Winning With NFTs & AI: Story of Artist Anna Dart
How Traditional Artist Finds Her Path in the Digital World Since 2020
Hi friends! 👋 This International Women’s Day, we have an exciting treat for you!
We’ve had the privilege of sitting down with the amazing Anna Dart for an exclusive interview. Anna’s journey in AI art and NFTs is sure to inspire and maybe even spark your own creative adventures.
So, grab your favorite drink, get comfy, and let’s explore the fascinating story of Anna Dart together!
Anna Dart is a true Renaissance artist. She is a professional painter for over 10 years and an early adopter of NFTs and AI.
Her talent and vision have been recognized by the art world. She won the first Claire AI Contest and got nominated at the important NFT.NYC Awards as the “Best Traditional Artist Turned NFT Artist,” alongside Takashi Murakami and Trevor Jones.
Anna is also a pioneer in the world of digital fashion, having created the world’s first digital-only garment on the blockchain, based on her traditional painting (we will tell you what it means in the article).
Anna is a co-founder at the Exquisite Workers Collective. This project unites artists from all over the world for collaborations since 2020. Anna is generous, helpful, and visionary. Her motto is “Art with frames, life without them,” and she embodies this ethos in everything she does.
We cannot wait to ask Anna Dart 20 questions about her journey and what the future holds for the artists like you and me. Without further ado, let’s get started.
1. When you were growing up, what did you aspire to be?
My childhood proceeded calmly with a lucid quiet tempo. Curtains billowed with butterflies while I rested in my bed upon receipt of a cherished letter. I played Beethoven and was in love with the first brushes I won at the kids’ art competition.
My family loved to conversate about the sky and traveling, while I read The Little Prince and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When I was around seven, I drew with colored pencils right before the New Year’s Eve bell rang because I felt the importance of creating art to freeze time.
“My first dream was to become a dancer. And if this and everything else fails, to be a mermaid.”
2. What is the main idea or feeling you aim to communicate through your art?
Since a young age, I have been practicing traditional art. Nonetheless, professionally speaking, it all started in 2012 when I began showcasing worldwide.
Over the last eleven years, I have been working on cross-pollinating the disciplines of visual and performing arts, doing creative collaborations in fashion and high-tech. I searched for my place in the interaction of the physical and digital painting and exploring NFTs and AI in arts. Looking for the most eco-friendly form of art, I enrolled in performing arts, which was my passionate dream.
“I started to paint bigger and to capture the flows of consciousness and movement in color.”
I found myself engaged on a deep level with Gaudí’s architecture. I learned that from the smallest ideas the whole worlds can emerge. I learned that inner strength can become our biggest source of inspiration.
“I believe art should be innovative and also bring us back to its origins. Art should celebrate the communication of a human with a human beyond time.”
Gaudí´s masterful work, denied by the people of his time, is greatly appreciated these days. In the early 20th century, Gaudí’s world like ours was developing fast and unpredictably. As we delve into the always-online era, Gaudí grappled with the transition from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles living in the new industrial landscape. The challenge in both occasions is to move with the times and face the unknown.
“In 2020, I understood it was a time for me to set apart the brushes and go with the time.”
3. Can you describe your creative process and approach to making art? Where did everything start?
I remember a day when I went to the art supply shop and could only buy one color. I picked a black watercolor that became my companion for many years. I chose the colours as a magic wand. It was so special that it produced the ink effect with the grey and blue tones of a burnout photo. Empathetic, nonjudgmental, noble, this color met my craving for sophistication. From the mysterious, uncontrollable watercolor shadows, magnetic characters arose. They spoke intelligence, spirituality, kindness, provocation, and distance.
These early works were my prediction of what the future will look like in the new digital reality. We will be searching for a deeper universal human connection in the complexity of digital life, managing new mental health challenges and solitude. My art resonated with a wide audience and was exhibited in Germany, in the oldest art fair in the world Art Cologne, and many other countries.
“I used to say, a day without a painting is a day without a date.”
I painted on paper and granted my early collectors the experience of planting trees. My portfolio of paintings and art-prints is exclusively available at SINGULART gallery, the largest online gallery from Paris, France.
In the new virtual realities, we are going to face lots of challenges. And it is essential to make a statement about what kind of future we look for. I would like a future that is culturally rich, warm-hearted, the future of active positive engagement and liberating experiences.
In 2020, the artist and art director Roger Haus established Exquisite Workers, a tech spin-off of the Surrealist’s “Exquisite Corpses”, co-created daily on Instagram among 1K artists from around the globe. The idea fascinated me and we started to work together.
The result of our ongoing collective work with hundreds of artists between 2 and 94 years old is the longest-living piece of art crafted in real-time online. It is also a space for creative exchange full of diversity, beauty, and opportunities.
