We love digital art at The Blockchain Experience (our roots are deeply embedded into it), so David has been on a rampage the past few weeks collecting art he liked on Zora. The ones highlighted in this newsletter are some of the ones he collected that we think you will like, and all of the art shown below is priced close to free, so it is very accessible. You can quickly and easily build a vault of grails without burning a hole in your wallet!
As you'll see, most of our collecting is art that is memeish in nature and a commentary on what's current in the crypto landscape. At the time of most of our collecting, it was the $Degen token, but we suspect we will see more pieces including Ham token and narratives about Power Badge soon.
Don't hesitate to share your feedback, and we're always open to suggestions from the community, so if you have anything you'd like to share for our consideration, you can reply to this newsletter, or send me a direct cast on Warpcast.
And if you do mint any of these, join /theblockexp channel on Warpcast and cast about it. We'll have a surprise for you. 😉
Sponsorship: Did you know we dropped a free mint on sound.xyz this week? This is a tongue-in-cheek house song with a soul vibe to it paying tribute to both the Base network and Farcaster protocol. The lyrics start around the 30-second mark. Hopefully, it has your head bobbing and smiling.
Give it a listen, and hopefully you'll consider minting it. 100% of the earnings will be rolled back into the platform to support emerging artists by collecting them and make short-form videos/articles highlighting them.
This piece was created by a notable creator in this space, ccarrela.eth. It looks like it takes place sometime in the 1950s, and what you have is a couple kissing and cars that almost seem to be driving into the building. It has a surreal vibe, where you feel like the kissing couple are in a trance themselves. The clever use of AI and figurative imagery makes it a great mint.
This piece is a commentary synergizing excess, consumerism, and probably above all else American culture as it's perceived. For the record, I am a very proud American myself, but I think this is a witty take on how we Americans are stereotyped from the outside: standing on top of the world, arrogantly speaking on the phone (or is that a Nintendo Switch?), wearing Nikes, and firing an automatic weapon into the sky that "mints" while wearing a Degen hat. I certainly hope this is not how we are perceived, but I think it's a piece that merits discussion!
A simple yet fun animation based on Reggae culture by TAKASHOSHI with the color theme, references to marijuana/420, the car driving off the cliff (and not carrying), and a Jamaican flag flashing. Its pixelated simplicity and themes are what make this is a fun piece to add to your collection.
I found this piece by Artbella while doom-scrolling on Zora. It appears to be set in the 90s with pixelation, a vintage desktop (the flatscreen borders are thicker than they need to be), the girl also seems to be styled from the 90s, and she's pointing at her computer saying "Degen to $1" and the monitor depicts a $1 bill, but instead of George Washington it has a Degen hat. I like how it's set in the 90s because it gives a sense of time and expressing patience is a virtue. Overall, an aesthetically well-done piece and fun messaging. After I highlighted this on Warpcast, a few people minted it too, so clearly I am not the only one!
Playing to the same theme as the previous piece, this one by Bunyamin Bulak shows a character posing victoriously, wearing a "Degen to $1" hat and an animation of a price chart. Clearly, I have a bias towards work containing Degen, and it going to $1. A good amount of work went into this piece (especially interesting is the illumination animation), but the message and call to action are clear: Degen to $1!
OK, OK, yes, another Degen piece! Although this piece is not saying Degen to $1, it is a humorous satire of Leonardo DiCaprio playing Calvin Candle on Django Unchained, but instead of the attire from the commonly distributed meme, he is wearing purple, a Degen hat, and has an Ethereum lapel. This piece was originally done by t0ma, and the animation was added by V5MT as part of a collaboration. Both works are excellent, the original piece by t0ma and the addition by V5MT make it dazzle!
Last, but not least, is one of my favorite all-time pieces on Zora, and it is by t0ma (who was mentioned previously). There's a lot to unpack here. This is a parody of the classic piece by John Lewis Krimmel called The Village Politician. There's a Degen who is apparently making the case on why he should be receiving the much-coveted Power Badge. The man in gold/light brown, seems to be half-intently listening (as evidenced by his hand on his chin and there might be something to be said about the covering over his eye and the color of his clothes), while a couple of other Power Badge holders seem to be finding the situation humorous. As you can see, there is no shortage of Power Badges to give around. They're all in plain sight. An extremely witty commentary about Power Badges. I was very impressed with the artist's use of symbolism.
And that's what we collected the past couple weeks on Zora! We hope you enjoy them as much as we did, and we encourage you to mint (it's almost free) and support these artists to continue their craft!
meta-david
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