Okay, let’s discuss this “Beeple” – you know, the guy who’s been selling digital (aka CGI) art – like these -
for millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. I tell you, it’s enough to make you wonder if you even have a clue to what’s going on in the world anymore.
I don’t, I’m quite sure
So who in the world is this “Beeple” anyway?
REAL NAME: Mike Winkelmann
HOMETOWN: N. Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
CURRENT: Charleston, South Carolina
FAMILY: Wife, teacher, and two children
PRIMARY MEDIA: Digital [Cinema 4D, Photoshop, After Effects,]
EDUCATION: Self-taughtQUOTE: “It basically boils down to: the only thing that matters is to work. Everything else is a giant f***ing distraction; you just need to work. It’s not always fun, but you need to get up and do it everyday anyway. There is no valid excuse.”
The ‘education – self-taught’ entry is a bit disingenuous. What that means in the art world is he has no degree from a prestigious art school. What he does have is a degree in computer science from Purdue University, something I dare say is quite valuable for a creative guy who likes to make digital art. In fact he never planned to be an artist; he worked as a web designer right out of college. In May of 2007 he started his “Everydays” project, which involved creating a piece of digital art every day, in order to teach himself various software platforms such as Adobe Illustrator and Cinema 4D. He has subsequently completed a project without fail every day.
You might say that diligence has paid off: Christie’s just sold his first 5000 days of efforts in the form of a digital collage for 69 million digital dollars of cryptocurrency. A lot of firsts there: first major auction house to offer a purely digital work, with a purely unique NFT (Non-fungible token) which virtually guarantees its authenticity (until some digital genius figures out how to hack it), and the first time cryptocurrency, in this case Ether, has been accepted in trade.
It’s hard for us mere mortals to understand exactly what the collectors are buying, as all of Beeples’ 5000 plus images are available, free, online via Twitter/Tumblr/Behance/Instagram and in most cases have been for years.
All I can tell you is they have somehow purchased the “original” piece of digital artwork that is marked with theoretically “hack-proof” blockchain technology. I’ll not lose any sleep over it although I do wonder if LifeLock and Identity Guard cover such things. And how do you go about adding digital art to your homeowner’s policy? As you can see, it’s not easy being so green; but still, it is an honor and a privilege to be so wealthy that you’re forced to go digital in what until now was exclusively an analog world of art collection.
He hasn’t asked but my advice to “Beeple” would be to quickly convert at least half of his take-home payday to hard currency with which I would make haste to convert into hard assets – gold, farmland, commercial and residential real estate. And pray that there are no natural or man-made electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that will disrupt all the blockchains out there protecting his NFTs and crypto-currencies.
If you wish to immerse yourself in the self-important gibberish of the current art world feel free to read the entire article Christie’s published explaining how important Winklemann’s digital doodles are to the world of art: Beeple’s Opus. Although art isn’t what it used to be, the BS surrounding it still is.
**All images from Beeple’s Everydays project, freely available nearly everywhere on the internet.
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