Winds of change...

We leave behind the Summer with its happy disconnection, and we look to a new season. Some feel with nostalgia, some others with energy… I am doing it this year preparing a new stage in my life. This Fall, I am going to leave behind many things, including the way I participate in the Internet. It will be a discrete farewell, but an explicit one, from here as well as from Smartists… I will go anonymous to keep contributing to build the web3 on Bitcoin. Five years ago, I left social media, and today I have to go a step forward. I leave the present lines as my goodbye, but I want to accompany them with a hint of the last interview I made to two artists who are bringing their works to the web3 on Bitcoin: Grace Hye (visual artist) and Gimferrer (musician). It is not the first time I talk about their project here, and this time you can read our conversation about the Fall… (keep reading).

Q- What is Fall for you in the most basic and natural terms? Does the weather affect you? (Include three words that describe the season, please)

Grace
Autumn gives a cool feeling washing away the hot summer. The words that remind me of autumn are mushrooms red leaves and acorns. My community members have similar thoughts: cool, breeze, curly, leaves, auburn, leaf fall. 

Manuel
When I think of the Fall, the first thing that comes to mind is leaves falling off the trees, and the color orange/red, which is somewhat melancholic because we are leaving the summer behind. Apart from that, it is also a season that for some reason wine come to mind, maybe it’s because my family comes from La Rioja, a region in Spain where we have a huge wine tradition. Finally, the arrival of the cold preceding the winter is also something that I associate with the Fall.

Q- Give us a personal take on Fall in your own culture (house, clothing, food…). You can refer to your childhood and teenage years too if you want.

Grace
I have two images of autumn. I lived in Korea until I was 21 and have been living in France ever since. My autumn image until the age of 21 is the Chuseok holiday, cosmos and dragonflies. It's been so long that I don't remember exactly, but there were always cosmos flowers and various kinds of dragonflies in fields in Korea. During the Chuseok holiday, I remember meeting my cousins and eating delicious food together I remember that my mom and aunt made songpyeon and ate it deliciously. If you think of autumn in France after you turn 21, it's a new beginning. It reminds me of the season when the new semester begins In France, the new semester starts in early September, and everyone is busy.

Manuel
To me, Fall represented going back to school after the summer holidays, and meeting again my friends. As well as that, I think it was a time when I went out to play a lot in the park, and that is why I associate the falling of leaves and the color orange with it.

Q- Something familiar you usually like to see in Fall + something familiar you usually like to listen to (it can be music or not)?

Grace
There are many new exhibitions and salons in France, so I remember my favorite salon in the fall is maison&objet. It's not directly related to autumn, but I like it because there are many opportunities to create new ideas with things I've encountered at new salons. And I like the Autumn part the most among Vivaldi's Four Seasons music. The cheerful sound of the violin will make you secrete adrenaline. I learned to play the violin for a while when I was 10 or 11 years old. When I listen to this music, my passion to learn the violin comes back again.

Manuel
The sound of wind is something I closely associate with the Fall, as well as the excitement about the upcoming winter and all the presents we are all thinking of getting for our close ones.

Q-About The Fall within your collection FOUR SEASONS.

• Image: Grace Hye, FALL [work in progress]

Tell me, Grace, what was your particular approach to the Fall piece in terms of technique, light and colours?

Grace
Basically, the four seasons works I drew were created by conceiving images that came to my mind after listening to Manuel's music. Beautiful works were created by reflecting the opinions of the community.

I drew a picture with watercolor and black ink. The watercolor technique was very suitable for expressing autumn. When I listen to Manuel's music, the melody is cheerful and friendly, and it has a cute feel. It seemed that his music would go very well with images such as squirrels, a mountain wolf and mushrooms. More animals are drawn in autumn works than in other seasons. Warm toned brown and reddish brown colors are the main axis, and yellow and pink are added little by little to complete autumn with rich colors intersecting.

And for you, Manuel, what were the pieces of music that inspired your composition for The Fall?

Manuel
I decided to incorporate the celebratory aspect of the Fall, so that is why I added a quote from the Duet « Vivat Bacchus » by Mozart, where two characters from one of his operas are enjoying a good wine. To contrast with this, I have also incorporated a traditional Scottish song called « Auld Lang Syne », which is a song of melancholy saying goodbye to old times. Near the end of the piece, I tried to bring the cold aspect, as the excitement fades away, preparing for the Winter. Watch Manuel in this video.

This was an small part of the interview I had with Grace and Manuel. Actually, we talked about every one of the seasons, and we are considering the different ways we could share this special “behind the scenes” look of these NFTs collection. This September, they are preparing the launch in Gamma, with an innovative mechanism of sales which is only possible on the web3, bringing special benefits to owners of NFTs from this collection.

I invite you to follow this project from inside, joining Grace’s Discord, where she has a dedicated channel where you can find more details, and where you can participate as well.

I hope that this reading was as interesting for you as it was for me meeting with these artists, who are showing us the way to a better Internet, and who deserve our admiration and gratitude.

Have a wonderful end of Summer!

Georgina Mauriño

IMPORTANT. This is the last article in this address. In fall 2023 Georgina & Mirlo are moving toward new adventures.