Chatter Oks

NFT's and me

NFT's and me

I am now officially an NFT Artist!

Well it's been seven days since I dropped (posted) my first NFT... 

"Okse, Why don't you just say a week!"

Okay, brain, it's been a week since I first NFT.

"That's better, Okse."

Thank you, I'm going to carry on now. I dropped my first one, Mechaniskull Cyan at auction at 0.04 Eth.  It hasn't sold but to be honest I don't mind  I've also done a Magenta, Yellow and Black version and even animated them. I'm pretty pleased how they've turned out, they haven't sold either.

I've also created a Blocktopus... a bio- organic octopus with a belly full of bitcoin and other crypto and the Lion's share a Black and white digital drawing of a lion's head made up of pipes  and vents mingled with crypto. if you'd like to see any of these pieces pop here https://opensea.io/collection/the-art-of-okse  

So how did I do all this?

First I created a wallet and bought some Crypto ( Etherium ) to play with.

Once I had the wallet I connected it to Opensea this is a place where you can upload your pieces and get them minted, when you mint an image/animation/music file this then attaches data to said medium and puts it to the Block chain , this is like a certificate of authenticity that the piece you have uploaded is a unique piece. 

"But Okse, if it's a jpeg, surely that can just be copied and and saved to my hard drive, therefor I own that too."

I covered this in my last Blog using the Mona Lisa analogy, just because I can print Leonardo's piece out ( the artist, not the turtle ) it doesn't mean that I own it. the original is in the Louvre, Paris. 

So the answer is, no.

Once you've set your price you can list them either at a buy it now price or you can auction them.

With auctioning if the piece doesn't make the reserve price  ( minimum 1.ETH) you don't have to sell it, people can make you offers and if you choose to take them you cover the gas fees (transaction fee) this can be either good or bad depending on the gas price.

When you list your first collection you will have to pay a start up fee and  gas fees.

"What!? You have to pay, Okse? it's a scam!!!" 

No, it's just a start up fee, in the real world if I was to release a series of prints  of my paintings I'd pay for the initial set up, the photography, colour correction, artists proofs etc. I don't see it as money wasted. Plus you're using their platform to sell.

"Okay, fair enough."

Anyway, story time, during lockdown I thought to myself I can either get depressed about the whole state of the world or I could occupy my mind and learn new skills.

I chose the latter.

learned to create Art Toys. modeling them in 3d, printing them, molding them, and casting them in resin.

It kept me sane, my first toy was Boombox Boy and I launched him on the 13th March 2021, each figure is cast in resin and painted by hand, and has magnetic articulation.

Now that I've joined the NFT space I realised that I could make Boombox Boy into NFT collectable, so that's what I did I created a series of BBB's as pixel art. Each NFT comes with a physical art toy on the first sale. 

I sold 2! 

The transaction was quick as a flash and the money was straight into my wallet. The buyer was a guy called @samjonesart , I've known him since he was 15 and he is an amazing artist so I'm really happy the first two have gone to him. please check him out on Twitter/Instagram the lad has skills.

So as I said I'm all official now.

Onward and upwards

If you're wondering how I learned all this stuff, I learnt it  from youtube, twitter and Clubhouse. The folks on there are great, very transparent with their knowledge and giving out so much positive energy .I've seen some amazing artists on there and it's really great, it feels a very refreshing place where artists promote other artists and everyone is happy for each other when work sells.

 NFT should really stand for Nice Friendly Times.

Anyway time for bed for me, if you'd like to check out the Boombox boys pop to here. Boombox Boys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My Thoughts on NFT's

My Thoughts on NFT's

I’ve been learning about NFT’s recently and I want to put down some thoughts on the whole thing.

Am I excited?…read on dear reader, read on.

I remember the first time I was told you can draw on computers I was very nonchalant about it. I was 13 years old and I was sitting in the computer room at school, not that I was interested in computers that’s for nerds! It was my form room and every day I’d have to be there waiting for my teacher to call out my name.

Someone showed me this picture on the screen, I think it was Maggy Thatcher face to face with Reagan. I wasn’t impressed.

“Go on Oxy, have a go” I was Oxy back then not Okse, I was quite happy being Oxy until they brought out that spot cream.

“Just move the mouse”

“What mouse?”

“This” they then proceeded to waggle this grey plastic matchbox about in a Grandmaster flash style and lines came up on the screen.

