Non-Fungible Tokens: Aaron Holley and Gabe Busto Of Tabu Art On The 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Create things of value that will last. Could we be in an NFT bubble? Most likely. However, creating things of value is one way to help ensure NFT’s will outlast this bubble. So once the hype around NFT’s themselves dies down, what’s left is the art tied to the NFT. Creating and purchasing art of value that people enjoy and connect with will help ensure a long term successful career in the NFT industry.
Many have observed that we are at the cusp of an NFT boom. The thing is, it’s so cutting edge, that many people don’t know what it is. What exactly is an NFT and how can one create a lucrative career out of selling them? To address this, as a part of our interview series called “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Aaron Holley and Gabe Busto.
Aaron Holley and Gabe Busto are artists, visionaries, and creatives, with an entrepreneurial drive.Unlike Duncan and Griffin, the brothers from Nifty, Aaron and Gabe are cousins. Aaron and Gabe grew up together for a little while until Aaron’s parents divorced when he was around 10 years old. Aaron comes from a middle class family and grew up in Florida and Arizona. He’s been drawing and painting his entire life, since he was 3 years old. When his parents divorced they both lived in separate states so he ended up traveling back and forth across the country a lot at a young age. As a result, he now enjoys traveling and exploring when he can. Aaron has been working since he was legally able to around the age of 14 or 15. When he hit high school he was fortunate to have an art teacher at a public school system that helped to further develop his natural ability and inclination towards art. Up until that point Aaron thought the art he was creating was good. Aaron’s high school teacher opened his eyes and helped him to understand how to get better at his craft. He grew a lot there as an artist. He even used to “ditch” other classes to go to his art classroom and draw and paint. He was also heavily involved in hockey at that time. After high school Aaron went on from there to a community college that had a great art program where he developed a more professional portfolio and body of work before moving on to College where he got his bachelors and started his career as a concept artist and illustrator for 12 years. After several years of living in California Aaron decided to sell everything he owned and gave a lot of it away. Leaving California to start his entrepreneurial journey. Where the first company he started fell through after the first 3 months and the second company he started led to this 3rd company, TABUART, where he’s been working with Gabe for a little over a year now.
Gabe was raised in a small town in Florida near Aaron and had a large family that all lived relatively close. Gabe’s mother was fairly technical and his father was an electrical and computer engineer, so there was an abundance of opportunity to begin programming at a young age but it just didn’t seem all that interesting to him. It wasn’t until college that he seemed to “develop” an interest in coding (pun intended). He began college as a business major and considered switching to computer science his junior year, but decided against it and instead opted to take a few intro to programming courses and begin teaching himself more advanced topics. A year before graduating, he joined a small startup in college as 1 of 2 developers and was able to cover a lot of ground in building various technical skills. After graduating, he moved on to work at a larger company and spent 8 years working in computer security research and software development before taking a deep dive back into the startup world with Aaron to build TABUART.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Aaron — There have been several books, and movies I can list that have made a significant impact on me. However, Cool Runnings and the Goonies are a couple movies that had a significant impact on my life coupled with Paulo Coelho’s book “The Alchemist.” The message of not giving up and keeping a positive attitude. Knowing that you’re never too old to start your life’s work.
Gabe — I don’t recall one movie or book in particular that made a significant impact on me, but one book that does stand out to me is “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.” Getting some insight into how an individual of his caliber thinks and came to be was fascinating. For me, it’s more life experiences and reflective moments where I had some revelations (big and small) that made an impact on my life and led me to where I am now, rather than a particular book or film.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in this new industry? We’d love to hear it.
Aaron — 4 years ago I was working as a concept artist and illustrator. I had worked in the game industry for 12 years, 8 of those years in house and 4 freelancing, working for several companies. It’s a fun industry to be in.
However, I wanted to set out on my own. So as mentioned previously, I sold everything I had in California and went off to start my own company. The first one I started didn’t work out after 3 months and I was determined to continue so I started Boxwood Boards where I started selling my own art on vinyl wraps, as fine art limited edition prints, and original drawings and paintings. I traveled the country for 3 years selling my artwork at different shows. I learned a lot from that, and I’ve met a lot of amazing people while doing it. People who were deeply impacted by the art I was creating. For example one couple in New York kept one of my pieces on their wall as a way to remember a close friend of theirs who lost their battle with cancer. Apparently she loved my art, and now it’s a way for them to remember her. That story and several others. It amazed me and it was something I never would’ve experienced had I stayed behind my desk working as a concept artist and illustrator.
So a big part of the inspiration for creating TABUART was to help artists have similar experiences and provide an avenue for them to make an additional source of revenue. A way of giving back.
The other source of inspiration was I tried envisioning how selling my art would be done 20 to 50 years from now.
