4 Important Lessons About Selling Art on the Blockchain
Or, how to survive and avoid toxicity on the blockchain
What a gripping title for an absolutely insane topic. The title actually fails in entirety to communicate how absolutely unhinged, chaotic, and completely batshit crazy this whole NFT business can be. That being said, I have absolutely learned a fucking ton from having been immersed in the whole thing for just over 2 years now. Grab a coffee or tea, and buckle in for a long read.
Who am I, and what qualifies me to talk about this, you may ask. Well fuck, the only difference between me and somebody who hasn’t engaged with NFT culture directly, is that I have hands on experience with it. Most of the folks out there firing pot-shots at shit like the blockchain, AI, or even lifestyle fashion brands from a distance are just expressing their disdain at something they don’t fully understand, and simply don’t want to accept because it’s easier to fear or dislike it instead.
So how far have I gotten into this blockchain stuff? What have I succeeded and failed at? It’s a pretty big list, and I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what can be done with this technology, with this financial model, and with my art. Let’s start with my art sales.
Over 2 years, I have sold 1/1 art on Foundation, Makersplace, Nifty Gateway and more. I’ve also had some sales on the walmart of NFTs, Opensea, and similar mass aggregator marketplaces. My sales on objkt.com should also not be discounted in this list, even though most folks tend to discount the Tezos network. To be honest, it’s got the healthiest community/culture compared to behavior on other blockchains.
I’ve even sold some of my fiction on Mirror, and got a fancy writer spotlight award early on. That was pretty neat. Felt good. Nothing like this has ever happened to me prior to NFTs, though admittedly I never really put myself out there like that. In fact, the feedback I got for my writing on Mirror is what boosted my confidence, and ultimately led to my commitment to starting this newsletter, and podcast. I had talked about it for years and years, and it took some positive feedback from strangers on the internet to just commit.
But as is the case with things changing rapidly - like Foundation not being invite-only anymore - the novelty and public appreciation in these things tends to fade away, much like anything in any scene really. I still cherish all of my sales, and all of my successes, but do not expect others to remember them. Those that do are generally people I also celebrate the successes of. That’s called being a part of a community.
This is the first lesson: Find your community
It’s the heaviest thing I’ve learned from all of this, and it’s the same old cliche that always comes up with topics like this: community, community, community. It’s foundational. It’s irreplaceable. It’s crucial. Nobody enjoys yelling into the void alone - we have to do it together so we can laugh together when nothing comes back out of the pit we just dumped weeks or months of work into.
Now one of the other things I’ve engaged with on a very, very deep level is building NFT projects. I have built websites, created market assets and schedules, done copywriting, and pretty much done everything short of writing my own Solidity contract for a project. I prefer project management and making the art to be perfectly honest, so creating Iterative has been the culmination of all of the above. Let’s see how that shakes out.
Not everything has been great. In many ways, I missed a lot of windows where consistent marketing could have probably resulted in more art sales. I hate and suck at marketing my own work though, and can’t afford to invest in this. Many PFP projects I’ve worked with have encountered all kinds of problems, the majority of which come down to market timing. It’s all about timing.
This is the second lesson: Have work ready for when the bull appears.
Unlike gamblers, us artists do what we do, because we absolutely have to. It’s part of who we are at our very core. Survival isn’t just a financial thing for us, though of course that should not ever be discounted. Part of this is being able to get our concepts, feelings, ideas, and unprocessed thoughts out onto some sort of canvas. If we don’t, it inhabits real estate in our minds and souls and hearts, and leaves little room for any joy to come in and settle in. Unrealized ideas are a fucking cancer.
Thus, it helps to have some work ready, and put aside for when the market is looking like it’s in our favor. In fact, you can just mint it now when gas is low, and talk about it later. The point is, get it out there, but don’t worry about sales! Just fucking do it, and go on with your life; Get the art out there, and focus on your health, relationships, and cooking skills (or finding the best place to get your favorite food). Don’t forget to spend time with your pets.
Now society actually encourages us to turn off creativity, so for something so disruptive as crypto to have come along and changes the lives of a great number of folks is pretty damn exciting in my opinion. The promises are great, but the problems that come with it are still identical to the problems that existed in the world of art prior to the blockchain: unqualified people with loud voices. There are a lot of folks manipulating others for profit, scammers are rampant, and people will lie/steal/cheat their way to profit while diminishing the worth and value of others along the way. It’s absolutely dehumanizing and awful.
This is the third lesson: Don’t follow false prophets
Some folks leave in disgust, and others stay on. There’s nothing wrong with either; everybody has different limits, boundaries, and capacities for bullshit. And when it comes to conviction, who is to say who is lying to themselves about something they believe in strongly? From my perspective, the blockchain isn’t going to be disappearing anytime soon, and is the one of the best examples of technology that both disrupts and threatens existing systems, and offers solutions for society at the same time. It’s not perfect, but it provides potential for positive change.
