Sara Baumann: NFTs Let Me Quit My Job

One time successful September, portion moving full-time arsenic an occupational therapist astatine a infirmary successful Texas, Sara Baumann was successful a patient’s country erstwhile her Apple ticker started pinging similar crazy.

“Of course, you can’t scroll done an Apple Watch precise rapidly to stitchery information,” she says. So she went downstairs and called her hubby to inquire what was happening. He picked up the telephone and started crying.

This nonfiction is portion of Road to Consensus, a bid highlighting speakers and the large ideas they volition sermon astatine Consensus 2022, CoinDesk's festival of the twelvemonth June 9-12 successful Austin, Texas. Learn more.

“Sara, Gary [Vaynerchuck] conscionable bought each 3 of your creation pieces,” Baumann recalls him saying. The remainder of her genesis non-fungible token (NFT) collection, 10 paintings of women carrying weapons ranging from grenades to flamethrowers, past sold retired successful 45 seconds.

Baumann instantly asked whether she could discontinue her occupation – she cared profoundly astir her patients and colleagues, but creation was her passion, and she’d ever dreamed of doing it full-time. Her hubby advised her to wait. Still, realizing that present was her clip to “capitalize connected the momentum,” Baumann enactment her caput down and started moving hard connected her adjacent NFT collection, 1 that she calls much “purpose-built for the space.”

That postulation became Women and Weapons, a 10,000-piece illustration representation task (PFP) featuring women with assorted tegument tones, human-powered weapons (like boxing wraps and nunchucks), and nods to celebrated women from history, similar Queen Isabella of Spain and Hurrem, the Ottoman Sultan’s woman who led with her hubby successful “almost adjacent caliber.” She drew each the women by hand, past utilized an algorithm to mismash their assorted traits to make each unsocial image.

After astir a six weeks of moving nine- to 10-hour infirmary shifts, past coming location to gully for an further 5 hours, Baumann yet minted Women and Weapons successful October 2021. They sold retired successful nether 4 hours.

“The remainder has benignant of been history,” she says. Cliché, but existent – Baumann was yet capable to permission her infirmary occupation successful January, and has go the driving creator dependable of a assemblage centered connected questioning the treble standards betwixt men and women done jarring, lively portraits of women who boldly look viewers successful the eye, challenging them with protruding tongues oregon hands afloat of ninja stars.

“People mightiness walk a movie poster of a antheral holding a limb and deliberation thing of it,” Baumann says. “Why is it that arsenic soon arsenic you're seeing a pistillate holding a limb you person an contented with it?”

These treble standards use successful the NFT industry, wherever a notorious 2021 Art Tactic report showed women artists accounted for conscionable 5% of NFT creation sales. Baumann spoke with CoinDesk astir however she hopes to situation this presumption quo with her collection, the disturbing 1940s advertisements that inspired her enactment and however she’s utilizing Women and Weapons to supply a non-violent “weapon” for women – education.

Before Women and Weapons, you painted your smaller genesis postulation – but that was earlier you got into NFTs. How did you initially effort and merchantability them?

It was mostly done Etsy. I tried to commencement my ain website on, I think, Shopify, and was trying to marketplace myself connected Facebook and Instagram. It would beryllium a station successful the greeting earlier I went to enactment and past a station successful the evening, whenever I would get home. That's each I had clip to do. My husband, recognizing that the postulation meant a batch to me, urged maine to mint my artwork arsenic NFTs. It took a batch of clip for maine to probe and truly recognize the space, particularly fixed that I didn't person a ton of clip to beryllium researching.

Occasionally connected Saturdays, helium volition station that he's looking for a caller one-of-one creator to cod from. In my case, helium had posted that helium was looking for one-of-one artists who had unsold pieces to collect. I posted successful his comments, “I'd emotion for you to beryllium my archetypal collector.” I attached immoderate of my images successful my link.

So helium truly helped motorboat your vocation successful NFTs.

He not lone helped maine out, but is besides helping a batch of different women arsenic well. Not conscionable artists, but besides pistillate businesspeople. For example, helium has Avery Akkineni, who's the president of VaynerNFT. She’s the astir unthinkable pistillate connected satellite Earth. He's been precise supportive of a batch of women getting into Web 3, educating them, making definite that they person the accidental to person precocious visibility roles.

There's that statistic going astir astir however 5% of creation income successful the NFT abstraction spell to women artists. When you saw that were you surprised? Or were you much like, this makes consciousness based connected what I've seen?

I deliberation a small spot of some – a small spot of surprise, successful that I didn’t expect the fig would beryllium truthful low. At the aforesaid time, I was, like, OK, this is fuel, let's go. This statistic is making maine admit there's a request for pistillate practice successful the space, but besides a request for accrued acquisition astir the space. In aboriginal to mid-2021 it was precise overmuch a boys’ club. A batch of women did consciousness precise excluded.

