jonathanwwolfe: Living off my passion

Excited to announce that our upcoming exhibition “SuperRare GenZs” will open on this Friday (Oct 30) 4-6pm EST.

Featured artists: blacksneakers, etiene crauss, Fakito, Fede Bona, femzor, fewocious, harvmcm, jonathanwwolfe, KaySha, MERCPIN, mushbuh, parrott_ism

Time: Oct 30, 4-6pm EST

Location: Decentraland SuperRare Museum (55,94)

Register: https://events.decentraland.org/en/?event=c083d94f-7e4c-4506-847d-3858022de819

Jonathan Wolfe: Canadian artist working with paint and digital. Jonathanwolfe.ca

Artists in this generation have so many opportunities right from the start, before if you were a digital artist in the 90’s you would have to try to get a job working for some sort of studio but that’s completely changed. It really is an incredible time to be pursuing a career in the arts, all the rules are starting to go away. This relates to me perfectly, if I was perusing art 20 years ago I would be contacting galleries and forming my work to their tastes, not I’m in full control of where my career goes, doing art full time at 20. Artists born in this generation are blessed.

Being an artist in this generation is so unique, we were born with the internet so the traditional gallery route is almost useless to many. This group of artists are starting out with more opportunities than other groups before, there are so many more avenues to create art, display it, and monetize it. The gatekeepers are losing control.

My role as an artist is to create things that people feel and think but they can’t express themselves – and to make them laugh. Not all art needs to be serious.

Art is navigating my thoughts and emotions to an audience.

I became an artist because I had nothing else I wanted to do more, I’m so grateful to realize that early.

My main focus as of recently was to do art full time, i just made that shift the other month and i’m so grateful i’m able to put all my time into this now. That’s been my main goal for over 5 years now and it’s surreal to me still. I want to continue doing what i’m doing on a much larger scale. As long as I’m creating for myself I will be happy regardless of the medium.

I think the one thing as an artist I want to be is someone who helps out and gives back to other artists in the community. I started gaining a decent following on social media and it makes me so happy that I can help other artists reach more people now, i want to keep doing this but on a much larger scale and show smaller creators that this is possible, you don’t need to starve to be an artist. I want to make work that makes you think differently about common objects and ideas. My aim for my work is to make the viewer see things they are already familiar with but in a different way, that’s why i use common objects like street signs and cityscapes in my work so often.

I’m in a growing period of my life, the past 3 months have proven to me the possibilities of art. Going full time, being able to help my family out, to afford school etc, i’ve proven to myself the last 5+ years were worth it. I struggled for years, and I think now is the time my work is going to go to the next level. I went so long without making any money from art, now i can support myself, i don’t think i will ever take that for granted. 

Kim Dorland will always inspire me. He’s a fellow canadian, born only a couple hours away from me actually, and his work is incredible. He often works with a huge amounts of paint on digitally printed canvases, blending traditional and digital in a very refreshing way

Start now and be open to new ways of doing things. I took art seriously when I was about 15. I wish I started even earlier honestly. The next thing that helped me grow was to try everything. Use every medium to see what you like, all the styles, post your work everywhere, just don’t be afraid to take risks and try new things. There’s so many opportunities now, you just need to be open to different ways of doing things differently, if you asked me 2 years ago about selling crypto art I would have had no idea.

Whatever medium suits your message the best. The “Art” world has a preference towards paintings, but i think genZ is starting to use more mediums with confidence as the gatekeepers are starting to lose control. You don’t need to be a traditional painter to have a career.

The traditional gallery system is outdated. I would love to be in more as some weird traditional artist vindication, but they are very flawed. Traditional galleries are often run by non artists that showcase their buddies’ work and take half the pay. I really think this system is horribly flawed but artists have just accepted it. The crypto art world is new and it doesn’t have to repeat the flaws of the traditional gallery system. I think it’s doing an incredible job at that, and once more artist realize this it’s going to become mainstream.