Artist Mandoe: Among & Not Above Living Things

Art helps us to understand that the future of the human race – even enhanced – will remain organic

These are the words of Mandoe, a European visual artist who explores the frontiers between various forms of life. Her works are featured in an Art & Coffee gallery on parcel #3433 in Somnium Space. To visit using the SomniumWEB client, just follow this link: https://somniumspace.com/parcel/3433

We caught up with the artist to learn about her and her art.

Who are you, where are you coming from, how did you become an artist

My name is Mandoe, I am 32 years old. I didn’t have any particular innate artistic talent. I don’t sing well, I don’t play musical instruments, and I can’t draw. But I have always had a kind of sensitivity that brought me closer to the world of art.

I am very good at using a computer and I have always composed digital works just for me for many years.

I feel deeply concerned by the ecological fight and have always wondered about the place of man in the universe and in his natural environment.

I feel that our societies, which have become very technological, have gradually pushed away human beings from their ecosystem.I have always felt very connected to nature and the other living beings that inhabit it.

I find a part of myself in them, and I feel like I am part of a whole. I believe that this is what I wanted to express through my artistic creations: our deep connection with the living beings that surround us.

Among & not above living things.

Tell us more about your creative process, techniques you use

For my art collection #HumanAmongLivingThings, I worked on the basis of portraits of men and women who seemed as natural as possible. No special poses, no heavy make-up etc. And then I tried to use different computer tools to bring out the way I felt they were connected to nature, whether through an animal or a plant.

Each portrait evoked in me a specific natural force that I tried to retranscribe in a harmonious way with their facial features.

I tried to work with a high resolution image in order to bring out the texture of the natural world I was trying to work with.

How did you learn about nft and become nft artist. What do you think about NFT space now and possibilities in the future

I discovered the NFT only a few months ago and it immediately caught my attention very strongly.

Until then, I hadn’t really thought about making my art known beyond my close circle of acquaintances. And suddenly a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities opened up for me.

I have been very interested in blockchain technology and its first concrete applications for several years. In 2017, I had invested a bit in crypto-currencies and was closely following the promising beginnings of ethereum. And then I had distanced myself a bit after the cryptokitties and alt-coins bubble burst. I didn’t realize then that these were the first NFTs and that they paved the way for the exciting developments we are seeing today.

I think it’s likely that the NFT market will experience significant corrections, but I’m convinced that the fundamentals are strong and that digital art on blockchain has a very bright future ahead of it.

Tell us more about selected artworks

I wanted to finish my collection first before offering my first work for sale. I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to sell my work on Foundation, but after some thought and advice from many other digital artists, I decided to use the opensea platform.

This is the first time I’ve put up a piece of art for sale and I’m terribly excited about this new challenge! I chose the portrait named “Tiger” as the first piece of my collection – it’s one of my favourites – and launched a 3-day auction starting from 0 eth. I’m still not sure if this was the best thing to do but we’ll see how things go and I’m in no hurry to part with my portraits anyway! I know that one day or another they will find takers and I hope that through this adventure I will have succeeded in getting my message across to as many people as possible

Parcel location in VR and 2D client

As mentioned, the gallery can be reached via the SomniumWEB client, via link https://somniumspace.com/parcel/3433.

To visit in VR or the 2D client, head south from Somnium Waypoint. Cross the bridge and take the first turn left. See the below map.

In the event you get lost, just pull up your in-world tablet and use the GPS/Map feature for directions.

Artists links