Hyperrealism to Hyperminimalism: How Few Details Can Create Reality?
last fall, as i began work on "THE LONE CYPRESS" commissioned by a prominent collector in crypto art, @crypto17mile, i made a decision to push vector art to the limits and make that commission a statement piece.
the butterflies in my stomach had me wondering how many elements i could draw. breaking my previous records felt good and i knew i wouldn't stop chasing that feeling -- I'd go higher. much higher. at the end of the day, the number of elements a piece of work can have is finite only by my existence.
vectoring my nights away, i started thinking about the other end of that infinity -- the STARTING POINT.
technically, you could go for 0, but in that case, it wouldn't be vector art, would it? certainly not hyperrealism. but how do i translate reality with just 1 element? the answer had been hovering above me all along. all i had to do was look up -- the ever-blue California sky.
WHAT IS THE LEAST AMOUNT OF DETAILS THAT MAKES HYPERREALISM?
What Is Art: The Act of Creation or The Final Output?
searching for the perfect blue, I looked through thousands of photos I’d taken over the past two years traveling across California, from San Francisco to Joshua Tree Park.
finally, i found it on East Beach in Santa Barbara.
documenting the complete act of creation, from launching Illustrator to minting the piece, in one seamless effort felt important. you can only imagine how many times i rehearsed the entire process and how many "CALIFORNIA BLUE" drafts i created before the big moment.
it all made me wonder: is that blue rectangle ultimately THE art? or is it the epiphany, the journey, the rehearsals leading up to the encore that the art was while that minted token is just a receipt -- a torn-off ticket stub you keep as a souvenir after a concert of your favorite band to remind you about that one wild night?
Is It Worth a Cryptopunk?
my last commission with 77,832 hand-drawn elements brought in 3.7 ETH. worth mentioning that the specific number of elements in the finished work is never part of the commission discussion; it's solely my (masochistic?) decision whether to take it to the extreme and beyond.
when determining value, despite common wisdom, people undeniably do consider past performance, and so 3.7 ETH is the latest price written on the blockchain. does that mean the value of "CALIFORNIA BLUE" should be 1/77,832th of 3.7 ETH?
it's a fking blue rectangle, ffs, and the process video is only 1.5 minutes long -- maybe even faster than it takes to prompt AI art or generate a 1/10,000 output. so, should the time it takes to create art matter, and if so, should this work have any value at all?
one-color canvases have been done countless times before and will continue to be made forever. some have been sold so they must have held some value. but why?
i think we can all agree that it's the artist and the context that add value to the art.
in the case of "CALIFORNIA BLUE", the hundreds of thousands of hand-drawn details created before and after it undoubtedly contribute to a unique context for this "fking blue rectangle". but then, how much can a one-element work from a hyperrealist be worth?
can it be worth a CryptoPunk, a 1/10,000th of a code-generated nft collection? most will STRONGLY disagree. that is, until someone else says it can, and FOMO starts creeping in.
we often say that something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and that is true. but on the other side of that transaction is also someone who is or is not willing to sell. the true value ultimately lies in the compromise at which both sides are willing to meet.
this work will remain unlisted, awaiting the tender embrace of compromise.
Is This The End of My Vector Hyprrealism journey?
quite the opposite. i just feel that this work simply had to exist in my growing body of work. to me, it will forever be the starting point -- not just for counting vector elements, but as something that sparks deep reflections within.
"CALIFORNIA BLUE" (2024)
vector hyperrealism
hand-drawn elements: 1
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