Portal Realms

Weekly Recap

79 Au | 5.18-24 At Home with the Supernatural

Art lovers have often revered their favorite works as a portal into the artist’s soul. Artists transform a subject in the act of recreating it. But the viewer also changes as they absorb the artist’s vision. Yet another theme racing through the artworks in “Portal Realms” is the supernatural forces of change.

Anything can be a portal: a memory, a daydream, a movie, a threshold. It can be physical or intangible, real or imaginary. Almost more important than the portal itself is the version of ourselves that meets us on the other side.

Joyce Korotkin Looks Into the Light

Many of Joyce Korotkin’s artworks take root in the in-between places that populate our world. Some of her works live in a moment between the past and the future, a disquieted present. Others look at the world almost through a supernatural lens. “I’ve been fascinated by the lore of crystal balls since I first saw The Wizard of Oz as a young child,” Korotkin told 79 Au. “[Specifically] the scene where Dorothy gazed into the Witch’s ball at a world within the world.” 

Many of Korotkin’s earliest memories involve her getting lost in a world of color. As a young girl, she drew a line with chalk along the bricks of her childhood home. “I stared at it as closely as my eyes could get, transfixed, for what seemed like hours,” she added. Then in Kindergarten, she dipped a brush into a pot of deep pink paint. “I couldn’t get enough of staring at it; I wanted to devour it,” she added.

Ever since, she has been fascinated by the power of the gaze. Or rather, how one can be transported into an alternate universe by the act of gazing. 

In her work “The Occurrence: The Child #1,” she shows a child looking over a scene of destruction. Here, she taps into another recurring theme of her work, “that out of the blue of an otherwise perfectly ordinary day, something happens that transforms the world forever.”

"Occurrence: Species 1 / Transmutation 1"

“Digital art and the emergence of NFTs felt like the same quantum leap from the past into something completely new and disconnected. Here was an intangible art comprised of nothing but light.”

Even the evolution of Korotkin’s project shows the ways in which technology can change the world in an instant. The child featured in the artwork in the “Portal Realms” exhibition is the protagonist of  “The Occurrence” series on Mint Gold Dust. The artwork was created using AI, procreate and animation. However, Korotkin created the other works in the series before she ever heard of AI art tools. “Suddenly, it’s here, and everything has changed.”

The overnight success of AI feels similar to the recent NFT bull market, though on a smaller scale. Each technology helped us recognize the hurrying pace of the future. “Digital art and the emergence of NFTs felt like the same quantum leap from the past into something completely new and disconnected,” Korotkin said. “Here was an intangible art comprised of nothing but light.” 

“Light has always been the province of painters,” she pointed out. It is one of the main things everyone writes about when discussing a specific work. “Vermeer’s Light, Rembrandt’s light, Caravaggio’s light, Impressionist light. And here was a new art, distilled to art’s essence: Light itself.”

Matt Menendez Explores Interstitial Space

Menendez’s piece “Beyond the Threshold: The Portal” features a figure edging closer to a gateway. The terrain flashes with seas of blue and white light. This work, like many others by Menendez, leans into themes of fantasy and science fiction. The ambiguity around the setting as well as the subject allow for the viewer to fill in the details. 

“What excites me the most is that [fantasy and sci-fi] allow for unlimited possibilities of imagination and invention,” Menendez told 79 Au. “It’s their sense of wonder and escapism that always draws me in.”

Indeed, the portal taps into both the escapist nature of fiction and the shift from one reality to the next. Like in life, the future that will greet the subject in the artwork is still unknown. And it is that very quality of uncertainty that makes gazing into the flashing blue so exciting. 

Menendez has a long career in architecture and design, which one can see readily in his work in “Portal Realms.” With an acute awareness of space, Menendez aimed to explore the idea of the in between. “Interstitial space is a common conversation in the architectural world,” he said. “But in the context of the metaverse it holds a different meaning.” 

When we think of portals in metaverse spaces, we typically think of doorways to different worlds or spaces within a world. “You don’t really get to experience them,” he said. “They are more  just a ‘quick’ teleportation to a different space.” It was this area of intrigue that inspired “Beyond the Threshold: The Portal.” What might the inner workings of a portal in virtual space look like if we took the time to look?

“Interstitial space is a common conversation in the architectural world. But in the context of the metaverse it holds a different meaning.” 

"States of The Metaverse - Flow"

“I wanted to explore this interstitial space as an atmospheric experience that spans x amount of time rather than a quick transition,” he said. “The notion that one can experience the space from one side of the portal to the other is fascinating to me, and I would hope for others too,” he added.

A Virtual Butterfly Effect

Both artists we spoke to this week were fascinated by the unlimited possibilities that exist in making even a single piece of art. When using AI art tools, word choice alters the output. When choosing colors, even a slight shift of shade could change the mood.

“What I use as a prompt for portals in Midjourney isn’t the same as, say, Kaiber, which is what I used to create ‘Beyond the Threshold,’” Menendez said. “I like to think of these different prompt syntaxes of language and how we look at different architectural styles.”

And for Korotkin, her love of color spills over into a perfectionist’s dilemma. “Just about every digital piece I make has several iterations, mostly based on different colors,” she said. “And sometimes I just mint them all and let collectors decide for themselves. ‘The Secret Life of Flowers’ is one such series.”