You’d think that this would blow my mind, it didn’t.

I got the mouse drew a Dennis The Menace face, then exclaimed “That’s shit, I’ll stick to pen and paper”

I left them disheartened with a face like the coder who showed Steve Jobs that you could draw squares on the Mac and was then told to make the corners curved.

I vowed never to touch a computer again as I said earlier nerdsville.

4 years Later, Stourbridge Art College.

“I’ve done a sprite of you?”

“Eh?”

“A sprite, it’s for a game”

“ugh!?”

Words were coming out of my mate Courty’s mouth but I had no idea what he was on about.

He explained that he draws the sprites and animates them and then a coder puts them in a game. I was stunned.

A year later I found myself working for a games company learning how to do game art.

Digital Art

Here we are it’s 2021, I’m sitting at my computer and I’m listening to people chat about NFT’s on Clubhouse ( I’m @okse if you’d like to follow me)

I’ve been creating digital art for 28 years, that’s a long time eh…if you ever used 3d studio on Dos you’re like,me…well old!

Peoples opinions have changed about digital art, no longer do they prefix “digital drawing” with the words “Oh, it’s just a”

NFT’s have changed that.

I’m now going to explain what I’ve learned about them, if you see ** sandwiching a word write it down and give it a google.

What is an NFT?

NFT stands for Non Fungible Token.

An NFT allows you to mint a piece of digital art and that allows you to securely sell that digital art and store records of ownership on the *BlockChain*.

The great thing about NFT’s is that you can sell a digital piece of art to Collector A and if they were to sell that piece to Collector B in the future you will get a percentage on the sale, this percentage is determined by you at the initial minting stage. If Collector B sells to Collector C you will get automatically get sent Money to your *Crypto Wallet* it’s like royalties forever. If anything was ever going to happen to me, I would pass my wallet to my son. Hopefully, that won't happen for a long time.

“But Okse, surely anyone can just screengrab your images print them out, and claim that they own them?”

But they won’t will they, I can print off an image of the Mona Lisa and hang it on my wall, but it’s not the real one, it’s a copy as we all know the original is hanging in the Louvre in Paris.

The NFT is a digital Certificate of Authenticity.

So how does an artist benefit from all this NFT stuff?

I am a published artist, many years ago I was with one of the biggest fine art publishers in the UK. We worked together, it was fun, then we parted. Having a publisher was great, but you’re always having to second guess what collectors wanted.

With NFT’s I feel that I don’t have to do that, I can create whatever I want, stuff that I enjoy and get excited about, and if people don’t like it they won't buy it, but there will be people who want to join me on this journey and if you are one of them “Hiya! Buckle up”

Being able to put ownership on a piece is brilliant too and to be able to say I created that back in such and such a date is brilliant. I with NFT’s were about 24th June 2016… but that’s another story #okseb4banksy

Browsing Clubhouse and Twitter it amazes me how supportive people are to each other, no one is putting each other down it’s like we all want to rise up together.

I will be dropping NFT’s very soon once I get my works together, I’m very excited.

If you want to follow me I’m on the following social media.

I look forward to connecting with you…yes, even you too.

Twitter.com/theartofokseNFT
Clubhouse : @okse
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Good night Mr Lee.

Good night Mr Lee.

I’m driving home listening to The Beastie Boys Audio book, my phone flashes a twitter notification, I see a name and next to it I see RIP. 
it’s Stan Lee. 
I’m gutted.
The words from the audio book that I was really getting into become nothing but muffle, my last thoughts on the audio book as I take it in are, “Ad-Rock’s got a Silver Surfer tattoo” 
Stan Lee has gone. 
Stan Lee created some of the most iconic comic book characters of all time my favourite being Spider-Man.
 As a kid I was obsessed, I’d draw webbing on red marigold gloves, I found a a 12 inch figure Spider-Man costume at a park  ,  so I took it home and put in on action man. It wasn’t really Spider-Man though, so I found a red balloon and wrapped it over his head and drew webbing over it and those big Spidey eyes.
In school, we had to perform an action round the hall for PE.  Kids were horse trotting, being builders, police men and there was me shooting webs and swinging through the air.
“Are you Tarzan?” The teacher would ask.
“No, I’m Spider-Man”
I loved to draw , I bought the Marvel Way to Draw, I even persuaded my mum to buy me the Try Out book , convinced her that if I sent it off with my drawings in I could work in comics . Even though I had no grasp of anatomy , perspective or the fundamentals of sequential art.
You made me love comics.
Tomorrow myself and 13 other artists will be showcasing our comic art work in Birmingham. 
It’s sad that I’ll never get to meet you, you’ll never get to see my art , but if you can read this on the heaven internet or what ever they have up there. I just want to say thank you for bringing joy to me and millions of other true believers.
RIP Stan Lee
Okse 
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My top 10 Toys, What was your favourite?

