NFTs: a personal transition from physical to digital artwork.
Dr Marc Yeats
Marc Yeats : composer of New Music, abstract landscape painter, practice researcher, writer and poet
I’m probably doing this all wrong. Don't misunderstand me; I’ve done my research, but just how much of what I have discovered is either useful or necessary, I don’t know. Not yet. But when I launch myself into the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens, for the uninitiated), my make-or-break strategy can be assessed for its success or otherwise.
For those of you unfamiliar with my work, I’m a composer of New Music and most relevant here, an abstract landscape painter. I have a strong profile working in both fields and regarding painting, a track record that stretches back to the 1980s (see my website Marc Yeats Landscape Painter ).
Like many, I have observed the phenomena that are NFTs for some years, wondering why people would spend money on owning and trading digital art. I was particularly discouraged from exploring further the widely advertised environmental impact of creating NFTs using blockchain and like so many, was aware of the unsustainable impact of such practices.
My attitude changed when I encountered Voice.com and its claim to be artist/creator orientated and to operate on a carbon-neutral blockchain. Suddenly, my hostility and discombobulation turned to curiosity and over the preceding year, I became more inclined to try NFTs. So here I am, a year later, doing just that with my shiny new profile and NFT collection on Voice.com https://www.voice.com/marcyeats
I have read various blog posts (they are legion) offering advice about how to successfully launch NFTs onto an unsuspecting world, including becoming an active participant in NFT online communities. As an artist already on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, the prospect of servicing yet more social media channels with content did not fill me with excitement. Despite the prevailing opinions around the necessity to become an active contributor to said NFT communities, I’ve decided to suck it and see and ascertain how well I can use my current social media channels for marketing without making my contacts dread the day I ever mentioned NFTs. Little by little. Drip-feed. That’s my policy, along with short posts and beautiful images. To expedite this, I shall research the very best NFT-related hashtags to embed in my posts and attract interest in my work. If those hashtags broaden my network and cause me to drift or get pulled into specifically NFT communities, that’s fine as my participation would have developed organically out of interest in my work and dialogue with other artists and collectors. Engagement arising out of mutual interest and support would be an ideal outcome.
‘These landscape images are bespoke digital artefacts that exist only as NFTs.’
For those of you familiar with the range of NFT artwork that is available, you’ll notice immediately that my NFTs don’t look much like the majority of work you’ll encounter. Although immensely popular, fun, contemporary and lucrative, there are no avatars, cartoon characters, pixelated art, anime or futuristic fantasy landscapes, hyper-realism, sci-fi cities or cyborgs, no AI-produced images or collectable multiple image variants. There are no bored, excited or any other emotional dispositions of apes in sight. My collection reflects non of these trends. Instead, my NFT images show an artist with painterly concerns regarding complex and intense colour, texture and form still at the forefront of their practice where a trace of the human hand is visible, desirable and celebrated. In this respect, my images are centred on traditions of abstract landscape painting and landscape photography rather than design or many of the trends currently dominating NFT production. However, make no mistake, this art is digital. The images are not simple photographs of my paintings but new images generated from those paintings. The images themselves are discovered, rather like ‘found objects’, within larger paintings. They exist, unnoticed, hidden from plain sight until spotted, extracted, contextually repurposed, enhanced, recoloured and processed, sometimes radically so, to generate original, one-off digital artworks that retain my artistic ‘fingerprints’ uniquely as NFTs. These landscape images are bespoke digital artefacts that exist only as NFTs.
‘I’ve made the art and I’ve made it on my creative terms. Now to see what reception it gets.’
I’m excited that my NFTs are stylistically distinct from so much other work I have observed in the crypto art domain. Whether this difference is a good or bad thing remains to be seen in an internet environment where there can be more noise than signal and more gimmick than substance, at least to the eyes of an artist initially entering the crypto sphere. There is always a danger that in my rush to create an artistic product representative of my practice and aesthetic, my lack of consideration for and incorporation of what is currently fashionable, trendy or even collectable may prove my NFT downfall. Of course, I’d be thrilled to be the one who sets a new trend and proves collectable simply because my work is different or dare I say, considered beautiful or desirable. I fear this may prove too optimistic an outlook. Even so, there will be people worldwide with very different tastes and requirements looking for something not currently available; something they don’t know they want – yet. It is those individuals who make notions of success a statistical possibility. A trend always begins with people; perhaps even just one person to set the ball rolling. The challenge is connecting those people with my work.
