilliant. Hes definitely a massive inspiration. I love his stuff, but just the way that he goes about conducting his art, I think its amazing. 

Which hot NFT artist should we be paying attention to? 

I think die with the most likes is amazing. I dont know if hes still upcoming or not because hes been on the timeline quite a lot. But that guy is incredible. He is a performance artist, and people havent seen his performance art yet because some of the stuff is in real life. Its just incredible. 

Hes a writer as well. He writes amazingly, and he just captures this theme of a memetic that no one else does. His stuff is different from any other artist. You could say, here are the animated artists, here are all the glitch artists, here are the neo-precision artists or whatever, but theres no one like die with the most likes. 

His stuff is just so in your face and crass; I think its brilliant, and honestly, I really think he is going to big big places. Hes quite a well-known artist now, but in a years time, I think he could be up there with the biggest people in the space.

Favorite NFTs in your wallet that are not your own

I am my own suffering by ACK, and Retention pond baptism by die with the most likes.

What do you listen to when creating art: 

I have a really weird and wide taste in music. It might be Taylor Swift one day. It might be like Creed the other day. Its just really random based on what I feel like listening to. It could be as random as piano covers of popular songs or reggae covers of popular songs. Its just the most random stuff. Its probably a testament to how scatty I am in general.

Links: 

X: https://twitter.com/osf_rekt
Website: https://www.osf.art/

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE

American artist Matt Kane codes a lunar calendar onto the blockchain, inspired by cavemen during prehistoric times.

If theres ever been an artist suited for the digital renaissance of putting art on the blockchain, it would be Matt Kane a traditional artist who transitioned into digital art by writing his own software and pushing boundaries impossible in the physical art world. 

Kane is most known for his collection Gazers, which launched in December 2021 and is considered by many to be an OG among generative artists. He recently released his collection Anons, which is centered around understanding identity through art and immortalizing true anons from yesteryear.

Kane spent a chunk of his career as a software developer but was always experimental with different artistic mediums, including physical canvas. However, the limitations of the physical art world made the American ponder whether digital art could remove many of the barriers to better his vision for creating art.

In my 20s and 30s, I was really trying to find what the right medium for my voice was. Ive spent a lot of time experimenting with canvas and fabric because I was really interested in pattern. But I realized its not the medium that matters its my vision. Its how I get my vision and my mind out into the world, Kane tells Magazine. 

Within that realization, I knew I had to learn to code because theres so many physical limitations to traditional art. Code circumvents the limitations of our physical bodies and time. It allows us to manifest our visions, and so its become the perfect medium for me.

Kane had heard about NFTs a week before CryptoPunks launched in June 2017 through a Quora article, but he remained an observer while he continued to create and tinker with digital art, a medium that had captured his deep curiosity as early as 18. 

When I read this [Quora] article, and it talked about NFTs I understood from years before what Bitcoin was and the blockchain it just all snapped, and I remember thinking, this is what Im looking for. Its going to allow me to sell digital work, and prints can be optional. What Ill be creating are actually paintings as databases, and this is going to be the way that Im going to be able to do that. To transmit files and ownership of the artwork, says Kane. 

Despite being introduced to the concept of digital art provenance via NFTs in 2017, it wasnt until May 2019 that Kane minted his first NFT, M87 Black Hole Deconstruction, on SuperRare. 

I watched the space develop just before Punks and looked on. I was Googling blockchain galleries, and there were none. That was the paradigm I was in at the time. I thought I needed to find a gallery to represent me on the blockchain. Now Im very much about self-representation and cutting out the middleman, but back then, I was still in that paradigm, Kane says. 

In 2018, I watched places like Dada, SuperRare and KnownOrigin come out in the summer of 2018. I continued to watch for another six to 12 months and then decided to pull the trigger, he adds. 

Lost in code dealing with personal tragedy

Kanes journey to digital artist stardom has been bittersweet, however, as he lost a close friend to suicide while on the way to visit her in 2013. This left the then 32-year-old devastated and even, at one point, contending with some of his own suicidal thoughts. 

During that time, I had left my life in Seattle trying to find something new and was already in an upheaval. Then losing her it really threw me quite into an abyss. I was on the road and about a week away from seeing her. It made me wonder, what if I had visited her earlier? It was really devastating, Kane shares. 

I ended up in Texas and just making really destructive decisions. I caught myself in a moment of my own suicidal ideations and realized I was in a really bad place.

The next day, I bought a train ticket to LA to go visit my friend out there, and I think I stayed out there for a month. It was out there that I kind of just took some breaths, and I assessed my life and where I was. I was looking into my future and understanding how devastated I was and understanding my desire to rejoin society, my desire to get on with my life. I had years in front of me that were going to be wasted, and so I decided Im going to just start coding.

Kane used coding as a way to distract his mind from the painful emotional baggage he was dealing with.

It was math, and it was distracting my brain. I couldnt think about emotions or how I was depressed. It was like I needed to figure out how to use sine and cosine to make this brush. It was really about building a tool of expression for the future when it would be safe to express myself again, says Kane. 