The Exquisite Corpse technique is a Surrealist method of collaborative art-making that originated in the 1920s. It involved a group of artists working together to create a single artwork by each contributing a section without knowing what the others had created.
The result was often a strange and seemingly nonsensical composition, but this was precisely the point of the exercise: to allow the unconscious mind to take over and create something with an emphasis on chance and randomness.
“In times of change, we shall challenge the status quo by developing fresh models, novel forms of co-creation, and new sources of artistic thought, and the Surrealists were skilled at it.”
With Exquisite Workers, we started a life-changing conversation: What would the great Surrealists create if they lived in our digital age with blockchain, NFTs, and AI? And how can we become better ancestors?
4. Would you speak a bit more on your relationship with colors?
Since the beginning of my artistic career, I have been painting exclusively in shades of gray. However, in 2018, I begun to experiment with acrylics and has incorporated a wide range of vibrant colors into my work.
“Color is an expression of the openness and freedom, a metaphor for life in its entirety. Color is a way of celebrating our existence in all its richness and diversity.”
5. What’s the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received in your artistic career and how did you apply it in your work?
One of my mentors said:
“Stand for your idea until the end, the smallest it might seem.”
You see, I almost washed away in the sink the artwork which recently won the award at the first Claire AI Contest in August 2022. It is “Fu Mar AI” which combines watercolor and AI outputs. This artwork was highlighted by SuperRare and collected by Claire Silver in January 2023.
The feelings I wanted to contain in the reimagined piece are best represented by the poetry of Kara Jackson’s “The World Is About to End and My Grandparents Are in Love”. This poetry speaks about the destruction of the modern world and how this has ruined the chances of having a love like our grandparents do.
6. Who or what do you draw inspiration from in your artwork?
I am inspired by those artworks which revolutionized human experience, disrupted the rational order of thought, created new artistic language, and influenced the way we see the world today.
Gaudí´s last civil works are sensual poetry in stone and a revolutionary statement. For the first time, Gaudí invited people to go to the roof and have a walk, finding themselves in the middle of the extraordinary cosmic scenary, nothing less than the “Star Wars” film.
“Gaudí knew about the virtual realities more than we can imagine. If one day we spend as much time in the virtual realities as in the physical world, I want this new reality to be the imagination of Antoni Gaudí.”
7. Can you recall your initial reaction upon first learning about NFTs?
Back in 2020, in Zurich, Switzerland, we met Morgan Deane, an international lawyer and a thought leader. He drew our attention to the fact that Exquisite Corpse, because of the dependency of each shape on the previous and subsequent shapes, was an artistic representation of blockchain itself. We felt so much excitement about NFT art as if we were traveling into outer space.
With Exquisite Workers, we framed our journey of discovery as the «NFT to stay» mission and decided to create 504 unique NFTs from May 2021 to May 2022 inspired by the surreal masters. We selected a group of emerging and renowned digital artists to contribute to the chain of 2D, 3D, and AI-generated images specifically for this collection. For many this meant to become their first experience with NFTs.
For each edition or planet, one Surrealist artist was assigned to the crew: Yves Tanguy, Leonora Carrington, Hieronymus Bosch, Joan Miró, Maurits Cornelis Escher, Pablo Picasso, Remedios Varo, Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte. We celebrated them each month and shined a light on their imagination of cosmic proportions.
“The extraordinary collaborative work of our artists is a mirror of probably one of the most important moments of contemporary art history.”
The First edition of Crypto Corpse found its place on the front page of OpenSea, one of the largest marketplaces where we minted most of our collection. For the Black Hole edition #196–291 Exquisite Workers used the prompts from the Inktober Festival. For the BeInCrypto Star, 100% Charity edition #187–195 Exquisite Workers created arts that corresponded to 9 predictions of the future written by the world´s thought leaders including the digital fashion house The Fabricant. For the Super Real Star edition #493–504 on SuperRare, each artist was assigned a surrealist mentor to interpret their work: all 12 Surrealists finally came together.
At the start, we knew this was not a one-day project. We are incredibly humbled to work with so many brilliant artists, generous collectors and partners. We are proud that the stunning NFT Collection is ready now and that Exquisite Workers exhibited across the globe, including the Picasso Museum and COP26. I hope you like our visual alchemy and collect the piece you like most.
8. Do you remember the first time you heard about the AI art?
Yes, one of the initial participants in the Crypto Exquisite Corpse was the talented Jenni Pasanen. In 2021, Jenni minted her first AI artwork on OpenSea with us, trusting in me as a curator. She also shared with Exquisite Workers her AI-collaborative process which became the revelation for many, including myself.
AI allows us to create images from a description in natural language and surprises us with all sorts of outcomes. AI makes possible mysterious meetings of artists, styles, mediums etc. Finally, traveling in time is possible. Every time an artist collaborates with AI, we tap into a higher level of intelligence and find ultimate understandings through shared neural networks. AI is free and unpredictable as watercolor and unbounded as space.