Pulling back from speculation around possible futures and critical to my life as an NFT artist (and to other artists out there coming from similar visual art/painterly backgrounds to whom I am primarily addressing this blog), the question I shall be asking is, will my work successfully fit into the NFT space? By success, I refer to achieving NFT sales, being collected, being valued as an artist and enjoying the experience, creating a ‘buzz’ around my work and perhaps being part of creative projects or collaborations originated through the NFT platform and its artists. No answers yet of course, but despite the uncertainties, what I do know is that if I cannot produce NFTs on my terms as a professional artist, I’d rather not bother at all. To that end, I’ve made the art and I’ve made it on my creative terms. Now to see what reception it gets. ‘The proof of the pudding […]’ and all that.
领英推荐
‘I value my digital art and paintings equally, therefore I price them the same.’
With a collection of NFT images produced, named and uploaded to my Voice artist profile, my mind now turns to sales. Pricing is always a difficult issue to pin down. My pricing experience is with physical and not digital products. As is always the case with art, monetary value is strictly commensurate with how much someone is willing to pay for it. The vast sums of money paid for some NFT art making headlines over the past year demonstrate this principle in extreme. But just how much is someone willing to pay? How much do I think my NFTs are worth as a starting point?
Opinions around value very. Status and reputation are factors. The assumed potential for investment or spotting a trend or collection compulsion before it happens are other factors. An attraction to the art (and the artist) is (should) also be of prime concern. Rather than grasping at air, I decided to price my digital art in a similar manner to how I price my works on paper – by their size. To this end, I have used the pixel count of each image and its corresponding maximum high-quality image size in centimetres (length x height) if reproduced as a physical print to calculate three price tiers that reflect these differences. I value my digital art and paintings equally, therefore I price them the same. This makes sense to me.
With everything now in place and ready to go, all I need to do is upload and mint my collection to generate NFTs from my images (minting means publishing a digital asset on the blockchain so it can be bought, sold and traded securely). Next, I announce to the world that I have arrived as an NFT artist. Fingers crossed.
‘Valuable opportunities may be missed.’
I believe there are artists out there like me who know little of what NFTs and the strange world, customs and language that surround them mean. For those artists too cautious to venture further who have perhaps heard NFT horror stories, scams or misinformation or just think the whole scenario a gimmick, valuable opportunities may be missed. I presume there are many artists who despite these misgivings and their NFT knowledge ‘black hole’ remain curious to explore and dip a toe into NFT waters. The prospect of such an undertaking can be daunting and even feel risky, but the possible rewards of being a successful NFT artist are potentially great. It could prove an exciting venture and one of the best professional decisions ever. Alternatively, it may prove an unproductive diversion.
To help make sense of it all, I have decided to share my NFT experiences as a newbie through a series of blogs. Think of it as open research undertaken to ascertain what the outcome of this venture may be. I’m certainly not going to develop into some sort of crypto guru who has all the answers and knows all the lingo. I may fail miserably to make any impact at all, but I believe we don’t all need to invent the wheel, so I shall take the plunge and see what works and what doesn’t work for me and share outcomes and insights with you.
In choosing to situate my collection on Voice.com, I have ensured there is no financial risk or risk to my work. And in case you’re quite reasonably wondering if I am on a promo commission from Voice or am writing this blog at their behest, I can state that I am not. There are many NFT platforms out there to choose from. I chose Voice owing to its artist-centred policies, ease of use and lack of hidden fees. I liked what they were doing best of all the sites I researched and thought my work would potentially fit within their platform ethos). I trust I have chosen wisely. In any event, the worst that can happen as a result of my choice is that I waste my time and my ego and expectations take a hammering. The very best – well, let’s wait and see.
Before concluding, here’s an important point to consider. It’s a bad time to launch an NFT collection with wars and increasing financial uncertainties – people worldwide have far less money to dispose of than was the case 12 or even 18 months ago. It doesn’t look as if the situation is going to improve anytime soon so I conclude that now is as good a time as any to launch. Nevertheless, circumstances beyond my control may contribute to what happens next.
Wish me luck.