Had it not been for the tragedy of losing a loved one, Kane, in his own words, says he may not have pursued the artistic path he is now so well known for. 

Its one of those things where it’s like I’ve had a lot of conflicts coming into success the last few years because I understand that had I not lost her, I never would have committed myself to digital art the way that I have. And that’s difficult because I would trade all the success to have her back in the world, but things cant change.

Personal style

Much of Kanes work shows an immaculate use of color and reflects his sense of history and time.

I think my hope is that my art marks time, especially with Gazers. Its not necessarily any emotion that Im trying to imply. I think we all bring our own experiences, and if an image pattern or whatever Im doing in my art is really resonating with me in a strong way, Ive always believed that its really going to resonate strongly with others. 

Gazers inspired by cavemen

While often cliche, NFTs are still incredibly new. Kane has stated that were in prehistoric times for NFTs, and the inspiration for Gazers is connected to the caveman days. 

Leaning on his passion and ability to work with color, Gazers is a 1,000-piece collection with the moon as its centerpiece and acts as somewhat of a lunar calendar for the blockchain. 

People on Twitter were talking about how were in the caveman days of NFTs. What struck me about that was it made one of these constellation connections for me. I knew that our caveman ancestors recorded phase calendars on antler bones, […] and they would use that to understand when to go, timewise, to attack a mammoth and whatnot, Kane says. 

The projects website describes it as algorithmically synching closely with moon phases in the sky, joining the blockchain with one of humanitys longest running lineages in art. Gazers seeks to create a community of collectors celebrating the change of our perceptions that happen over time, our collective goals in crypto, and our love of color theory, astronomy, and generative art.

Launched in December 2021 with Art Blocks Curated, Gazers has done over 8,800 ETH in secondary sales on OpenSea and still commands a 12.6 ETH floor despite being in the depth of an NFT bear market. Gazers are dynamic and have rules built into them. While possessing different rules, similarities can be drawn to 0xDEAFBEEFs Entropy, which has a rule built in that when the NFT is traded, it degrades in quality. 

The way that each Gazer forms is it creates a color theory about it. It has different rules, so each month, different rules are formed that basically designate the color of your moon and sky. The frame around it stays the same, but the sky and the moon change. Then on the website, we track the lunations, so we have little previews to go back in history, Kane explains. 

The moon phase changes over time, and some of the gazers are clocks theyre all clocks. But some of them can also track minutes and hours, and those are really beautiful compositions because they play with the moon phases in a multilayered way. 

I was really thinking about the future of art when I made Gazers. It accelerates over time. It speeds up one frame per second on average in each artwork every year.

Notable sales to date

Rapid-fire Q&A

Influences

Im very eclectic, so its very strange, but Andy Kaufman [entertainer] is one. I got interested in comedy first, and Andy Kaufman is the comedian who made me understand that comedy is actually an art. It actually made me pivot from comedy to fine art. I also get around Mark Rothko [American abstract painter]. I really love his work and what he did in terms of layering, making these really thin layers of color. I was studying his work in my early twenties, and Im still living off of that education that I learned.

Also artists like JOY [John Orion Young] and Josie Bellini. When I came into this, they were very self-representing. They werent using middlemen. They havent used middlemen as much in their careers on the blockchain, and I always admire that. Plus, they are fantastic artists in their own right. I like that principle, so releasing Anons on my own contract was a big deal because I felt like Im joining you guys now, kicking the middleman out. 

Which hot NFT artists should we be paying attention to? 

AwfulEye: Hes legally blind in one eye, but hes still painting with an iPad. I think he gets really close up. Recently, hes been creating some code projects with the help of artificial intelligence. I find it incredible that you have an artist with a visual impairment using AI to help you manifest your vision. To me, its one of the reasons that we have AI, to benefit humanity.

Panter Xhita: Ive really been a big proponent of Panter. Shes Argentine and a surrealist. Shes fantastic.

Favorite NFT in your wallet thats not your own

Its my Alotta Money piece, Bitcoin Fixes This.

Notable collectors

I think that Im so centered on the community. They all still make me smile. Its the ones who are in Discord or on X [formerly Twitter] who give an update on what theyre thinking and feeling. Theyre ever present in my life. 

Who do you listen to when creating art? 

Italian disco. Plus Giorgio Moroder. This playlist is what Ive been listening to whilst creating Anons. 

Links

X: twitter.com/MattKaneArtist 

Instagram: instagram.com/mattkaneartist 

Website: mattkane.com

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE

NFT art pioneer Coldie creates crypto culture time capsules about Buffett, Buterin and McAfee — and writes lyrics for Snoop Dogg.

Coldie is a real one. Best described as a mixed media artist, the Californian resident is a true OG of the NFT scene, with his work dating back to 2018, including the iconic themed Decentral Eyes, Sellout and, more recently, a collaboration with Snoop Dogg. 

