Photo Courtesy of Lana Denina
Twenty-four-year-old Lana Denina has made over $300,000 in ten months from selling her art as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on various platforms.
According to CNBC, Denina said, “I didn’t know anything about blockchain,” after researching it, she said she was “mind blown.” She added, “It was completely revolutionary.”
Denina said that as a painter, she became interested in utilizing technology to be a vessel for proof of ownership for artists. “Traditional galleries are kind of like the old world,” and said that due to the lack of diversity, “I never felt fully attracted to it, especially as a woman of color.”
NFTs and Web3 allow artists to create galleries and set their own prices. They can also earn royalties on secondary sales; Denina makes 10%.
“I hope to inspire more creatives who look like me to step a foot into tech,” she said.
Recently, one of her most significant projects was the ‘Mona Lana,” which sold out within weeks of its release.
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Despite Denina working with a partner, she creates all of the art herself.
The young entrepreneur aims to represent people of color and Black culture in her art, which has been the key to her success within the NFT world. She said she feels gratified knowing that customers chose to purchase their first NFT after seeing her work.
“When they saw the Mona Lana, they really wanted to buy an NFT,” she says. “Before that, they were looking at other projects, and they didn’t feel fully represented maybe.”
Denina hopes to encourage the NFT community to promote inclusivity moving forward.
“As a young woman of color in this space, it has been 100 times more hard to be respected and seen as equal as the other bros of this space,” Denina tweeted last month. “However, I’ve also met incredibly supporting, extremely intelligent, and talented people.”
Denina plans to give ten percent of her sales from the “Mona Lana” collection once it surpasses 100 ether in volume traded, to Cyber Baat, a creator DAO collective that supports African artists, as well as donate to women’s shelters in her hometown.