"Boring Ape" Bored Ape Yacht Club is undoubtedly the brightest new star in the current encryption world, but most people may have never heard of the creator of this head NFT project - a 27-year-old Asian American Artist Seneca.
Compilation of the original text: Deep Chain Finance Tanker
"Boring Ape" Bored Ape Yacht Club is undoubtedly the brightest new star in the current encryption world, but most people may have never heard of the creator of this head NFT project - a 27-year-old Asian American Artist Seneca.
Of course, for Seneca, she never thought that this set of works would actually promote a technological revolution.
Today, "Bored Ape" Bored Ape Yacht Club is definitely one of the largest NFT projects in the world. Since its first appearance in May last year, it quickly detonated the entire Internet, and the price has also risen, reaching millions of dollars at one time . However, Seneca, as its creator, had no idea that her work had become so popular until late last year, when she Googled the name and woke up.
It is no exaggeration to say that Bored Ape Yacht Club has generated more than $1 billion in revenue and has attracted mainstream people to the crypto space. Yet Seneca, who was central to the project and integral to bringing the idea to life, received no credit.
When watching NFT enthusiasts bring their various works to every corner of the Internet, I believe that feeling is really bittersweet. Imagine walking into a museum at random, only to find your artwork hanging on a wall decorated with velvet rope; similarly, when Seneca logged into Twitter ( Her Twitter handle is All Seeing Seneca), and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw NBA superstar Steve Curry using a portrait of her creation as his avatar.
"It really took me a while to digest it all," said Seneca, sitting cross-legged on the floor of her Manhattan apartment living room in front of a small gray sofa with a haphazard collection of pastels underneath. Painting, "The world is changing so fast, and I'm still the same." Behind the sofa is a small, disorganized work area—Seneca calls it a studio.
Seneca was born in the United States, but her parents are both Chinese. She grew up in Shanghai and went to the United States to study at the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduating in 2016, Seneca moved to New York as a freelance illustrator, using a corner of the apartment as her office, specializing in vibrant, fantasy-like characters for advertising and marketing campaigns , such as some 2D animations. (While her past work has been more abstract, she had to find a "realistic" way to monetize her creative passion.)
At the time, a creative agent named Nicole Muniz stumbled upon Seneca's college portfolio and admired her skills. Nicole Muniz said: "For Seneca I especially like Neka's works, down to the fine lines and brushstrokes." So she began introducing Seneca to companies in various industries, such as healthcare, insurance, green energy, and finance. Last year, Nicole Muniz called Seneca with a proposal: Her childhood friend was creating something called the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and she joined the project as an advisor , though the team also needed some graphic designers to create the images. In fact, all these things happened in the early stage of the development of the NFT industry, and no one expected that NFT would suddenly become popular all over the Internet in the later stage.
Nicole Muniz immediately thought of Seneca simply because of her "chameleon" ability, she believes that Seneca is one of the few artists who can paint differently according to the subject and project. Nicole Muniz is now the co-CEO of Web 3 company Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Gargamel, the company's other co-founder Stunned by the "expressiveness" of Seneca's characters, he says:
“It’s very, very rare. I could feel a whole mood being conveyed. With the ape art design, we saw the kind of mood we wanted: an existential sense of boredom.”
Nicole Muniz also agreed, saying: "Seneca is very expressive and brings the character to life."
But what’s interesting is that Seneca was not familiar with the NFT industry at the time, but during the cooperation process, Yuga Labs gave her a lot of space. They told Seneca at the time: We want a “punk ape”. What kind of image do you think that would be? What style do you like? How do you think the design will look good?
So Seneca imagined herself as a neighbor of the apes, and in a scruffy city where primates roamed freely as citizens, she seemed to see in her eyes "a kind of life-weary, yet possessed Apes of all the money and time in the world, hanging out in metal bars," and not only that, but she imagined how to interact with the creature. And these are the sources of inspiration for this project.
In fact, the ape image Seneca created has a lot to do with her own aesthetic: She's a self-described metal rocker who plays Gibson SG — and does it really well — and also likes to listen to Megadeth, Behemoth and Bullet for My Valentine Waiting for the band's music. But she's also a fan of the gritty animation of the '90s, and she loves that grit and draws inspiration from it.
To be clear, though, Seneca is not the only illustrator on the project, adding: "I'm just the lead artist behind this NFT series." In fact, Bored Ape's body parts were completely copied from her drawings, and other key features, such as the grinning mouth, protruding eyes and beanie, were also designed by her, while other production artists such as Thomas Dagley, Migwashere, and an anonymous couple tackled some of the other characteristics and circumstances of "The Bored Ape."
"Not many people know that I created Boring Apes, which is horrible for an artist," Seneca said.
But thanks to the rapid spread of the internet, Seneca is starting to gain word of mouth, which she hopes will help her find more partners. Meanwhile, Seneca has also been concentrating on her personal work.
Last December, Seneca launched the first NFT series under her own name, called: Iconoclast, which has been launched at Art Basel in Miami, and the four works she created are live on Ethereum. minted and hosted on the Internet Computer blockchain. (Note: Hosting NFTs on the Internet Computer blockchain ensures that NFT artwork will always exist on the public blockchain without the risk of deletion or cloud outage issues.)