We're inactive trying to execute wage equality, and equality regarding pistillate leaders successful business, tech, instrumentality – truthful galore antithetic areas. The Web 3 abstraction is specified a brand-new frontier. We request to bring arsenic galore women arsenic we perchance tin successful truthful that they don't miss this opportunity. Seeing what it did for maine – the information that I'm capable to execute my dreams of being a full-time creator – I privation to invitation women successful not conscionable to bargain NFTs, not conscionable to commencement their ain NFT project, but to execute immoderate superpower they person successful Web 3 truthful that they tin person a sustainable vocation and execute fiscal independence.

What made you yet discontinue the infirmary to spell into Women and Weapons full-time?

First, I continued trying to enactment successful the infirmary astatine a PRN status, which fundamentally means arsenic needed. I was moving 1 to 2 days, usually weekends, until astir January. My past time going into the hospital, I recognized that the full clip I was determination I was thinking, ‘I person truthful overmuch to do, I person truthful galore emails to get backmost to, I've truthful galore things that I request to accomplish.’

Of course, having a Middle Eastern mother, she was precise overmuch like, [putting connected her mother’s accent] ‘Sara, you amended not discontinue your job, you don't cognize however agelong this lasts.’ After capable months of moving PRN and her recognizing that Women and Weapons truly needed maine full-time, she goes, [accent again] ‘Sara, I deliberation you request to discontinue your occupation and possibly bash Women and Weapons full-time.’ Wow, OK. Finally I get the greenish airy from my mother.

In designing the collection, however did you travel up with the women’s antithetic traits?

First, I volition accidental that designing an NFT postulation is nary casual feat. You person to marque definite that everything matches up. But 1 of the things I wanted to encapsulate successful the traits was having arsenic overmuch practice arsenic possible, fixed that determination are constraints successful a generative collection. I was inspired by my manager, Carolyn, who has vitiligo, a tegument information that removes the pigmentation from your skin.

I created the Carolyn body, which represents women with vitiligo. I tried to correspond a assortment of hairstyles, hairsbreadth textures, hairsbreadth colors, tegument colors, oculus colors and I besides wanted to take names for the assemblage traits that represented notable women passim history. Not each of them are that – I person 1 named Lavenza, which is Frankenstein's wife.

I besides wanted to take weaponry that required manual power. We person a batch of brass knuckles, boxers’ wraps, nunchucks. It’s not firepower – it's much astir the spot successful the individual. That's what powers the weapon.

But your genesis postulation has firepower.

Yes, yes. I wanted to take weapons from antithetic clip periods – similar the 1940s era. When women went into the workforce, it was surrounding the war.

My precise archetypal portion is the woman holding the grenade with the flowers coming retired of it. I saw galore ads from the 1940s and 1950s that enactment women down. There’s 1 footwear advertisement with a pistillate lying adjacent to the shoes, and it says, ‘Keep her wherever she belongs.’ They're honestly super-upsetting, and a large portion of wherefore I wanted to represent women arsenic almighty during that era. There's different advertisement of a antheral spanking his woman – helium has her implicit his thigh connected a seat – and he's spanking her due to the fact that she bought the incorrect marque of coffee. I wanted to represent a pistillate of that advertizing epoch holding that grenade successful an astir satirical manner, but besides removing the unit from it by adding the flowers. She's the 1 that truly sparked my flame.

Do you get radical who instrumentality contented with the anticipation that your postulation is promoting violence?

Art is meant to elicit a response. Would radical person stopped and had a speech oregon probed if it was a pistillate with fabric candy successful her hand? Probably not. A large crushed wherefore I created the postulation was to commencement conversations astir equity, practice and treble standards. I'm doing that by having thing jarring. People often connection maine asking, ‘Why Women and Weapons, wherefore not respect and equality?’ To which I reply them, ‘This is why. I privation the accidental to person this benignant of a speech with you.’

How did you take which foundation to donate 5% of your archetypal and secondary Women and Weapons income to?

Sustainable alteration is important for maine – truthful is the designation that for a woman, acquisition tin beryllium her weapon, particularly successful underserved nations wherever women often don't person that opportunity. Even gaining a semblance of an acquisition tin summation the likelihood for a pistillate to summation independency and statesman her ain career, which is portion of wherefore I chose the Malala Fund. She’s opening doors for women and children astir the satellite to person that accidental to spell to school.

Do you person a favourite limb that you chose to picture successful the collection?

It’s not needfully akin to Persian daggers, but the golden daggers are astir apt the closest to Persian daggers that I could get. Obviously, I'm Iranian. I emotion thing that's gold, truthful the golden weapons are my favorite. But the aureate daggers are my implicit favorite, and I deliberation that's heavy due to the fact that of my taste appreciation. If you look astatine immoderate of the Ottoman daggers, they're precise ornate and precise beautiful. Not lone were they utilized for powerfulness and status, but they were besides creation pieces.

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