What would you do if you were an artist with decades of experience, and when you looked at the early NFT ART market, you discovered it’s already broken?
If you were septuagenarian fine artist Lawrence Lee, you’d build your own NFT concept and improve the mousetrap!
Legacy canvas and digital artist Lawrence Lee calls his new fine art process an Encrypted Asset NFT
Lawrence experienced considerable early success with NFT when one of the world’s most visible CryptoArt collectors snapped up several of his NFTs. A number of Lawrence’s @NotoriousGangOfOne pieces are now in the SuperRare Metapurse Collection. Metapurse is owned by the same art collectors who bought the $69.3 million genesis piece that launched the NFT frenzy–Everydays BEEPLE by artist Mike Winkelmann.
Since that day, traditional fine art collectors have been confused.
Lawrence started developing the Encrypted NFT Asset shortly after, and recently launched it through HyperRare.com, also his virtual landscape.
HyperRare addresses the most pressing questions that traditional fine art collectors have about NFT and digital art on blockchain … i.e., overnight, unknown artists are selling at Christie’s. It’s a lot to get your head around.
As soon as I saw Lawrence’s work, I wanted to work with him too, and help him reach even more art lovers and collectors. His original Shaman series stopped me cold, and today The Stanger Collection has dropped me even deeper into an introspective space beyond words. You either feel it, or you don’t. There is no middle ground. The Stranger Collection is not for all art collectors–its intellectual and metaphysical layers are complex. Not everything in life can be explained.
For most artists, being included in the prestigious Metapurse Collection would be enough, but for Lawrence all it did was prime his pump. He’s a stickler for details and complexity, and also genuinely concerned that the people who collect his art receive the highest quality possible. Many have collected his work for decades. Interestingly though, Lawrence collects collectors as much as they collect him. If he doesn’t respond to you, don’t take it personally. It’s probably because he doesn’t feel you’d be a good long-term fit.
There are many things Lawrence absolutely loves about the NFT CryptoArt concept, but also some aspects that he thinks need major surgery. While everyone was yelling Band-Aid advice to fix a broken NFT art concept, Lawrence went to work reinventing a method that would represent virtual and real-world artists and collectors more equitably and effectively.
Lawrence realized quickly that NFT in its current state does not work as well for artists as it does for tech players operating on the backend, and especially for the deluge of gamblers who treat art like a Caesar’s Palace gambling chip.
Great art has soul, but when you turn it into a method to only drive revenue it loses its artistic raison d’être. It becomes pure commodity with no inherent value–it might as well be pork bellies.
It also very surprisingly turns out that NFT files do not work for galleries, not even NFT galleries! Many NFT host companies limit NFT to a 50mb file size, which isn’t large enough to view properly on a large HI-RES art screen. Ironically, some NFT galleries don’t even display the real NFT–they fool viewers and replace it with a larger JPG.
Lawrence ingeniously fixed this NFT flaw so that Digital Art can be displayed at full resolution in all of its intended and certified glory.
Lawrence also looked carefully at how NFTs are stored online.
He didn’t like what he saw so he researched options that would allow artists and collectors to have more flexibility.
What’s the point of turning a broken old-school art gallery, into a broken NFT art gallery?
The hypocrisy would be as palpable as VISA, the king of obscene fees and consumer angst, buying NFT generative art using crypto–the monetary tool designed to kill credit card companies and banks. According to COINDESK, “Visa’s head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, said in a blog post that the main purpose behind Visa’s purchase was to learn more about the growing market.”
I bet. Keep your enemies close … this is the way.
It turns out that Lawrence discovered there were very few dependable options to properly store NFT online, but he did find a solution through a platform-independent IPFS framework.
His strategy positions digital CryptoArt in the proper context relative to NFT on the blockchain. Lawrence still sells NFT art of course, but now it is a derivative of the original digital art he created, and NFT is not necessarily the main course. Essentially, Lawrence Lee flipped the NFT pyramid upside down so the dog is now wagging the tail, as it should be.
