Tag: art

The Bald Jesus Drinking Club – Own a Slice of Paradise – More than an NFT

Posted on by Vagobond

As many of you know – I created the Bald Jesus project on a bit of a whim. It’s been an amazing journey. The end game of all of it was to learn the ins-and-outs of the NFT space – and on that level it has been an astounding success.

The ultimate achievement that I was aiming for when I began was what is now before us – a generative Ethereum based NFT project built on my art that would be used to create an innovative non-profit membership organization – and which would buy a piece of land on the Big Island of Hawaii for all the members.

 

Welcome to The Bald Jesus Drinking Club!

I envision a time when members of the club get together on our Hawaiian property to drink mai-tais and single malt scotch while enjoying the perfect weather in Hawaii. Tilt your glass and imbibe the holy spirits with us!

I’ll write more later – but at the moment, I’m incredibly excited and doing a million things at once!

@everyone Please excuse my excitement but this is the culmination of a lot of work. Aloha Everyone – BALD JESUS DRINKING CLUB mint is LIVE!!!!!!!! 777 Unique Generative Jesii https://www.baldjesusdrinkingclub.com/ – please join me in imbibing the holy spirits! If you can spread the word – I will be forever grateful!

I know there are some of you that aren’t trading with ETH / Matic on Opensea yet – when you sign up – please use my referral link: https://opensea.io/?ref=0x9346f1d460cbc0fca01997f1e5940fd55675173d

Hamm and the Bear Market Bears – An Artist, A Project, A Mission

Posted on by Vagobond
The Bear Market Bears are Here!
The Bear Market Bears are Here. Mint yours at BearMarketBears.com

Andrew Hamm is on a mission.

“The nft space is the world I live in now and I want to build a thriving community that helps its members and encourages people. I will be here every day, that is what sets this community apart.”

Hamm is an artist and illustrator from Halifax, Nova Scotia but now lives in New York. Originally he went there to be a stand up comic but quickly realized that art was where his heart had always wanted to be. He drew a cartoon and posted it on his Instagram feed every day for a year before he began submitting his work to The New Yorker magazine. After another year, they finally published one of his submissions. Hamm has several superpowers – two of them are consistency and perseverance.

Hamm’s first cartoon was published on his birthday. From that day forward he found commercial success with publications such as Wired.com, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. His work has also been seen in High Times Magazine and widely on the web … but commercial success as a cartoonist means needing a second or third job. Selling cartoons has rarely made anyone wealthy. The ones you know about are among the few. Life as a working artist was a struggle – especially with a family to support.

Like many, it was during the pandemic that he became aware of blockchain, then crypto, then NFTs. His first awareness of the power to control his own financial destiny was through watching the GameStop saga unfold. This led to stocks, then crypto, and finally NFTs, a journey Hamm describes as going from terrible to less terrible to pretty good.

His start was rough – he helped develop a collection for FM Gallery, a Chinese NFT platform that fizzled with the advent of the Nifty Gateway/Beeple craze. Old school cartoonist and artist friends ridiculed his choice to enter the NFT space, but Hamm didn’t let that stop him. Realizing that working for other people was the opposite of how to make it as an artist, he developed his own project, taught himself to code so that he could create a layering program, and recruited a team to build the next big thing. A big thing that was the antithesis of the big pump and dumps and celebrity cash grabs that have been happening in the NFT space. Thus was born the Blazed Cats which raised over $300,000 for mental health on the launch and continues to raise money for mental health causes. Blazed Cats was the first NFT project featured in High Times. Blazed Cat holders were given 0xHeads as companions a month later.

Shortly after this, Hamm inadvertently downloaded a malicious virus that asked him to enter his seedphrase into a fake metamask page. The result was that his prized Cool Cat, his favorite NFT, was stolen from the wallet. Not having enough spare ETH to buy back into the project, Hamm channeled his anger into creating his own version of Cool Cats – the Bear Market Bears. The Blazed Cat team was having some internal strife and Hamm used the opportunity to start putting together his dream team of people he wanted to work with for the Bear Market Bears.

Blockchain and NFTs have changed Hamm’s life. As a result, a part of the motivation for creating them was to teach kids about this emergent technology and to help people avoid making mistakes like the one that cost him his Cool Cat. Bear Market Bears will be a fun avatar project, an educational platform, and a community for building the future together.

What’s next? In addition to remaining fully committed and present with Bear Market Bears, Hamm is hard at work on a project he calls ‘The 100k Free NFT Project’. It involves layering male and female punk traits to make new jpegs and will be launching sometime in the coming months.

 

The Many Kinds of NFT Projects

Posted on by Vagobond

There are so many choices and options right now in terms of NFT projects. For this post, I’ll look pretty strictly at projects on the Ethereum blockchain – but there are equivalent projects being developed or taking off on ADA, Solana, Ravencoin, and more.

