Thread by @Ming2Chua

Now I have a super long thread for #Pentas / #Pentasians (?) artists.

This is a thread for the art for art's sake artists (zero utility), not for creators (art that represents utility, with a roadmap).

They are different categories, and will need different approaches.

1/ Artists, start thinking & talking about your art more in terms of its concept and aesthetics.

As a stranger to the space, I wonder who are you and what art do you represent? But go take a honest look at your twitter pages, can you see the above?

2/ Don't sell it like a pasar malam salesman. Aka "Hello guys, I just dropped my new art. It's 0.05BNB. Here's the link".

This is how 95% of whoever that popped up on my newsfeed was shilling their artwork. Sakit hati aku tau.

3/ Then I scroll down their twitter page, and it's filled with re-tweets of similar forms of shilling by other artists. Dalam comments pun sama. Sakittttt.

BTW, there's nothing wrong with retweeting other people's work #kitajagakita. I love that.

4/ But the problem is, I scroll down a few pages, and I still dunno who you are as an artist, what is your interpretation of your art, the context, your thought process, your work process or technique, your hopes / dreams as an artist.

5/ You know, important stuff about you and your artwork itself. 🤣

But I know the price to your art and your fellow artists in your circle. 🤣🤣🤣

Let's have a laugh at this. Because this is funny. One day, we will be chatting about this moment because it is so memorable

6/ Shilling this way commoditises your artwork.

For instance - petrol, I don't need to know how it is made, processed, I just need to know the price at the gaspump and whether the price will go up or down tomorrow.

If tomorrow go up, I will go pump petrol today.

7/ If tomorrow go down, I don't need to rush. But petrol is something I need when my tank runs dry, regardless price is up or down.

But a commodity-based NFT? I don't need to get it anytime if I think the price will drop further.

8/ TIP NO 1: Please respect the art form, and respect yourself more as an artist! Don't treat your art as mere goods.

9/ Your NFT is not a utility-based NFT or a commodity, you cannot play that game. When you do that, you will invite a lot more people who will treat your art as goods.

Hard selling is very short term, and does not work for people creating art NFTs, which are cultural assets.

10/ TIP NO 2: Be different. Try not to copy pasta too much because you are so pressured to sell.

You see someone making it here in Pentas / or globally, you copy pasta their art style or the way they do things.

Develop your own thing.

11/ Copy pasta may give you sales short term, make you feel good but eventually there will be someone following the same trend.

But they have more money, more influence, bigger team, maybe money to pay influencers to shill.

Whatever it is, it is a competitive field.

12/ Do you know how many picture factories there are in the NFT market?

Literally, hundreds of new similar looking collections pop up, doing the same exact thing globally everyday.

This kind of thing is what's wrong with our old world.

13/ Picture factories attract art traders. People who will use charts and price action to decide whether they like your art or not. They will love your art when the price goes up, and sell it tomorrow when it reaches their price target.

14/ Then they wait for the price to drop and for market to decide whether it is a good time to love your art again or move on to the next hot & upcoming picture factory.

If your price stays down, they will not love your artwork anymore to preserve their liquidity or capital.

15/ This is not their fault. That's one of the smart ways to play with the utility-based tokens at this point.

It is yours cos you set yourself up that way.

Different categories / different games / different approaches.

16/ Art lovers buy an artwork to enjoy it because they feel a connection to it - either aesthetically, emotionally or conceptually. Or they are moved by the artist's creative journey and development as an artist.

This is a very personal and cultural thing.

17/ They just can't make any connection at all if all they see is "Hey guys, I just dropped my new art. It's 0.1BNB. Here's the link, buy buy buy".

So now can we have a bit of a laugh over this? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 This is something we will chat about during reunions in the future.

18/ TIP NO 3 - take some time to think about what you want to represent in your art and yourself as the artist. We call this an artist's statement.

Businesses have a Mission and Vision statement. For the individual, it is called knowing myself and setting personal goal posts.

19/ It is not only useful for your potential clients, I believe it is very useful for the artist themselves too.

Once you define this, I believe a lot of things will fall into place for you instinctively.

20/ TIP NO 4 - Pin it to the top of your twitter thread so it is the first thing a new passerby will see.

Update the pinned thread with valuable updates on your journey, link to online articles of yourself or screenshot of testimonials from your patron, or fellow artists, etc.

21/ The thread can represent what is called a provenance for you as the artist.

Provenance is key. Go google what it is for art.

Jgn malas.

22/ Here are some Artists statements or statements by curators / art writers on Malaysian artists from very old catalogues that I used to collect.

I intentionally chose different forms of art, as a reference to all because everyone have different styles.

This is not complete, there's a lot of art styles missing as I've donated all of my Malaysian art books and catalogues to kid libraries and orphanages.

Yg ni tertinggal because they were misplaced at time of donation 🤣🤣

23/ If you dunno how to verbally express yourself, then do it visually like Shafie Hassan here.

You are the artist kan? Be creative. Or pair up with someone who can be your voice.

24/ I can only find one that's written in BM for your reference, out of my 6 books / catalogues left standing.

But you can always google.

