Ethereum states that it has set the goal of 99% reduction of environmental impact with its revolutionary fragmentation “shard” system, so I’m now looking at preparing a few NFTs of the ordinary kind — I was wrong, and I take it back. They’re making a powerful effort over the next two years to reduce the impact of NFTs, although bitcoins will still be using the older technology.
The thing is, if you go to youtube and search for #nft, you will get hit with some 79,000 videos on that very subject. There are some 3 million shoppers on opensea, looking for opportunities to buy, sell or trade NFTs with other traders and collectors.
Why? It’s a “get rich quick” scheme, that’s why. I have no interest in that. My interest is strictly as an artist confronted with a new art form and a new art movement — in this case, digital and digitized art.
I have plenty of paper art, canvases and bronze sculptures for sale right now, in my private gallery. Want to buy some? I’m ready to ship.
But there’s a whole new area of art, that depends on the new medium, digital graphics, and it has a place and could be an interesting area of exploration for any artist, even a time-traveling artist from the 20th century.
One thing I can tell you for sure — you won’t sell any more digital art than you can sell ordinary art. You will only sell to your fan base, and if you haven’t any, you won’t sell anything at all.
There’s no magic formula. It’s all about hard work, and mostly a lot of social schmoozing, if you want to sell your art. The fact is that most artists survive on portraits of wealthy patrons or the dogs, cats or other pets of wealthy patrons.
Nobody in the art world survives for very long on the admiration of friends and family. You need a larger art audience, and for that, you need social media.
No amount of listings and other market-bound gruntings will get you out of the box. One thing that will get you out there is a sale to some friends just to start things off, and that’s what I’m going to do to show you how it’s done and what results it gets.
Keep in mind that I’m a listed American artist, and that means something in the art world. Along with that, I’m a recognized member of the Cedar Bar New York School, the Pop Art School and the lead artist for IAJE, the International Association for Jazz Education, and many other jazz venues and organizations, in support of jazz musicians worldwide.
I’m going to “mint” a few NFTs and put them up on opensea, just to check out the action, see how it goes, if there are any snags, that kind of thing.
In order to play the game, you’ll need a wallet, some ETH, and an account on opensea. I’ll be listing some of my NFTs for a lousy $99 bucks, so pick ’em up while you can — my next mintings will all be in the high numbers, well-known paintings and rare items, one of which will be my photos of the Donner Family Collection, which features unpublished letters and photographs of the infamous early California settlers, the Donner Party.
Not the originals — this is so much better!
I also have an original Jackson Pollock — absolutely NEVER for sale — but the NFT of me with my original Pollock is for sale, along with the evidentiary proofs and provenance, plus a video of me telling the story of how I ended up with the painting. He threw it at me and told me to get the hell out.
Dave van Ronk also had one of these pieces, cut from a larger “greenboard”. So just the PHOTO NFT of me with my Pollock painting goes for $5 million — I think that’s fair.
Also for sale, for $15,220,00.00, is a video of my family winning the California Lottery. I wouldn’t accept a lottery winning, but I’ll sell my photo of it for the same amount. Again, I think that’s fair.
By the way, it’s all for charity. What the blazes would I do with money?
I hope you investigate this more thoroughly. The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, has recently acquired more than 200,000 NFTs, and hundreds of museums are opening halls and galleries to show them.
Art galleries are filled with NFTs now, and more are realizing the tremendous opportunity that this “bubble” offers, while it lasts.
Oh, be assured that there’s a point where it will all come crashing down, and that’s the point where you don’t want to be left holding the bag.
Don’t get greedy. Just make the art you want to make, and let the world go to hell in a breadbasket.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby