On Chain & Classic

Featuring artists so you can all mint your faces off is what we're about at MintFace. Each week we feature an artist, an artwork and an art sale. (No 10k projects).

You get to pour over the details, who created what and ask yourself 'do I vibe with this?' If you decide you do, right mouse click save the art and enjoy for yourself.

You are welcome to go a step further and follow the artist on Twitter....and if you'd like to be connected to their art in a way that says 'thank you for what you create', then considering collecting one of their artworks.

Today's features are Kristen Roos, Mikkel Malmberg and Boncuk.

MintFace Artist Feature - Kristen Roos

Kristen designs with vintage computers, print with vintage dot matrix printers and weaves with handlooms and jacquard looms.

Kristen Roos has an advantage that many of the younger NFT'ers don't have. Lived provenance. Those of us that are in are mid 40's and above were just kids when computers really came into their own...and for us, the 1980's is nostalgia catnip.

All of Kristen's work found on Foundation is created with vintage software. His practice includes a wide range of mediums including sound art, installation, textiles and printmaking.

If you were born after the new millenium was ushered in and have only known the iPad Pro as your doodle device...it pays to read about the not so distant grandparents of the Apple Pencil such as the First Light Pen, minted in 1959 at MIT.

Fast forward to 1978 and a young boy in New Zealand is entranced by Deluxe Paint IV and its ability to PAINT AND ANIMATE IN 4096 COLORS!!

Each of these archaic software and hardware packages hold the unique styles and forms that typified the era. Fortunately for us, Kristen brings those perfectly aged styles and forms back to life for us to enjoy all of again. Shadow weave picks up the colour cycling style of Deluxe Paint IV and combines it with another style from Mac UltraPaint.

"The Jacquard designs that I create have a direct connection to the punched card Jacquard looms of the 1800’s, and the first example of images created from data, as a kind of early form of digital image. This expands on what is considered a personal computer and what is considered a digital image." says Kristen.

This is the first piece in a series that explores the techniques that he uses in his other passion, Jacquard weaving. Yes you can view some of the patterns that Kristen creates in a physical loom weave over on that other social platform you haven't visited for weeks called Instagram. The combination of physical weaving with patterns generated from historic computer drawing programmes is giga-brain indeed.

If you are looking for a Hic et Nunc marketplace bargain on Kristen's work, you will be mistaken. Collectors are also picking up on the Kristen Roos patterns minted on the Foundation marketplace.

You can have fun and follow along with Kristen's artistic journey at @kris10roos on Twitter.

MintFace Sale Feature - Mikkel Malmberg

Building platforms for creators, write a well-liked Danish newsletter, and is a Software Engineer at Elastic.

While we're used to cranes being of the large, tall machine moving heavy stuff type... these cranes are built different. Each crane is a tiny, randomly generated, fully on-chain tokens of luck for special wallets.

"Best to keep one around, just in case." according to Mikkel.

We all need a little luck when it comes to our NFT journey.

There is a deeper meaning at play with cranes according to Japanese legend.  'anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by the gods.' according to Wikipedia.

The Story of Sadako Sasaki

I had heard of the legend before through the story of Sadako Sasaki. She decided back in the 1950's to fold 1,000 cranes and pray that she would get well again, after being admitted to hospital in 1955 suffering from the effects of the Hiroshima bomb.

"Sadako kept folding cranes even though she was in great pain. Even during these times of great pain, she was known by hospital staff and other patients as cheerful and helpful, and always asking for scraps of paper or material to continue folding cranes. Although Sadako knew she would not survive, she folded well over 1,000 cranes and continued to be strong for the sake of her family."

Since then, folding cranes has been part of the international children's peace movement.

Gifting a Crane

If you know someone that needs a little luck in their life, maybe send them a crane. Mikkel is working on a free airdrop for crane holders as at 21st September so they may get a bonus on top of the joy of a peaceful crane gently floating around our etherscan records.

If these have sold out by the time you read this, Mikkel has a plan to drop another 1,000 around New Years.