25/ For you, these type of works may seem common. But realise this, these are very very old catalogues (see the dates in the caption under their artwork), and some of the artists featured here were veteran artists already (40-70 yrs old when the catalogue was published).

26/ When they were young, they were the pioneers. Some tested different texture papers. Mixed media by using coffee stains and leaves and abstract expressionism like Juhari Said.

27/ Look at the old shoplot artwork by Chin Kon Yit.

So normal kan and look quite modern right? Check the date. It was drawn in 1969.

28/ Some played with different viewing angles and focal points, like Chang Fee Ming (the batik and legs of Kelantanese fishermen).

29/ Use them as inspiration, never copy pasta. NFT is different from TradArt. TradArt is also pretty messed up if you know the insider stuff LOL.

Most importantly, when you innovate, you will attract the type of ❤️ that pentas got this week.

30/ This is the first recognized artist in Malaysia, Father of Malaysian art, Yong Mun Seng.

He was a calligraphy / ink brush painter when he stumbled upon a Japanese artist painting with watercolours in 1910 and became intrigued.

31/ Art that has color in it, instead of black ink on white paper? He was mind-blown🤯.

Masa dulu, mana boleh survive jadi artist? Artist were a handful, mostly Chinese (because of ink brush painting) & expats. Mun Seng set up Nanyang group for artists to learn from each other

32/ Abdullah Ariff stumbled on some Western paintings at home and was inspired to begin drawing his own watercolor kampung scenes too. He's considered the Father of Malaysian modern art.

33/ Abdullah Ariff is a bit legend lah. He was so counter culture back then. His school mural is world famous.

Muslims have preference for non-representational art, depictions of human body was a grey area cos it may lead to idolatry.

Here are links you can read up on Mun Seng and Abdullah Ariff.

Do you need to read it? No, but art is culture, culture comes from history or develops as time pass.

This is Malaysian art history. It has evolved a lot since.

kl-lifestyle.com.my/wp-content/upl…

kl-lifestyle.com.my/wp-content/upl…

34/ It's incredible cos when you fast forward 40 years ahead of Abdullah Ariff's time to Bayu Utomo Radjikin, who is a figurative artist and did everything else very well lah - silk screen, sculpture etc.

There's just nothing he can't do. Dengkikan?

35/ Even during those time, he was also having slight problems getting accepted. But he's one of the first to focus on the idea of the Malay warrior and identity.

Wayyyy before headgears and keris became cool among Malays mmmkay.

36/ TIP NO 6 - What you are doing today may be uncool now

But if you believe it, work hard at your craft and ignore the trends, you might be recognized as a person who started something very cool later, or not, we don't know.

But it is important to build your own voice.

37/ Something you truly believe in, instead of something that is selling today. So you can focus on your craft, not so much on the sales. You need to enjoy the process, so you can last longer.

If you are not selling today, it is not an indication of your value of an artist!!!!

38/ These scans i attached are from exhibition catalogues - this is given out to visitors to exhibitions or mailed to art collectors prior to an exhibition to get them interested to go there.

Notice there's no price listed under the artwork.

39/ When you visit an exhibition (sales exhibition), the artwork will always be accompanied with a caption. They come with a title, date, a short description and in tinier font, the price.

40/ This is because the galleries will have curators, gallery representatives and artist there to explain.

If a guest is standing in front of a particular artwork for some time, they will head there to the guest to talk about that particular artwork.

41/ TIP NO 7: Sell the art and the artist, not the sell the price of the art.

When you drop a set of 1/1 art NFTs, make time to explain each one of them. 1/1 means each one is special. If you can't explain them individually, then they are not truly 1/1 aren't they?

42/ TIP NO 8 - Art lovers have curious minds and they want to be exposed to the culture and more knowledge.

That's why the first few steps of promotions by the galleries is knowledge, not the price.

Build your knowledge base so you can pass it on to your art lovers & others

43/ Patronage is as much about the artists as it is the patron.

Buying art is generally a very personal thing - there has to be a connection - aesthetics, cultural, conceptual. When they buy an art, it is also for self - identification through the art pieces they collect.

44/ Their pride comes from not just in the ownership, but also in their knowledge of the painting and the artist.

Culture is priceless.
Culture is also borne from narratives.
The best narratives come from artists who constantly learn and experiment, regardless of trends.

45/ Your supporters are interested in not just your art but feeling like they are a part of it.

You can create these connections by building genuine relationships with your clients that will result in continued patronage.

46/ Sama jer dengan real life relationships, you will lose friends and families if you just treat them like ATM, then dump them later for the next new ATM machine.

But if you build sincere meaningful relationships, people will support.

47/ TIP NO 9. Personal connection and networking beats traditional advertising. Relationships matter when it comes to finding long-term patrons for your art.

Be prepared to talk about your work and mission as an artist. Turn them into your beliebers.

48/ TIP NO 10. Keep a mailing list ke, take note of your buyer's twitter accounts ke, open a discord channel and invite them, do your own twitter spaces ke.

Keep a connection with your existing patrons.

49/ Or once you've reached certain mid term goals, reward them with a SURPRISE gift of 20-50-100 Editions depending on the number of your collectors ke. Or invite your supporters to a coffee sesh. Be creative.