The best of these projects incorporate aspects of all of these. The most top of mind examples are Pixel Vault which has avatars, daos, game (coming), tokens, staking, and much more. Bored Ape Yacht Club. I’m also betting on the future of Raini Lords of Light (game, staking, defi, art drops) , Doctor Who-Worlds Apart, Non-Fungible Heroes, and Buzzed Bear Hideout. Many of the other projects I’m interested in (Monkey Bets and Ape DAO) are offshoots or aligned projects.

I find myself getting into several different kinds of crypto/nft projects lately. They are:

  1. Avatar/pfp projects – I’m pretty well done getting into new ones of these and generally look for a good reason to get in that is more than just fun/funny/amazing art
  2. Communities – things like BAYC and MetaHeroes or Gutter Cat Gang – vibrant active communities that support each other
  3. Games – things like Influence Asteroids, Lords of Light, Doctor Who
  4. DAOs – decentralized orgs that have a purpose – Ape DAO, Monkey Bets DAO, United Planets (Pixel Vault) DAOS
  5. Curated Drops – Good Guys, Holmo Viemiento etc.
  6. Generative art  – Genetic Chain, Pixelglyph, Cubeverse.
  7. Tokenomics/coins/defi Unstable Horses Yard, WEmint.cash, Bulls on the Block,
  8. Innovative use of blockchain/nfts – Spottie Wifi, Deadheads, The Adventurers, Heaven Computer, Tiki Festival, Jenkins the Valet.
  9. Funky/quirky art communities One Day Bastards, Crypteriors, Invaders, Deebies and Mighty Manateez
  10. Metaverse stuff – I’m kinda late to this and missed out on a Metaverse Jetpack which was a big win even though I was whitelisted for it. With all of these communities and projects – liquidity is the big issue and also I don’t have the ability to play whale games by buying up big mints or speculative bets.

God – there is so much happening in NFTs and blockchain right now – what did I miss?

My NFT buying/selling Journey

Posted on by Vagobond

(note: If you’re not in the NFT space and don’t think in Ethereum (big person dollars) this will likely make no sense whatsoever – come join my Vagobond Discord Server and we can get you up to speed. ) 

I was thinking about and looking at the data for my NFT journey this morning before I jumped in any Discords or did any buying or selling.

My buying/selling journey started back in March/April with Punks Comic. I bought two of them.

I’d already been in Doctor Who for quite a while but this was my jump into ETH NFTs.

I bought two. I declined buying BAYC at .5 ETH because my family was forced to move by our landlord surprising us with an End of Tenancy Notice so money was a bit tight.

I scraped together enough to mint one each in a couple of mints which were picking up in number. I stayed up late picking the pirates I wanted in Pirate Treasure Booty Club. I got one. The next days were spent in an amazing treasure hunt with new friends. I was hooked on NFTs and Discord Communities.

But – PTBC started to fall apart – it was a slow rug but we didn’t know it yet. The other two mints I was able to get in on were Degenz and VOID (Visitors of ImmaDegen) – I minted floor models. Both projects ended up just being pretty blah and while not rugs, not making it. At this time the fucking pickles showed up. .01 for what was promised as a rug and ultimately was. I minted one. Floor model.

I saw the takeoff of BAYC – I wanted in desperately. I found one on OpenSea for .6 which was significantly under the floor price. I pulled the trigger, got the confirmation, went to the BAYC discord – and was informed it was a fake. Then Opensea delisted it. I was DEVASTATED. That was a lot of money for me.

I told my story in the Doctor Who discord and a kind woman who had recently minted a bunch of things called Gutter Cats sent me one – it was one of the kindest things I’ve experienced from a stranger.

I had watched while all my DWWA friends minted Bulls on the Blocks and Deadheads, the two projects I had passed over to get into Degenz and VOID. They both seemed to be going really well – my friends were selling their for 10x and 20x profits. My PTBC, VOID, and Degenz were all floor. The Gutter Cat sat at .18 for a long time. I minted a Lucky Maneki – again a floor model. The project made a lot of promises but wasn’t keeping them.

My friends with BAYC were killing it. The comics were stalled at .4 eth or something like that. I figured I had thrown around $5k away. My gutter cat gave me a gutter rat. The cat shot up to 1 ETH. I sold it. I bought a World of Women and a Curio Card. A guy had recently bought all the floor punks and when I looked in his wallet, I saw the WoW and Curio Card. Meanwhile, I passed on buying Cool Cats thinking they looked silly and simple.