No matter the medium or style, each choice the artist makes affects the next. And it is in these strange and unsettling moments between start and finish where art truly thrives.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

4everKurious and Hazel G transformation
Weekly Recap

79 Au | 5.04-05.10 Transformation in Art

Spring is a season of transformation. After the slumber of winter, nature comes back to life. And after a period of hibernation, animals, plants, and humans leave their safe, warm spaces to rediscover their surroundings. This spring, we invite you to walk through a portal and enter a new realm.

The latest exhibition from Mint Gold Dust explores the different dimensions we create and inhabit. The artists in “Portal Realms” play with dreams, fantasies, and virtual reality. They tell stories about people and places in other worlds, using digital mediums to bring these worlds to life. As they maneuver through changes in their own lives, they explore themes of metamorphosis and the sensations of a new adventure.

“Portal Tree” by Hazel Griffiths

Hazel Griffiths Creates Entire Worlds

Hazel Griffiths has always been fascinated with the idea that there were other worlds all around us, just out of reach. “I was compelled by the notion that one could walk right into one of them through a portal or hidden tear in the fabric of reality,” she told 79 Au. In this way, ordinary objects took on a sense of wonder. She could turn anything into an agent of transformation, a trigger that made the ordinary extraordinary. Naturally, Griffiths’ interests veered into fantasy, science fiction, and the intersection of art and technology.

“When I go about creating a world or an immersive space, I think of it being part of a larger narrative,” she said. “The world itself tells a story in which the viewer is fully immersed.” Beginning with the original concept, Griffiths does her best to remain loyal to it. 

 

She generates artworks of many types, from motion graphics to augmented reality to virtual worlds. One concept can lead to many different outcomes. She is careful to listen to what each artwork needs in order to express itself. “One of the beautiful things about creating for VR is that you can generate multiple forms of media from a single piece,” she said. 

“For example, I have the 3D file itself, which I can upload and turn into a fully immersive experience or export for augmented reality. I can then also generate video and images from the same piece, which become separate artworks in their own right.” Sometimes, certain features like sounds or specific effects don’t conform to the rules of one world.

“I usually have a vision in mind for what I’m going to create,” she said. “Then I try to stay as true to the vision as possible. I feel it’s my duty as an artist to be as loyal to the idea, as well as the process, as I can.”

“Bounce” by 4everKurious

New Chapters for 4everKurious

Right before the pandemic, 4everKurious decided to leave her successful career as a restaurateur. She spent 40 years creating beautiful plates and enticing menus. But it was finally time to move on and to pursue a new life as an artist. When lockdown began, she purchased art supplies of all kinds and went to work. But something just didn’t clicking.

“I can’t draw, I can’t paint,” she realized. “I don’t feel free, I don’t feel creative.” After the guilt of wasting a ton of materials subsided, she donated what was left to the community center art program. It was when she discovered AI art tools that her process began to take shape. 

“When AI came along, we started having these conversations around art and AI,” she told 79 Au. “I really saw this as a way that I could be creative and think deeply about what I want. And I can use this collaboration to help me get there.”

So from the high-intensity heat of a professional kitchen, she leapt into the hotbed of AI art. And she wasn’t alone. “When the pandemic hit, I, like so many other people, ended up on Clubhouse for like 9 or 10 hours a day.” 4everKurious listened and learned at home, finding both artistic expression and community through tech. In addition to Clubhouse, 4everKurious also found herself in Midjourney’s discord, sitting in on their weekly office hours.

4everKurious’ restaurant with her artworks featured

“I didn’t totally understand AI, like how it was really doing things,” she said. “But I thought it was so cool that you could be so creative.” She began with mobile apps, many of which specialized in collage. Then as the tech continued to evolve, she moved on to other tools that her community was excited about. WOMBO led to Photoda, and an updated version of Midjourneyled to rethinking the works of the past.

“the book of wings” was the first generation of 4everKurious’ artistic journey. In it, we see moons turning into feathered creatures, butterflies into shells, birds, and wings. After many changes and experiments in style, she came back to these early works with new curiosity. “I found myself using those in the second generation. So I’m combining things with other work that I’m doing, and then I’d add photography,” she said.

Something else 4everKurious has been playing with is reusing prompts. Each tool provides a different interpretation of that prompt. Furthermore, you can even create a dialogue between prompts run through different versions of the same tool. “This is like tech and nature and everything that’s happening,” she said. “And I think it kind of also aligns with the changes in our planet. There’s also changes in our tech. And they’re both going really really fast.”

Left: “Wiggly World” an AR artwork by Hazel Griffiths, Right: “the book of wings :: deconstructed wings and bones”

Art and the Metaverse

Both Hazel Griffiths and 4everKurious have spent time sending their pieces far out into the universe. Griffiths’ work creates and adorns virtual worlds. It forces us to rethink what mediums are at our disposal and what we can do with them. “I love the experience of being transported to other worlds,” she said. “They become as real to me as any vivid dream.” And indeed, her art, which at times tap into the uncanny, might bring us back to our own dreams.

For her part, 4everKurious designs art spaces in the metaverse. “Voxels would be where I spend the most amount of time,” she said. “Knowing I could do this for free. I would do it and think, wow this is really meditative, really relaxing.” She has designed her own spaces, been invited to work on others’, and has gifted some of them to friends.

If art is a portal to the artist’s soul, then these artists are themselves portals to another realm. In that realm we see both a reflection of the present and a peek into a possible future.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.