pivot
Pivot in self and society. The entire team, plant our feet, rotate, protect the ball of work that’s already been done…discard bad, and continue towards the goal. In business it’s not always evident, but with web3 it is with urgency and importance.
In September 2021, I launched a hemp print page. After test printing, PO Box registering, tax law reading and archival hemp paper researching, I started the mission of marketing. Enter “Crypto Twitter”. It’d been years since I had Tweeted outside of forwarding Instagram posts, most of my past posts seem to be cheering on Bernie, but out went my first post and I started scrolling. We always hear the statements, “we’ll find what we need when we need it,” and stumbling across “the community” seemed to be that moment.
In March 2021, the headlines were screaming Beeple, and I had just found alt-coins and Vitalik’s (co-founder of Ethereum) genius brain. Back then, my Clubhouse invite link was still pending the release for Android, and my 1 friend around me that was all about cryptocurrency, was not into NFTs. I turned towards The Defiant and Coin Bureau to learn fundamentals under his suggestion. It turns out, learning cryptocurrency, candlestick charts and wallet security before NFTs, was the best route to take. This allowed me to dig into more than “art”. Finding this community was a confirmation I could pivot. Released from the garden, I jumped off the cliff trusting photography, and I found this space of thinkers and creators. From a live streamer on Youtube I had followed weeks before during Hurricane Ida, I came across my first Twitter Spaces in September. What I got was beyond storm chasing stories, I found the portal into “the community.” Listening in like a radio playing, I observed for months everyday. From developers discussing cyber security, to the Bitcoin maxis, I wanted to absorb like a sponge and figure out what was going on and how I was going to contribute.
As I was entering CT, Murat Pak was dropping Lost Poets. I went to the drop page multiple times, but I couldn’t take risks yet, I was still learning. I turned on notifications and started following along from the sidelines. Beyond the visual stimulation and ingenuity in the code, there was the perfect dreamy editing music as inspiration. (Butterly Messiah) Discovering this creator opened ways to utilize the blockchain beyond contracts pointing to a JPEG. It forced me to dig into etherscan and understand what exactly was going on with tokens, contracts and storage.
While my visions may feel grand, the community who showed me it was normal to dream big and then execute on big ideas, was Pak and the expanding community who supports his grand visions. When nearly 20 years of life experiences, merge into one space, it’s an inner pivot towards believing in the impossible again. A way to do it outside of corporate media and VC funding? That has always been what made me feel odd in this space of ladder climbing and red carpet chasing in LA, I believe in us at the bottom, the underdogs. I stepped into this world of $ASH and Pak, a world where others were reading, writing and creating towards similar dreams, we started uniting. From a creator who wrote a code to track what influences the influencers, it seems as though Pak has waved a magic wand, bringing together like minds through a clever communication design in his expressions. One where we’re bubbles of thought with the creations, cross collaborating, building new worlds together. Each bringing pieces to the puzzle. Some hidden, some quiet, some outspoken, some are forerunners, but all together.
Reading and writing is an everyday for me, if I could spend 15 hours a day creating, reading and writing…I’d be a happy camper in the middle of no where. I can see why Einstein said he wanted someone to pick his clothes out for him in order to not have to waste thought on trivial thoughts such as clothes and food. That may be not be responsible or sustainable, but choosing how we spend each present moment is important in ways beyond monetary value and productivity (as society would like us to believe). We can pause to dance with the waves, we can take a moment to breathe with the wind presently. So while we jump into the rabbit holes and whisk our minds and emotions off to unlimited creativities, let’s take moments to be grateful and mindful along the way. Our minds can take in all of the content in the World, but if we aren’t aware of our breath, will we remain conscious enough to appreciate what we’ve built along the way?
These 15 frames are part of larger series that has been shot over the last 3 years. Two days between these 15, both are forever reminders to stay present, all will pass. These first pieces are forever on-chain as a reminder for all of us to stay present on this journey. As collectors, creators, developers and team leaders…we’re molding a new culture. One that will allow the future generation of creators to build independently, if we build with intention beyond money. We can step on one another and repeat old patterns, or we can build with our stones together.
In these moments where we’re looking towards the future and angry at society’s past…keep presence close. As we automate our lives with technology, we bombard our silent moments with media pollution. Whether we will build robots for mindless supply chain operations and build collective worlds of innovation or we divide the world into physical and digital worlds of competition, we will always have the choice to stay present and enjoy the source of all of our creations…Mother Nature.
5 minutes, 30 minutes, or even for one full breath, take a moment to breathe with intention and appreciation. Feel the breath on your top lip, the expansion of your lungs as they take in life. We can hide our identities under anonymous creativity, but nature doesn’t need camouflaged behind a hashtag identity, her light is with us everyday. From the miles of sand swiftly moving collectively with the flow of the water’s waves, to the boulders and stones that make up Nature’s largest mountains, we’re all a part of it. The tallest ridges to the beaches’, they’re rocks collected, we can be mountains together, or we can be tiny grains of sand rolling with the tides and taking up little space, either way, we’re in this together…helping one another polish our crowns and brighten our natural shines.
Keep shining, friends.
One Light Beginnings: Natural Light 001-015 - OpenSea $ASH