NFT Strategies for Artists

After speaking for the first time on Clubhouse, an artist, MJ, reached out to ask me about my thoughts on NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and how I approached the latest new trend in the art world that enables artists and collectors to credibly buy and sell digital art.

I’ve been familiar with NFTs since September of last year, after I became interested in bitcoin and journeyed down the proverbial rabbit hole on YouTube. In November, I had joined SuperRare, the curated digital art platform which seemed to have the highest reputation (although some people would say that Nifty Gateway holds this title).

Regardless, I’ve had a few months to think over my approach to the new technology, which is ultimately about minting digital files as unique tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, so I was happy to share my thoughts with MJ, who’s located in Brooklyn, over a Zoom call.

Amazingly enough, MJ said she had a poet friend in New York who had recorded a poem as an NFT and was looking to sell it on OpenSea, an open platform to sell NFTs. She also mentioned that she knew a performance artist who was looking to sell their work as video NFTs, as well. This brought up a fairly interesting point in our conversation — that our attempt to capture our best moments in social media posts has now been commoditized. Not only can people gaze at your post in admiration, but they can buy and sell it in a marketplace of moments. NBA Top Shot is doing this very thing by selling highlights from games as NFTs, which are commanding very high prices. As the website says, “Own the best moments from NBA history.”

As far as my ‘NFT strategy’ is concerned, this is what I told MJ:

1. NFTs are a great way to sell digital art. Try and get on a curated platform like SuperRare, MakersPlace or KnownOrigin, but you can begin right away with OpenSea, which is a perfectly respectable platform to sell on. Unfortunately for Rarible, another open platform, it has the reputation of being a little cheap feeling — the equivalent of selling your art on eBay — so I’d probably avoid that for now.
2. NFTs can act as a value-add for your physical artworks, as well as a receipt and certificate of authenticity. Telling a collector you have an NFT version of the artwork that accompanies the physical work shows that you’re plugged-in to what’s happening and gives a professional, as well a more collectable, quality to your artwork. It’s like giving a deluxe receipt, certificate of authenticity and digital version of the artwork as a bonus, which can only encourage a collector to make a purchase.
3. Ethereum gas fees are very high right now (gas is required to mint a token), so you may want to wait for prices to come down again. MJ suggested collectors should pay for minting artworks and I actually think that’s a pretty good idea. It’s the equivalent of the collector paying for shipping, which is an industry-standard.

All to say, there’s a certain trendiness to NFTs right now, which may be transitory in the coming months, but I do think there’s a solid use case for digital art that won’t disappear. I use the technology to sell my digital art and I also plan to accompany my physical artworks with NFTs, as well. Although I’m on SuperRare, I may use OpenSea to release The Peloponnesian War art book, as the platform enables me to make multiple editions of each card, rather than just unique 1 of 1s, and use SuperRare for special, unique artworks.