Indian NFT artist Mehak Jain has been actively creating and collecting in the NFT industry for over 2 years. Let’s unfold how Mehak’s debut in the NFT sphere took off.
Prior to entering the NFT scene, Mehak worked as a traditional artist. In February 2020, she was approached on her Facebook art page by someone who wanted to introduce her to the crypto art world.
Because of the information she was given, she assumed it was a scammer. He informed Mehak that her art was excellent and that she could sell a JPEG of it, which seemed strangely unfathomable at the time.
Mehak requested him for resources to understand more about the NFT industry. As she looked further and interacted with the individuals in this scene, I knew that this is where she wanted to be.
She liked being a part of the community, and it quickly became a place where Mehak felt at ease sharing and discussing her creations.
Her initial time was spent understanding the community through beta.cent where I discussed my works and work in progress, learned through others, and got an understanding of the space and technical possibilities.
She also organized chess tournaments in the space initially which helped me make many friends.Beta.cent was also the place where I earned enough to finance my initial minted pieces.
Mehak spent her first few days learning about the community on beta.cent, discussing her artworks and the stuff in progress, learnt from others, and became familiar with the space and technical possibilities.
Mehak also started organizing chess tournaments in the space, which let her meet a lot of people. Beta.cent was also where she made enough money to fund her initial minted pieces.
When she first entered the space, there were just a few artists from India, maybe one or two. So she had to learn all the technical stuff by herself primarily, but the space wasn’t moving that rapidly and gas expenses were minimal, so Mehak could still play and learn without it costing much.
By the way, it was really tough for her to determine how much she should charge for her artworks. In the beginning, Mehak even had a complete conversation on a Rarible telegram group, where everyone said that her work is excellent, but that she charges exorbitantly for it.
Mehak felt a bit awful, but was confident and justified her arguments for the price. Her pieces also sold out, that means she definitely didn’t make a wrong decision.
Mehak Jain’s highest priced sale is of her artwork “रणभूमि” which was purchased by xray for 8 ETH. Every pattern of this artwork was hand-drawn, and the piece is a blend of Ancient and Modern Chess in an Indian art style.
Mehak currently is one of the core members of the Guild NFT, an interdisciplinary crypto-arts organization. After the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when numerous artists suffered with personal losses and keeping an income, this collection of artists, dubbed the “Global Family,” got together.
The NFT Guild does not have a definite number of active members. Rather than having a perfect application form, artists are scouted and chosen only if they fit the group’s set of ideals and values.
Mehak Jain discussed her transformation to an NFT artist, her remarkable pieces, and more in an exclusive conversation with The Crypto Times. Let’s dive into it shall we!!
How long have you been in this industry?
It has been 2+ years for me doing crypto art. And traditional artworks I have been creating since I was a kid. I left it in between when I pursued chess and focused my most time in it, but came back to art again around 6 years ago, when that became the only thing making me feel alive.
How did you feel while switching from traditional art to crypto art?
Honestly GREAT. I wasn’t confident at all with my art in traditional spaces. But here I find no problem while exploring my styles and themes. It is easy to experiment with work here.
Because people, especially my collectors, loved seeing that. And most importantly, with crypto art I have an opportunity to make owners and viewers part of my work through different tools, which wasn’t possible in traditional art.
Trad is limited to buy, sell, and ownership. In crypto art there are many ways of having people play role in creation of works
Exploring your artworks I noticed that you prioritize mental health in your creations a lot. Do you always keep that in mind while creating art?
Yes. My mental health has played a huge role in my art. It is the reason I started creating again. And art became the way for me to understand myself and the world without any bias. It changed me. And I could feel that growth in me.
Through my works I want to give that space to viewers as well, where they find and explore themselves through art, could be more empathetic and know that they aren’t alone.
Art is not the answer, but a journey to find your own answers. Isn’t one of our goals as humans is to know who we are and why, so we could come closer to ourselves.
Tell me more about the ‘Numbed Emotions’ artwork and the process behind it
Numbed emotions’ is my very personal AsyncArt Autonomous piece exploring the mind of a person with Cherophobia (fear of being happy).
The piece changes 4 times a day (sunrise, day, sunset, night). It uses the visibility time of each state as an indicator of suddenness and long-lasting impact of the feeling.
It uses various symbolic representations for different emotions, like butterflies for happiness, chess positions for the role of past in shaping our present thoughts, books representing the repetition of similar events, making that feeling scarier (curtains).