His distinct 3D stereoscopic work jumps off the screen, and, similar to the likes of Josie Bellini and Trevor Jones, Coldie leans into crypto culture the good, the bad and everything else in between. 

Art is history. Its visual history. As I got deeper into the crypto culture on my journey, I was trying to be somewhat of a historian of the time, creating pieces that were contextual to what was going on, whether it was Vitalik [Buterin] or John McAfee. Or later on, [Edward] Snowden and [Warren] Buffett. To me, it was like a time capsule I was trying to create in real-time. 

When I look back to 2018, I remember Andreas Antonopoulos doing speaking tours and McAfee talking about eating his junk. That was amusing to me, so it made it easy to make art about. It was a lot of fun. 

Coldie says it didnt take long to understand the basic fundamentals of NFTs and blockchain technology. Then he discovered you could put art on it.

Then the whole unlock of royalties and provenance. Those two things alone are revolutionary. I didnt know if it was going to hit or not, but I felt it was going to give digital artists a chance, and if collectors could understand it, too, then there was a viable chance that it could take off, says Coldie. 

Paying homage to other early motion experimenters, Josie Bellini and Trevor Jones, Coldie also emphasized the impact of Beeples NFTs. 

Since Beeple came in, theres been so much stuff popping up. That was a major inflection point where there was a lot more motion graphics than the early days where it was more like animated GIFs. Today, theres more long-form storytelling. I guess its just an evolving space. 

Personal style

Coldie pioneered 3D stereoscopic work, and the iconic Coldie signature is instantly recognizable. 

I consider myself a mixed media artist, but its collage art. Im always searching for the illusion of depth in my art. Ill be layering things but then taking it from the flat plane and then spacing it out so you can get a depth.

A lot of my early stuff I did, I did things with 3D glasses, but when I came into the NFT world, most people didnt have 3D glasses at their computer. So, I kind of evolved my art into 3D animated motion to show people the movement without them having to put the glasses on. 

Just two weeks ago, Coldie did a collaboration drop with ClickCreate titled Flow State, which sold out 180 pieces as a relatively inexpensive entry to collecting Coldie art (between 0.042 ETH and 0.069 ETH), but it was a mad dash to the finish line with an impending deadline. 

I spent about four hours and retooled the whole thing. Its like a puzzle, you know, so its always evolving, but with a deadline, its great because you have to get it done. This allows for a kind of loose and organic result, says Coldie. 

NEW ART RELEASE

Flow State
Edition of 180
Now minting for @clickcreateio sub pass holders
.042 ETH

The remaining will be available tomorrow at 3p ET
.069 ETHhttps://t.co/oHOSBf63EZ pic.twitter.com/rTYpjVs3b3

Coldie (@Coldie) May 31, 2023

Decentral Eyes Dogg

In the mad celebrity rush to get a piece of the NFT action in 2021 and early 2022, many athletes, musicians and entertainers fell on their faces, damaging their reputations in the process by deploying misguided cash grabs from fan bases. 

There were, however, a handful of celebrities who got it, and one of those was rap legend Snoop Dogg. Snoop and his inner circle, including his son, Champ Medici and manager Nick Alder, have been big proponents of Web3 culture. 

When Coldie was put in touch with Snoop, they vibed, and their values aligned, and as a result, the Decentral Eyes Dogg collaboration was born in November 2021. After some intense bidding on SuperRare, it sold for a staggering 188.8 ETH ($754,300) on Dec. 4, 2021. 

Decentral Eyes Dogg by @Coldie x @SnoopDogg

The first ever NFT artwork collaboration between @SnoopDogg and @Coldie, featuring original artwork by both artists + a new audio track by Snoop Dogg

Live for bidding NOW on SuperRare!

Auction ends Dec 3https://t.co/XGHr9SyIuj pic.twitter.com/cqv9NJNTdy

SuperRare (@SuperRare) November 29, 2021

Snoop wanted to do a one-of-one piece of art, and I had got in touch with them it was a very copacetic relationship. To that point even back then, there had been cash grabs with celebrities who just wanted to get a million dollars and leave, Coldie stated. 

I told Snoop how I work and wanted none of what had happened with other celebrities previously, and he was totally cool with it. I did the animation in the piece and ended up writing the lyrics for the audio component of the artwork as well. When I look back, it was crazy, what an opportunity that I got to write lyrics for Snoop Dogg. 

It was a great way to get my artwork in front of a lot more people. I run into people randomly that arent associated with NFTs necessarily and tell them I was behind the Snoop piece, and they normally respond holy shit, Ive seen that! so that tells me this artwork found itself outside of the ecosystem bubble that we all live in.

Notable sales to date

Influences

Coldie has his own flavor but cites traditional artists Andy Warhol (American visual artist, producer, and leader in the pop art movement) and Robert Rauschenberg (American painter and graphic artist, pop movement) as having had some influence on his career to date, as well as notable NFT artist and the creator of Gazers, Matt Kane (artist and coder). 

