xxnft
Mila Lolli
Which was your first NFT ever?
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Theoretically my first NFT doesn’t exist anymore as I had burned it, I entered the NFT space in a very exploratory and discovery mindset so I was shaping my personal style around what I wanted to create, I guess we can say the oldest to date piece is The LOV3RS, a digital painting of quantum fluctuations of bursting love particles, it was collected by Crypto888.
This was long before I dove into immersive cinematics.
Which is the last one?
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The last piece I minted is called The Upside Down, it is inspired by Stranger Things and the upside down world, fun fact is I released it before the last season show as available on Netflix so I had no idea how would the Upside Down world look in that season but coincidentally both my art and their world have a dark red background environment. You can find the piece here
It was also exhibited during one of our NFTUK events at the W1Curates studios, on their immersive wall.
How did you start your career in crypto art?
January 2021 was a very interesting month for me, I was exiting my former job as a product designer and looking at new things to do, I wanted to leave that career as I had reached a level where I didn’t see myself doing it for the rest of my life and suddenly on one of my socials, and old contact of mine shared a crypto art piece, their post was talking about how they sold that piece for 1ETH, so it made me very curious and I thought “If they can sell a little colorful animation like that, imagine with all the skills I have, this could be something interesting. A little after I found myself in a discord with a bunch of other artists discovering an entire new world.That is when I learned about NFTs, I learned about the concept of “minting” and how to set up a wallet and the various marketplaces and finally I made some amazing friends since that period of time that I still keep in touch today.
How can we increase the involvement of women in crypto?
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This is a very asked question, now that I run such a big community for NFTUK, often I am asked “How do we get more women into the space?” and as simple as it seems, Web3 doesn’t have a gender and it is like a blank canvas, anyone can walk in but having said this, there is more of a cultural complexity inherited from Web2 that needs to change.
I like to encourage women to join my events and to show them that it is a safe and supportive space to be in.
It is also important to have female advisors that speak, women that lead communities or projects to advocate and enable other women to start their own projects by providing answers and education on how to do some of the most basic steps.
Women do tend to be more cautious than men, and seeing the top selling artists and projects are led by men, it can be quite intimidating, so it is vital to have women who have taken big steps in the space to speak about this topic, to bring and onboard the best way they can. Women are not less talented, we have some of the most amazing and exceptional minds in the world, we just need to give them more spotlight.
Starting by creating more female led projects and reducing the gender gap in the industry by hiring more women. Of course, it is also a very skills focused sector but as I stated earlier women are not less talented and clever so we just need to be more proactive.
While NFTUK isn’t one gender focused only, I always tell female creators to just go with it, to do that project, to start that company, to take a leap into the unknown, to believe in themselves, what is the worst that can happen? :)
Last project?
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I am working on various upcoming projects,
One is around an immersive solo exhibition that I want to launch this year and it will be focusing on the 5 elements, fire, earth, air, wood, metal together to form a full immersive show.
The other project I am working on is more for the metaverse, so wearables and playable worlds etc.
What are the main guiding principles behind your work? Can you step outside yourself for a moment and let us know what you see?
My work is very much focused on outer space worlds. I often embed the 5 elements in my immersive worlds.
If I step outside myself, I see someone who should probably have a better sitting posture and definitely more water on the desk ;) but overall, I also see a very dedicated and hardworking individual that spends most of her time balancing a big community and her art by continuously learning new technologies and leading a very artistic life.
Do you get any particular source of inspiration for the visual styles of your works e.g. do they arrive in relation to the place (physical, psychological, or situational) you were located at the time?
My inspiration comes from places I’d like to be in, imaginary but also related to objects that I already know, such as the wilderness of a forest, the brightness of freshly bloomed flowers, I like to create scenes that have a meaning behind them, an emotional connection with the interaction of each object. Nighttime is my most creative moment and that is why very often my worlds are in a nighttime environment, you will notice how I play with the concept of light, I like the contrasting glowly colors of dark and light imported in my art.
Can you dive a bit into the technical aspects of the work? Software or hardware used (in the wide sense; it could be thoughts and bodies), as well as the editing process?
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I am a big lover of technology, not the organic canvas and paint brushes artist but I like to use technology to my advantages, so often I create 3D objects utilizing my VR set, then I import them into Blender where I will work on the base colors and shading and then import those objects into Unreal Engine 5 where I will create realistic looking cinematics. So this is mostly my process but then there is a very important part which is the story telling and believe it or not that is the hardest part for me, combining the scenes into a story that reflects what I exactly have in mind, the whole process can vary on how inspired I feel but overall an immersive world + its story can take up to 2 months to create that is why I am mostly a 1/1 artist.
What are some of the particular challenges you and your team have faced in realizing the works?
There are many challenges, from creative blocks to technical issues, as I mentioned before I do rely on technology quite often and as I create my worlds it also happens that I learn new ways of doing things while working on the pieces. Each time is different and something new.
If I aim to create an idea that results in being quite difficult to execute then I do spend a lot of time learning the best ways to go about it, there is a lot of research involved in each piece I create.
The biggest challenge is actually time.
Since I started NFTUK, the majority of my time goes onto organizing the events, onboarding new members, curating the art exhibitions and all the other tasks around the community so time is very limited for my work but I wouldn’t have it any other way because with NFTUK we have helped so many creators to get on the right direction and to give them a sense of belonging it is also highly rewarding for the soul.
Can you tell us about the relationship you want or aim to have with the viewer? What is the underlying approach to this relationship?
With my worlds I want to be able to create a very unique personal feeling for the viewer, each person have it differently, something around a delight, surprise and wonder, calm, peace and sense of tranquillity, I aim teleport them within the place I created, often my worlds are about nature and unknown, surreal places.
Tell us a secret about your work. Even a small one.
Sometimes what I dream is reflected in my works. In fact, a few pieces I created are based on personal dreams that I’ve written down when waking up in the morning.