Or phuck it, art for art sake mah.

50/ Reward your older supporters more than your newer ones. Encourage HODLING behaviour.

Flipping is ok for utility-based tokens, I guess. They have increased volume, they make from royalties whether price goes up and down.

51/ It's the cheapest way for a utility NFT to have the trading market's attention because of high low high low price action.

But if they are too busy focusing on price action instead of value, sometimes I wonder how much time are spent on creating value back to the community.

52/ Meanwhile, the truly ambitious I'm an artist for artist's sake cannot work that way.

Commercial artists yes, if you need to cari makan because desperate for money, go ahead there is nothing wrong with that. But don't sell yourself short either, not at this time.

53/ Historically for artists from zaman dulu dulu, it is the HODLERS who maintain and increase the price of your NFT floor by not selling, creating a scarcity. If nobody sells, you can mint new ones at higher price.

54/ Like a newbie artist, selling in group exhibitions at low prices initially as introduction to art loving community.

Then as your skills and reputation improve, you can sell at higher prices.

55/ You cannot do that if your previous owners are constantly dumping the market at high (to preserve liquidity) and then sweeping the floor.

So for artists, you need to keep levelling up.

So tough right? Hey you chose to be artist for art's sake path.

56/ Whoever lasts the longest, and still have people talking about them wins the final race.

Art that have thinking, culture and relevance then to lasts longer.

57/ If you are more entrepreneur-minded, please go to the utility token route. Focus on your strength.

If you are an artist, but you have a weakness for explaining, then pair up with someone else who understands you and your art and they can be your promoter / curator / writer.

58/ But never let money considerations be the final decision maker on your art.

It should be one consideration because the starving artists should not be starving anymore.

But not the main, cos culture should not be priced that way.

59/ As NFT artists and buyers, we are early adopters.

We are the ones setting the early stage culture for the new digital world.

As culture incubators for the new world, why bring greed and the old world thinking into our new world?

Let's change things.

60/ Ok, sorry, just now lari topic sikit.

Back to TIP NO 11. Learn to increase your value in other ways.

Educate your audiences, many who are buying NFTs now generally are also inexperienced art collectors.

61/ Art lovers, stop thinking about risks when buying an art NFT. Support the artist that has the art that you identify with. Talk to them about their art.

Use that as a way to see if you jive with the artist and their future views.

62/ NFT Artists, the NFT art lovers will appreciate getting art education from you - this is good honest value you can give back to the community (not many are doing it. This is so so scarce).

63/ If you educate your audiences and your buyers (who constitutes your community), you can help change the NFT market.

Flippers will turn into art lovers, art supporters, your supporter. They will no longer look for quick gains, because they see other value.

64/ Pride of ownership beyond monetary gains is the best form of ownership ever.

For example, My dead father's belt. It has no $ value. There's an emotion connection. Priceless.

You need to give your patrons that pride of ownership, beyond $ value.

65/ Economic advise 101. Don't dump a lot of 1/1 nonstop when you are not selling. Be realistic, look at your past sales for indication. Take time to postmortem, and learn to do better.

Mint more when you are sold out and your supporters are not selling.

66/ When sales slow, work on creating more discourse and value.

You are not a factory, you don't have production deadlines to meet. QUALITY.

It's more value for us art lovers for you to progress, mint at higher prices and to churn lesser but better work as you evolve.

67/ Focus on increasing your value, and start controlling your scarcity as you slowly start earning enough to carry you through your real life financial burdens.

You know why art prices always shoot up when an artist dies? Because they cannot produce any more. 🤣🤣🤣

68/ I wrote before on my rant before that we are in early adopter phase. We are priviledged. History.

Today I talk a lot about history again. So many alphas are being dropped. Not sure if you geddit by now.

69/ Don't just use my tips.

Develop self-thinking. Develop your own mechanisms and forms of interactions. Try mini experiments with it. This is a new space, and a new space needs experimentation. All you lose is time and some creative input. You gain more in return.

70/ As an NFT artist, basically you are all digital artists.

Did you know the first NFT ever created was done by a digital artist? No?

Maybe you can start learning about the history of digital art. Or baby steps, start by learning about the history of NFT art.

71/ Art, history, culture, identity. Now we have blockchain to link us all up.

If you don't know these, how can you churn out true cultural assets that capture the possibilities the tech brings, or the emote or spirit of the times, or the thought of the times.

72/ This is your field, don't expect me to write a thread on it. Go google and DYOR.

The best promise about Web 3.0 and DAO is self-empowerment, equal opportunity for all while talent is scarce.

If you expect to be led, you are not self empowering yourself.

73/ Congratulations for getting this far.

History of Malaysian NFT artists is yet to be written, Pentas will be at the heart of it. This takes time as history needs time to pass before it is set in stone. As early adopters of the 1/1 artists now, you all have a slight advantage

74/ You are early! You already know all the players and have been adding reputation points a few at a time. It's an advantage.

But a true artist art to get into the history books. And it's a race to outlast other names and to outlast time.

2 mths vs 10 yr vs 100 yr history?