My Paintings are Now in Storage

in #art4 months ago

trumpetingHive.jpg

Above is a picture I painted several years ago. The color isn't perfect but you get the idea. Titled Trumpeting Angel, the work is oil on canvas, measuring 29 x 30 inches. In the background behind the angel are Kokopelli, the flute-playing fertility deities venerated in the Southwestern US. The painting was based on a drawing by Edgar Degas titled Angel Blowing a Trumpet, currently held by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

This artwork has hung in the entryway of my house for years. Two days ago it was taken down and placed into storage, along with twenty other paintings that had long graced the walls of the big old Victorian home. Now much of my art is in stacks under drop cloths and there's no art on the walls. It makes no sense, but that's the situation.

Last week, I met with my uncles who own most of the house and they said that all of my art must be immediately taken down. Ahead of the meeting, they'd said that the issue was nudity in some of my paintings, so I went in thinking we were going to go over which specific pieces they wanted removed. Then they told me that the house was eliminating all art. So I complied with their insane demand and I have mixed feelings about it.

It's stressful to have the art in storage due to the possibility that it could be damaged by unforeseen hazards. My uncles' choices seem selfish and ill-considered. And now, because of these choices, showing prospective buyers my paintings just became massively more complicated.

giraffeHive.jpg

With nothing to do but move forward, I'm considering the future of this art. Tallying up the inventory, I found a total value of just over $52k and that got me thinking. This stuff plus another pile of paintings I have stored in a different location might make a collection worth $60k. My general plan has been to sell this art a piece or two at a time over a period of 20 or more years. This plan has been working perfectly, but now I have nowhere to display the work.

At the same time, I've been talking with @lovejoy recently about the possibility of many people issuing their own tokenized assets to raise funds against the goods and services they provide. I could issue $60k worth of art gift certificate tokens, promising to redeem them on demand for their artwork equivalent. If a large number of other people issue similar tokens backed by whatever they have to offer, a very interesting token marketplace could develop.

The first question this scheme raises is whether to issue a simple token or NFTs. Some people are issuing NFTs connected to physical artworks. This could in theory work for my situation, but it wouldn't produce fungible tokens, and the tokens it would produce would be priced high. A scheme where each token has a small fixed redemption value, say one dollar, would make the gift certificate tokens much more affordable for collectors or supporters.

Issuing these tokens is technically feasible on several blockchains. EOS and Ethereum are both attractive for different reasons. I've made custom tokens on both chains and found Ethereum to be easier while EOS was more cost-effective. Beyond token issuance, there would need to be some kind of marketplace where the public could interact with the assets. Ideally, this would be a site where people could create their own personalized tokens and swap these tokens for other people's tokens. There is also the legal angle to consider. Hopefully by treating these tokens as gift certificates, they won't be misidentified by the SEC as unregistered securities.


Read my novels:

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See my NFTs:

  • Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
  • History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
  • Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.
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I love seeing all the support for you and your art in the comments below!

Your idea of art gift certificate tokens is fascinating. I love how you're always reaching out to explore possibilities and new, unfamiliar territory, especially in the technology and financial world. You inspire me!

Also, the image of your giraffe painting came out great!

Yes I like that one: )

Thanks! I keep hoping to find someone else who has implemented the kind of tokenization scheme I'm considering. But so far it doesn't seem to exist, so maybe it's time to move forward with creating it.

Oh my God, you actually blown my imagination away with those painting. I never knew you are this good

Thank you. I like when my paintings spark the imagination.

That's crazy... I'm completely stupefied by this bizarre request. Are they planning to sell the house? I've always wanted one of your paintings, but being semi nomadic hasn't helped. Perhaps now is the time. Glad you're still musing on the marketplace. Greetings from Iceland! :)

Yes it's all very strange. They're going to repaint everything in drab colors and have no art. Whatever. It motivates me to give the marketplace idea more attention.

Happy travels!

I never knew that you were this good in painting and I love the way you make your works expensive
I’m sure you will get good buyers that will know the worth
Keep it up!

Hey thanks!

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