So it really sucks when for example, self-fashioned “curators” show up, and decide they know what’s what. They want to be trend setters, and influence the market a bit. Nothing wrong with that to be honest, as long as artists are getting visibility, and compensated for their hard work. But the flipside of this is that traditionally, most curation is done by inexperienced folks with some social clout, that are really good at bullshitting folks with money to invest. Grifters.
Anybody can read a book, and sound smart. But not many folks can spend years understanding what artists do, and how much work goes into their conceptual and technical frameworks. So it’s unsurprising that within a fast paced culture like Crypto and NFTs, a bunch of folks in their early-20s are heralded as brilliant curators. This has often taken the form of showing some shit-ass no-talent photography alongside the work of brilliant artists with great talent, and crummy fuck-boy bullshit out-shining the thoughtful work people of disenfranchised communities have poured out of their hearts and souls. Seriously, who the fuck shows Guido’s photography in a SoHo gallery? Thats right, SuperRare, curated by some young 20-something that likes the guy, but clearly has no idea how weird it looks showing a turd next to a diamond.
It’s not just the new marketplace groups though. Recently a show at Sothebys (the oldest auction house that is still in operation, founded 1744) featured an all white, all male artist auction. Not a single woman, person of color, or transgender artist was represented. I even got to talk to the curator, Arthemort (Brian), on a Twitter Spaces, and his response to me asking him about this was that the folks running Sothebys are old white men. Sure, I get that, and it’s great that we’re disrupting the old fart rich dipshit art club with digital art and all, but the curator should still take some responsibility and at the very least, apologize instead of deflecting blame. He did “curate” it after all, yes? I’m not sure the word means what it used to mean anymore.
In fact, when I pointed out that a curator’s job has traditionally also been to take care of the art, he corrected me saying that there is a separate role for that. He missed my point entirely and interpreted the notion as somebody who physically handles the art. Any artist will tell you that caring for art that you represent goes beyond handling it with care and slapping a "fragile” sticker on it. The word curator is literally synonymous with “custodian of art.” But I digress, it’s easier for digital curators to represent some artists online and not feel any responsibility beyond the name-associations that come with clout.
The response to views like mine by those that are deemed “successful” in the space, has been that we are just jealous. First of all, no; we’re all just really disappointed, but thanks for showing us how simple minded you can be! It’s just more of the same bullshit in the space we left web2 and traditional institutions for. So again, I’m not surprised when artists leave the space to go back to how things were. It’s all very disheartening.
Secondly, fuck you. I’ve been very successful at many things in my life, that have not been defined by your social media clout and digital art sales standards. I’m not here to compare, but I do want to emphasize the importance of defining your own idea of what success is. Success comes in many different forms, for many different people, creatives and non-creatives alike.
This is the fourth and final lesson: Diversify and balance your engagements
NFTs are just another marketplace, albeit on a more cutting edge technology, that is exponentially better for tracking provenance, and removing middle men. The point is, treat it as another place to sell your art (or goods & services), and don’t discount older models for income and work. Go to galleries. Meet new people in different industries. Basically, don’t put all your chips in one bag, or you’ll find yourself less of an artist, and more of a gambler.
I can’t stress enough the importance of getting out there and touching grass. Eating good food, and spending time engaged with folks 1-on-1 is incredible. Even if youre an introvert, it is important to find time to spend with loved ones. Call your mom. Eat pizza. Teach your cat to give you high fives. Limit and reduce your time spent on social media drastically.
I want to end this article on a note about short term memory, and not forgetting who you are. There are many bad actors in any community. They come in the form of people selling other people’s work for money (see: The Chair), manipulating others by holding money over their heads, and the ever-classic ruggers that run off with your money and give you nothing in return. But people forget & forgive all of this easily, when the prospect of making some money shows up. It’s a fucking crying shame, and is indicative of how absolutely fucked everything is in society; the vast majority of folks are carrying financial burdens.
Maybe this is the fifth lesson, but honestly, this is just related to any community you find yourself in. There will always be shitty people, and there will always be a number of people willing to see past their toxic behavior. Don’t become one of them. If you forgive somebody, it has to be on your own terms. Otherwise the ethical dilemma will burrow and nest into your soul, and fester there. It’s easier to resolve the problem now, as opposed to having to cut it out later. We have to do better as a culture, and hold others accountable for their actions.
At the very least, stay true to your own path, and do not sacrifice pieces of yourself in the pursuit of what you define as success. Be unyielding in your ethical values, and remember to actually enjoy the process of creation, engagement, and discovery along the way. Otherwise, where’s the fun in the journey? There’s nothing like the wonder of discovering something new, and feeling a way about it.
What’s your latest discovery? TELL ME!
Also remember to check out the stuff I’ve been minting on Foundation. New one goes up today!
confidence but humility. i like that. Thank you for sharing orbz !