Im rooted in and love collage. Artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, those people who were making pop art, had a pretty big influence on me.

Im a kid in the 90s, and thats a lot of my influence, too. I grew up with grunge music and design. Those types of things were always super important to me. I think I identify with that style gritty and distressed imagery.

I also have to specifically mention Matt Kane; he is just a master of color and movement, and I think hes on his own level.

The evolution of use cases

Always one to be thinking at a deep level, Coldie continues to be bullish on blockchain use cases despite overall market sentiment being in somewhat of a lull. 

I really think NFTs are like an attention marketplace, and its a way to reward customers and people who engage with you. We saw early on that art NFTs proved the thesis of peer-to-peer transactions on the blockchain.

But when you take a step back, you realize there could be a whole range of other things like rewards and ticketing. There are companies working on NFT ticketing right now. Well probably end up sidestepping the word NFT, and itll just be your digital ticket thats on the blockchain. 

Coldie also weighed in on the future of music incorporating blockchain tech: I collected a lot of vinyl records when I was younger, so Im a fan of the album itself. I think that we lost that once we went digital. The demand for album liner notes and awesome packaging is gone currently. 

Theres certain forerunners like Snoop Dogg who was doing his cc0 music [creative commons], where you could download his music and use it all you want. Hes taken Death Row records fully on the blockchain. To me, thats a signal right?

But that signal takes time to create the ripple. If Snoop Doggs doing it, then other people start saying, Whats this all about? I think its going to bring in different mechanics with royalties and rewards where if you own the NFT, you can get into a show or theres a meet and greet. Theres all kinds of possibilities. 

Hot NFT artists to pay attention to 

Sutu Artist, writer, director, collector and founder of Neonz.xyz

This guy did the CGI for the Ready Player One movie, and that alone was like, this guy is literally designing the art for our future. Hes doing augmented reality, and his artwork is like Blade Runner on steroids, and its freaking fantastic. Hes wonderful and heavily slept on. I scream it from the mountain tops, and Ill continue to do so. 

Die with the most likes Artist from Indiana with his work featured in the first-ever digital art exhibition in Milan. 

Die [with the most likes] and I actually just got to hang out recently at VeeCon in Indianapolis. His stuff is so raw. The social context of his art, when you look at it, its kind of gruesome, but theres so much humor baked into it. Its just perfect. 

Coldies favorite collector

Basileus Basileus is a longtime supporter and early collector. Hes just a wonderful, kind person with a savvy eye. 

Links

Twitter: twitter.com/Coldie 

Instagram: instagram.com/coldie3dart/ 

Website: coldie3d.com/ 

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE

Self-proclaimed tinkerer 0xDEAFBEEF has hit it big with audiovisual NFTs that slowly degrade in quality every time they’re traded.

When NFTs first took off, it was Beeples digital art, CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club PFPs that dominated the headlines and top sales but one individual bucked the trend in a unique way, garnering attention with generative audiovisual art using just a C compiler. 

That individual was 0xDEAFBEEF, an artist and engineer based in Toronto, Canada whos spent over 20 years experimenting with art, technology, music, generative art, computer animation, blacksmithing and sound recording. 

Using low-level computer code and a minimal toolset to craft raw information into audiovisual artworks has proven more popular than you might expect. A collection of six of 0xDEAFBEEFs sold for $6.8 million in August 2021, and two weeks ago, Series 1: Angular – Token 134 fetched $241,300 at Sothebys. It was auctioned during part 1 of Grails, a collection of highly desirable NFTs originally owned by the now-insolvent 3AC (Three Arrows Capital).

Trained on classic piano as a kid and somewhat of a mad scientist when it came to audio equipment, discovering a programmable blockchain in Ethereum was a revelation.

Id describe myself as a tinkerer, jumping around between many fields, overlapping art and technology. It just happened that the project that I commenced before I knew anything about NFTs, doing audiovisual work with code, happened to align with things that were happening within Ethereum, 0xDEAFBEEF says. 

It was great timing. When I look back, had I missed that window in 2021 by three to six months, things might have looked much different. 

But like so many successful NFT artists that have emerged in the explosion of the new digital art era, not planned is a common theme. 

In March 2021, his Synth Poems were born, inspired by the sound of analog synthesizers. These short generative music pieces are stored fully on-chain. 

NFTs that degrade in quality 

NFTs have been a playground for experimentation, and 0xDEAFBEEFs work Entropy is unique in that the tokens degrade in quality each time they are traded. 

Entropy is thematically about permanence, and permanence is a theme of on-chain generative art. Its a theme of crypto in general with things being permanent and immutable, says 0xDEAFBEEF. 

It was interesting to me. Theres a narrative of on-chain art being more permanent than other NFTs where the files are stored on another server and have the potential to disappear. But I asked myself the question of how immutable it is through Entropy. 

Using the Entropy artwork to paradoxically critique the idea of permanence by having this digital artwork that changes and degrades every time it changes ownership I thought it was interesting thematically. 

