The Art Stoke Publication is a platform for South African digital artists to share their stories, art and NFTs.

Change is not just about new systems, structures or technologies – it’s about new stories. Art, media and education play a critical role in seeding these new stories.

From the Art Stoke Café framework

Building Local Community

The website artstoke.co.za offers newcomers to the world of crypto accessible content centred around digital art on the blockchain. The Art Stoke Publication expands on this, with the primary mission of gathering local South African digital artists on the blockchain and inviting them to contribute their stories, work and experience. The Art Stoke Publication is therefore not just about showcasing and selling digital art, it’s about building community and shaping the South African digital art landscape through contributions made.

Low-Cost NFT Minting

Mirror is built on Optimism, a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, which significantly reduces the cost of minting compared to Ethereum mainnet. Mirror uses “lazy minting”, where your article is only committed to the blockchain when a collector or enthusiast mints your work. This means South African artists can create and publish their work without the financial barrier of up-front high gas fees.

How to Contribute

South African digital artists who have sold digital art on the blockchain are invited to register here. Once registered, artists will be vetted and then added as a contributor (via your wallet address) to The Art Stoke Publication.

How Artists Earn

• All minting proceeds from your contributions will go directly to your wallet.

• Mirror takes a small platform fee per mint (0.00069 ETH on Optimism), and gas fees apply.

• Artists only earn proceeds if collectors mint their work.

To build The Art Stoke Publication community and audience, subscribe and share widely with family, friends, local digital art collectives and social media followers.

The Art Stoke Commons Vision: A Local Digital Art Economy

Currently, South African digital artists sell their digital art primarily on international NFT marketplaces. Art Stoke Commons is a framework designed to create a South African digital art marketplace and digital art ecosystem.

Hirondelle by Lodi Paul Inga

Thank you Lodi Paul Inga for this article’s beautiful image from the video clip of his song Hirondelle which he co-directed and edited. The drawings in the video were produced in 2015 by 3rd-year graphic design students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) where Lodi was a part-time lecturer. Each of his 30+ students were assigned frames from the original video recording of the song, which they were asked to re-create a drawing version of, using any medium their choice.

Watch this Space!

The Art Stoke Publication on Mirror is an interim phase 1. Phase 2 includes initiatives to support local digital artists to get their digital art onto the blockchain.

Subscribe and share widely! I am looking forward to this Art Stoke journey unfolding with you.

Richelle @ Art Stoke