Floor is Rising - Trash Art OG - CryptoYuna
Primer: In this episode of the Floor is Rising, Sabretooth and Kizu interviewed CryptoYuna, who is one of the first women in Trash Art history. She is a traditional artist but transitioned to NFT and is well known for her eclectic style. She had an up and coming PFP project called Lost Avatars that will be launching really soon, so read on to find out more about it.
Who is CryptoYuna?
One of the first women in Trash Art History - OG in the NFT community
Came from the traditional art world and transitioned into crypto art
Founding member of Women of Crypto Art (WOCA)
Art curator of the Grafitti Queens art exhibition - largest all-female art show in the metaverse and featured in NBC News
Known for her eclectic style and quirky shapes and figures
How did she start on NFT?
Started crypto in 2018
CryptoYuna and her husband knew about Bitcoin but did not pay attention to it until it started mooning
They had $600 in savings and they wanted the most return for their money but had no idea about crypto and market cycles
Bought Litecoin. Literally, everything crashed the day after
Her husband is not used to the volatility and she took over the management of it
Started reading, researching and going to Twitter for up to date news, but eventually sold the Litecoin
During this period, she saw a tweet by @robnessofficial with the hashtag of crypto art and NFT
She didn't know what NFT was but it piqued her interest because it had crypto in it and she is an artist
Realised there are platforms where you can list your artwork and get paid in crypto - that's how she got into the rabbit hole
"I realised that there were platforms where you could list your artwork and get paid in crypto. I thought that was fantastic. I just suddenly like a light bulb went off moment and I was like, I can be at home. I can make my art and I can earn crypto doing it."
- CryptoYuna
Transition to NFT artist
Traditional Oil painter
She is a self-taught artist
Began with acrylics but couldn't get the medium to do what she wanted to do
Wanted to paint realism and learned mostly from YouTube
Eventually became successful enough to sell her works in shops and fairs
Went over to oil painting
NFT artist
When she got into NFT, she initially wanted to sell her oil paintings but she quickly realised that this is not what people are looking for
They wanted photomosh, glitchy, vaporware - the crazier the better
Hard for her to transit because she had to rethink her art and what appeals to people in the NFT community
Decided to get an iPad, downloaded Procreate and started teaching herself this new medium
Formed a group on Telegram and found a community of core friends that was to become the trash art group
She did not have a signature style as she'll get bored with one thing and move on to the next
But eventually, she did have a style that is recognisable as her work and she loved it that collectors can immediately recognise it
Trash art
She is no longer doing Trash art. Trash art was very distinct to her and it was with this core group of friends
Started when @robnessofficial was kicked off SuperRare for his 64 Gallon Toter and people think that they will not be good enough to be NFT artists
All of them had come from art backgrounds - traditional artists, taught art, film editor with various major firms
Hurtful to be labelled as unworthy so they were not going to tolerate it anymore
Also a stressful period for them, so they started minting NFTs that was just for laughs among them - an insider joke
"So it was really hurtful words to be called, you're not an artist. And we kind of had enough of that and being treated that way and we weren't going to take it anymore."
- CryptoYuna
Someone will take the art and remix it to make it even funnier and that was how trash art grew
It was an outlet for them to destress
Graffiti Queens exhibition
How Women of Crypto Art (WOCA) started
Started with the feeling of being a minority as a woman in the space
Wanted to relate to others who are also doing creative things full time, raising a family and being a mother
Reached out to Stina Jones and Sparrow to form a private Twitter group
Angie Taylor had already made a list of female artists and they invited all of them in
That's how Women Of Crypto Art (WOCA) was formed
Started an all-female art exhibition in Cryptovoxels called She Art
Angie Taylor hosted that in the London gallery
Graffiti Kings & Queens
CryptoYuna came to know of Graffiti Kings. Darren Cullen - founder of Graffiti Kings - is great to work with
He DMed her and asked if she wanted to do an exhibition with all female artists in Decentraland
She went to Polygon because she knew some people there and they had lots of space. Polygon agreed to sponsor
In the end, they had to do it over 2 weekends because of some issues and they could not display everybody's works
9 galleries in total, with 300 works, and featured in NBC News
Will be an annual event
Profile Pic (PFP) project
Started with the art and she could make it into characters with it
Her kids wanted to know the reasons why the characters are doing stuff
Wanted her to build a game out of this and it turned out to be a PFP project
Didn't like the artwork by other artists so she thought she could do it better herself
Started looking for developers to help her but they quoted prices of 100k to 400k to build the contract and launch it
Went to Arnold - founder of VR land - instead. Together with Graffiti Kings, the 3 of them set up a small team to do this
It will have some utility with the tokens and also a scavenger hunt
Planning to have an exclusive concert with the avatars
Going to be a fun project, not a cash grab
Will be launching soon on 1st Nov 2021 at 2 pm UTC
Her thoughts on collectible art like PFP
Thinks that PFP is a separate niche different from collectible art
There are 1/1 NFT from artists and these are not the same as PFP
PFP is oversaturated but the space will balance out eventually
Having PFP with utility will be a bonus
Updates on CryptoYuna
Wants to get some virtual land and she thinks the space will be huge in the near future
The movie industry is coming in - Anthony Hopkins has just done the first NFT movie
The music industry is in too
Did an interview earlier with a Korean company that is documenting the history of NFT
Korea is just starting and NFTs had not taken off yet, so she is early in the space
Asia is going to explode in this space
Exhibitions
The first exhibition in Beijing for NFT
Was in Crypto Tokyo - first exhibition in Japan
The first exhibition in Korea - planning to be in spring in the ARTE Museum
Had been invited to 3 more exhibitions in China too
Traditional vs NFT artist
"I think all artists should try it. You might find that you absolutely love it as I do. Doesn't mean you have to give up being a traditional artist or painting physical things or going to the art fairs or galleries. Why limit yourself?"
- CryptoYuna
Does not have to be one or the other
Going to take a longer time in the traditional art world to succeed than with the digital one
When she first discovered the space, she was telling all her forum friends about NFT. But as soon as they heard crypto, they just shut down
As NFTs get more popular, more people will learn about it and get more open-minded about the space to explore
Favourite artists and art
Mark Carder
He is a big-time oil painter and had painted the US president twice
Learned a lot by watching his YouTube channel called Draw Mix Paint
CryptoYuna got accepted to some major art college when she was 20 but she couldn't accept it at that time
Grateful that he is putting out all this stuff for free to teach people about oil painting
Darren Cullen
Founder of Graffiti Kings
Love Darren's attitude - does not get into drama and is just about teaching people and inspiring others
She wanted to be this type of person in the space - ahead in their game and give freely to others to inspire them to succeed
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