Pioneering generative artist propelled by personal tragedy — Matt Kane, NFT Creator – Cointelegraph Magazine

If there’s an artist suited for a digital renaissance by putting art on the blockchain, it’s Matt Kane – a traditional artist who’s writing his own software and pushing the boundaries of what’s impossible in the physical art world. And transition to digital art.

Kane is best known for his collection Gazers, which launched in December 2021, and is considered by many to be the OG among generative artists.He recently released a portfolio of his work advertiseat its core is about understanding identity through art and immortalizing the true anonymity of the past.

Kane spent most of his career as a software developer, but he was always experimenting with different art mediums, including physical canvas. However, the limitations of the physical art world have left the American thinking about whether digital art can remove many of the obstacles to better realize his artistic vision.

“Throughout my 20s and 30s, I struggled to find a medium that suited my voice. I spent a lot of time experimenting with canvases and fabrics because I was so interested in pattern. But I realized it wasn’t the medium that mattered , but my vision. That’s how I bring my vision and my ideas into the world,” Kane told the magazine.

“Once I realized this, I knew I had to learn to code because traditional art has so many physical limitations. Code circumvents the limitations of our body and time. It allows us to manifest our vision, so it became the perfect medium for me. “

Anonymous #3 Matt Kane — *Anon #3 by Matt Kane (anons.art)*

Kane heard about NFTs through a Quora article in June 2017, a week before CryptoPunks launched, but he remained an observer while continuing to create and tinker with the digital art that had intrigued him as early as age 18. curiosity.

“When I read this[Quora]article that talked about NFTs — I had figured out what Bitcoin and blockchain were years ago — everything suddenly fell apart, and I remember thinking, This is what I’m looking for. It would allow me to sell digital work and prints could be optional. What I’m going to create are actually paintings that serve as a library and this would be the way I would be able to do that. Transfer Ownership of documents and artwork,” Kane said.

Although Kane introduced the concept of digital art origin through NFT in 2017, it was not until May 2019 that Kane minted his first NFT. M87 black hole deconstructionabout ultra-rare.

*M87 Black Hole Deconstruction #6 Matt Kane (SuperRare)*

“I saw this space growing before Punk and watched from the sidelines. I searched on Google for blockchain galleries and there were no. That was the paradigm I was in at the time. I thought I needed to find a gallery Come represent me on the blockchain. Now I’m very focused on self-expression and eliminating the middleman, but at the time I was still in that paradigm,” Kane said.

“In 2018, I saw sites like Dada, SuperRare, and KnownOrigin launch in the summer of 2018. I continued to watch them for six to 12 months before I decided to pull the trigger,” he added.

Lost in code dealing with personal tragedy

However, Kane’s journey to digital artist stardom was bittersweet, and in 2013 he committed suicide while visiting a close friend. This left Kane, then 32, devastated and even fighting with some people at one point. His own suicidal thoughts.

“During that time, I was leaving my life in Seattle and trying to find something new, but I was so caught up in the upheaval. And then losing her — it really threw me into the deep end. I was on the road, and about a week later I was Being able to see her. It made me wonder, what if I had gone to see her sooner? It was really devastating,” Kane shared.

“I ended up in Texas and made a very destructive decision. I suddenly had suicidal thoughts and realized how bad my situation was.”

“The next day, I bought a train ticket to Los Angeles to visit my friends there, and I stayed there for I think a month. There I just took a breath and took stock of my life and everything I had done. position. I was looking at my future, understanding how depressed I was, understanding my desire to rejoin society, my desire to move on with my life. I still had a lot of years to waste, so I decided to start coding.”

“One of Us” Variations 1 (Vimeo)

Kane uses coding to distract him from the painful emotional baggage he is dealing with.

“It’s math and it distracts me. I can’t think about emotions or how I’m feeling depressed. Like I need to figure out how to use sine and cosine to make this brush. This is really so that in the future I can Build a vehicle for expression when it’s safe to express yourself again,” Kane said.

In Kane’s own words, had it not been for the tragedy of losing a loved one, he might not have embarked on the artistic path for which he is now so famous.

“I’ve experienced a lot of conflict over the past few years trying to achieve success because I understand that if I hadn’t lost her, I would never be as committed to digital art as I am now. It’s difficult because I’m willing to use All the success comes in exchange for her return to the world, but things cannot be changed.”

personal style

Much of Kane’s work makes perfect use of color, reflecting his sense of history and time.

“I think my hope is that my art will mark time, especially for the person who stares. What I want to express is not necessarily any emotion. I think we all have our own experiences, and if an image pattern or what I do in my art Anything that really resonates strongly with me, I always believe it will really resonate strongly with other people.”