Ultimately, these works yielded a value of 23.7 ETH, or roughly $84,000 at the time of writing. Seneca says the money is enough to pay her own bills, and she now has enough time to work on her next collection, which she hopes to launch in February. Not only that, but Seneca also unleashed a mesmerizing personal style in his creations that has persisted and continued to evolve over the years. Ken Wong, the illustrator who worked on the art direction for Seneca's favorite video game, Alice: Madness Returns, said:
"The art that Seneca creates creates a sense of inspiration."
Ken Wong met Seneca in Shanghai when he gave a speech about his career at Seneca's high school, and Seneca approached him. According to Seneca, Ken Wong was completely her introduction into the world of illustration.
Ken Wong added: "If you had to put a label on Seneca's work, it might be called pop surrealism, but that's probably not a very comprehensive label...because she's still going on. Exploring. Seneca is constantly finding his own line, constantly developing himself by experimenting with different artistic styles, and I can understand this very well.”
From "The Boring Ape," you might detect a technical shift in Seneca's approach, but her images often contain a subdued, childlike wonder that stands in stark contrast to the harsh existential darkness. Ken Wong goes on to explain: "It's a very personal and very popular combination, and the shapes that Seneca uses—these organic, flowing shapes are very dreamy, with a surreal color scheme—and I think they illustrate the How she sees something deep inside her. But, at the same time, these works are actually framed through the lens of pop culture, as if Seneca's self-expression, she tries to make herself appear in the context of her work. rationalization."
In a work from the Art Basel 2021 series called Delirium (pictured below), this sentiment is literally expressed. In this composition, plants, animals and limbs emerge from the gaping eye sockets of a girl's unnaturally oval head. "That's how I feel, you know, everything is fucking crazy, it's okay, that's how I think," Seneca said.
In another painting, "Can I Be M0ther," Seneca shows the same girl. This time, though, her worm-like eyes were soft and angular as they shed thick, sticky tears and it wasn't clear if veins, wires or threads had slipped through them. out. The "fluid" falls and wraps around the girl's outstretched hand, which holds what appears to be a malfunctioning toy ape.
"As a commercial artist, I see myself as a kind of agency," Seneca explained. "Art is an extension of your rich emotions. Art is very personal. In a way, you have to communicate with the work. It’s a feeling to be at a distance. That piece was a lot like me saying, 'Can I take my work back? Can I get back my identity as an artist?'
Seneca believes her state may have been caused by "lucid nightmares" that have plagued her for as long as she can remember. Seneca said that she had a memory when she was three years old, but at that time she had a nightmare——
"I was in a stroller," Seneca recalls, "and it made me feel small and vulnerable."
Seneca doesn't elaborate on the dreams, but we can already appreciate that these eerie themes permeate her work, which she says is inspired by cosmic horror. Speaking of his early years, Seneca said:
"I'm more interested in my own imagination than in reality."
Seneca confessed that she was mostly silent, and did so for most of her childhood, sometimes experiencing "hallucinations of full lucidity." "
Every day before going to bed, Seneca would remember all the deep fears she had experienced, and she thought that if she could face them, they would not appear in her nightmares-but it often backfired, and this mentality kept her. wide awake. "I don't want to sleep because I'm afraid I'm going to jump into that world of fear."
It’s only recently that Seneca has come to embrace the “crazy part” of it — the “dark art of surrealism and meaninglessness” within herself that she’s turned into something beautiful. In Senekai's view, this method has a very good healing effect. "That's why I chose to do this," Seneca explained, while admitting that she didn't want to share it with many people because she was afraid of being considered "crazy."
However, Seneca was lucky.
What she considers "crazy", or "some form of crazy", is very popular in the Web 3 space. Quite frankly, cryptocurrencies would not exist without the “urge to deviate from the norm.” Seneca said she hopes the NFT industry will continue to thrive for years to come, and that the Bored Ape Yacht Club experience has given her "a rich lesson in life," so she hopes other aspiring creators Learn more about NFTs and smart contracts, royalties, and more. Seneca said frankly: "Be firm in your beliefs and work very hard. Be patient with yourself. Be kind to yourself. In the encryption community and NFT space, things will move very fast, you need to pay attention, but don't care , focus on the track you are best at, and you will definitely be able to do well in the end.”
Of course, the so-called "good" is actually relative.
Although we don't know how much Seneca has gained, at least for herself, the ratio of giving and receiving is actually "not ideal". However, Seneca insisted that she was very grateful for this experience and entered a completely unimaginable field. Since entering the field, she has no doubts about the idea of NFT, because NFT can verify and preserve art, providing creators with royalties. , and make the art world more inclusive and less dependent on traditional galleries.
Seneca believes that his second NFT series, Iconoclast, is actually an extension of the foundation of surrealism, but the work is bolder than before. In fact, every time she discusses her work in progress, Seneca is very cautious, and has been emphasizing mental health and the strength of strong women (although her new work may contain some "critical" sentiments) .
Seneca concluded by saying:
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