Since the recent introduction of the Blur marketplace, many NFT collections, particularly PFP projects, have seen the emphasis on aesthetics decline with most sales being anchored to current floor prices. Its also posed the question of does the number of times an NFT gets passed around between owners matter? 

For some collectors, it actually does. While a digital piece of art or collectible doesnt face the same wear and tear challenges a physical item does, the history of ownership could be a factor, with some collectors putting a premium on those that havent been passed around like a hot potato. 

Entropy was an experiment ahead of its time. People can have their own interpretation, but I dont think it was necessarily a means to really discourage people from trading the NFT or transferring the NFT, he says. 

Is it more valuable if its been transferred or not? Its up to the collectors to decide, but it does add this narrative. It wasnt really a way to stick it to people that are buying and selling works thats obviously part of the culture. Tradability and collectibility is a very interesting dimension of NFTs. Its really just an artwork that touches on all of those themes and at least asks you to consider it. 

Personal style: 

Many NFT collectors believe its harder for digital artists that focus on audio to cut through as effectively as visual artists as audio takes longer to consume. 

0xDEAFBEEF has been able to cut through this friction with his own distinct monochrome visual style that is a great hook to unlock the audio aspect of the art. 

People see it first before they hear it usually because of the dominance of social media its all visually oriented. The monochrome aesthetic of my work is something that comes through a lot. Theres a bunch of reasons why I work in monochrome. One of them is just being practical because this was originally a sound-based project, he says. 

I was focused on audio synthesis, and I was focused on motion and animation. Bringing those two things together is already many dimensions, so working with sound and with motion that might introduce color is too much. Monochrome has sort of become part of the style for those reasons. 

Notable sales to date:

DEAFBEEF Full Set (6 items) Sold for 2,275 ETH ($6.8 million on the date of sale) on Aug. 19, 2021. 

(The buyer was later revealed as Brevan Howard founder Alan Howard.)

Advection (below) was sold for $307,157 on June 29, 2022. 

Influences:

0xDEAFBEEF cites American musician Frank Zappa as someone who was very influential early on in the way he thinks about music and art. 

Its about his music but also the spirit and ethos of it sort of sticking to your guns and doing things for yourself. Another way I think about it is making things that arent necessarily for the crowd, he said. 

If it wasnt for that encounter, I might have just kept on doing my engineering degree and wound up in a boring job and being regretful about things. It helped me give myself permission to do something more risky.

I dont listen to Frank as much as I used to now. Looking back, he does have some problematic kinds of themes and things. I dont idolize him or anything, but he was still quite influential on me as a young person. 

Which hot NFT artists should we be paying attention to? 

Operator Experiential duo of Ania Catherine and Dejha Ti. 

They have a long-standing art practice, but more recently, I think theyre working with generative choreography. I think thats really fascinating. Theyre coming at it from a very strong technical and conceptual aesthetic.

Trevor Paglan Satellites, deep-time, seeing machines, infrastructure

Trevor is an artist that investigates. He has a recent Art Blocks drop that ties in with other projects that hes doing that are related to security and privacy, which I think are really relevant at this time. 

Paul Pfeiffer Video artist 

Paul is an amazing video artist. Hes well known and doing his first NFT with Art World. It looks really phenomenal. 

Holly Herndon Artist working with voice models and artists rights 

Holly has been studying at Stanford about artists rights for a while. Shes known what was coming for many years now. Shes been working with voice models. Its fascinating stuff. 

Notable collectors: 

The qualified electrical engineer genius of 0xDEAFBEEF is collected by many notable NFT whale collectors, but its other artists in particular who he pointed out make him smile knowing they appreciate his work. 

Im extremely appreciative of all my collectors and anyone thats taken an interest in my work. The most meaningful ones that have honestly made me smile have been art-for-art trades with other artists. 

I traded a Glitch Box with Snowfro for several unminted Chromie Squiggles. Im really proud to have that in his collection, and also to receive those Squiggles is super meaningful. 

I also traded Synth Poem with Mitchell F Chan, who is a conceptual artist thats been working with blockchain stuff. He has a project from 2017 thats really relevant called Digital Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility.

Then theres Jack Rockland, who has held one of my Synth Poems all the way through since March 2021. He works at ArtBlocks and is an artist himself. Im really proud to have him as a long-time collector. 

Favorite NFTs in your wallet that arent your own:

Stipple Sunsets by Jack Rockland. 

It was the first NFT that I minted that wasnt my own; plus, it was the work of a friend, so it makes it really meaningful for me. 

Links: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/_deafbeef 

Website: https://www.deafbeef.com/ 

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE

Trevor Jones creates NFTs fit for a King, he sold $4.3 million of NFTs in a day and he’s among the most celebrated crypto artists in the world.

With a total artwork value of $24 million Trevor Jones is one of the Top 10 most successful crypto artists worldwide.

Trevor Jones journey to crypto art stardom started the same way as many crypto noobs: His portfolio went way up, he failed to take profits, and the price came crashing down wiping out the paper gains.