I had landed a free Parallel Alpha Rug Poll card. I got my first offers .26 each for my curio card and my Parallel Alpha. I accepted the offers and got a shock at having to pay gas! Then I realized they had both taken off and I’d accepted 50% – even though it was profit for me of about 50% over what I’d paid – it was a losing move. Meanwhile BAYC was mooning and gave dogs to their holders. BOTB was giving bears. My Gutter rat was ugly and floor. I didn’t have any liquidity. I wanted liquidity. Everyone else was winning and I was losing. I bought a BOTB with my curio card money and a Deadhead with my Parallel Alpha money. I minted a bunch of things that didn’t go anywhere. Gutter Cat, Parallel Alpha Card, and Curio Card had started mooning now that I sold them.

Punks Comic started their burn and mintpass mechanism. I burned one for a PVFD and kept one to stake and claim physical comic with. The mintpasses started taking off.

WoW was mooning and I sold mine for 2 ETH finally getting some liquidity – but then I had FUD about not being in it and bought another for 1.45.

I sold a mintpass for 4.2. I bought a Mutant Ape for 2.9 sold it for 6.1 bought another for 4.8. Got a drop from the WoW and sold it for 2. Bought MonkeyBets, Buzzed Bears, BYOP, and took what was left and threw it into speculation from the PVFD channel. Bad speculation and bad mints. I bought a mintpass for thenext Gutter animal. I’ve minted and bought a lot of things – but the big issue is always missing out on the things that go up and going into the things that go nowhere and selling the things I have that go up!

I have wallets filled with NFTs at this point. I feel like I’m in a good place.

I have exposure to MAYC, GCG, MetaHero, Invariant Labs, Non-Fungible Heroes, Buzzed Bears, Influence Asteroids, Doctor Who – and plenty of others. I’m in a good spot.

My realization this morning however – brought to mind my dad showing me his networth and then showing me the house he sold in 1975 which had appreciated in value to more than his networth. If I would have sat and done nothing with what I had in the beginning – I wouldn’t be far from where I am right now.

I would have 2 mintpasses, pvfd, punkscomic, gutter cat, gutter rat, TWO GCG mintpasses which would add up to almost the same value as all of my other stuff. Maybe more…not totally sure though. The issue is I would be concentrated in two ecosystems and I wouldn’t have the opportunity to win with all of this other stuff. So, six of one, half dozen of the other.

I do feel like I’m at a good point to reflect on all of this though and to start sitting on my pile and letting it either produce or not.

There have been a couple of projects that I’m really glad I minted into: Monkey Bets Dao, Buzzed Bear Hideout, Pixel Vault Stuff, Influence Asteroids, and I feel really good about Non-fungible heroes but it’s still pre-reveal. I’m also really glad I minted into Hobo Beards because I love the project and the team.

Big Takeaway #1 : I’ve minted into DOZENS of other projects and pulled nothing but floor models and depreciating crap that fills my wallet. Minting is usually a losing game unless you can go very big. I cannot go very big so I’m better off on secondary after the post minting dip.

Big Takeaway #2: Good projects continue to reward and are worth holding until the money is life changing.

Big Takeaway #3: The biggest rewards often come from the smallest investments

Big Takeaway #4: Liquidity is hard to come by if you are spending everything on gas and minting shit-pegs.

Vagobond’s Latest Art

Posted on by Vagobond

I’ve built a Discord Community for Vagobond. If you want to talk story about travel or crypto or whatever, come join. Here’s the link to it: cSpUEzcmM4.

And as always I’m still on Twitter @vagobond though it seems that after 15 years, Twitter has put me in a silo where even the people who follow me generally can’t see anything I post. I have no idea why. I hate Twitter, but it’s essential, like money and the internet – unfortunately.

This NFT world is so new and time consuming. I love the creation and the community building aspects of it but the money part drives me crazy – but this is the world we live in, the American consumerist capitalist world and so money has to be a part of it. Which led me to this:

This is a piece of art that comes from a place of truth: https://opensea.io/assets/0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e/66615337082846715430083206750034599446968111767634792547326129748701765173249

I’ve been busy though and I injured my knee while trying to improve my health (fucking irony) and now it hurts to move at all. The BTPC pirates that scammed many of us – I like the art so I’ve been playing with the ones I own, you can see most of that on my OpenSea page which is becoming a bit like my forever artist journal – at least I think it is forever. Who the fuck knows…

The Bald Jesus Pirate Club

finally, I decided to redo the cover of Rough Living and attach the pdf file of the original book to it. As always, I’m a shitty capitalist, so I decided to give them away.

Vagobond Digital Art

Posted on by Vagobond

I don’t particularly care if this is good or bad art – if such a thing exists. I’m just enjoying making art. Here are some of the pieces I’ve made in the past few weeks – mostly Bald Jesus stuff, but also some non-BJ  – you can find most of this on my Open Sea profile page if you want to buy it, you can own it. Most of these are 1/1 NFTs.

