2022 - A YEAR IN NFTs
THANK YOU so much to everyone for being a part of this crazy beautiful ride! I wanted to share a few moments, lessons and successes from this past year.
I can’t talk about 2022 without rewinding back to December 2021. I suffered a major burnout by being way too focused on being on twitter and growing the community. I was addicted. The joy and warmth I received from my new found friends was overwhelming and I never wanted to be away from you all for too long. It destroyed my sleep and my mental health. I was also having some major challenges with my health and my relationships. My wife and I had moved in with my mother in law and we are all living on top of each other. Two young kids, my wife struggling to make it work in her mothers home and I was running my business from an antique desk built for 1700s midgets in the same room as my daughters cot, which meant twice a day I was interrupted by her naps and waking up. It was almost impossible but we all made it through. I was a shell of a man though. I don’t even remember Christmas time and through January I was completely burnt out. I couldn’t handle talking to people, I had severe physical reactions to my kids yelling and screaming. I still feel terrible for the pressure this put on my wife. I had to completely leave all my DM groups with my peers at the time, no more twitter spaces and barely opened the app. Why am I telling you this? To mainly serve as a reminder to myself but also to hopefully warn those new to this world that it can happen very quickly if you allow it. Also I want to thank those that helped me get through that time. @jasonophoto was my biggest champion. He would retweet my work and share it in spaces, he would message me to share other people’s wins and any news of great opportunities so I wouldn’t be completely off the radar. @heycoacheva , @hchipNFT , @reneecampbell , @timmbo_slice and @anjesemark (among many more in their own way) have all played major roles in supporting my mental health journey and I am so grateful for all of you. Eva gave me the tools through EFT tapping sessions that helped me to process what was happening at the time. Without this work I don’t think I would have made it through. Combined with the work I do with my psychologist I am now getting stronger everyday.
Also I have to say that art saved me as well. Having this space to look forward to, and hearing the message “Your art has value” has made me more positive than ever and while my mind is still healing it is happening, and I have you all to thank for a portion of that. A massive thank you to my wife for still being by my side and doing so much to support me through the most challenging time in my life. Now onto the 2022 highlights!
Art has been a saviour through transcendance and meditation
Coming from 2021 and experiencing the tail end of the bull run I was high on life! I had 7 sales under my belt and was ready to try new things. I launched my ocean conservation edition set of two pieces, 1/11 each for 0.1 ETH. Launch date was 22.2.22, 22 editions, for a total of 2.2 ETH. 10% of sales was pledged to buying art from artists that support ocean conservation and to organisations that support the cause.
The edition took 7 months to sell out one edition and I burnt the second due to feedback about the work not being strong enough. When editions became the trend in April I missed the boat as mine was ‘old’ and also double the price of everyone else's. A big learning curve about timing, pricing and strategy. Also a lesson in patience and persistence, as one by one I sold these pieces mostly in spaces talking about my goal for this work and my dream of growing the donation project. Shoutout to @realflyingkiwi for being the first person to vibe with this piece :)
In May this year I joined @hchipNFT high performance program. This changed my life in terms of realising I could possibly become a professional artist. The skills I have learned and more so the focus I now have has meant some incredible things have happened to me as an artist in the NFT space. Only 7 months in and I have hit my annual target of 10 ETH in sales! That just blows my mind. I have now readjusted my target and have a clear business plan in place to increase sales volume and floor price coming into 2023. More about this plan soon.
2022 was also the year of the IRL meetups. I had the pleasure of meeting @stefanieneal , @thebaldedphotographer , @declan and @hchipNFT for a gathering in Sydney and boy did that get wild! A lot fun and a great crew with some friendships forged. I also had the pleasure of meeting @tybowman who is now a local neighbour of mine and we go mountain biking regularly. Ty showing me the awesome trails of Wollongong and we have some great chats about life in general. Ty and I met up with @timmbo_slice for a sunrise shoot at Hymas beach. Another legend in the space I am super grateful for, Tim has been a huge inspiration to me as an artist and motivator to keep pushing my art forward. He has also become my biggest collector in 2022 which just blows my mind to have another artists collect so much of my work. Tim is now a good friend and someone I really look up to in how I carry myself in this space.
Another awesome meetup was a lunch with Stef, Renee and Rachel in Sydney where we shared some tasty Tapas and had a good laugh about all the craziness of the year that had been one of the biggest changes in all our lives. I loved meeting Renee, probably the person who gets me the most in the space and also seeing Rachel, she always jokes about being a mini person and she really is a beautiful mini ball of excitement and joy when you meet her!
I can’t talk about 2022 without mentioning the insane wins I experienced along the way. I am so humbled by the experience and so grateful to those who made this all possible.
In May a collector @quincy_sol picked up my edition and DMd me to chat about coming to Solana. We chatted about it for a while and I was curious. I decided to go for it and was welcomed by the community in such a massive way it made me realise that holding back and being afraid to rty new thing is not the way. I was onboarded by @MilstGuga to Exchange art and my series of 12 pieces sold out in under 48hrs! It was wild. I set about curating a second series Blue Origins, I decided to increase floor price slightly and mint 15 pieces. I learnt from this as the series still has 2 pieces available and the hype that led to my first series died out fast and I was left grinding hard on two chains! This ultimately led to a second mini burnout and I had to pair right back. Luckily I saw the signs after my first breakdown and was able to action damage control. I am super grateful for the friends I made on SOL and I was lucky enough to meet collector @mic333sol as well. The community there is smaller but massive in terms of the way they support each other. I just wish I had more time to commit to both. I have plans for 2023 on Solana and have been accepted to mint on Form Function. Watch this space.
