The Current digital art market.
I will start by saying its not getting any easier out there, we have seen quite a drop off in art sales over the past two weeks and I can feel the despair on crypto Twitter.
We are unfortunately tied in with current crypto themes, be that shit coins or whatever is the latest craze. It is my belief that at some point in the near future digital art will de couple from crypto and be viewed as a store of value in its own right just as traditional art is at present.
As an artist you must keep creating and building your legacy, its through the tough times that the true strs of tomorrow will be forged
Artists in Depth takeover _tustont
Let’s dive into Friday’s artist takeover and hand you to _tustont Illustrator/Vector/GAN and Deconstructionist extrodinare.
“Rather than starting at the beginning of my web3 journey in early 2021, I want to begin where I hit the reset button: 1 year in.”
“Fast forward to late 2021- I was burnt out and In need of something new. I delt as though I was trying to hard to put myself in the right place at the right time. It was then I decided to stop chasing "perfect timing" and begin to make my own moments. So I decided to completely start over after a year of grinding web3, to start fresh with the Garbage (oh the irony lol).”
“The concept: Garbage is my way of challenging social norms and in a way forces my audience to engage in critical thinking. I create a juxposition by using negative language to describe my work, despite its detail and careful design. Calling into question the role labels play in how we place value on artwork.”
“The Garbage concept was born from my time in bands performing live music. Our band had a very niche style and would often be presented with sparse claps and Confused looks after each song. Over time I figured out a way to engage an otherwise unenthused audience, by asking then to "BOO" us after each song. Very quickly we became the band everyone loved to hate.”
“My creative mind is inspired by risk. I like to take chances and push the edge more with each piece I come out with. I think that is why I am drawn to outliers. Artists who go against the grain in tasteful ways. I feel like it is a gift to have this streak of chaos in me that is always trying to escape through my work. The hardest lesson I've had to learn was that sometimes all it takes is me getting out the way.”
“Influences: O'Keeffe, Takashi Murakami, Dali, Alex Pardee and definitley Thomas Hirschhorn.”
“Joe Pease, Diewiththemostlikes, ACK and REY are few of the web3 artists I admire the most. Each of these artists have their own unique way of engaging their work. I feel very fortunate to be recognized by all of these amazing artists and my big hope is in time we can all buy a house together (lol).”
“Technique is all over the map, I have my hands in a lot of different things, to keep my brain from "fixing" finished work into disrepair. My main tool for creation is an outdated version of Adobe Illustrator. I'm sure I use tools "incorrectly" but I have found over the years that there is no wrong way- its just MY path of least resistance.”
Recycled Surge-0
This piece of Garbage can be found in "Diversity Day", a piece created for ARTILLITY project- in collaboration with pfps owned by Punk2070 and Kenshiro.
Containing a "recycled" Surge-0 vomiting into the mouth of a mutant Meebit.
A M̶i̶d̶s̶u̶m̶m̶e̶r̶ Misnomer Night Dream
A cross-play off of two Shakespeare works, "A Midsummers Night Dream" and "Othello" - referencing the moon's symbolism of the time and the phases in our lives / "errors" of the moon and its influence to cause bizarre behavior.
“It is the very error of the moon. She comes more nearer earth than she was wont. And makes men mad.” - Othello (Shakespeare)
Few artists have the depth that _Tustont has, his work illuminates an artistic vision of immense character. Each brush stroke delivers energy and movement that never lets the viewer rest, we are constantly taken around each piece on a whirlwind journey of exploration.
In depth artists review Kenva
Kenvais is a 3D/2D artist From BC, Canada! he has worked in the animation industry for 8 years and games for 2 years, during that time he’s also freelanced for big clients like Google, Wizards of the Coast, Royal Canadian mint, and a long line of small indie..
Kenva began his art journey at school, it was seeing the creation of 3D graphics that gave him huge inspiration. One day he came home from studying and downloaded a 3D software program and started learning, the rest as they say is history….
Kenva draws his Inspiration from many areas. These include movies from the 70s and 90s, Heavy Metal Magazines, anime, games, and works by other artists. One of his favourite artists is Moebius (Jean Giraud)
The style used by Kenva is toon shader (Cel shading). He learned this style him from
@CalderMoore_ when he saw his work. He strongly inspired Kenva to engage in this style.
Kenya’s works are a mix of 3D and 2D. First he makes a 3D scene in Blender, then he exports it all to Cinema 4D and sets up materials, render etc. After this he collect everything piece by piece in Photoshop, and adds the details.
Shards of Life
In the year 2123, Jake discovered a shattered glowing head in the ruins of a lost city on a distant planet. Upon touching it, he was overcome by a surge of electricity and realized the head was a powerful artifact capable of harnessing the energy of stars
The Gates
As a seasoned space traveler, John had seen many wonders of the galaxy. But nothing had prepared him for the sight he encountered on the unknown planet. A giant gate stood before him, and inside, he saw a pulsating core that seemed to be the source of unimaginable power. But before he could take a step forward, two human-like creatures appeared before him, their eyes glowing blue. They spoke no words, but John could sense their intention to keep him from entering the gate. Undeterred, he readied his blaster and prepared for the fight of his life, knowing that whatever lay beyond the gate was worth the risk.
Art Purchases
I continue to be bullish on digital art, and pleased to add a few lovely pieces to my collection over the past few weeks including “Jpeg Maxi” by 0xdgb
A huge addition to my collection is JANUARY 1ST, 2021 by Beeple!! This is my second Beeple and I believe at the moment these represent amazing value for money, it is my opinion that Beeple will be one of the very few digital artists looked back upon as a true pioneer of this space, his narrative is un matched, creating art everyday purely for the love of it for many years takes dedication few could manage.
W1 curates & Cozomo De Medici
Yesterday saw these two pillars of the digital art community put on a physical exhibition in London of Beeple works. Although I could not attend in person, a few of the images I saw looked amazing.
Thank you all for taking time to read my newsletter, until next time…
All the best Jamie