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A local musician who rediscovered his love for painting during lockdown has had his artwork displayed on a giant screen in Times Square – after finding surprising success in the digital art world of NFTs.
Jersey-born Jay Shaughnessy (31) – who creates art under the name Bstract – worked in the island as a musician for 10 years, as both a teacher and a performer.
In 2020, the pandemic put his music career on pause, and he rediscovered his passion for art which he had studied at college and only continued as a hobby since.
"Before lockdown, I created art just for me," he explained.
Whilst painting in lockdown, Jay also listened to an episode of the 'Wild Ride!' podcast which featured American tech businessman Mark Cuban discussing the world of NFTs.
Pictured: Jay's work starts with an idea painted onto canvas which is then photographed, digitally manipulated and enhanced to create the final piece of NFT artwork.
For those who are unfamiliar, Jay explains that an NFT (non-fungible token) is a "digital collectable" which provides a certificate of authenticity for a piece of digital artwork, music, or product.
"It gives you ownership over a digital item," explained Jay. "It's extremely useful for the creative industry."
He explained that it also allows artists to collect royalties and be paid fairly for their work.
Jay said: "In the traditional art world, if you sell a painting for £1,000 and the the buyer sells it on for £1million then you get nothing. With NFT art, you can have a royalty state in your artwork – say 10% – so if you sell an NFT for £1,000 and the buyer sells it on for £1million then you can collect your 10% which means the artist will make £100,000 from the sale."
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After creating all throughout lockdown, Jay had over 100 paintings to transform into NFTs when he first entered the crypto art space.
Each piece starts with an idea painted onto canvas. It is then photographed, digitally manipulated and enhanced to create the final piece of artwork. The canvases are then reused so every piece in the collection exists solely as an NFT.
Jay explained that his symbolic abstract pieces draw inspiration from his work as a professional musician, the beauty in nature and love, his travels through different cultures, his interest in technology and innovation, and his "amazing" fiancée.
His pieces began to sell slowly, but Jay's work began to achieve acclaim when Mark Cuban – the businessman from the podcast that first inspired Jay to create NFT artwork – shared one of Jay's pieces to his 9million twitter followers.
Really cool original @NFT collection from Bstract ! https://t.co/s0xnLXQ5IZ https://t.co/u3SJH5nKFP
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 29, 2021
Jay sold the remainder of his NFT art collection – over 80 individual pieces – within an hour of the tweet.
Since then, it's been a "wild journey" with his career as both an artist and a musician "boosted" hugely.
Alongside his fiancée, Emily Faye – who also works in the digital space championing women in the music industry – Jay was a speaker at the NFT.London conference.
Pictured: Jay was a speaker at the NFT.London conference alongside his fiancée, Emily Faye.
Jay was one of over 3,000 artists who applied to have their art featured in Times Square at the NFT.NYC event, and was delighted to find out that he was one of only a few hundred who were selected.
He described it as "incredible" and "unbelievable" to find out that he had been chosen, and said that he had to travel to New York to see his art on display in real life.
"Seeing it in real life just feel like two years of hard work had paid off," said Jay.
His work is now also on display in the 0x17 Gallery in Manhattan until the end of May.
Pictured: Jay travelled to New York to see his work featured on a giant screen in Times Square.
Looking to the future, Jay hopes to keep creating art and music, collaborating with other creators in the digital space, working with brands, and speaking at conferences.
He is also passionate about continuing to promote the crypto space as a way for "artists of all types to be paid fairy for their work" – explaining that, as a music teacher, he finds it disheartening to see his former students not being paid for their artistic talents.
"I think NFTs are going to be the revolution of the creative industry in the next five or ten years," added Jay. "The opportunities in the space are unbelievable."
Express previously aimed to clear some of the mystery and misunderstanding around NFTs with local art dealer and gallery director Chris Clifford...
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