Art Life Money #1
Grant Yun, Erick Calderon, Supply and Demand, Babies, and Big Money Wins
Hello good humans!
Today I am experimenting with a new format. I am calling it Art Life Money.
Art Life Money will be shorter-form, roundup style posts with notable news, links, short musings, and other things worth checking out related to…you guessed it…art, life, and money.
If Art Life Money is well received, my plan is to make this a recurring weekly post. Assuming people enjoy this format, then starting in September, my tentative plan for for my publishing schedule is:
Mondays - Interview or occasional long form thought piece
Thursdays - Art Life Money
Why am I waiting until September? Some life transitions are underway for me, and I will write a bit more about that in a future post. Between now and then, my schedule will be more sporadic.
Now, let’s dive in to Art Life Money #1!
This issue of Art Life Money is brought to you by my newest partner...Wild.xyz.
Wild is the community where you create, collect, and explore experiential art.
Wild (@wildxyz on Twitter) makes it possible to:
Collaborate with boundary-pushing creators in their application-based artist residency
Collect curated experiential art on their platform
Experience immersive works produced by Wild
I’m excited to share an allowlist opportunity for two of Wild’s upcoming drops:
Flower Sand by Yuma Yanagisawa is a new collection of generative NFTs that explores the tensions between natural and mechanical algorithms. Register for the allowlist here.
Everyday Odyssey by Stupidgiant is a collection of curated image outputs from stupidgiant’s daily sketch practice. Register for the allowlist here.
Both collections are launching tomorrow, 6/15, at 11AM PT, so be sure to register by then (I personally registered for both).
— ART —
(1) Artist Grant Yun is releasing another physical+NFT paired drop with Avant Arte titled Fall.
The drop is lottery style, meaning everyone has an equal shot at winning the chance to buy 1 of these from a total edition of 35. You can enter the lottery here.
Yun’s first drop with Avant Arte was En Route, which currently has a floor price of 13 ETH and a last sale price of 16 ETH (5 months ago).
If you’re interested in this drop, keep your eye out for a Twitter spaces that Grant and I are planning on doing next week to talk more about this piece.
(2) Mark your calendars for Monday’s interview with Erick Calderon
Erick Calderon AKA Snowfro is the Founder/CEO of Art Blocks and the artist behind the Chromie Squiggle. We had a really fun conversation, and I can’t wait to share it with you next Monday.
(3) Does supply and demand matter in art?
The art world turns the concept of supply and demand and turns it askew.
It still matters…sort of…some of the time.
An artist must create a baseline level of supply in order to create any demand. An artist who has only produced one piece, for example, will rarely find much (if any) demand for their work.
On the other hand, an artist who releases 20 new pieces a day may find some demand, but not necessarily high price points.
Finally, when an artist becomes popular, the more supply they create (to an extent) is actually helpful, rather than harmful. Here is a quote from The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art:
When an artist is hot, the economist’s concept of supply and demand does not apply. If the artist can create enough work to show simultaneously at several galleries and art fairs, the greater buzz produces higher prices. Each show, each fair, each mention in an art magazine, each critical appraisal produces more talk, more visitors, and more jumping on the bandwagon.
There is no single recipe for success, but it seems like many of the most promising digital artists of our time are thinking carefully about how to manage their supply.
(4) What Emerging Artists are you Watching?
I want to hear from you!
What emerging artists are on your radar?
Comment on this post and let me know.
I will highlight one in the next issue of Art Life Money.
— LIFE —
(1) For anyone who has kids or who is thinking about having kids…
I enjoyed this recent post from Tim Urban: 10 Thoughts From the Fourth Trimester.
“It’s pretty amazing how bad babies are at everything. They’re terrible at thinking, at knowing anything, at moving all parts of their body. The cool thing is that spending time with a super unimpressive baby has made me super impressed by myself. Like I’ll watch the baby sitting in a baby bouncer trying to reach for a little wooden flower one foot in front of her and she just flings her arm in the general direction and misses by a lot. Then I’ll reach for a glass of water and all of my joints work together to send my hand on a perfectly straight path through three-dimensional space, gracefully clasp my fingers around it using the perfect amount of pressure, raise it to my mouth, tilt it in perfect sync with the movement of my lips, and then return the glass to the table and gently place it down like an absolute genius.”
— MONEY —
Focus on the big wins.
I was listening to this episode of Neckar’s Minds and Markets with author Jared Dillian, who recently wrote Those Bastards: 69 Essays on Life, Creativity, and Meaning, (which I haven’t read yet but it is on my kindle waiting for me, because it looks like a fantastic book - excerpt below).
Anyway, during the podcast, they were talking about big wins vs. small wins when it comes to personal finance and money.
Dillian made the point that if you buy a house that is $100,000 less than another alternative, you will save 6 figures in interest alone (at today’s rates) over the lifetime of the loan.
That $100,000 in saved interest is the equivalent of 50-100 years worth of lattes. So while the personal finance industry loves to focus on little things like eating out, you can make much greater leaps and simultaneously consume less mind space by focusing on big wins.
Some of the “big wins” related to personal finance that come to mind for me include:
Salary negotiation (do it regularly and methodically)
Who you marry and who you surround yourself with (optimize for shared values and the “right” kind of memetic desire)
Where you live
Developing multiple income streams
How much house you buy
Investing early and often
Not overtrading, and letting compounding do its work
Mastering your mind to make it easy to enjoy a non-expensive lifestyle
If you can notch “wins” in many of these big categories, you probably won’t need to worry about the little stuff.
Do you agree with this philosophy? What big wins are missing from my list? Leave a comment on this post and let me know.
Alright my friends! I am keeping it short and sweet today so that is all for this first issue of Art Life Money.
But before you leave, please leave a comment on this post and let me know:
Did you enjoy this format?
Do you have any constructive criticism?
Would you like it if this was a recurring weekly feature?
Anything else you want to tell me?
Of, if you just want to say “I liked Art Life Money #1, please keep doing them,” then please just hit the heart button at the top or bottom of this post.
We’ll see you on Monday with my interview with Erick Calderon.
Until then, be well.
Monty
I'd love to learn more about Italy-based artist Ozy Worldly. His paintings have a unique style that is both mesmerizing and haunting. https://www.ozyworldy.com/