My top 10 Toys, What was your favourite?



I never I’d give up toys...I did in the end but I still remember them fondly.

Here are ten toys, that have stuck in my mind.


1/Evil Kenevil

 


Evil Kenevil was a must for any 80's kid, it came with a what I can only describe as a windy uppy red thing, some what similar to something you'd see on a shopping channel for slicing vegetables. You'd place Evil, I presume that was his real name . Would have liked to have been at that christening " we'd like to name him Evil" followed by gallons of holy water soaking the whole of the Kenevil family.

Anyway the bike and rider were revved up, Evil was then released to shoot/scoot/raz down any hard surface. Usually concrete scattered with ring pulls and White dog poo. (it was the 80s)

A favourite thing I used to like to do was get all my mates to lie on the floor and see how many kids Evil could jump, kids were the equivalent of buses. My mate John was always put on the end as he was a big lad and it always put an air of tension to the event.

Evil Kenevil was an amazing toy which brought a lot o joy to any young lad. I even bought one for my nephew when they rereleased it. It's amazing how different you see things as a kid, as an adult Evil Kenevil toy is a noisy bastard with a crappy bendy figure with a helmet that doesn't even fit properly!

2/Mouse Trap


Our house hold had this game, I would not be able to tell you how this was played as once it was set up we'd trigger it off then it was time for bed.

The green diver made a great addition to my Star Wars collection

"He's not in Star Wars" the kids would question.

"Yes he is, he's in the cantina scene playing slaps with Chewbaccas!"

3/Big Trak


This toy was usually brought into school on the last day of term a regular tradition in uk primary schools.

Kids (usually rich) would press buttons and navigate the vehicle through tables and chairs. Teachers would always be impressed by Big Trak

In the advert for Big Trak the kid would program BT to take an apple to his dad. Technology eh!

We had something better at home, it was called a dog , why push all those buttons to calculate moves when a simple " here boy, take it to dad" would suffice. Yes, there would be teeth marks, yes, the apple would have a hint of pedigree chum. But it was a whole lot simpler. Could Big Trak wag it's tail? Could Big Trak shake a paw? Would Big Trak move the family to tears when he was taken to the vets to be put down? The answer to all these questions is no.


4/ Girls World



"You never had a Girls World Okse!" I hear you cry.

No I didn't but my sister did. Girls World was a head and shoulders of a blonde girl, yes , you heard right and as you can see from the picture above she looked like the reminiscence of one of Jigsaw's victims. It was a toy for girls to apply make up on.

This was never the case, every Girls World I ever saw did not have make up lovingly applied but would be defaced with biro. Usually cobwebs , like a tattooed lady from a travelling freak show.

This toy stirred up feelings, the kind of feelings I used to get when I used to see Blondie's Debbie Harry on the Tv, you know "I want to kiss the telly but don't know why?" type of thing.

I used to kiss Girls World, was I weird doing so, maybe, but its the closest you get to snogging when you're five!

5/ The Golliwog


The Golliwog, one of the most controversial of toys back in the day made famous by Enid Blyton and Robertsons Jam.

Now for those of you who have never seen one of these its obviously a representation of a black person and that's why people aren't too keen on them, and rightly so, I think that if they'd have brought out Chinkywinky cuddly toys I probably would have felt the same. ( I’m half Chinese)

But I did own one of these, I was very young and he wasn't a representation of a black person , he was my friend.

My sisters used to get "Golly" (I was good at naming stuff) and throw him down the stairs, theyd run down to get him cradle him in their arms and shout up the stairs "Golly's dead!" to which I would belt down the stairs mortified shouting "NOOOooooo!"

How stupid was I? His eyes were always wide open there was no way he could have been dead.

Sisters are cruel!

6/ The Batmobile


This was one of favourite toys ever! it fired rockets, it had a big chopping blade at the front and came with two little figures you could remove , not only that, there was an ace picture of Batman at the bottom.