This profound adjustment benefits all fine art collectors and artists, whether digital or analog.
HyperRare delivers the very best, hi-resolution, signed by the artist, encrypted digital files that can be used and displayed exactly the same way as NFTs–except now it is better for art lovers and serious collectors. This New Style of NFT is 1/1 and the only such file in existence, which makes it genuinely rare and not subject to theft and misappropriation like common NFTs. The collector has the same freedom to store, display, sell or trade like one would any other NFT, except the HyperRare version is well protected and of considerably larger and better quality.
Lawrence feels, and I agree that very few traditional collectors would consider not actually owning the art they purchased.
HyperRare fixes this physical ownership issue.
Early critics of the NFT craze delighted in pointing out that NFT is nothing more than a pointer to a token that points to a digital file that anyone can see, store, and display, so all the buyer receives is bragging rights about some sort of virtual ownership. They were really saying that the Emperor has NO CLOTHES! Well, it turns out they were right. Consequently, Lawrence decided to wrap secure raiments around the Royal Body.
Shortly after his art is digitally encrypted and stored on the IPFS, all other high-resolution copies are deleted from Lawrence’s computer. All backups are also destroyed. Because he still has the encryption passphrase, which will be shared with the NFT purchaser, it will not be deleted until Lawrence receives confirmation that the file has been successfully downloaded and decrypted. After this final step, even Lawrence is unable to access the contents of the file, so it is up to the art collector to safeguard it like one would an original Renoir or Picasso. Failure to do so would seriously degrade the art’s value. It will give a fine art collector peace of mind to know that they have control over the security of their property, and that it’s not left to the whims of a robot.
HyperRare takes SUPER beyond the final frontier to a metaverse without boundaries. It’s called IPFS – interplanetary file system for a reason.
HyperRare will be the turning point for many traditional legacy artists to enter the NFT stream now that digital ART files have been made safe and are able to be viewed at high resolution, whether on a large monitor or printed.
Scarcity is at the center of his new HyperRare equation.
Long term value is in the digital file–the NFT certifies and provides provenance.
Here’s the reality, NFT art is not an end to the means. Sure, the hype from Geek Gods is hard to resist, but only 1.9% of artists on OpenSea have earned $100K selling NFTs. Can you imagine if that number were duplicated in the real world?
Artists would all be dead, not just starving.
As you can see, it’s reckless to believe the hype from anonymous pseudo-collectors hiding behind masks and avatars. Instead, look for new and novel ways to turn the NFT art tool into something that works for you.
Here’s a timely example of why HyperRare is so valuable to artist and collector alike. Just before iADX365 published this article, I received the following APOLOGY email from PORTION.io
“@NFT was working hard to put together a very exciting drop between @XCOPYART (IG) and @Lilpump – following delivery of the artwork, it was discovered that the artist, @XCOPYART was fraudulently impersonating the real XCOPY (TW: @XCOPYART, No IG). Thankfully this project was not brought to market, no funds were transferred to the counterfeit artist, and most importantly, no members of this wonderful NFT community were in anyway harmed – but this serves as a wonderful opportunity to remind everyone to always be diligent, be safe, and to do your research on all blockchain related projects!”
Seriously, great catch PORTION, but this would not, and could not happen with HyperRare and Encrypted Asset NFTs.
NFT is still young. Artists and collectors haven’t missed anything except the squabbling, fake posing, and flexing. Many of the low-hanging fruit NFT pseudo-stars you see today will probably not be around tomorrow because most lucked into it on the inertia of hype. There is plenty of space for everyone to join the party, so when you do, please do it properly, responsibly, and safely! Protect your art and investment.
You can view Lawrence’s NFTs and Digital Art exclusively at HyperRare.
Check out the HyperRare FAQ for a few more details.
Contemplative art for mature avant-garde collections
