Building A New Steem-Economy [Part1 - The Art of @marty-art]
Dear friends and followers,
it was way time to show you some of the latest additions of my growing #steemart collection. As I love to use Steem as a real currency and thanks to tools like @steembay, it's easier than ever before to create a real Steem-economy. This does not only raise the value of Steem, but also - and most importantly - strenghtens the community bonds.
The Art of Marten Wydooghe
One of my favorite artists at Steemit is a nice guy from Belgium, who goes with the nick @marty-art at Steemit.
Taken from his introduction post.
Maarten Wydooghe (° 1977) studied painting at St.-Lucas Brussels (with Fik Van Gestel) and St.-Lucas Ghent (Piet Moerman). Recurring themes are grand thunderclouds, an idiosyncratic world of self-invented creatures, and recently also historical portraits. Despite the different subjects, the starting point remains the same: letting the oil paint on canvas become imaginative, allowing the viewer to come up with his / her own story. Inviting the world of possibilities that every spectator can fill in himself. With verve.
Translated from his homepage
Glow in the Dark Spook
Shortly after the #steembay auction-tool went live, Maarten offered an amazing painting, that even glows in the dark. The name of the painting is "Little Spook" and I just couldn't help to bid on it - and won the auction.
Little Spook, 18x24cm, oils and glow-in-the-dark-acrylics on canvas, 2017
Spook was a painting of a phantom, which glowed in the dark, but I was never really able (or neither did I really try) to take a picture of it glowing in the dark. This week, I painted a smaller Spook (15x20cm - whereas the original one was 40x60cm). It is not as subtle, but that has a lot to do with the size of the canvas; smaller is usually painted more crude in my workflow.
Ida Livingstone
Maarten also does an ongoing weird series of a fictional family called "Nevelspoock", where the buyer of any particular Nevelspoock-painting may choose the first name of the character depicted.
The girl to the right isn't a true Nevelspoock, but an assistant to one of them. While the surname "Ida" was suggested by fans on another social media platform, Maarten asked his Steemit fans to think of a family-name.
What should I say, I was very proud, as it turned out, that my proposal of "Livingstone" was choosen as the winning entry.
The Night Gods
Last, but not least, Maarten started a collaboration with @richq11 to turn his Steemit serial-story: "The Night Gods" into a self-published book. He provided 4 artworks, did the layout and made the proofreading of the 244-page novel.
If you are into books, horror, conspiracy, political and contemporary events, mystery, striking dialogue and plot twists, or really a study in evil - check out our (but very much Rich's) book "The Night Gods".
When I saw, that Maarten even offered some free posters for the first 5 people, that would order the book, I just had no choice, but ordering my copy right away.
If you're interested in ordering you own copy of The Night Gods, you should check out this announcement post by @richq11. Although the book is printed on demand, Rich is also offering to pay for it using Steem/SBD.
It is inspiring to read, what he says about fulfilling his dream:
If you're new to Steemit and you have a dream and are willing to work hard for it- you can do it too. Thank you Steemit- thank you, thank you, thank you!
All's well that ends well
When Maarten told me, he had shipped my package of the "Little Spook" painting and the free poster, I was very excited, but somehow it took several weeks for the package to arrive.
We were both a little clueless about the long journey of the package and I was especially sad, because Maarten had told me, that he had added some nice surprises to the package. But somehow an inner voice told me that it will rise from the void some day and that was exactly what happened.
The package was a bit damaged and had been rewrapped in plastic by the Deutsche Post, but the contents where generally in quite good condition. You can guess, how huge my relief and my excitement had been, when I saw, that Maarten had added two bonus posters for me.
Conclusion
There are so many great artists at Steemit, that are open for collaborations and I'm really happy to have met @marty-art. Without him, I neither would not have known about glow-in-the-dark paintings, nor about the "The Night Gods".
You should definitely check out his profile and give him a follow!
I'm also very happy to use Steem as a real currency, which you can use to buy the most fantastic things. And I'm really looking forward to expanding my Steem-art collection and support even more great creatives here. It's just one more thing to proove the real-world impact of Steemit.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
@shortcut - earning by doing
Wow, thank you very very much @shortcut! I'm a bit speechless, really... I'm glad you like what I do, and, as you know, relieved the works got to you undamaged in the end. You have no idea how baffled I am seeing your post. Thanks man!
You're most welcome! I'm really a huge fan of your art, your collaborations and small contests. You are a real enrichment of our community! I'm glad that we've met here and hopefully we will even meet in real life someday. Keep it up and Steem on!
Thanks again! :)
I don't think that apart from steemit, there are alot of communities where you can do these kind of things: to try out weird, funny, anarchistic contests and collaborations and to gain friends in the process. And you bet we'll meet someday (the Aachen-meetup was just a bit too far at too short a notice...) Steem on, man!