In June I minted a game changing piece for me. The Bull Run in motion is a very special work of art I spent months on. I had been holding back the footage for a chance to make a big sale on SuperRare one day. I decided I was sick of waiting to hear back from them and every effort I made to connect was not received so I decided to mint my best work and set the bar high. I spent weeks on BTS and a video trailer for the piece. This was very hard as with a new family of two kids it meant 16hr days for a long period to get the piece right. I was stoked when @HChipNFT pulled the trigger with an offer of 1.5 ETH, a new ATH for me, solidifying my belief that my art had big value.
The Bull Run In Motion
In June I was accepted to display my art at NFTLiverpool and had my pieces curated by @ParinHeidari who sent me images of my piece on display. Then also in June I was accepted to display my art in NFTNYC2022. This blew my mind. I was added to a group chat with the biggest names in the space. Seeing my work displayed in times square and in the Superchief gallery New York was just incredible. What an experience! My family were all telling their friends and more excited than me I think. It was so wild. I even had the chance to hop on a marketing call with the heads of Time Magazine as well as a bunch of legends from the NFT space. Winnie, my daughter stole the show and got to meet them all as well. Thank you to @JohnKnopfPhotos, @KeithGrossman, @TIMEPieces and Superchief for giving me such an amazing opportunity.
Deep in a bear market, I was slowly selling art pieces each month and focusing my new business skills to connect collectors with my available art. It was a tough grind. I was balancing family life, managing a business and trying to spend as much time as I could developing my NFT career. I was also asked to do some BIG collabs, I was onboarded to known origin and asked to work on a piece for @houseofmadela - a piece I am really proud of. Unfortunately I have not made a single sale from this edition of 27 pieces but I am so happy I was able to create a tribute to one of the greatest humans we have ever known.
I was also asked to work on a project @lostshoots with @3131mateo we worked really hard on the project and I have now made a new friend in and Matt and also Lisa Carson the daughter of Donald Silverstine that the project centres around as well as my idol Jimi Hendrix! There is a second drop coming for this project and it will be one of my biggest pieces yet, a whole new style not seen from me yet and will be launching January 27th.
In August I started chatting with a collector who was picking up art from my friends and had a great eye for abstract art. I’ll never forget when I got the email notification that @radicalnotions had picked up Strawberry Cocktail. This was the first sale from my genesis collection in 7 months! He and I have had some great chats since and I have massive respect for the connection. We all go through hardships and how we carry ourselves through them is important. I found strength knowing I was not alone in mine. Radical also connected me to some great artists and art lovers, @parachicaa @hafftka and @jaknft to name a few. My genesis collection, Coastal Dreaming, sold out in September and I think meeting Radical was the catalyst for it reigniting, a huge milestone for me and I will be forever grateful to all of the 14 collectors that took a chance on my early works. Yesterday I airdropped a thank you to all of you that did.
In October I was onboarded to Nifty Gateway as a publisher. This also blew me away as I have felt like one of the little guys here clawing my way up. To be acknowledged by the NG team as a trusted curator was a massive honour and one I have not taken lightly. I have curated 3 artists to the platform now with a total of $12k from 4 drops. I am very proud of this achievement and excited to bring more to Nifty in 2023.
While there were so many other goals kicked and achievements unlocked in 2022 for me, as well as friends made and really fun times had in group chats and spaces, the last I will highlight is probably the proudest moment for me. In October I captured a grail image. The Breach is the result of trying to capture a whale breach in all its glory for the past 5 years. When I edited and shared this piece the response I received was insane. 60K hits on twitter, I was emailed by an agency asking to license the image to all the major media outlets in the UK after seeing it on twitter. Insane and a great reminder that there are still great opportunities outside of web 3. The Breach allowed me to be onboarded by @artifactdotart (with some amazing help from some very good friends) to SuperRare, a huge goal for me this year and one I am very proud to have achieved.
I was then curated by John Knopf once again to display my work at Art Basel Miami. Given this event was sponsored by National Geographic, it was no brainer for me to showcase The Breach. Another dream had come true, and mydream to be a Nat Geo photographer one day seemed closer.
Then my best supporter @timmbo_slice shared The Breach with @ethdotco. They kicked off the auction for 3ETH. I got so emotional at this that I couldn't actually believe what was happening. My alltime highest sale from my favourite piece to see out 2022 made me so proud and so humbled at the same time I can’t really put it into words. But to have been given that gift of belief in my art and the confidence to share it allowed me to take a very good friend @sarahlynday ‘s advice and mint my next piece on SR. A piece I was very anxious about sharing given the context around my origin story and why my art is so important to me. I will be sharing more of this work in 2023 and in future as each piece sells.
Thank you to everyone who has read this far and to those who have been with me on this journey. Seeing you all supporter each other and show up every day keeps me going strong. I believe in web 3 more than any other technology right now and the potential of what is being created and constructed is massive. More big things to come in 2023 for us all!