I know…it’s kind of foolish to try making predictions about 2022.
When it comes to crypto and NFTs, it’s hard enough predicting what’s going to happen next week.
But still, I’m a bit of a planner.
And while I can’t predict what will happen in this space overall, I can control some of my own habits and behaviors.
Here goes…
1. I’m going to slow down a little.
This year has been nuts. Since I first discovered ArtBlocks in late April, everything has been happening at the speed of light.
Total kid-in-a-candy-store mode. Act now, think later. Full-on nutso, for months on end.
I’m not complaining. I do like a good rabbit hole. And I definitely have a touch of the obsessive compulsive thing.
Besides which, I truly love art and artists. Artists are my favorite people in the world.
All good. It’s been a rush, and a good rush.
So why slow down now? See points 2, 3, and the part at the end.
2. I’m going to learn more about the NFT artists I collect.
I want to slow down and pay more attention to what I’m doing.
For example, I was looking through my gallery of some of the pieces I’ve collected… and out of the 24 pieces there, there were 4 for which I couldn’t immediately remember the name of the artist.
That’s right… there’s me saying I have this mad respect for artists, and I can’t even remember the names of the people who created some of the pieces I’ve collected.
In the offline world, where I also collect a little, I spend a lot more time looking at the artist and her work as a whole. Then, if my wife and I decide we love the work of that artist… we’ll choose one or two pieces.
In the world of NFT art, we often get caught up in the work first… the rush of the drop… the pieces being minted. Almost, dare I say it, like we’re shuffling the deck, or buying a lottery ticket.
That’s going to change. At least, for me it is. I want to spend a lot more time studying the artists and the influences that inspire them.
To this point, many thanks to ArtBlocks for providing artist channels within their Discord server. And many thanks to the artists who make themselves available to answer our questions.
3. I’m going to pay more attention to art curation.
I’m a total amateur when it comes to curation.
I wrote about this before, back in September.
Now I want to dig a little deeper.
I know enough to understand that professional curators are very deliberate in their choice of which pieces will be shown together in a particular space. And about which pieces are placed next to one another.
I want that for my own NFTs. I want to share a collection that displays a coherence evident to any true art lover.
I’ve been looking at the galleries of other NFT art collectors to see if I can pick up any tips.
I’ll also be reaching out to a few experts to see if they can give me some advice, or point me to some useful resources.
This will be a steep learning curve, and I’m looking forward to it.
More broadly, I think the strength of our community and the value of the works we collect will depend in large part on the quality of the collections we build and share.
To endure, I think we need to focus more on cohesive collections than on showing off individual pieces and projects.
One last thing… about money…
This last point isn’t about the art. It’s about the money.
This year I put a solid 5 figures of fiat money into my NFT collection.
Zero regrets.
But I’m not one of those super-wealthy people. I can’t do the same in 2022. I’ll find a little fiat to play with, but nothing like what I did this year.
And I bet I’m not alone. Outside of the whales, I imagine there are a lot of us who have already spent most of our available disposable income. At least for a while.
What to do?
For myself, I have two choices in 2022.
First, I can sell some of the pieces I love less to buy new pieces I love more. I’ve been doing a little of that already.
Second, I’m going to try finding a way to earn ETH.
That will be a challenge, as I’m not a coder, developer or an artist. At best, I’m a writer.
We’ll see. But I like that idea. I like the prospect of keeping everything within the metaverse, as it were.
The earning, the collecting, and the gallery.
Full circle.
In the meantime… I can get started on learning more about my favorite generative artists, and developing my art curation skills.