Gabe — Working at a large company was nice from the perspective that you have a stable income, benefits, paid time off, and so on. But I was craving something a bit more adventurous and challenging and wanted to take some risks in life while I still can. I started a mobile game development company and was teaching myself and coding on nights and weekends while still working full-time. I did that for about a year before taking 3 months off from my full-time job to pursue it more intensely and see if I could do something more with it. It just so happens that during this 3 month period Aaron approached me about his idea for TABUART. We started researching what was needed to build this platform for artists to sell their artwork to a global audience and provide a way to track ownership and view the artwork. We quickly discovered how blockchain technology was being used in combination with digital artwork to accomplish this and immediately recognized the potential that existed in this space. About a month later, I left my full-time job and began working on TABUART with Aaron and now a year later here we are with a live NFT art platform.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
We were contacted by a famous professional athlete through our lawyer who’s interested in what we’re doing. At the moment we can’t go into any further details. 🙂
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Honestly, we weren’t able to think of anything.
Something about a name we almost used or a logo.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
So much has happened to get us to this point and we would be remiss if we didn’t give thanks to God. We are fortunate to have a great support system of family and close friends that have all helped tremendously in various ways. We’d really like to thank them for all they’ve done and continue to do.
We’d also like to thank Lee Jokl and Jason Sorensen who have given their time to help us navigate some of the more difficult waters at this point in our journey.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes, every day. We’re working on continually developing TABUART and where we want to take this in order to help people. One of the projects we’re not able to talk about at the moment, but believe it will have a massive impact in the NFT industry.
We believe it will help artists monetarily by providing an additional source of revenue for them. In addition to helping them realize their own self worth and developing a body of artwork all their own that may connect with an audience of people who really enjoy and value their art.
Whereas with Art collectors we believe this is an opportunity of a lifetime to collect NFT’s. The opportunity to be involved with something like this at the beginning stages of it. A limited supply of digital assets that they can buy and sell. Who knows what these early minted tokens will be worth 50 years from now. So many people wrote Bitcoin off, and everyone knows where it’s at today.
So not only does this benefit the artists and art collectors monetarily, it also provides art collectors with beautiful art they really enjoy. Looking at things from a long term perspective. Art that means something to them.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. I’m sure you get this question all the time. But for the benefit of our readers, can you explain in your own words what an NFT is, and why people are spending so much money on them?
When we were being asked to describe what an NFT is we initially would tell people to imagine an artist selling a real world limited edition print of their artwork, an NFT is the digital equivalent that automatically comes with a proof of authenticity, a rare authentic digital limited edition print. NFT’s are a limited supply of digital assets, in this case artwork.
For example, you can buy a limited edition print from Jane Smith and have her sign it. When you go to sell it, there’s really no way to prove that it’s an authentic print from Jane Smith so the buyer will just have to trust you. NFTs solve this exact problem: when you go to sell your Jane Smith limited edition NFT, the buyer can verify for themselves that it is authentic.
However, as things progressed and the more knowledge we gained we began to realize it seems as if there’s a lot more to these than just a digital limited edition print. It’s as if an NFT is it’s own thing, that can’t quite be put into words other than what it is. One of the reasons they are so rare and unique. The same way an original is the original work of art. It’s not just a digital limited edition print, It’s its own digital asset.
For example, in a way it reminded us of the 2010 movie, Tron when Jeff Bridge’s character (Kevin Flynn) talks about how “Isos” came about. He talks about when he created the “digital frontier to shape the human condition” something unexpected happened, where these isomorphic algorithms “Isos”….came about from his creation, they came into being.
We thought it was a cool coincidence that they seem analogous with how NFT’s arrived shortly after the creation of blockchain technology.
As far as why people are spending so much money on them, we think that’s a valid question a lot of people are asking, that’s anybody’s guess really.
The simple answer is that people find value in it. It contributes something to them in some way. What value they find in it though depends entirely on them and isn’t for us to judge. It could be because they see it as an investment they want to hold long term, or flip for a quick profit. It could be bragging rights down the road, a status symbol.
For example, how neat would it have been to be able to show and prove to your friends, children, grand children, or the world that you were the original owner of John Singer Sargent’s “Group with Parasols,” William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s “La Jeunesse de Bacchus,” or Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield with Cypresses?” That wasn’t possible previously, but now it is.
What artists today are going to be as big as John Singer Sargent, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Van Gogh and several other famous artists 50 or 100 years from now?
The NFT industry seems so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
Royalties — The ability for creators to once again receive royalties on their artwork. Artists of all types spend a lifetime refining their craft. Years of sacrifice and late nights of their life poured into reaching a level of mastery that when they get there they make it look effortless. For most, it’s a revered craft that brings value to so many people on so many levels and means something different to each person. The ability to create something from nothing and communicate visually in a way that words can’t and that very few people are capable of doing or willing to do. It’s something that has the ability to continually evoke emotions, or remind us of memories we cherish. Something you can’t put a price tag on and something that is worth providing royalties to artists, should their work of art be resold at a later date.
