It’s currently Monday morning as I type this, but the majority of this post was assembled from Saturday to Sunday – in snatches of time whenever I felt like I had a free moment.
I’m pretty happy with my working / publishing method as of late. Here are the steps in that mysterious process:
(ONE) I draw a sketch in my notebook or paint something or see something that I find interesting.
(TWO) I take a photo of the image / drawing / painting (etc.) with my digital phone (purchased for me by my wife. I’m a poor artist, and as such I have no money of my own!)
(THREE) Once the image is in my phone, I crop, edit, color, layer, glitch, mosh, and/or manipulate it until something DINGS in my VISUAL/PERCEPTUAL UNIT. If I get that “YEP” sensation, then I’m happy. (If I don’t, I will often move on and come back to the image later – sometimes YEARS later...) [This step is where things can go SIDEWAYZ, cuz what makes my VISUAL/PERCEPTUAL UNIT zing isn’t always – or very frequently at all – the same thing that makes OTHER ENTITIES units go pa-ping. It’s all very personal. I’m amused by rough art, strange shadows, color contrasts, possible narrative suggestions, and funny shit. Not everyone will agree that what I’m happy with is “REAL ART.” But, to quote Gandhi, “Fuck ‘um if they can’t take a joke.”]
(FOUR) I send the image from my phone to my computer and put the “ready to go” images in my “NOT TOKENIZED YET” folder. (There are currently 89 items in this folder waiting to be minted as CRYPTOART.)
(FIVE) I decide which piece I want to mint on which platform (on which blockchain, usually either Hive or Tezos), and I mint the piece. [This step involves things like uploading the image, coming up with a story or description, deciding on “tags” (so folks can find what I’m putting out there), dealing with the wallet/transaction junk, and LOTS AND LOTS of waiting... I think it takes, on average, about 30 minutes to mint a new work on the Tezos platforms. The Hive site that I use, NFT Showroom, is much more efficient and only takes about four or five minutes to mint a new work...
(SIX) As I’m minting a new work, I copy the title, description, and page address for the newly minted work into a Word or Notepad file to document the process and to make it easier to share my creations on blogging type platforms (like Peakd or Ello). Documentation is an important part of art creation. Many an artist’s works have been lost to history simply because nobody was there to see the work and/or document it (in photos or newspapers or journals or zines or t.v. shows or streaming channels or blogs or websites!) We only know about R. Mutt’s famous “Fountain” because an angry individual wrote an article about it (with a photo) in a one-off journal called THE BLIND MAN. The original toilet didn’t even survive the show; (all the displayed fountains after the Armory show have been reproductions!), but because of the documentation of this infamous incident in artistic historicality, the joke continues to this day! Isn’t that lovely???
(SEVEN) Next, I share my creation on Tweeterz where my dozen or so active followers can maybe see it (although probably not because of the dreaded “ALGORHYTHM!”)
(EIGHT) Once I have half-a-dozen or a Fool’s dozen (that’s 13, of course) pieces documented in my Word or Notepad file, I create a post, maybe share some of the artwork by OTHER creators that I’ve collected, make some bad jokes, (have way too many “asides” set off in parenthesis), and share it on Hive thru Peakd.com (usually) and sometimes on Ello or WordPress or some other website of blog – depending on how ambitious I’m feeling. Honestly, the selling and “advertising” elements of creating art are incredibly dull and tedious to me. I can sit and draw and digitally manipulate images all day long, and it’s fun coming up with silly stories to go along with the images I create, but the stuff that get’s the art in front of people’s eyes (and possibly into their wallets) is BORING...
(NINE) If enough artwork sells that I can mint NEW PIECES, (I already have nearly a hundred waiting to be shared) I start from STEP FIVE and do that whole dance again!
That’s my process! It’s working for what I want it to do. I get to make stuff all day long. I can’t remember anything for shit, so I keep my “to mint” images in a separate file folder, and as soon as I tokenize the image, I move it immediately to my “ARTZ (Tokenized)” folder, to help minimize the possibility of minting the same image more than once.
