As the NFT market hits a turning point with the forces of demand and supply shifting and readjusting the Digital Economy, we are entering a new phase of the Art NFTs era. We have come a long way in the past two years, as NFTs came through the art world like a wrecking ball, disrupting antiquated market traditions and making way for new possibilities for creators and collectors of digital art. Suffice to say, 2021 was quite the year for me having officially adopted NFT Art Making as a part of my arts practice.
With new projects and ventures on the horizon, I wanted to take a moment and walk down the memory lane of 2021 as I take a retrospective view of how my NFT Journey started to where I am now.
My journey began from a simple conversation with an acquaintance at my studio, who casually explained this new technology that could possibly be transformational for the world of Digital Art. After years of defending digital art as an “actual” art form, it has always been a challenge for artists like myself to have our digital work valued on the same scale as traditional art. With my somewhat rudimentary intro to NFTs, I was intrigued by its possibilities and dove headfirst into understanding how it worked, its application to digital art and the concept of Art as NFT.
Having always been fascinated by the topic of Decentralised Finance (DeFi), I wanted to be an early adopter of this amazing technological development into how I presented my art to the world. I started by accepting payment in cryptocurrencies and eventually launched my own NFT tokenized art series, Beauty in DeFi in early 2021, as I saw how beneficial NFTs are for creators and collectors because of the transparent transactional process of the blockchain platforms and how a Digital Public Ledger safeguards the authenticity of the artwork being sold.
The incredibly positive response that Beauty in DeFi received was a definite career highlight. This collection was not only an invaluable learning experience in utilizing the NFT technology and creating digital assets, but it also helped me establish connections in the NFT circle and introduced me to an entirely new online audience. As I started to get recognition for being a female NFT pioneer in the region with Beauty in DeFi, I felt incredibly humbled and realized the responsibility that I had in ushering in other female Arab artists to enter the NFT space with their own creations and now, the real race for me is how fast we can get more artists and collectors adopt this technology.
Once I started to create more NFT artworks midway through 2021, my perspective on how I created and sold my art has shifted considerably. I invested in building myself a team of competent individuals that help support my NFT art business and my studio in terms of admin, sales and marketing, while I try to solely focus on creating the art. With this team dynamic, I now find myself wearing multiple hats that of an artist, entrepreneur and a team leader.
You know, after embarking on this ambitious NFT venture, I often get asked if I now prefer my digital art over my traditional paintings. I can’t help but smile because essentially as an artist, you just feel privileged to be able to support yourself by doing something that you are passionate about. As someone who was always defending the validity and prestige of digital art for years, I am glad to see the soaring demand of digital art which has now led me to be spending more time creating digital art than ever before. The irony is that since now I am spending all this time on my computer, I am drawn back to my easel and acrylics and if you follow me on my Insta, you know I’ve got something under wraps.
Looking back to 2021, it was just a year ago and most people had no idea what the blockchain was and explaining it to them was such a challenge. This was all so new and the information on how to navigate the NFT Art World was quite limited. As time has passed, numerous NFT Art Marketplaces have been created and we have made incredible strides in the NFT Space with new developments being rapidly made on how to further adopt this tech. I have had the immense joy of creating digital art that was meaningful to me and contributed to the NFT art movement, which is the future of the art world. Even now with Digital Art Boom and the buzz for NFTs slightly getting muted, there is still a lot about this technology that needs to be harnessed and a long way to go before its immense potential is completely realized and understood by the masses.
For now, we just have to be patient and wait for the rest of the world to inevitably catch up with us…
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Check my digital artwork collection here.