The Gazer #25 Matt Kane — *The Gazer #25 by Matt Kane (OpenSea)*

gazer inspired by cavemen

While NFTs are often a cliché, they are still incredibly new. Kane said we are in the “prehistoric era of NFTs,” and Gazers’ inspiration has something to do with the caveman era.

Drawing on his passion and ability for color, Gazers is a 1,000-piece collection centered around the moon, something of a lunar calendar equivalent for blockchain.

“People on Twitter are talking about how we’re in the caveman era of NFTs. And that’s impressive to me — it makes one of these zodiac connections for me. I know our caveman ancestors recorded phase calendars on antler bones , (…) they would use it to know when to attack a mammoth or something like that,” Kane said.

The project’s website describe It “algorithmically synchronizes closely with the phases of the moon in the sky, combining blockchain with one of humanity’s oldest artistic lineages. Gazers is committed to creating a community of collectors that celebrate what happens to us over time.” Changing perceptions, our collective goals in cryptocurrency, and our love of color theory, astronomy, and generative art.”

The Gazer #126 by Matt Kane — *The Gazer #137 by Matt Kane (OpenSea)*

Launched by Art Blocks Curated in December 2021, Gazers has conducted over 8,800 ETH in secondary sales on OpenSea, still holding a bottom line of 12.6 ETH despite being in the depths of the NFT bear market. Gazers are dynamic and have built-in rules. Although it has different rules, it is similar to 0xDEAFBEEF’s “entropy”. It has a built-in rule that when an NFT is traded, its quality will decrease.

“The way each gazer is formed is that it creates a color theory about it. It has different rules, so each month a different rule is formed that basically specifies the color of the moon and the sky. The frame around it remains It didn’t change, but the sky and the moon changed. Then on the website, we tracked the moon, so we had almost no preview to look back at in history,” Kane explained.

“The phases of the moon change over time, and some of the gazers are clocks – they are all clocks. But some of them also track minutes and hours, and these are very beautiful pieces because they play with the phases of the moon in a multi-layered way. . ”

“When I was making The Gazer, I was really thinking about the future of art. It accelerates over time. It speeds up every artwork by an average of one frame per second every year.”

Significant sales to date

CryptoArt Monetization - Sold for 320 ETH (equivalent to $1.24 million on the day of sale) on October 18, 2021. (SuperRare) — *CryptoArt Monetization Generation: Sold on October 18, 2021 for 320 ETH (equivalent to $1.24 million on the date of sale). (SuperRare)*

Emerging Waterlily IV - sold on January 25, 2023 for 110 ETH (equivalent to $179,520 on the date of sale) — *Surface Water Lilies IV: Sold on January 24, 2023 for 110 ETH (equivalent to $179,520 on the date of sale). (SuperRare)*

Gazers #550 - Sold on January 19, 2023 for 46.5 ETH (equivalent to $72,131 on the date of sale) — *Surface Water Lilies IV: Sold on January 24, 2023 for 110 ETH (equivalent to $179,520 on the date of sale). (SuperRare)*

Quick Q&A

Influence

“I’m very eclectic, so it’s weird, but Andy Kaufman (Entertainer) is one of them. I first became interested in comedy, and Andy Kaufman was a comedian who helped me understand that comedy was actually an art form. It actually made me switch from comedy to fine art. I also bypassed Mark Rothko (American abstract painter). I really love his work and what he does with layering, making these very thin layers of color. I began studying his work in my early twenties and I still make a living from the education I received. “

“There are also artists who like joy (John Orion Young) and Josie Bellini. When I got into the field, they were very self-represented. They don’t use a middleman. They don’t use middlemen as much in their careers in blockchain, which I’ve always admired. Plus, they are great artists in their own right. I love this principle, so releasing Anons on my own contract is a big deal, because I feel like I’m joining you now in kicking out the middle man. ”

Which popular NFT artists should we pay attention to?

Terrible eyes: “He’s legally blind in one eye, but he still draws with his iPad. I think he’s pretty close. Lately, he’s been creating some coding projects with the help of artificial intelligence. I think it’s incredible. , there is a visually impaired artist who uses artificial intelligence to help you express your vision. To me, this is one of the reasons why we have artificial intelligence to benefit mankind.

Black Panther Gita: “I’m really a big supporter of Panter. She’s Argentinian and she’s a Surrealist. She’s amazing.”

Your favorite NFT in your wallet doesn’t belong to you

This is my Alotta Money piece,”Bitcoin solves this problem”.