Dear @shortcut/dad, I think it is so cool that you have your own steem-art collection at home, you support the artists (which is great) and you get the chance to hold the original artwork in your hands, which is always different than seeing it on the screen.
I personally had the opportunity to see the painting "Little Spook" in real-life. I think you did a wonderful job @marty-art. You inspired me to try out the glow in the dark colour someday aswell.
best regards,
gaja-galina
Dear @gaja-galina (so funny to talk to you in English). I totally agree about the joy of collecting and owning art, which is a very fulfilling thing to do. I like, that you actually have the chance to get to know the artists here, before you buy anything. There are also so many opportunities to collaborate, which is great and inspiring.
But (maybe most importanty), I learned to treat others, like I want to be treated. So it was a natural decision to support other artists at Steemit, after I received so much support from the community.
Thank you @gaja-galina! As I made this little painting for a steemit-contest, not many people have seen it in real life :) and glow in the dark is tricky to do but you get awesome results! Thanks again!
you get some nice creepy paintings there. I just get know about steembay a few days ago by your auction. looks like a great to trade for artists and artlovers.
I love them ;-) And you should definitley try out #steembay yourself! It's either cool to sell or to buy some art from other's and gives the chance to make some new friends ;-)
Yes i will do this. I wonder again and again about the new applications and projects which are made on steem. So nice!
Thank you @bronkong! @steembay also makes a daily or weekly post with all current #steembay auctions
Nice to see Steem used as a currency. I didn't quite find my way around steembay yet. Marty-art sure knows how to draw some creepy creatures :P
I really love his darker paintings and I'm happy to remind you of steembay. The best idea is to just check out their "daily report" at @steembay and then jump into it :-)
Ah so there is an "easy way" after all! Thanks, will check it out!
Thank you @cryptonic, I cannot help but exploring the dark, weird and mysterious in my paintings - but creepy doesn't have to be horror-y or gory, it can also stay just mysterious and fascinating :)
It was a positive adjective when I wrote it @marty-art ;)
I know, thanks again! :)
@shortcut, this is nice way to give push up of positive energy to other Steemians ( me too :)) for creating new art and reminding us on benefits of this great community.
Thanks a lot for your feedback! Giving positive energy and reminding my readers of the benefits of Steemit was exactly, what I tried to do. Glad, it worked out :-)
Interesting story, steembay seems pretty cool for buying art, going to browse around over there. I also like the glow-in-the-dark concept.
Me too, never saw something like this before on a real painting. Good luck with finding some cool art at steembay!
I've been thinking about listing some of my jewelry I make on steembay. Might a quick way I can grow my steempower. Really interesting glow in the dark painting. I'd never heard of such a thing until now myself.
Yes, the glow-in-the-dark paint was also new to me! I'd like to see some of your jeweley on #steembay. You can not only grow your steempower, but probably make some new friends at the same time.
That's a good point. I might start with this sterling spoon ring I made recently. Just need to figure out the shipping options and such. I might even list a couple gold rings if that goes well.
Amazing! Looking forward to your auctions. Good luck and much success!
Thanks so much. I appreciate it.)
My first auction just went live. The spoon ring... Thanks again for your interest.
I am interested in getting acquainted! Thank you @shortcut for sharing.
Thanks, I definitely recommend you to follow @marty-art to get acquainted with him ;-)
OMG sind diese Bilder geil und gruselig zeitgleich. Vor allem das was im dunkeln dann leuchtet....ich hätte glaubs dauernd Alpträume davon wenn das in meinem Schlafzimmer hängen würde, alter Schwede.
Werd mir sein Profil ansehen, danke für die Empfehlung mein Lieber.
Haha, hab's auch nicht ins Schlafzimmer gehängt. Aber in meinem Arbeitszimmer macht es sich schon ganz gut ;-) Er macht aber auch weniger spooky Kunst. Ich finde den jedenfalls sehr cool. Er wär beinahe sogar zum Aachen Meetup gekommen, war dann aber doch zu spontan für ihn.
Some of these artworks are seriously beautiful. Love the dark and sinister tints of the most upper right painting.
I agree with you that strengthening social bonds is a super nice byproduct of incentives like @steembay by @pollux.one I would probably even argue it's the most important thing, and that having the ability to have a new economy is second. First thing first. Let's get to know and trust each other, and when there is going to be a ton more people online, we can further broaden the horizon with regards to new ways to make our Steem flow.
t.
Thanks for your feedback!
I agree, that getting to know eachother and building trust is essential for the success of the social networking aspect of steem, but in my opinion the steem blockchain has also the potential to become a widley used crypto payment system for everyday use. We have real name wallets, zero transaction fees, only 3 second confirmations and one of the blockchains with the highest bandwith. If we are able to create a market containing exclusive content, there will also be the desire to buy/earn Steem, to get this exclusive content.
So basically Steem is developing into a whole ecosystem, where Steemit is only one (but still essential) part of the game.