“We’re going to meet the Dalai Lama” by anyakuzai
“People of all ages must have the opportunity to experience something exciting they never knew and maintain hope for something good and wonderful.” -Anya Kuzai
Over the last two years, the world has changed thanks to the blockchain and the internet. The traditionally illiquid art market has united with the liquid cryptocurrency-holding public through the use of NFTs.
In this ten part series, we travelled virtually to unique locations across the globe to meet individual creators using NFT technology.
In this final installment, part ten (10) of our series, it is my pleasure to introduce you to our final artist, Anya Kuzai from Barcelona, Spain!
An Inside Look with Anya Kuzai
“Now artists take the financial control back into their hands… I have no idea what awaits us in another year, not to mention a decade. All I know is that we have barely scratched the surface with this!” –Anya Kuzai
Location: Barcelona, Spain
1. How and when did you get into art?
Actually I have been drawing since I was a kid! I never had any special talent for it but I’ve always been fascinated and amused by doing art. Not so long ago I started taking drawing more seriously and study art purposefully (which is not very fun but eventually pays off) and in the last two years I have acquired sufficient skills to portray what I want approximately how I want. So the time to create new worlds has come!
2. What inspires you to create?
Life itself. Sometimes it’s an interesting lighting, sometimes a funny dog from the beach or an unusual mimic on a person’s face, it can be absolutely anything. And I just can’t help but draw, it’s my only way to process my emotions and impressions from the world around me. It’s like breathing! You breathed in something that touched you and you… you have to breathe it out.
3. What is the biggest barrier you face as an artist?
Many of them! So I just try to stay strong and crash the ones I can or adapt! For example I have a pretty poorly developed imagination, probably even a state close to aphantasia (I don’t remember and almost can’t imagine any faces, places, forms of objects, etc) so to “visualise” an idea, I first need to draw it, show it to my brain in order to understand whether I like it or not.
4. What do you consider your greatest accomplishment as an artist?
That I’m currently working in the animation industry! It’s been a long road and I have been dreaming about that since I was a kid. When I was 6 years old I tried to redraw Sailor Moon through the TV, and now I’m kind of on the other side of the glass myself (and I can draw any Sailor Guardian I want too). It’s insane! My other dream was to become a comic artist and I hope I’ll be able to try myself in this role too.
5. Who is one artist living or dead you wish you could speak to for an hour? What is one question you would ask them?
It would be Satoshi Kon, my favourite director and author of such masterpieces as Perfect Blue, Paprika, Millennium Actress. Most likely he’d be a little freaked out by being suddenly resurrected for just an hour (+let’s not forget about the language barrier) so we’d probably just do something, eat ramen or go for a walk? Who knows what was his favourite place to eat in Tokyo, maybe he could show me. That would be nice I think. Ok, now I want to draw this.
6. In what way has crypto influenced your life and work?
First of all it showed me how different art can be. Before entering NFT space I mostly saw only the work of colleagues in animation and gamedev +fine art in museums and here I faced something… Something completely different! 50 shades of Pepe! Absolutely mind blowing animated 3d things! Paintings whose styles I even can’t characterise at all! It’s like you’ve been eating all your life only local cuisine and now they open a buffet with cuisine of all nations of the world across the street! It’s sooooo cool (but now I’m also totally addicted to Twitter hehe).
Second it showed me that I can earn money not only from a job but from my personal projects. Before NFTs I was doing them just for the sake of portfolio and now my stories have a chance to live! It gave me motivation to start inventing my worlds in more detail and I started my personal project: “Anya’s Stories” which consists of several different stories and the goal of which is making a short animated film based on one of them!
Third, crypto gave me the opportunity to collaborate with other cool NFT artists and besides that to be a part of something really big! This year we founded an awesome project [BRUTAL SPACE] which is going to be a play to earn game and I worked as one of the artists for KOKODI, which made a sold out and now develops its extraordinary world further.
7. What is one bad situation in the world that you wish you could change?
Unfortunately, life is unfair everywhere: people die from various diseases, wage senseless wars, destroy nature, infringe on each other in all possible ways. I don’t think that anything can be changed here with a wave of a magic wand. But I truly believe that the one thing that can help — is to touch something beautiful in human souls with art.
People of all ages must have the opportunity to experience something exciting they never knew and maintain hope for something good and wonderful. As Oscar Wilde said “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life” which means art is a key to make the world and people in it better. So I try to make such art.
8. What is one location in your country we all should visit at least once?
I, to my shame, have not travelled much in Spain, so I will not be particularly original and advise you to visit Barcelona and Madrid!
9. How do you feel NFTs will influence the creator economy over the next decade?
Now artists take the financial control back into their hands, use it as crowdfunding for their projects. At the beginning of last year, I could not have imagined that there would be something like this, so to be honest, I have no idea what awaits us in another year, not to mention a decade. All I know is that we have barely scratched the surface with this! And I’m excited to see what the future will bring us here.
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This content is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute trading advice. Past performance does not indicate future results. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose. The author of this article may hold assets mentioned in the piece.