But as what happened with all of my toys stuff got broken, picture the scene its 1979, I'm there firing rockets, I remove the figures and get them acting out, unfortunately when Batman and Robin conversed they were always in the seating position, but that was cool we made do with what we had. I place Robin on the floor, then all of a sudden a big foot lands on him decapitating him. I was devastated, there was no way we were going to get that head back on, there was no super glue, we just had glue back then, and that was rubbish. I have never forgiven my God Father for that incident and wont until he gets me a new one.

7/ Action Man

Action Man also known as Gi Joe in the states was great , my dad used to tease me and call them Dollies, I used to hate it when he did that but I think it was his way of getting me to go off them so he didnt have to buy the accessories.

Action Man was everything, scuba diver, space man , soldier , you name it Action man did it as long as it involved lots of testosterone, I mean you wouldnt catch action man dressed as an accountant or anything like that. if it involved guns and shit, Action man was well up for it! And besides they probably wouldn't hire him as of the big gash on his face he was hardcore.




Early Action man was nekid but later went on to don blue pants. The naked version was pretty weird, now I didn't expect him to have a cock and balls but he did have this crazy big "U" on his crotch, was this meant to represent his peen? I have no clue but I always found it confusing. See below.



The makers of Action man decided to up the stakes , how could they make the number one toy better, karate action, new accessories? "Nah, lets give him eyes that move left and right by moving a switch"

Yes, it made him look dodgy, but we loved it, I think subconsciously it helped us cross the roads "Look left and right, of course, Action Man does that"

His hands were great for chewing on too.

Action man was cool, though I never liked bearded Action Man, he always reminded me of one of my dads a scary mates.



8/The Space Hopper


Most kids had one of these they have come back and have been branded "Retro", the design confused me. What is it? is it a lion ?

My sister bought me one of these for Christmas but unfortunately someone else bought me some pencils, my Space Hopper didn't even make it outside. My sister was gutted as she hadn't bought just for me she wanted a go too.

Space Hopper RIP

9/Stretch Armstrong






Stretch Armstrong was not only a cool toy but it allowed you to exercise your arms, if you watched the advert you'd see how the kids would get him and stretch him straight away with ease, this was a lie! They forgot to miss out the bit where you had to sit him in hot water for ten minutes to let the ooze within him soften up, but once this was done you were away!...Woohoo stretchy, stretchy.

Then what?


He came with a set of blue pants ( I think him and Action Man Shop at the same place) so you could probably remove them for a giggle.

Then what?

That's about it, stretching and removing underwear was all this toy could do.

Me, I had an Incredible Hulk version.



What did that do? Well you could stretch him, then remove his purple trousers.

I got The Hulk on my birthday, I also got some pencils. I don't need to say anymore on this.

10/Mr Frosty

Mr Frosty was amazing, you placed the ice in the top of his head, you turned the handle gently and piles of ice would fall into the cup , then you would add your favourite flavouring (applied with Percy Penguin) to the ice, you'd pass the cups to your friends and they would laugh and joke as they were refreshed by Mr Frosty on a hot summers day.


Rubbish! That's what were led to believe according to the advert. I never had one of these and never had the intention of buying one, if I wanted a slush puppy I'd pop to Martins News Agent in Stourbridge and probably pick u[p some Return of The Jedi stickers while I was there.

Joes Mum had always wanted one of these as a little girl but for some reason her mum never got round to buying one, so being the good boyfriend I was, I bought her one. kind of like a romantic gesture, but with me secretly wanting to chow down on that icy goodness.

Ice cubes, check, Percy Penguin, check. cups, check, we were ready to go! Joes mum put the cubes in, now all I would need to do was to turn the handle. I did, nothing happened! I turned it again nothing, "Ah, I just need to apply a bit of pressure to his hat. that'll work.

I turn the handle again, nothing. I look into the cup to see a few drips of water and a couple of shavings of ice in the cup. I look to see how this is supposed to work, basically it's just a metal tube with some cheese grater holes!

We call in Joes Mums sister, now we have two people pushing down, while I crank the handle on this mofo , we're all getting hot and flustered, this isnt a drinks maker it's and exercise machine all we needed was to bring Stretch Armstrong in and we've have our very own toy gym for a full body work out, we did this for about ten minutes and you know what we got at the end?

Water!