NFT’s, the ability for limited digital assets — NFT’s themselves what they are and are evolving to be. It’s exciting knowing we’re a part of this whole movement. Having the opportunity to be at the forefront of all of this and being a part of how things will be potentially done in the future. Being a part of something that’s way bigger than we are and knowing it has the potential to be so much bigger than what it is now. We feel we’ve only begun to see the potential of where this can go and that there’s so many possibilities and opportunities that can arise from all of this.
Passion economy — There are articles written about the time we’re in being the “passion economy.” A generation of people driven by their desire to work on something they’re passionate about. An economy that only 20 years ago wasn’t possible. One of the things that excites us is the ability to be a part of this passion economy boom. Providing another avenue for people to find work in.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the industry? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
Artists selling the same art on multiple sites — This is rare, but knowing that there are no mechanisms in place to prevent artists from selling the same art on multiple platforms. Subsequently, diluting the value of the artist’s work and creating a very real problem for the collector.
It’s like walking into a gallery purchasing a piece of art that you think is the only one in it’s existence that you own and then walking into another gallery only to find the exact same piece edition number and everything by the same artist.
As mentioned previously, there’s nothing stopping this from happening or some sort of deterrent. Mike Shinota from Linkin Park mentioned in an article he believes there will be sites that check the reliability of artists in the future. Where they would trace the original art back to the artist by their wallet address. Which in turn may give rise to artists using multiple wallets. However, at that point it would potentially look like a fraud or fake account that was stealing that artists work.
Stolen art — Obviously, we would all like to believe we live in a perfect world where nothing bad can happen, but it’s already been happening where scammers / thieves have unapologetically been stealing artwork from artists and selling the stolen NFT art online, posing as the artist, making a fortune.
Several platforms are working towards different forms of ID verification to help combat this. There’s also many other things that are being developed to help combat this.
Collectors artificially inflating NFT art — Since this is all still new, there’s a lot of people that are trying to take advantage of the system. Some platforms have been experiencing a growing number of collectors creating fake accounts and buying and selling the art they own. Raising the price each time it’s resold, artificially inflating the value of the NFT art only to sell it to an unsuspecting victim that thinks they’ve landed on a potentially valuable work of NFT art.
One way to address this problem is through ID verification, however it does not prevent people from working in groups. There are definitely some difficult problems still to solve and this whole industry is still at such an adolescent phase. We believe that because of the potential of this blossoming industry with time a lot of these problems will be resolved.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about NFTs? Can you explain what you mean?
NFT’s are not going to last and not considered a good investment:
Most people thought the Titanic was unsinkable. There’s no way to tell how long this will last. Anything is possible. However with over 50 million unique users on the ethereum blockchain network most, including us, believe NFT’s are here to stay. So while we don’t have factual evidence to prove that is a myth we are taking an educated guess that with that many users NFT’s aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. So when the hype surrounding the NFT’s aspect of this has lost its luster there will always be the artwork itself remaining. Which is why it’s so crucial to get NFT art that means something to you and has value.
In regards to the investment aspect side of this, It’s too early to tell how good of an investment they will turn out to be, but look at collectibles like comic books, trading cards, antique furniture, antique or limited production cars, and so on. Typically, collectibles are not designed to be investments; generally, you buy them because you love them and identify with them. It just so happens with the law of supply and demand combined with social influence that some rare things become more valuable over time when supply is limited and that item is no longer being produced.
With regards to the environmental issues, this is a relatively new technology and it is currently going through a massive growth phase. The limitations of Ethereum in particular have been obvious for some time which is why the community has been working towards a more efficient method for processing transactions for years now. There are currently some solutions available today such as Layer 2, and the long-awaited Ethereum 2.0 is nearing completion. This will drastically reduce the power consumption of the network once released. NFTs are not the problem, the underlying blockchain infrastructure is in combination with the antiquated methods of how we produce the electricity to power all of the technology that we use in our day to day lives. There are also other blockchains available that users can support if they prefer not to use Ethereum. Flow is a great alternative although still new. While Cardano is another one that will support smart contracts beginning this spring (according to their timeline).
Another myth is the moment you put something up for sale on an NFT platform that money is going to magically fall from the sky and that everyone is going to be the next Beeple. The fact is, unless you have a well-known name or a big following, there’s no guarantee you will be successful selling NFTs. It takes work like most endeavors to carve out a path for yourself and find your audience.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they enter the NFT industry. What can be done to avoid that?