A traditional painter, Jones always wanted to explore the intersection of art and technology, and he experimented with QR code oil paintings in 2012 and dived into AR art in 2013. 

But it was his 2017 investment in Bitcoin that sparked deep curiosity in what this new world of crypto and blockchain was about. After getting rekt in 2018s crypto winter, Jones turned his attention from crypto trader to crypto painter. He says:

I caught that bull run and made a lot of money and then lost a lot of money in 2018. It all went up and all came crashing down.

I really fell down the rabbit hole and got completely excited about the space and the people. I was following whoever I could on Twitter, the likes of Vitalik Buterin and John McAfee and characters like that. Very quickly, I started having thoughts that this is something I would like to explore with my art. 

Crypto art was almost non-existent as a genre in 2018 within traditional art circles, so Jones took it upon himself to hire a commercial gallery to stage a crypto-themed exhibition where he showcased some of his first original crypto art at the Crypto Disruption Exhibition.

The 12 paintings I did were all inspired by the crypto space, and from the new perspective I was coming in from, I didnt know a lot about it at the time. I focused on some of the characters, such as Satoshi Nakamoto, ideas and themes like the bull and the bear, hodling and riding the wave. It was kind of me figuring out how to visualize this space through these paintings, he said. 

I sold almost everything from the exhibition to anonymous collectors around the world where they paid me in Bitcoin and Ethereum. It really blew my mind because normally when you go through an art gallery to sell work, you dont get to meet the collectors for the most part, its all done behind closed doors. Youd hopefully receive money two to three months down the line when the gallery pays you out. 

To get paid immediately was just so eye-opening. A few of the paintings were actually sold before the exhibition even opened. I was just posting some images on Twitter and somebody would reply saying they liked it and how much is it? Id tell them a number, and theyd just send me some Bitcoin, and the sale was done. It was just the most surreal thing. 

Oil paintings to NFTs

With a path similar to Josie Bellinis, from crypto artist first to NFT artist second, Jones recalls Coin Fest in April 2019 in Manchester being a pivotal moment. David Moore from Known Origin tried to explain to him why he should be interested in NFTs.

Coming from the perspective of a traditional artist who had a very successful exhibition of paintings that were selling between $5,000 and $12,000, I was grappling with the fact that NFTs at this time were only selling for about $20 or being gifted, Jones says.

It didnt make sense in my head that I should sell a digital representation of a painting for $30 when the physicals were being sold for five figures.

But Jones continued to investigate the world of NFTs, tapping into newfound relationships with the likes of Alotta Money, Pascal Boyart and Coldie. He paid particular attention to Matt Kane and Coldie in the back half of 2019 who were starting to make sales in the hundreds or thousands of dollars and started to think maybe theres a way that it makes sense to bring my work together with a digital counterpart.

He says he was initially hesitant out of concern for collectors of his physical art who had paid top dollar. I felt that it would be disrespectful to then sell that painting for $30, but I was still learning about editions and all the nuances of the space at the time, he says.

The Canadian artist was an instant success when he finally decided to take the NFT plunge. His very first NFT titled EthGirl, a collaboration with NFT art legends Alotta Money, broke the record for the highest sale on SuperRare, selling to ModeratsArt for 72.1 ETH ($10,207 at the time of sale). 

Alotta Money is the most amazing dude. I worked with him on EthGirl, which was inspired by the Picasso piece Girl with a Mandolin. It was a big oil painting I did, and he animated it. It was still super early days in the NFT art scene, but it caused a huge bidding war between Moderats and Whale Shark and ended up breaking records. 

Everybody was talking about it because this was really the first time that I think artists, including myself, realized we could actually make a living from selling digital art through NFTs. It was really a pivotal moment I believe in the space. It raised a lot of eyebrows to where we might be headed. Check it out by clicking the Play button in the tweet below.

Personal style

Coming from a traditional art background but with a love of technology and an appreciation for history, Jones says his style is hard to label, but his aim was to be a social realist in this space to capture moments in the crypto space but also in the real world.

I dont really have a unique style, but my work is always connected to the long history and tradition of painting and art history. I studied art history at university for five years. Im somewhat of an anachronism in this space of crypto; heres this crazy innovative digital new world and then some old painter dude comes in and starts working away, and people like what Im doing. 

Ive been interested in technology for a while with my previous work painting QR codes and exploring AR back in 2013, so I think thats probably one of the reasons why the collectors in NFTs accepted me with open arms because theres a history of my curiosity in technology and innovation. 

Notable sales to date

Castle Party

Jones, who has lived in Scotland since 1999, has put his own spin on what an NFT IRL event should look like with his Bitcoin Angels Castle Party. The event brings artists and collectors together for a two-night celebration. 

With Bitcoin Angel, my life changed entirely in seven minutes, and having spoken with a few bigger collectors on Twitter, one suggested I throw a castle party. At first, I thought it was a stupid idea, but after sleeping on it for a day or two, I came to realize it was a great idea. 

