Art is a discipline which was always spoken about with a certain level of judgment and skepticism. Since the establishment of popularized artworks, people took forever to get on good terms with the idea that pieces of art are worth money and validation. With each step of the ladder of artistic evolution, many found styles, such as abstract, minimalism, impressionism, etc. very difficult to accept, as they did not understand how a work with such simple details could carry a deep and controversial meaning. Nowadays, the Western society is much more open-minded to the variety of different genres and supports artists who chose to follow “rebels of their time” by opening museums and galleries of modern art and promoting innovative take on this world’s social commentaries. And with such bursts of growth and development, it would be silly to assume that digital art will never take over the artistic stage and find a way to make profit in the 21st century.
Remember how your grandparents used to trade their precious baseball cards among their friends, which ended up with an insane financial value? If they would be living in the wonders of online authenticity, they would not have to go an extra mile to achieve their marketing scheme. Today’s reality displays that many internet users value digital art/content much more than before, which is why mediums like animation and 3D-modeling are being massively popularized.
And while internet trolls question the integrity of the digital medium, thousands of people found a way to make millions of their influential pieces, without ever being given a hard copy of their work. So how do you end up being the next Mike Winkelmann and become a millionaire over one night?
The way many professional and beginner artists could make a living out by presenting their art in a digital form goes through a NFT, which stands for non-fungible token. It is a form of crypto-currency that allows its owner to claim an ownership on the original piece of work that was bided at the online auction. As any work that is being displayed on the internet can be easily shared, copyrighted and reposted on different platforms, which loses its unique value, with NFT you become the one and only owner of your purchase.
One of the lucky artists who was able to successfully sell his rights to the digitized file is Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple. In 2007, Beeple came up with the idea of a series called “Everydays,” in which he was making daily artworks without skipping a single day, throughout 12 years. He was able to get recognized by big brands as Coca-Cola and Louis Vuitton, however with the strike of COVID-2019, Beeple’s business was suffering and he made a decision to start selling NFTs in November of 2020. With the starting bid of $100, he was able to sell it for $67 million dollars, making it the fourth most expensive artwork by a living artist.
NFT is a great way to sell your artwork, as it does not require any connections and investments, but luck and determinacy. In theory any amateur artist that creates in a digital medium could become a millionaire overnight and get recognition. However, as NFT is still a new format of sales and many investors think twice before getting into it. Even Beeple himself, did mention that he believes that ‘we are currently in the bubble’ that is about to explode as internet transactions of any sort are unpredictable in the long run. As many artists think that the idea of buying ownership on something they did not make is slightly strange and could be morally considered as theft. Aside from that NFT sales are extremely bad for the environment, since all of the maneuvers require 40+ terawatts of energy which is an equivalent of a yearly consumption of energy in countries like Qatar or Hungary. And with the growth of environmental movements, NFT might look at charges and penalties for massively contributing to global warming.
Despite its pros and cons, it's fair to admit that the Non-Fundable Token system is indeed very interesting and intriguing to observe. And for those who are nor afraid to take the risk it still is a great opportunity to try and put yourself on a digital market.
And while the entire Art World is looking at such revolutionary changes, there are still millions of those who like to stick to the old-fashioned way of selling and showing their artworks. So while you question if you should try online sales, we would like to offer you the never-changing opportunity of presenting your creations in a classical and time-proofed way. We offer a variety of art supplies and best printing on canvas, metal and fabric technologies, as well as coatings, dry mounting and dye-sublimation services. As we support local and national artists, we would do the best job at providing you with exclusive materials and production, professionally performed by our business.
Have a great and creative shopping!
Here’s some additional NFT content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNQLJcJEzv0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token
https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq
https://www.creativebloq.com/features/what-are-nfts