Things are still so new and currently, there’s no standard established for how things are done. For example, someone by today’s standards might be considered “making a mistake,” may actually be doing it the way it will be done 10 or 20 years from now, in turn leading to overwhelming success. Or vice versa.
Nevertheless, there are some steps that can help with avoiding mistakes when entering the NFT industry such as: reading — staying up to date on the latest developments, listening to podcasts, reaching out to a site’s support team if they have questions, researching FAQ pages from different NFT platforms.
Lack of patience and high expectations is another common mistake. Everyone is scrambling to be a part of this “gold rush” and expecting to be the next artist to receive $69M or millions in general for their NFT art, which is definitely a possibility. We think if anything is true is that anything is possible. However, with all of the hype surrounding this bubble, high expectations combined with a sense of urgency may leave a lot of people feeling frustrated and others ecstatic.
Art has always been something played as the long game. So we believe there will be more influxes as things progress and new developments in the NFT space arise. NFT’s are here to stay, one way or another.
How do you think NFTs have the potential to help society in the future?
NFT’s have opened a whole new world on the types of possibilities available to society in the future. Stemming from blockchain technology which has already changed the way we look at digital assets and help easily connect the world. So that everyone no matter where you are has an opportunity to participate.
Provable ownership and scarcity of digital assets has huge implications. So much of the world around us is digital. We all listen to music, watch videos for entertainment, play video games, and use social media. NFTs will help empower creators in a way that wasn’t previously possible and could lead to more content creation whether it’s artwork, music, videos, games, digital assets for games, and so much more.
Ok, fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful Career In The NFT Industry?”
- Create things of value that will last
Could we be in an NFT bubble? Most likely. However, creating things of value is one way to help ensure NFT’s will outlast this bubble. So once the hype around NFT’s themselves dies down, what’s left is the art tied to the NFT. Creating and purchasing art of value that people enjoy and connect with will help ensure a long term successful career in the NFT industry.
2. Commitment, Persistence, and Patience
Beeple is a perfect example of this, e.g. 5000 paintings over 13 years, a painting a day. Commitment, persistence, and patience go a long way. As we mentioned earlier, art is a “long game” field. Something that takes years to reach a level of mastery. We’re still at the beginning of all of this. So staying committed, persistent, and patient as with most things. It will eventually pay off one way or another.
3. Value in Scarcity — Less is More
In a market that’s flooded with NFT’s, sometimes less can be more. There’s two ways NFT’s can lose their value. First, It’s important to carefully consider the supply for each one of your creations before minting. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, minting out only one or a small amount of NFT’s (making less available, in general increases the value) vs minting massive amounts of NFT’s (that would potentially devalue the artwork since there’s so many of them available) For example selling 1 NFT for 1000 ETH (e.g. a work of art) vs 1000 NFT’s for 1 ETH per NFT (e.g. trading cards).
Second, another form of diluting NFT’s that is just as harmful, happens when you mint multiple NFT’s of the same work of art on multiple platforms. It hurts both the artist and the collector. It’s a form of self sabotage, where the artist undermines the value of their original minted NFT’s, rendering them potentially worthless. As a consequence, it may leave the collector feeling like they were taken advantage of where the artist would lose money and customers in the long term.
For example, you wouldn’t want to mint a 1 of 1 NFT of your art on one platform then turn around and mint a 1 of 1 NFT of the same work of art on another platform.
4. Continual Learning
This technology is constantly evolving at a rapid pace. There’s new developments that seem to be cropping up every week. In order to have a highly successful career in the NFT industry you’ll need to continually educate yourself and feed your mind with new information and adapt with this technology as it grows. As mentioned previously: reading — staying up to date on the latest developments, listening to podcasts, reaching out to a site’s support team if they have questions, researching FAQ pages from different NFT platforms.
5. Creating a Consistent Body of NFT’s
Creating a consistent body of NFT’s so collectors know they can rely on a consistent quality NFT from you. A lot of artists have completely shifted the way they create art to capitalize on this gold rush. While we don’t blame them, there’s certain things that seem to resonate with a lot of the collectors at the moment. However, creating a body of work that is consistent, while isn’t a guarantee you’ll be successful, provides the collector with a level quality they come to expect from an artist’s work.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Building community and educating people about NFT’s , art, and the positive impacts art has in people’s lives outside of monetary gain. For artists to realize how much their art impacts other people and to know that it may be difficult to go out on your own but that you may change someone’s life with your work. To inspire new developments in art and provide a platform for those artists on which they can sell their work.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Elon Musk is a big inspiration to us both and is a living legend. It’s incredible that our timelines crossed and we would absolutely like to grab a drink and a bite to eat with Elon.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Non-Fungible Tokens: Aaron Holley and Gabe Busto Of Tabu Art On The 5 Things You Need To Know To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