Initially, my idea was to create a piece showing a quick switch by my brain whenever something happy happens to something that offsets that feeling. Deep down somehow my brain prepares for the worst whenever an opportunity arises.
It’s when I started creating this piece I went into depth of this feeling, and creating it became calming. Finally, I was getting answers to so many questions, understanding myself better and an assurance that I am not alone.
This piece became a journey of embracing my imperfection and like an end put to those doubts. And with this piece I just wanted to reach those who needed to see this and know that they aren’t alone.
What is your favorite piece out of your own works or the one that means the most to you?
That’s a very difficult question. I like my work for many different reasons.
The one I feel most closest too is my very early work – “Protection”. It was created during a very dark phase of my life. And whenever I look at it, it leaves a very different feeling everytime.
I feel happy I fought and got out of that phase, but I also feel scared and sad that I went through all that. It has a poem with it too
It became extra special when the collector of the painting said, this made him cry and he is so happy to be able to collect this. I felt heard for the first time. It was my first personal work that sold.
There is one more work which I feel so proud of creating. It is called “Enemy.” It is probably one of my smartest works (in my humble opinion hahah) with regards to symbolism, layer play, owners involvement and storytelling.
The piece is a journey to understand the complexity of our prejudice and the reasons with which one convinces themselves whilst calling someone an enemy.
And as the reasons start becoming obvious, the slightest change in any of the layers presents itself with many other very different reasons contradicting or supporting the previous explanation.
The artwork with its four characters is a play of their changing roles and positions, making their actions in the piece more and more unexpected and difficult to understand, thus blurring the lines of rights and wrongs in this fight.
Many mysteries unfold with a closer look at the details of each layer indicating the many things happening at the moment that might not be visible immediately.
So the work is not an answer but an attempt of creating a place to understand the question and hence the term ‘Enemy.’
The ‘Chess Players’ is one of the most interesting works where you incorporate the passion of your life with the digital space. Describe how the development came through.
I have been a chess player for 11+ years. And this game has shaped my thoughts, personality, and the way I perceive things. It made me feel many different emotions (extreme)- good and bad.
And taught me that every player has their own world, despite being on board they could feel very different about similar positions. It brings the best out of each person too haha.
Chess Players is a drop of 690 edition pieces, where you don’t know what you will get before minting. It talks about a tournament that is organized, invitations were sent to worthy people, and with each mint, the pairing is revealed.
Chess Players
The drop/ mint mechanics symbolizes the way my first ever tournament happened. Where players could pick anyone to play against, and play against one opponent as many times. And can also avoid playing against some players if they want.
And ofcourse I wanted to bring the current crypto scenario in this drop too, so I involved many memes, famous rivalries, PFPs, flip culture and recreation of famous old traditional works.
The creation of Chess Players was simply me revisiting my whole chess journey and combining it with my day to day topics in this space.
Please share the process of the ‘Chess and Addicts’ artwork
Chess and Addicts’ is my genesis piece on AsyncArt. The programmable capabilities of AsyncArt allows one artwork to be played by different owners.
The “Master” is the 1 of 1 complete work of art. “Layers” are all the elements that make up that Master. Both the “Master” and the “Layers” are tokenized individually.
“Layers” have unique abilities determined by the artist. And if you own a “Layer”, the controls are opened up to you. When you make a change to your “Layer”, the “Master” image will update to reflect your change!
So Chess and Addicts have 5 different layers, Player White, Player Black, Match, Spectators and Venue.
Chess and Addicts’ portrays the beauty of the chess game and the love for it which isn’t confined to any boundaries, be it place, age, gender, time, physical presence, life, death, and many more represented in metaphorical ways.
With every layer of the piece adding to the emotional factors surrounding the match, it also symbolizes how a very small change can create a whole new story and perspective shown by the piece.
Do you have any advice for aspiring female creators in the space?
Everyone in crypto space is appreciated based on what they add to this space and nothing else. Which makes it more empowering and fair for everyone. Don’t let anyone tell you that you deserve any less and speak your heart out.
Any message or you would like to share on Women’s day to the upcoming and underrated female artists in the industry?
Have confidence in your work. There is always a right collector of your work who just hasn’t found you and your work yet.
Having patience, and enjoying your journey is the most important part. Make friends. These will be the things that you will be most proud of. And that advice is for everyone haha.
Also Read: Futurist and Generative Artist Alida Sun Lives Life on the Internet
