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Alan Bolton is currently live on Nifty Gateway.
What inspires you about art? Who are your artistic influencers?
I’m inspired heavily by music, spirituality, philosophy, and experiencing new cultures. I love to travel. I’ve spent the past two years traveling throughout Europe and I go through phases of studying different topics and these heavily inspire my work. While In Barcelona at the start of this year I got to visit a lot of art museums including the Picasso Museum. That was extremely inspiring to me. To see his exploration of art mediums throughout his lifetime. Each room I entered was a new chapter in his life and art. This felt very relatable to me, the concept of always experimenting artistically. I used to create music and DJ when I was younger and I spent a few years working as a photographer/videographer. I’m grateful for all these experiences that led me to 3D art. I still describe my art style as being very fluid and I create whatever I feel like at the moment. I think the art I create today will look very different from that of next year and it will continually evolve as I grow as a person.
What are your favorite pieces and why?
I think one of my favorite pieces I created is “In the Image of God” on MakersPlace. It was created for the humA.I.ns exhibition by 0x Society. I loved the theme of the exhibition around artificial intelligence and its integration with the human race. A lot of my work is based on spiritual concepts and the entanglement of nature, human beings, and technology. So creating this piece was very special for me and a lot of fun to create.
How do you make your art? What’s the process both in inspiration, planning, creation, and releasing?
As I mentioned above a lot of my inspiration comes from studying and researching different spiritual concepts and philosophies. Oftentimes, a topic will resonate with me and I’ll get a title in mind for an artwork I’d like to create. Then I usually start jotting down ideas that flow to me over the coming days. You can’t force them, you just have to let them flow. Lying in bed about to fall asleep, or while training in the gym listening to music. They usually come when my mind is at ease and when you’d least expect them.
Once I have the artwork created or almost finished I’ll start creating all my marketing content which I believe is just as important. I’ve spent many years working for clients on social media and being head of content for a YouTube channel so I create all my marketing material. I’ll usually create a series of still-image Twitter posts and Instagram Stories, Twitter banner, and a series of video promos. I then create a marketing schedule and start promoting about a week before a drop, releasing a new piece of content every few days teasing more of the artwork leading up to drop day.
What advice would you give to other artists starting out?
Believe in yourself and your work! Keep creating. You don’t get any likes on your art Tweet? Keep creating. You don’t get accepted onto an art platform? Keep creating. You aren’t making any sales? Keep creating. Be relentless in the pursuit of becoming the best artist you can be. Chin up and keep working!
How did you first hear about NFTs?
NFTs have been something I’ve been waiting for all my life. I started with digital art in Photoshop creating designs for social media when I was about 14. I used to sell them to friends in school for €5 but it was a very difficult process. I’d often have to log in to their accounts to upload the designs and there was never any way of proving ownership or showing I created the art.
In my 20’s I started to work full-time as a creative and I would sell my art and photography on the side on print-on-demand sites. The royalties were very low and it was almost impossible to make a living off this. During 2020, I lost a lot of my client work due to the pandemic so one day I was researching ways in which I could sell more of my art online and this is when I came across NFTs. I couldn’t believe there was now a way to sell digital art. I then spent about 1-2 months researching crypto and NFTs before minting my first NFT in November 2020.
I listened to every audiobook I could about Bitcoin and blockchains and watched every video on YouTube about minting NFTs and digital and hardware wallets. I became obsessed and consumed with learning as much as possible about the topic. I don’t think I’ve ever been so confident in anything than the future of crypto, NFTs, and Web3. Within about two weeks of minting my first NFT, I let all of my client work go and went 100% in on NFTs and crypto and it’s been an incredible journey since.
What has been your favorite experience being in this industry?
100% the community of people in the web3/crypto/NFT space whatever you want to call it. People show up every day showing support and positivity. Each contributes in their own way to the space as a whole. I love it. I love my career as an artist and I’m so grateful to all the people who show support for my work. Whether it’s buying one of my artworks or liking and sharing my work on social media. It all means the world to me and It’s an incredible feeling getting to do what I love every day.
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