MintFace Artwork Feature - Boncuk

Generative art isn't just for fans of Art Blocks. If you're priced out, broaden your search to independent artists that launch on open platforms like OpenSea and Hic et Nunc.

Boncuk is a collection of 1024 generated artworks with each taking the shape of an eye.

The Boncuk art collection description says '1024 on-chain generated, stored AND displayed 1024 x 1024 SVG evil eyes.' Let's deconstruct this one liner...which explains a number of attributes worth understanding.

🍒 1024. You've got 1,024 digital artworks to choose from.
🍒 On-chain generated. These were minted directly on the blockchain using code.
🍒 On-chain stored. The art is stored on the blockchain not an IPFS link or website URL increasing the durability of the work.
🍒 On-chain displayed. The art is presented to viewers using code and nothing more. Refined simplicity.
🍒 1024 x 1024 is the number of pixels in this SVG vector file. Vector files are gooood because they scale to the size of a Times Square billboard without loss of quality.
🍒 Evil eyes. Yes this collection is said to protect you against 'evil eyes' my friends.

The History of Evil Eye Protection

The answer lies in the provenance of the name Boncuk. In Turkey, a 'nazar boncuğu' is an eye-shaped amulet believed to protect against the evil eye.

Boncuk means ‘bead’....and each of these on-chain generated NFT's are the modern equivalent of handmade glass amulets featuring concentric circles that have hardly changed for thousands of years.

'It is commonly believed that the evil eye can be given in the guise of a compliment, signifying its connection to the destructive power of envy for wealth, beauty and so on...' according to Wikipedia.

We have a phrase in New Zealand too 'he's giving me the evils!' so of course I love this art. If you don't like eyes staring at you even if they are there to protect you, now's the time to skip ahead. If you do.... well, let's dig in a little to how you might select a pair of evil eye protectors for yourself (because no one wants just one eye right)

Decision 1: Would you like your eyes to roll clockwise or anti-clockwise?
Hint: the anti-clockwise are slightly rarer.

Decision 2: How much Bokeh (blur) would you like around the edges of your eyes?
Hint: low blur is a little more difficult to pick up.

Decision 3: What colour eyes most appeal to you?
Hint: Dial up or down the levels of red, green and blue to mix your preference.

Decision 4: How much eye lid colour transparency do you need?
Hint: The more transparent the clear the eye colour is going to be.

Decision 5: No one wants a warped eye right? Or do you?
Hint: Low eye warp will preserve the standard circular nature of your eyes.

Decision 5: No one wants a warped pupil either right?
Hint: Low warped will preserve the standard circular nature of your pupil.

Why do any of these decisions about the variables of an individual artwork matter? Well you get to select an artwork based on its aesthetic appeal combined with the scarcity of the variables defined to create it.

You can of course go on lowest cost...or what you like the most... or the most interesting / rarest set of variables... or a combination of all three. You get to decide. This is your decentralised art collecting life right!

Boncuk #669 is one that quite appealed to me. He's got low eye, eye socket and pupil warp. There's also a matching aspect to Boncuk #785 I quite like if these were to be displayed together on dual screens. Apart from these two, you can choose your favourites from the Boncuk collection on the OpenSea marketplace.

Generative Art Pricing

Up until 2021, generative art was affordable and mostly a passionate hobby by comparitely few artists and even less collectors. Art Blocks changed that. While many shun the artificially born art...we're seeing a set of set of minds believing that there's something more going on here.

While I don't usually discuss eth pricing on MintFace, I will here. 0.01 eth is a fantastic entry point if you are new to NFT's and are looking to add a generative art piece to your collection.

If this article has made you a little more curious about getting started with digital art, we also run the Digital Artist Economy workshop helping artists create their first digital art through a three week programme. Share it with an artist you'd like to see on an NFT marketplace.

MintFace surfaces great artists and artworks so you don't have to.

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Artists - you can send any notes of appreciation to mintface.eth in whatever form you feel reflects your art.