I see AI art as a collaboration that grants us a stunning multiverse of options. AI-based programs will soon make movie-making available to the open public, predict style trends, and clothes to be worn both in physical and virtual reality. Difficult to imagine how far this can take us as a culture and even as civilization.
When machine and human come together, there is this human making choices, expressing the unique story creating what the tools provide you with. The key here is when you try this new media and you feel this excitement, remember this emotion, maintain it. And when you leave the screen and go out, keep this emotion alive, for every single thing that you do, during the day.
I am greatly interested about those who never really expressed their artistic side, because of this barrier of their art skills, how they will share their world with us. AI gives us assistance to express ourselves without judgement, so it becomes a friend. You can share your thoughts and ideas and see what comes. It is a communication in which you are listening to the answer and respond. The point of it is all about listening. I have a painting which is called, “There is a skill in sharing, and there is an art in listening”. I think we should be open to all perspectives and media and be empathetic about different kinds of opinions.
I hope this accessible no-code tech will be used with the people and planet in mind, preserving our cultural legacies. We shall all be together to understand the new reality of AI. We are arriving at the epochal moment before the next leap into the universe in which humans and tech merge.
“There are certainly similarities between working with hundreds of people across the globe as we do at Exquisite Workers and tapping into the collective consciousness working with the mind of the machine.”
9. Which of your artworks holds the most significance to you personally?
It is the Digital Dress #17 from Season #2 of WoW Fashion. It is one of the most exciting artworks of 2022 and a result of a collaboration between the World of Women community and the digital fashion house The Fabricant.
World of Women members are united by a unique avatar collection that showcases only the faces of their enigmatic female characters. Applying state-of-the-art tech and creative vision, The Fabricant and co-creators were invited to imagine how the avatar bodies and digital dresses would look like — the extension of the collectibles for the Metaverse.
Digital-only Fashion refers to clothing and accessories that exist only in the digital realm. This includes items like virtual outfits that are used in video games or other online environments. Because Digital Fashion exists only in the virtual world, it cannot be worn physically. However, you can use it as a filter in apps such as Snapchat or Instagram, which allow you to superimpose virtual items onto your photos or videos. Additionally, some online environments, such as avatar-based virtual worlds (e.g. Decentraland, Voxels, Digital Village, Oncyber, etc.), may allow you to “wear” Virtual Fashion within these environments. In this case, you would use a VR headset to interact with the space and see yourself wearing the e-garments.
Digital Fashion has no history, no seasonality, no norms to follow, and no gravity. Digital Fashion is sustainable and enables a closer understanding of reality and a faster response to everyone’s needs. In Digital Fashion, we are all the creative agents of our self-expression and can curate our virtual identity in real time. Digital Fashion breaks free from the constraints of normality as it is created from the most surreal materials. The limit is our imagination.
As any fashion garment has a style or look, materials, and colors, digital garments do too. For The Fabricant Studio, we submitted several material designs on behalf of the Exquisite Workers. These fabrics are based on my traditional art as we applied digital imaging technology to scan the painting and create a digital version of it.
“For the first time, physical art became digital couture and a bridge between two realities. Digital dress is the new canvas.”
In Summer 2022, The Fabricant Studio workshop was open for 3 days for everyone to become a Digital Fashion designer. The participants had a chance to choose between 24 colors, 20 materials, and 27 modes of garments. Their exclusive combination is the customization of their master dress which happened online instantaneously. From possible 300K variations, 2665 have been picked and introduced on the blockchain through a smart contract that featured everyone participating making it eternally rewarding. Once the combination was selected by the participant, or co-creator, it did not repeat.
The collection is closed and is limited to an edition of 1/1 meaning that the items are scarce and highly valuable. Like flowers, these exceptional collaborative e-dresses have opened their petals to shine.
“Turn” painting has become one of the first-of-the-kind fabrics based on traditional art. It is a part of my ethereal collection on canvas “The Verb I am” first exhibited in Barcelona in the home of eco-fashion Friday´s Project and interpreted by dancer Lydia Ayllón and actor Jaume Viñas in a live performance.
The title “Turn” refers to the basic movement in dance, but also to opening yourself to the new realms of possibilities. “Turn” fabrics takes you into depths of imagination and Barcelona melting architecture and fills the Metaverse with the beautiful warm colors of the Mediterranean.
The dress #17 Emerald Elven Cape was co-created in the first seconds when the Studio went live. I feel lucky that this exact combination of tender yellow color and the sophisticated dream-like Cape model with “Turn” fabrics was the example dress in the promotional video of Season #2.
This exceptional collaborative digital dress is made in a way that accurately captures the details and qualities of the original painting. It is an example of using technology to preserve and showcase traditional art and reimagine it in the limitless spectrum of innovation.
