It is with great pleasure that I bring you today, on Valentine’s Day, the official launch of my NFT (non fungible token) art exhibition at the NFT Showroom on the Hive blockchain. I did it guys, my lifelong dream is fulfilled. And today is that day in history. It also happens to be the few days when we find a nice fat triple alignment of planets conjunct in the heavens. For me, today has been historic.
You may have noticed in earlier posts this week how I have been reporting on my aim of launching my own original hand made paper collage works of art, in digital format, as tokenized or monetized individual items for sale. Well today it happened. The journey has been a fun one, filled with creativity and learning. I have been able to tap in to my natural amateur artistic talent, as well as bring in my knowledge of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, combining all of these and making my dream come true, on the social media platform Hive.
The beauty of blockchain technology, is that my original paper art pieces can become a token in their own right, like a one-off coin. “Non fungible” means it is unique and not generic, like say a bitcoin or a dollar, where one bitcoin is equal to any other bitcoin. That would make it fungible. However, the NFT or non fungible token, like an original piece of artwork, is a one off, and worth a certain amount once launched on the blockchain.
Well, the most popular blockchain for NFT was originally Ethereum, with the Ether token. Their smart contracts were easily designed and tokens or new cryptocurrencies launched, as ERC-20 tokens. One could mint an entire vast amount of tokens – as many millions of them as you can organize in your code. And many cryptocurrencies today run as fungible tokens on Ethereum. The only problem is the increasing transaction (gas) fee for using the blockchain, as well as the congestion in tps (transactions per second).
Well the solution is the Hive blockchain. Instead of Ethereum, use Hive. Hive is basically free of any transaction fee and also has a faster transaction speed of a few seconds at most. Well, on Hive the NFT Showroom has already been established and launched for artists to upload their original art pieces for display in the online digital gallery. And today I took my scanned and digitalized paper collage pieces and launched them as tokens in their own right.
My first two, out of 8 art works so far, are up and ready for view as well as for sale. As a digitalized and tokenized item, each art piece has been given a name, history and value by me. The timestamp when I launched it is there for posterity, showing proof of art, and proof of ownership, sale, purchase and the entire journey taken by each art piece as a NFT on the Hive blockchain. The open ledger technology with timestamp is there for all to see. So no one can steal or copy my original works. This is the beauty of the blockchain when it works smoothly, as we see in the case of Hive.
I feel really happy today having launched my fine art career. This is just the beginning. I plan to make more collages for my portfolio, all by hand, form found pictures in magazines, glue and scissors on cardboard. I have no concerns about selling any of the 3 prints of each art piece. I will make more and sell them at various prices, to cater to all levels of art buyers and token investors.
These art works can be sold on at a later date for profit. Or if the price of the Hive token goes up, then naturally the price of the art piece priced in Hive token also goes up. That’s the theory anyway. These are now collectibles, like CryptoKitties or Splinterlands cards. They are tokens in their own right. I always wanted to have my own cryptocurrency. Now the art pieces will be the equivalent, just more exclusive, as one-off, or in this case three of a kind.
The amazing synchronicity around the timing today is hugely significant, in my opinion. Today we have the tight triple conjunction alignment of Venus, Mercury (retrograde) and Jupiter all within 3 degrees, from 13 -16 Aquarius in the western tropical system of astrology. And these planets are within conjunction of my natal sun at 7 degrees Aquarius. Personally I feel that I have been able to harness this planetary alignment to launch my art gallery exhibition today. My life as an artist has come of age.
The fact that it is in the progressive digital format while simultaneously being old-school cut and paste, is a synthesis of old and new which I aim to bridge, like few before. Actually I timed it in such a way that my gallery exhibition on NFT Showroom site was launched just as the triple conjunction of planets was also precisely conjunct the midheaven, or highest point in the sky precisely at noon local time.
Any sales will be an added bonus at this stage, for the experience of exhibiting my creations like this is symbolic in itself of part of my personality as an artist who is only now (after the age of 50) making it to the showroom of the world – albeit the Hive world.
Feel free to take a look at my first two art pieces at my gallery profile https://nftshowroom.com/julianhorack/gallery and give me your opinion of the works and the platform if you like. The works took several hours to make by hand, up to a full day, for example, so I aim to sell them for cryptocurrency – Hive token – to the value of my time and effort. Add to that the scarcity of the art pieces – only 3 prints of each – and you have something that I have valued between $20 - $25 each. That is fair value at least, in my opinion.
Let’s see what happens if Hive token rises in value as it has been doing this year already. I may have to adjust the price – if that’s even possible now. I will need to do more research. This is just day one for me as an “accredited artist”... who still has yet to sell any art of course. Anyway, the title sounds good, so I’m flaunting it for the moment. Now that my old income before lockdown is gone, I am opening up these new avenues of income on the blockchain, as writer and artist, earning cryptocurrency along the way.
Check out my works and be inspired. You may be able to do the very same thing yourself. All you need to do is open a free account on the hive.blog social media sight, and link it up to a similar account for yourself at NFT Showroom. Both have wallets where you store your digital currency with which to transact, either earning from your writing or trading for art pieces that you may be investing in. The future is digital and its on the blockchain. That’s where I do business and socialize and share my original creative content. See you there. Free speech and creative expression is still alive and well on the blockchain.