 

Half Bed and Torture Devices at Rembrandt House

Posted on by admin2

Story and Photos
By Melissa Ruttanai

Rembrandt's HouseAs a New York native, I grew up around big name museums like the Metropolitan and Guggenheim. When I hear the word exhibit, my mind immediately conjures up images of huge white spaces, queues around the block, and paintings you can’t get close to or else your breath may chip the paint. I supposed that’s why I like small museums and boutique exhibits that focus on one story or artist instead of 5000 years of human civilization. I can stand almost nose to canvas with a painting and won’t flinch as a security guard clears his throat aggressively. I like furniture original to a home and windows that play as much a role in the presentation of art as does the light they let in. So on a summer trip to Amsterdam with my husband and two best travel buds, I made a beeline for the Rembrandt Huis, a museum that should attract massive crowds but in the shadow of the Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum enjoys a simple solitude in the heart of Amsterdam.

A Kitchen and the Half Bed

I love kitchens. This is probably because they are usually the heart of the home and the scene for baked goods, slow roasted meats, and crackling firewood. But most people don’t give this room enough credit as if they never had a grandma set out a special piece of cake just for them in their own homes. Sadly most visitors sail in, take a few pictures, and cruise right out the front door. But the kitchen is where you can get a true sense for the cultural values of any given time period. There are copper pots and large bowls, serving dishes and silver spoons. All these indicate to me that the household could and often did feed a steady stream of people. Little chairs sat by the fire place, not necessarily for children but for the soup maid to stir bubbling broths. But what I loved most about this room in the Rembrandt house was hidden behind a large cupboard in the corner of the kitchen. Less than 2 meters long, inside a lightless hole, a fluffy bed was constructed into the wall.

flags in amsterdam at rembrandt's houseActually, it was a half bed because even back in those days when people were smaller, no adult could stretch out on her back. Or even in the fetal position. Listening to the audio guide, I laughed out loud as other visitors gave a cursory glance and walked away.

In Rembrandt’s time, people believed that sleeping on your back could induce death. They feared that if they were not upright they’d literally lose there breath and suffocate before morning. So the cook and many people of her time slept sitting up. Hilarious to think of all those people in Rembrandt’s house nodding off as they leaned against the wall trying to get comfortable inside a tiny cabinet.

A Torture Device? Inside a Painter’s home?

Up the tight stairway that seems to also serve as the backbone of the house, a little room sits off to one side of the house between two large salons full of Rembrandt’s work. Delicate papers hang from the ceiling, drying on a clothes line. Tiny knives and inkblotters litter a table. And in the middle of the room, a giant oak machine is poised, ready to flatten its next victim. Get your hand too close and you’ll get it back paper thin.

Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam“Are you ready for the etching demonstration?” A woman in a smock called our attention as her hand rested on the medieval killing machine. “It’s a press that artists use to create imprints.” My heart sank. No bloody history here. No grueling secret prisons in Rembrandt’s home. My twisted mind quickly found new distraction as the woman began to create art using a metal plate and an assortment of etching knives.

I have to be honest. The only thing I know about etchings is what I’d puzzled together on Antiques Roadshow, a television series where professionals appraise junk that people have around the house. In one episode, a guy brought in an inkblot picture for appraisal. It didn’t look like much until the official looking man in the suit took out a stylus and pointed delicately to one corner of the picture and read out the name: Rembrandt. And like magic, the yard sale picture became a priceless family heirloom. Everyone watching from TV land saw dollar signs in the man’s eyes.

In the Rembrandt Huis, the employee showed us the different tools that are used to make a plate. What I liked during the demonstration was that the woman explained that the plates create the actual pictures on paper. So an artist must create their scenes in its mirror image and that includes their name. My death chamber machine that sat in the room was the rolling press used to place the picture onto the paper. If there is no demonstration during your visit you can still watch a video depicting the process.

Most of the time, these types of workshops and guided tours often leave me disappointed. The guide usually pontificates to the crowd and I then feel compelled to act engaged when in fact I am counting the seconds to exit and explore on my own. But the etching lesson was great, mostly because the woman was an artist herself. She explained each step, showing us inks and knives and answering questions. Then when she rolled the paper through the machine, it seemed that I didn’t need the doom and gloom of medieval torture chambers. The woman had created something unique to a time period and presented us with a piece of art.

After the workshop ended, we were invited to continue up to Rembrandt’s personal studio. The light from the bay windows seemed to cast everything in a clean golden glow. A giant canvas sat in the middle of the room beside a large desk with a visitor’s sign-in book opened to an empty page. I signed my name, adding the date and a brief message. “Love the half bed in the kitchen and the etching workshop was a nice surprise!”

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