Mandy Musselwhite and her girlfriend Thorne Melcher were at risk of losing their small farm on the outskirts of Atlanta earlier this year. But then a genius blow and good luck saved them.
Artist Musselwhite and former software engineer Melcher came up with a head-to-head idea. Sneaky duckAn NFT collection containing 10,000 cartoon images based on the property Pekin Duck. After launching in January sold out Within 6 hours, it was about $ 120,000. This was enough to protect the house from foreclosure.
“In the end, my girlfriend and I were very lucky,” Musselwhite told us.
But that may be just the beginning for Musselwhite and Melcher. New to Dastardly Duck’s success, Musselwhite received a message from her Instagram-famous chef Cat Cora. Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Cola was the first woman to be named Iron Chef America at Food Network’s Iron Chef America in 2005. She wanted to release an NFT project focused on couples. Image of cat Collect money for charity.
So Yokiti born.project Collect money Not only for Ukraine, but for other small houses.
“We wanted this project to be cat-themed, and we wanted to use it to raise money for some legitimate purposes,” Mussel White told us. rice field. “It was put together very quickly and everything was taken into account.”
Obviously, not all artists are fans of NFTs or non-fungible tokens.some Said Trendy crypto-based movements allow for rampant intellectual property theft and sacrifice the livelihoods of some artists.Others, NFT “Ponzi scheme” It will crash someday.
Musselwhite and Melcher offer the opposite view, but show how NFTs can help artists. We caught up with Musselwhite and she elaborated on how the couple’s NFT project was done and their future plans.
This interview has been summarized and edited for clarity.
Business of Business: How do you describe your artistic style and inspiration?
My main style is a blend of both Eastern and Western influences, but the art style that actually succeeded in Web3 is very simple (but cute).My current inspiration for the latter comes from all the animals that surround us Smol Farm every day! Cute geese, ducks, kittens — Surrounded by these adorable animals every day, you have no choice but to draw cute things!
What attracted you to NFTs? It should be noted that some artists have very strong (not positive) feelings towards NFTs. Why do you feel different?
Since I’m half Filipino, my first (positive) exposure to NFTs revolved around the Filipinos who were selling art in Tezos.I’m in Proof of stake chain, Tezos is very eco-friendly, so learning about it first was pretty spectacular. By learning about Tezos, we were able to learn more about Ethereum and its efforts to improve its blockchain.
Prior to NFT, I was primarily a commission-based artist. I drew a lot of things that I didn’t want to draw without paying. While working every day, I didn’t * so much * pay a fee of about $ 20,000 a year.
NFTs have reached a place where they can financially support themselves without drawing what others want them to draw. There is much room for creative freedom. However, this does not mean that anyone can create an NFT and quickly find financial stability. In the end, my girlfriend and I were very lucky. But even if you’re not so lucky, you’ll be using 100% Web3 and NFTs. The communities we build and surround ourselves are very healthy and supportive. It is valuable in itself.
Please tell us about the project YoKitties launched by Iron Chef Cat Cora. How did that happen? How did you get connected to Cat Cora?
YoKitties was born after Cat Cora contacted me directly on Instagram. I’m still very grateful for what she did, especially because my Instagram account is private and I think in my biography “I’m sorry, I don’t accept followers who don’t know irl”. .. Cat, I, and Thorn answered the phone about a day after contacting me on Instagram and clicked immediately. We all wanted to make this project a cat theme and use it to raise money for some legitimate purposes. It was put together very quickly and everything was taken into account.
Please tell us why it is raising funds. How much have you procured so far?
We are currently raising money for Ukraine and Homestead, which is in financial difficulty! So far, Yo Kitties has donated 1.5 eth (about $ 4,000) to Ukraine DAO and .125 eth (a total of about $ 700) to each of the two homesteads. Yo Kitties (at the time of this writing) have created only about 600 of the 5,000 NFTs, so it’s great to be able to provide some amount even if you haven’t achieved your project goals yet. That is. As this progresses, we will definitely continue to donate!
Back up a bit and talk about Dastardly Ducks. Explain how it helped you and your girlfriend Thorne save your home and farm.
Dastardly Ducks was the first project inspired by the Pekin ducks. There are 10,000 NFTs in the collection, each created within 6 hours of deploying the project. Thorn and I were in financial difficulty thanks to Covid and some unfortunate unemployment situations. We were on the verge of losing our home, and a court date was scheduled two days after the Duster Dredax was published.
It cost $ 35,000 to dismiss the foreclosure, but eventually raised a total of $ 120,000 from Dastardly Ducks Mintha. The next day, I was able to go to a housing company lawyer and hand over a $ 40,000 check (after all, I wanted to get paid in advance!) — I’m very fortunate to have Dastardly Ducks successful. I was very worried about having to bring all the animals home, but now they will stay on the farms they love!
What are your future plans for art projects and NFTs? Do you have any plans to form more partnerships?
We are currently planning ways to further develop the utilities for Dastardly Ducks and YoKitties, while at the same time exploring some fun new ideas for future projects. I have never fully embodied a proper roadmap for any of these projects. So I am very grateful for the open-ended path that allows me to follow both projects.
One of our promises to Dastardly Ducks owners is to build a new enclosure for the ducks and actually give the owner the name of the duck they are raising. Due to supply chain issues, it’s a little difficult to get everything you need to actually build a duck house, but I’m sure you can start building it right away. When it comes to partnerships, we definitely want to do more! In that respect, there is currently nothing in the work.
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