Bytom: Hello, everyone! We are glad to meet here: Sonya, an NFTartist & Creator & illustrator, she is invited to discuss crypto and her exciting NFT journey, anything you need to know about the becoming of a crypto artist in the NFT era.
Sonya: Nice to meet you!
Bytom: We would like to meet you. Could you please tell us a bit about yourself?
Sonya: Hi everyone, hope you are all well. My name is Sonya, I’m a 27 year-old Illustator from Iran. I studied graphics at university. And fell in love with illustration. I had some projects such as children book illustration, kids crib bed set design, book cover art, website design and etc…
Bytom: This is really interesting!!! What caught your attention and brought you to explore the crypto space and the NFT space
Sonya: One of my friends told me about NFT, and then I found myself in NFT space. NFT is totally another world for me, Lots of new knowledge, new experiences, new people and cryptocurrency encouraged me to enter this space. I’m eager to gain new experiences and meet new people from all around the world.
Bytom: Sounds great experience.What made you interested in NFTs? What’s the trigger that inspired you into the NFT world? when did you start your art career? And What made you pursue NFT art?
Sonya: Actually I like sharing my artworks on new platforms, so NFT is a great opportunity for me to showcase my art. NFT space makes me push my limits come out of my shell, gain knowledge and new experiences, these reasons make me pursue nft art. I started sharing my artworks in NFT space about 6 months ago but my I couldn’t be active constantly becaouse of my projects and my family that got covid19, so I couldn’t consecrate on NFT 24/7, but now I’m back more motivated
Bytom: What type of work do you create the most? Could you show us some of your works?
Sonya: Mostly I Illustrate about mental health, women right, animals right and nature. I want to raise awareness about these topics, that’s why my main characters are women and you see some elements from animals and nature in my illustrations. Strong women do cry but, they flourish and carry on stronger than before
Bytom: Thanks for your sharing! As an artists, what keeps you moving forward and achieving where you are now despite the tight competition in the NFT marketplace, can you share with us your creative concept and source of inspiration?
Sonya: As I mentioned before, nature and animals inspire me all the time, I observe nature to find different shapes, colors, and some new and unique elements to use in my illustrations. Also some important issues such as women right in my country and in the world inspire me too, I try to raise awareness and attract attention about these issues with my art.
Bytom: Your works are driven by a good reason. What has been the main challenge faced with your works especially in a male dominated society.
Sonya: Unfortunately we are living in a world where women have to fight for their right all the time, so I want my art be womens voice in my style.
Bytom: Which platform you think is the most convenient, and in general, if we talk about platforms (NFT platforms), what requirements and criteria do you, as an artist, impose on them?
Sonya: For now I use Foundation and Opensea marketplaces, they each have their own pros and cons, opensea is great for lazy minting, suitable gass fee and creating collection with higher quantities, but it’s so crowd and it’s hard to get noticed. Foundation helps artists gain exposure and I like auctions but, gass fees are high, and it needs invite to start so it makes it harder for artists to use Foundation. I think all platforms should consider artists exposure and their budget.
I think platforms such as Opensea should devide the marketplace to different parts, so each artist can mint their NFT on that part and collectors can find them better based on their interest, for example crypto punks and photograph NFTs or videos and etc … should be in different parts
Bytom: Where do you see the NFT space in the next few years? Do you think it could be a bubble?
Sonya: No, I don’t see NFT as a bubble, definitely it has a bright future and artists can be successful in this space by being creative and staying patient, NFT is a long term and endless project because the world is getting digital in every field.
Bytom: Currently NFT is developing and becoming a new innovation in the Blockchain world. However, many Artists/Creators still don’t understand how to create NFT. How does solve this problem? Do you have plans to educate about NFT to Artists outside of Non-Crypto?
Sonya: As far as I can tell, we can solve this by sharing our information with others and guide and encourage them to create NFTs and get into NFT space, I try to help artists as much as I can but I think I’m not advanced enough to teach artists, I just share my experiences.
Bytom: What inspired this work as at when it was produced?
Sonya: Fortunately my parents are alive and with me , but I lost other members of my family like my grandparents, I was thinking about how to over come the fear of losing my loved ones so I decided to Illustrate and remind myself to enjoy all the moments I have chance to spend with my loved ones
Bytom: Last question. As we all know NFTs are in trend, so what is your future goal after this? What is your vision of the NFT market and products?
Sonya: My short time goal is to drop my new collection on opensea, it’s about mental health and feelings inside us. My long time goal is to gain more knowledge about crypto and NFT and gain knowledge as much as I can.
