Collection Spotlight: Conscious Lines
TLDR: This 999 piece collection is a journey through the artistic evolution of celebrated artist Gabe Weis. Created over the course of 16 years, the brilliance of this collection lies in the progression both in his art and his life. The journey from an aspiring artist to a highly sought after top-tier NFT artist can be seen throughout this collection. It represents the growth of not only Gabe, but the entire emerging NFT ecosystem. Supporting Gabe and his inaugural collection on Avalanche is what’s needed to finally sow the seeds for a prospering NFT ecosystem here on AVAX.
Join us and dive into the story behind Conscious Lines.
Mint Details:
Whitelist Sale: Thursday, 25th August @ 4PM UTC
Public Sale: Thursday 25th August @ 4:10PM UTC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConsciousLines
Mint Site: https://joepegs.com/mint/conscious-lines
Take a moment…. now picture a river in your head.
Imagine yourself sitting along the edge, staring into the current. Take it all in. The ebbs and flows of the wake lapping up against the bank. The continuous movement of water so beautifully looped that as it sweeps forward, it somehow never leaves an emptiness behind it. What a strange juxtaposition of something that’s simultaneously constantly moving, yet never seems to go away.
Yet that’s only what you see right in front of you. The river is so much more. Think of all the things under the surface. The rocks that spin up tiny whirlpools and add a little spontaneity to the current. The fallen trees that hold the stories of the river’s past… and even that is still such a tiny portion of the grand picture. In reality, what you’re looking at is only a single spot along the miles and miles of river that go out in either direction. Miles of twists and turns, streams flowing in and out, and an entire ecosystem of flora and fauna that miraculously spews from these works of nature.
This is the magic of a river. A perfect combination of elements, forces, and beauty. So perfect you might even call it… art.
Now what if we swap the water out in this “thought experiment” and replace it with… thoughts.
Now we have a never-ending flow of thoughts, so beautifully looped that as one sweeps forward and exits the mind, another smoothly replaces it. Never leaving a void.
Now this is no longer a river. This is a stream of consciousness.
We can even relate this analogy further. If your mind is the river, all of your experiences, inspirations, and interactions are the tributaries. The streams of ideas and thoughts that flow into your stream of consciousness. Yet once they’ve entered they’re absorbed into the mass, only to be resurfaced when called upon. These memories don’t disappear — they’re simply unseen. Perhaps the “rocks that spin up whirlpools” are an analogy for the moments in our daily life that sparks the random recollections of past experiences. Perhaps the river’s outflows would be the opportunities we take to share our stream of consciousness with others, whether through spoken word, writing, or yes — art.
This is how all of our minds work, but I think it’s especially accurate for understanding the brilliant mind of Gabe Weis. As an artist who self-describes his work as “stream of consciousness meets cubism”, his innate ability to let art flow directly from his mind to the canvas is awe-inspiring. Anyone who has seen him at any of the many NFT events he frequents, has watched him effortlessly turn a blank canvas into a work of fine art.
However, using the word ‘effortlessly’ to describe his work falls into the fallacy that we encountered earlier. Although Gabe might make it look easy now, you can’t neglect the metaphorical “miles of river” that he has passed on his way to here. This is where the true story lies. The journey Gabe took to arrive where he is today was no simple path. Anyone who has tried to make a living as an artist knows how choppy these waters can be.
For Gabe, this particular journey began about 16 years ago. Sitting in the frequent meetings that a life of modern-day work usually comes with, he began showing the first signs for his inclination towards art. As he sat there, paper and pen in hand…he just started drawing lines. Lines that, over time, began to take on more and more interesting forms and eventually turned into full on art pieces. Yet, for the longest time this was just a hobby. Something that he’d take on during the dull moments of the day. As he progressed, it started to creep outside of work, consuming his evenings and nights. It became apparent that he had art inside of him that was just itching to get out.
Unfortunately, this was still the early 2000’s. There was no good way for a small artist to make a living, especially for someone living in the ridiculously expensive city of San Francisco. So art stayed a side hustle, and it pretty much remained that way until about a year and a half ago. This is when NFT’s landed on his radar. He quickly fell deep into the web3 ecosystem as many of us have, and he became fascinated with the fusion of technology and community. At the time, he had no idea how big an impact this path he just stumbled upon would have on him, but he began producing art for the Ethereum NFT crowd and…they ran with it.
Only a short time later and already Gabe has become a well-respected artist with his work being sold to collectors around the globe. He quickly rose through the ranks and became a top-tier NFT artist on Ethereum. It’s no wonder why his art has grabbed so much attention. Pulling upon the countless influences and ideas he’s collected along his path, his style draws inspiration upon urban art and collage. Gabe’s art might remind you of the works of Pablo Picasso or Georges Braque — this style used is called “cubism”. It’s famous for its emphasis on the “flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane”. Rather that using techniques for perspective or graded shading, the art focuses on the abstract.
Adding his own flair, Gabe creates art through a flow. It’s less about decisions and more about where his mind and body take him. His stream of consciousness combined with this cubism style result in memorizing pieces that both tug on your curiosity yet make total sense. He strives to make his pieces universal and timeless. The art could be ancient, drawn in a cave thousands of years ago, or it could be from a human 10,000 years from now. The beings in his work are amorphous in both culture and time period.
Conscious Lines is a collection comprised of Gabe’s works dating as far back as 16 years ago — the early days of his artistic explorations. Through this collection you can witness the progression and perfection of his craft. Gabe thinks this is a rather fitting collection to bring to a blockchain with such great promise like Avalanche. Just as AVAX and it’s NFT ecosystem is currently finding its footing, Gabe walked these same steps as an artist. He proved that with work and dedication, it’s possible to grow and find success. He’s now giving us the opportunity to do just that.
If you’ve been around the AVAX NFT community, you know we’re a tightknit bunch. There’s truly not that many of us at this very moment. So, this is an important moment for us. If we drop all of our differences — the marketplace we prefer, the projects we support, the communities we interact with — there is surely one thing we all share in common. We all want Avalanche to succeed.
For us to enjoy the vibrant, energetic NFT ecosystem that we all want, it’s time for us to show that we support quality NFT artists. Gabe is the perfect candidate to get this ball rolling. Not only is he commendable for his amazing artistic output, but he also truly shares our mindset in the mission to bring success to Avalanche. He has brought such a fantastic energy to this ecosystem over the past few weeks, and he’s just as excited to share his collection with us as we should be to receive it. If you’ve heard him speak, you know he’s a very genuine and authentic guy. You can hear how much he cares. This matters to him. As a community, it’s time for Avalanche to come together and support the artist who may just mark the beginning of a beautiful flourishing of our NFT ecosystem.
Conscious Lines might just be the perfect tributary to get the Avalanche river flowing towards success.
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