I have an opportunity through this castle party to thank all the people who bought one of my artworks. Thats really how it started off, to invite all the owners of Bitcoin Angels and a way of giving back to my community, and its grown from there. 

The 2023 castle party will be held in France from September 3 to 5, with holders of Jones artworks receiving discounted tickets. More information here.

The Oath Coronation NFT

To celebrate the coronation of the new King, Jones recently teamed up with the Evening Standard newspaper and Apollo Entertainment to release an open-edition NFT titled The Oath to own a piece of history. 

It was a free mint dropped on Nifty Gateway, with 20,200 being minted, which set a record for an open-edition mint on the platform. 

I thought it was a cool opportunity to capture a moment in history and get people excited about digital art and what NFTs are. The Evening Standard is one of the biggest U.K. publications, and this was a chance to create something with them to get disseminated out into the real world, said Jones. 

Which hot NFT artists should we be paying attention to? 

Jones cites four artists who were part of the #ArtAngelsNFT series he created to shine a spotlight on emerging artists. 

Saint MG (@SaintMG1) Artist and architect from Colombia. Lost Angel in the digital renaissance.

Nurart (@NurArt_) Visual artist from Cuba. Weaver of symbols.

Richard Masa (@RichardMasaArt) Abstract-surrealist from Paris.

Maria Fynsk Norup (@mariafynsknorup) Conceptual self-portrait artist from Denmark. Emotional storytelling.

Art Angels could be considered somewhat of a Shark Tank show meets the dating game. Its where wed connect artists and collectors. Its been life-changing for some of the artists involved. Saint MG made a 1-of-1 sale on SuperRare and some other sales and sold about $9,000, which is a lot in his hometown of Colombia.

Nurart from Cuba has also made life-changing money from some sales and is such a great artist. Richard Masa is absolutely phenomenal, just an amazing artist, be sure to check him out. Maria as a photographer is really special her work just takes you to places. 

Favorite NFTs in your wallet:

La Peste Bleue by Alotta Money 

(r)Evolution by Alotta Money (gifted by ModeratsArt) 

Links: 

Twitter: twitter.com/trevorjonesart 

Linktree: linktr.ee/trevorjonesart 

Website: trevorjonesart.com/

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE

NFT art pioneer Josie Bellini has already ensure her on-chain art can live forever — and she wants to upload her brain to the Metaverse too.

Who is Josie Bellini? 

Crypto artist Josie Bellini is most famously identified by her iconic Bitcoin gas mask from Filter. She has become one of the most prominent NFT artists, being featured at Christies and on just about every NFT marketplace platform available, including SuperRare, ASync Art and Nifty Gateway. 

Born and raised in Chicago, Bellini always had a passion for art. But growing up in poverty, she wanted to live a life of plenty, leading her to major in finance at college and take a job at a TradFi company. 

Weirdly enough, her desire to learn more about finance led her to crypto… which led back to art… which led to making money.

Growing up in poverty, you dont hear about stocks and investing, she says. I was thinking, I have all these clients that were investing, and they were making money, while they were asleep. I kept thinking, How can I do this?

She didnt have enough money to invest in half the things she recommended for clients, as she wasnt an accredited investor. A spark reignited about a paper shed written in college about Bitcoin, and she fell down the rabbit hole of Ethereum in 2017. 

I started to think deeper about crypto and how this could potentially be my breakthrough. I got obsessed, she says. Id ask myself questions of why Bitcoin was invented, why Ethereum came along, and what the differences between the two were. 

Bellini would attend Bitcoin meetups in her hometown, and before long, she quit her job to work in crypto, aiming to become a full stack developer by attending a coding bootcamp, but I absolutely hated it, I dont remember any of it. What I did love was the design side of it. 

I started making websites, logos and materials for blockchain conferences around the world and also crypto companies. That was my foot in the door to getting work in the industry. 

By the end of 2017 is when I made my first personal crypto artwork; that piece was called Genesis, and it blew up on Reddit. At the time, the term crypto art wasnt really a thing, and I wasnt using it then myself. What I was doing was creating themed art to spread awareness of cryptocurrencies. 

Crypto art to NFTs

It was nearly two years between Bellini making her first piece of crypto art (Genesis) to minting her first NFT as an artist (Tune In) on June 23, 2019. Tune In was a physical painting with the NFTs accompanying 21 prints. Its a timestamp for the NFT ecosystem in early 2019. 

In 2019, there were all sorts of NFTs at that time, CryptoPunks, CryptoKitties, Chain Breakers; you also had Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, Neon District and Autoglyphs had just come out, so I snuck those into the piece last second, Bellini says. 

In early 2022, CyberBrokers was born, a 10,001-NFT collection Bellini had been cooking up for years. Josie is the founder and CEO of the project, which considers itself a media and entertainment company focused on the metaverse. The art was hers with help from Azamat Khairov.

Influences

Having grown up in the neighborhoods of Chicago, Bellini has developed a love for street art and graffiti, which shines through in her work, particularly the CyberBrokers collection. 

