Kill The Selfie
1/1
sold to Anonymous
1.5 ETH ($761) on November 20, 2020
Makersplace
When I received the message from Cryptofinally that she had decided to cancel me from her Cryptoartist show because of my NFT, Kill The Selfie, I wasn’t too surprised.
It was another incident in a streak of life events that reveal my core personality: I refuse to candy-coat what I perceive in the world, whether it’s good, bad or ugly. And I often wind up pissing off people in the process of telling my version of the truth.
I wasn’t going to write about why Cryptofinally canceled me for her NFT artist show, but I took a poll on Twitter and 85%+ of you said you wanted to hear the story so here it is.
I’m not upset or mad about being canceled, but I think it’s important to discuss the events surrounding it. Equally interesting is the fact that the buyer of Kill The Selfie recently contacted me and gave me some valuable insights about why he bought it.
Some facts about my artwork: Kill The Selfie sold for 1.5 ETH ($761) on November 20, 2020. It’s a single-edition NFT on Makersplace.
Let me start from the beginning.....
Over a month ago I was contacted by Cryptofinally on Twitter. If you don’t know who Cryptofinally is, check out her Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/cryptofinally. She’s a well-known crypto influencer and everyone in CryptoTwitter knows who she is. She’s also a big NFT collector and creator on Rarible. She caused a bit of a sensation when she put her selfies up for sale as NFTs on Rarible.
She asked me if I would like to be interviewed on her newly launched show about NFT artists. I said yes. We talked about different days and times and agreed upon one. When the day and time arrived, she had some issues with her internet connection, so we agreed to reschedule it.
Before I go on, I need to explain one thing about my current life so that everything is clear. I’m now devoting myself completely to cryptoart. I’ve decided to take the harder route and do art that means something to me and that might be uncomfortable. I’m not making art to please anyone else. I’m doing it to record my truth and ideas. That’s why you’ll never see me paint a pretty ballerina or a beautiful sunset. Plenty of other artists are doing this already.
I am going for something more gut-wrenching and raw. And really, I’ve always been going for the jugular, even in my younger days. My very first art show ended up being banned because a woman who was viewing it had a seizure. I never really found out any details about this incident, but the gallery took my art down as a result.
I might also add that I have very little control over when and what I create. I know this might sound weird, but I have semi-conscious impulses and visions which dictate what I paint.
Ok, now we arrive at the day where I created an NFT titled, Kill The Selfie.
Firstly, I want to clarify that this particular piece of art was not directed at Cryptofinally, and I was not thinking of her at all when I created it. As you can see, the subject is Kim Kardashian:
Description:
Selfie culture degrades humans. At the core of the problem is this: modern society values external beauty over other attributes like intelligence, thereby giving the message to people that it doesn’t matter what your brain looks like, the only thing that matters is how you look physically.
Most of us realize that worshipping the selfie is not going to move humanity forward, but most of us can’t look away either. This points to the fact that humans have not evolved even in the slightest. Most of us are the same as we were in high school: in search of status, money and sex.
The main artistic fuel for Kill The Selfie was my own experience as a teen model and the residual damage that it did to me. When I was a model for Elite, I became bulimic, and began to starve myself. I was a model for several years and the amount of damage it did to me remains to this day.
Here was my tweet about it on Twitter:
If you want to delve into more details about my experience as a teen model, read this: https://medium.com/into-the-raw/the-modeling-industry-destroyed-my-self-esteem-and-soul-6ba3037b26eb
My NFT, Kill The Selfie, is also critical of the vapid selfie culture that is rampant on social media today. I think Kim Kardashian is the perfect personification of vapid celebrity selfie culture. To this day, I still don’t know what she did to get famous.
I get triggered when I see overly sexualized, exploitive selfies because of my past experience as a teen model. It reminds me of those times when I was objectified and starving myself to please my modeling managers. And really, I never got over it. I think also, I was more deeply affected by this because I am an introvert, and tend to internalize stuff to an extreme degree.
There is one more thing.....our physical selves rot pretty quickly, but our minds don’t. Our minds can do amazing things if given the right attention and nurturing. Selfie culture is a primary example of anti-intellectualism. I think it needs to die.
After I minted Kill The Selfie and tweeted about it, Cryptofinally sent me a message on Twitter canceling my interview:
I want to address one thing that I find particularly disgusting about this message.
"why it's taking such a large part of your brand at this moment"
First of all, I am a human being, not a brand.
Secondly, I am an artist and published author, and it's pretty obvious that you don't know who the fuck I am because my book, Uncrap Your Life: Navigating Life's Crappiest Situations that I published in 2015 is raw as fuck. I delve into every failure I ever had in my 50 years of life and get to root cause of each one, providing the reader with ideas on how to solve life's crappiest situations.
Throughout my entire life, I have expressed uncomfortable truths, whether the world wanted to hear or it not, both in writing and art. I've been doing art and creative projects for over 30 years, so getting a lecture and canceled from a youngin is quite hilarious. Your notion of "brand" is really gross, and you're reducing my life to something like a corporation, something superficial and cheap. I am not a brand nor will I ever be a brand. Human first, Arist/Writer second.
Here’s the entire exchange.
I don’t normally publish dm’s, but in this case, I think it’s more fair to let you come to your own conclusions after reading it for yourself. (Blue is my text)
She ends it on a neutral tone, and throughout the exchange, we ended up getting to know each other better. But it’s still quite obvious that she has no intention of having me on her show because my art hit a nerve. I think she could begin her research into the differences between the artist vs. the art.
I am not my art.
I created it, but it doesn’t define my multi-faceted human existence. I am just a person, like you. I don’t filter my ideas, and they express themselves in a raw way, but just because I created Kill The Selfie doesn’t mean I hate people who post selfies. I occasionally post selfies. LOL.
I am not that one-dimensional. I recognize that I cannot change people, and I also have no desire to spend my energy in such a futile endeavor. I accept people for who they are, for the most part. But I also don’t repress my truth, experience and ideas. And I definitely am not into candy-coated art.
Now, fast forward to today.
The buyer of Kill The Selfie messaged me on Twitter. I was very surprised to learn the entire story of why he decided to to buy it. He explained that he wasn’t even an NFT collector, and that this purchase was the first big one he’d ever made. Then, he divulged more details:
“It was more like ‘How can I not look at this...’ it was brilliant. and horrifying.”
That is the best compliment I have ever received from any of my buyers!
I am really grateful to receive this kind of feedback because I wanted to know if my tweet caused someone to buy my art. It turned out that it did.
So what are the lessons in this? If you don’t understand the difference between the art and the artist, it’s time to study. Also, if you can’t explore topics that challenge the status quo, pop culture and views that differ from your own you probably need to rethink your art show. Art is often uncomfortable and requires a certain amount of objectivity in order to process it.
I’d like to end on a positive note.
I’m happy to announce that I’m going to be interviewed on Josie Bellini’s show, Behind The Art tonight at 9 PM CST. Here’s her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/215josie
https://twitter.com/josiebellini/status/1339421466694193153
- josiebellini
I will see you all then!
Check out my NFTs art on Makersplace: https://makersplace.com/stellabelle
Here’s my full list of links:
Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/stellabelle
NFT Showroom: https://nftshowroom.com/stellabelle/gallery
Makersplace: https://makersplace.com/stellabelle
Rarible: https://app.rarible.com/stellabelle/onsale
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stellabelle
Hive: @stellabelle
Website: https://stellabelle.carrd.co/