Chatter Oks / The art of okse

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
Read more →

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.

 

 

Read more →