I grew up around a lot of street art. I was always interested in graffiti and all the different fonts.

A collector as well as an artist, Bellini collects a lot of other Chicago-based artists work and draws inspiration from the likes of Kayla Mahaffey (artist/illustrator from Chicago), Bisa Butler (award-winning African-American textile artist) and Hebru Brantley (contemporary American artist using anime and graffiti). 

I fell in love with a lot of local Chicago artists like Kayla whos amazing. Also, Hebru [Brantley] whos really famous and does Flyboy.

Im also obsessed with Bisa Butler. Id die and go to heaven if I could own anything by Bisa, but everything is going to museums, Bellini says. 

Notable sales to date

CyberBrokers

While NFT insiders were well aware of Bellini prior to 2022, CyberBrokers caught the attention of the newer collectors on the block in NFT land. 

It shot out of the gates in March 2022 after a carefully curated allowlist process in February where Bellini and her team rewarded existing collectors of her art and Twitter and Discord followers. 

Minting at 0.35 ETH, the floor on the secondary market pushed up to the 45-ETH range within a month, including some massive sales for rares in the collection, such as Gnash for 150 ETH on March 31, 2022, and Tempo for 120 ETH on April 4, 2022.

Despite a sharp downturn in the NFT market in May, CyberBrokers remains focused on content, collectibles and experiences. Were born of crypto art and the metaverse. These are the things that I am obsessed about and have been living since 2017, says Bellini, who says the project is focused on innovation. 

This includes us being stored 100% on-chain. Weve released mechs which are full 3D, rigged and interoperable with many different virtual worlds. There are 17 billion combinations of the way people can mix and match their NFT. Were always trying to push the next thing that much further. 

Were building out a massive beautiful universe that you can peer into through our website. We have some of the most talented people that have ever stepped foot into this space on our team, and were not going anywhere.

Why on-chain NFTs matter

An often overlooked nuance to NFTs is whether they are stored on-chain or the art/image is pointing to a third party, such as IPFS. Bellini is a big proponent of true digital immortality.

What weve done specifically with our art was to create it in vector format, which means that the vector gets translated into code. The code knows where the points are, where the shapes live, where the colors live. Im simplifying this a lot, but basically, that code gets written into a contract, says Bellini. 

For example, lets say 200 years from now, Im gone, my teams gone; hopefully, Ive uploaded my brain to the internet, and Im living through some AI dupe of myself, but if that somehow doesnt happen, as long as someone can access the code that launched and you can still access Ethereum, you will be able to generate the art simply from the code. You can generate every single 10,001 CyberBrokers from code.

While her digital art has already achieved a form of immortality, she really does want to live on forever in the metaverse.

My husband and I joke about it all the time. If one of us goes before the other, we better figure out how to upload each other to the internet so that we can live forever, and our family. We joke about it, but in all seriousness, I think about this thing often, and I would for sure love to live forever.

Which hot NFT artists should we be paying attention to? 

Giant Swan (A_Giant_Swan) VR artist based in Melbourne, Australia. A world builder through art. 

When I look at Giant Swans work, you cant stop thinking, and you start to feel a certain way. I can see the blood, sweat and tears. I can see that hes put his heart in his canvas and the way that every stroke he builds them in VR.

They have so much depth and so much emotion to them. Every paint stroke he puts on there has purpose, and it looks like these humans are turned inside out. You literally see theyre wearing their emotions theyre wearing this scene that hes building around them. Its just incredible.

DominikG (@0xDominikG) Freelance concept artist. 

I recently found and tried to buy this piece of his. It takes you through a journey where youre thinking, Is this guy tripping on drugs? Is he going crazy? Is this what his brain is really like? Its chaos but it’s beautiful. Its scary, but its cool. I just love getting caught up in that sort of amazing journey.

Notable collectors

As an OG and such a respected artist, Bellini not only has a number of notable collectors, but many other well-respected artists also collect her work. 

Theres a lot. I dont want to forget people, and these are not in any particular order, but Steve Wand is one. Steve is an amazing person and was one of the first people who saw my artwork in person at a conference and fell over it. He told me he loved what I was making and wanted one of everything to be my biggest supporter. It meant the world to me, Bellini says. 

Also J1mmy and Pranksy. J1mmy is one of the only people that Ive ever done a commission for. I painted one of his CryptoKitties, and thats how we met in the CryptoKitties channel. Pranksy has become a really good friend over the years. Hes absolutely amazing and such a beautiful person to know. 

Theres a lot more honestly. It makes me smile that some of my friends that are crypto artists themselves are collectors of my work. People like Matt Kane and Coldie. Means a lot that theyre interested in my work.

Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/josiebellini 
Website: https://josie.io/ 
Behind The Art YouTube Series: https://www.youtube.com/@JosieBellini/playlists 
CyberBrokers Website: https://www.cyberbrokers.com/

Subscribe

The most engaging reads in blockchain. Delivered once a week.

Email address

SUBSCRIBE