Joes mum was like "What about Percy Penguin?" I was like "F**k Percy Penguin!

Well there you go ten toys in no particular order. Please feel free to comment below, what was your favourite toy?


Okse 

https://theartofokse.com/
https://twitter.com/okse
https://instagram.com/okse

 

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Banksy - I'll Just Leave This Here .

Banksy - I'll Just Leave This Here .

It's the 24th of June 2016 , I awake to find that we have left the EU, I read articles about it and I see those 12 stars on a blue background , I think to myself " we're not going to be a part of that anymore , let's take our star down". I wanted to make a statement as an artist it's important for me to do that amongst the sea of icons and cartoons I create. So at 8 ish in the morning I got my iPad and started to draw a man in Union Jack overalls on a ladder holding a bucket and erasing one of the stars.

I posted it up on Instagram , It got likes, it got viewed hashtags used #eureferendum #brexit #art

It wasn't a finished piece , it was a preliminary a piece that was mine a piece that I could go back to when we finally left.

It was an emotional time for our country, the youngsters concerned about their futures and the elderly voting out because there were hundreds of coaches of foreigners coming to claim benefits , take our jobs and steal our recycling bins.

We put it to the back of our minds and carried on as a nation.

So I wake up one day (May 2017) and check my social networks and see an article on the latest Banksy piece, a wall in Dover using the same concept as mine re the EU

This piece was "created" on the side of a building owned by the Godden Family who are property developers in the Kent area. They have had dealings with Banksy before they tried to sell a Banksy in Folkestone three years earlier and lost a high court battle as they were tenets of the building rather than freeholders .

The Godden family intend to sell this artwork for 1 million and give the money to charities in the area, this is all well and good, but I've got an Mot coming up very soon, plus I'd like some credit.

But Okse , why do you think Banksy copied your idea and what are the similarities?

1/ bloke is on ladder
2 / bloke is wearing overalls
3/ bloke is getting rid of star.
4/ bloke is using a bucket (even though he is chiselling)
5/ hashtags #eureferendum #brexit #art
6/ it's a bloody good idea.

 

Now I don't know how Banksy works nowadays , is he still a single person walking round town pretending to be drunk with pizza boxes with stencils on the underside to avoid police intervention, or has he got minions a la Damien Hurst putting ideas forward? Maybe this could have happened.

I've tried to contact him by email three times with all my concerns but have heard nothing back, you could say I've been blanksied.

Here's the email I sent:

" Dear Banksy,

Hello you, hope you're keeping well.

My name is Chris Oxenbury aka Okse (pronounced Oxy, used to spell it O-x-y until they brought out that spot cream...then discovered "Okse" means "vomit" in Estonia )

Anyway I'm a Black Country artist based in Leamington Spa and I'd like to let you know I recently saw a piece you'd done in Dover and it is very much like mine that I did 24th June 2016 the day the referendum results came in.

Here is a link please check the dates and feel free to have a gander at my other stuff.

https://instagram.com/p/BHB6WOFgo82/


I think it's very cool that you and I have had the same idea and it saddens me that I won't be able to create this piece now on canvas as I will be accused of Banksy plagiarism and then I'd have to be all like having to explain that I did it ages ago.

I was going to create it once we'd left properly.

I won't be able to make anything from it, I'm not doing too bad as an artist but I'm still starving and still trying to get my name out there. I've read that the owners of the building are going to sell it for a million! And I'm finding it hard to pay my council tax! :)

Anyway I'd love to have a chat with you about it, maybe you could give us a bell and you could put a cloth over the mouth piece like they do in the movies.


All the best

Okse "


So there you go , a non confrontational email, keeping it sweet , keeping it friendly.

I've spoke to other artists , some have been like shout it from the rooftops, some have been like, "just leave it". Also I've had "You can't sue him , you've got no money" (that was my mum)

So the internet is powerful and I'm going to use it, I'm not being deluded, I came up with the concept first, and I'm not lying , I've got proof.

So if you're reading this and you want to spread the word for me


Just post the following image on your social networks if you ever see a Banksy article or tweet this article about. I'd really appreciate it and when I get massive I'll doodle on serviettes for you to auction off.

 




Use the hashtags
#illjustleavethishere #okseb4banksy

Thank you x

if you're press and you'd like to chat further about stuff please drop me a line at info@theartofokse.com

and please feel free to browse my site whilst you're here to see what I'm all about.

 

 

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