Our submitted fabrics became the most popular in the Season #2 and were exhibited in a museum in Seattle, USA, and in the Amsterdam Central Station, the Netherlands. Such shows and collaborations are a great way of highlighting the intersection of art and technology for an open public.
10. What emotions or thoughts do you experience while you’re in the process of creating art?
Excitement that I participate in this history-making moment.
11. What are your predictions for the future of the NFT art scene?
The use of digital technologies and innovations must have a lasting impact on the system of change. We exist in relationships and I like that the NFT art scene triggers collective experiences. NFT space is about discovering people who are connectors and building ecosystems.
Back in 2020, I predicted that in the future in each big city there will be a Museum or Gallery for digital collectibles and immersive experiences. Now in 2023, we are seeing this happening. There will also be more and more interest in digital fashion.
12. Is there any contemporary artist or thought-leader you admire that you would like to collaborate with?
Krista Kim, Refik Anadol, Roope Rainisto, Roger Haus, Kyle Gordon, Jenni Pasanen, Jason Silva, David Cash, Conejitud. I am glad that with some of them I had a chance to collaborate and exhibit at the large scenes.
13. What tools or techniques do you use to bring your artistic vision to life?
Technology is automating, personalizing, and speeding up the art space. For the AI art practice, I refer to all sorts of generative AI art models including Dall-e, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney. For Digital Fashion, CLO 3D is a tool that provides an intuitive, interactive 3D solution for garment design. For my painting and illustration practice, I use Procreate in addition to watercolors and acrylics.
14. What thoughts do you have in mind when you mint your arts?
I think about mindfulness. After deploying thousands of smart contracts which provide us with an innovative system to perform art and culture in a decentralized way, we might gain more awareness of the importance and power of words and our data. Words are not just descriptive, but generative. They transform and create events and perceptions, and the blockchain will keep them forever.
“NFTs mean eternity.”
15. Can you describe your vision of an ideal world?
Art with frames, life without them.
16. What do you think about anonymity in NFT space?
It is not the new thing. A century ago Antoni Gaudí rarely gave interviews or allowed himself to be photographed, and he also chose not to show his face in public. By remaining anonymous and focusing solely on his work, Gaudí was able to maintain a sense of humility and dedication to his craft.
There is no doubt that anonymity is more relevant in the age of hyperconnectivity and ubiquitous cameras. With cameras and other sensors integrated into wearable devices, it may be more difficult to maintain privacy in public spaces or even in our own homes.
What I like most about the digital art space is that the artists can create and showcase their work without revealing their identity, providing the creators with a sense of freedom and experimentation.
17. Can you walk us through a typical day in your life? What activities do you like to do?
I like to keep up to date with the news on contemporary art, tech, fashion, open calls, share opportunities with friends, meet collectors, travel, do yoga, meditation, and go dancing and drama festivals.
18. Are there any new projects you are excited to share or currently working on?
Certainly. I invite you to discover my new AI art on Foundation and Objkt.com. I have some AI art releases and dedicated shows this year that are exciting. I want to give everyone the opportunity to own a piece of my artwork releasing some open and large editions.
At Exquisite Workers, we also have some amazing news. We have released the Exquisite Workers Calendar to keep the annual tradition alive. The Exquisite Workers Calendar has 12 colorful pages to bring joy to every month with awesome illustrations. The Calendar features 106 creators and their artists’ accounts to follow.
In February 2023, Exquisite Workers collaborated with uprising AI stars to support the NovoArtShow exhibition at IHAM Gallery, Paris, France.
The artists each interpreted the CryptoNovo avatar in their unique style, following the loss of the original CryptoPunk avatar. The Exquisite Workers artists participated in a social campaign to help the community member regain their digital identity. The participating AI creators included Roope Rainisto, Roger Haus, and Marina Ahmadova among others.
19. Do you have any favorite travel destinations or places you like to visit?
I love Vigeland Mausoleum and Kistefos Museum in Oslo, Norway, and the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek, Denmark.
It was remarkable to assist at the Hofesh Shechter dance workshops in Luxembourg and go to the native town of Pina Bausch in Wuppertal, Germany.
I like to interact with my surroundings while traveling. Almost like graffiti, I make my arts appear in unusual places. Once I spread dozens of my paintings with rose petals over the ancient stage of the Ancient Theatre of Fourvière, Lyon. I also like to bring my paintings to the fine-arts museums and introduce them to the great masters.
20. Finally, choose one color.
It is gray.
Thanks for the questions and this beautiful moment together. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me on my way, helped me support others, and for giving me courage to follow my dreams in art.
Thanks Anna Dart for chatting with us! And thanks to you for reading!
If you find this article useful, please consider sharing with your favorite AI friends and fellow AI communities. They will love it!
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