Creating the art is something I’ve always done – for nearly fifty years, I’ve been drawing ghosts and monsters, but MOST of my creations, even the ones that I put into physical books and gave out to friends and relatives, have disappeared into the VOID OF TIME. It’s okay. Making art is a process. Each piece that I’ve drawn, whether it still exists or not, whether I even REMEMBER it or not, has contributed to my current style and technique. Some people create MASTERPIECES, which take years of study and planning... But for me, the purpose of art is DOCUMENTING THE MOMENT, as well as trying to make the world more entertaining to be in, (and, if possible, maybe make a connection or two with other folks – although I recognize that this part is primary a fantasy!)
ARTZ IZ FUN!!! And, while you’re at it, BE YOUR OWN MUSEUM!!!
Here’s some purdy pictures!
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"Angry Brain Worms"
[Digital drawing created with a no-longer-supported, free app on my phone.] If my brain was a level in an old Atari game, it would probably look something like this...
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“Sun Beast”
[Ballpoint pen on notebook page with digital embellishments, layering, and color.] This creature of the sun is my newest FREEBIE, but I've become an ANGRY GAWD!!! I demand sacrifice!!! (Plus, my anxiety levels are very high, so I'm aggressive as well irritated.) Still, I am GIVING 23 editions of this piece away for ZERO TEZOS each, although from here on out, the freebies will be set to 23% royalties back to me. If you are grabbing one of these cuz you love it, it should still be free, but if you're thinking about flipping, you gonna have to kick more back to the grumpy grandpa Holy Fool! BOOM! (That was thunder, by the way...)
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"Casket (From the Driver's Seat)"
[Digital drawing created on my phone with digital embellishments and moshing!] Sitting up and seeing the top of the ol' casket probably wouldn't be the most fun thing... (I'm going with the "use my remains to grow a hemlock tree" route when I slip away, if THEY will let me...)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ABGYuE84UQNDJdWtMEhiBi6yhsfTQ7W56/405
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"Magic Mirror"
[Felt pen on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments, color, and moshing!] Stare into the magic mirror and ask your question. Keep staring until your answer appears before your eyes...
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ABGYuE84UQNDJdWtMEhiBi6yhsfTQ7W56/406
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"Over There, Maybe..."
[Digital drawing created on my phone.] What are you looking for? Oh, that? I think I saw it over there... Maybe... (It's only ever going to be HERE when we MAKE IT be here...)
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ABGYuE84UQNDJdWtMEhiBi6yhsfTQ7W56/407
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Time to share some of my CRYPTOART COLLECTION!
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“thanks punks” by haydiroket
https://objkt.com/asset/hicetnunc/423966
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“People on TV #357” by ZX Spectrum Pixels
https://www.fxhash.xyz/gentk/880005
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“Sea of Cloud” by Gucciburr
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1BDU55TWurwmfTChkLTwvpycKxV2yQRMh5/24
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“VIRUS” by PAMILO CEIRONE
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1NN72wRsP5PiwDi5s1WZXuyYNgZ3sKtrCN/32
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“Pensamientos 06142022.17.8” by endpop
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ASDpjrzczdTpqDcTfFWULJUQwvBaQdSeD/10
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I’ll probably share more tomorrow...or the next day... Maybe. (I just go with the flow...)
By the way, I’m BEING MY OWN MUSEUM! Hooray!
Meanwhile, here’s more of artz that I make! (I hope you are enjoying the free looking-at-art experience!!!)
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"Fortune Cookie Dreams (Nature)"
[Photograph I took of a tree that fell at the lake near my house, plus a paper fortune from a fortune cookie digitally collaged onto the photo with some minor digital embellishments.] Dreams are things that happen in your head. Sometimes, they come out of your head. Sometimes that's good, but sometimes it's NOT good. What is the best way to make the GOOD dreams come out and force the BAD dreams to go away? Drugs? Magic? Magic drugs???
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"Hidden Drama"
[Felt pen on sticky-note with digital collage, digital embellishments, and digital color. The texture is mostly from my granddaughter smashing the sticky-note and getting it wet before I photographed it!] They say the Tooka-ti Bird can see the future... Let's hope that it's wrong this time...
P.S. - I hope some of you folks are ready for a new FREEBIE cuz I'm ready to give some ARTZ away! 23 editions - ZERO tezos each!
https://objkt.com/asset/hicetnunc/751652
Freebies are GONE... Sorry folks. (They usually disappear before I get these posts finished!!!)
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Okay. Time to publish this piece then get back to ARTZ!!!
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
