Difi Swap

This week NFT Steez spoke to award winning artist Victor Solomon about basketball, the Metaverse, Web3 and his unique NFT collection. On Dec. 2, NFT Steez hosts Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond chatted with Victor Solomon to discuss his journey into bridging his in-real-life artwork into NFTs and how he cultivates the community and culture that surrounds it. Solomon’s work centers around basketball, not just the object, but the sport itself. For Solomon, the inspiration for his work comes from his early childhood of wanting to play hockey, a sport that was not accessible for him, and his eventual discovery of basketball which he discovered to be more accommodating. Solomon said: “Basketball was such an inspirational platform for me since there’s no barrier to entry.”Solomon says that the open nature of basketball is an “incredible parallel for everything that’s happening in Web3” and throughout the episode he explains the symbiotic relationship he has experienced in building out VesselVerse, the basketball of the Metaverse.Bridging the gap between real life and digital spacesWhen asked about the liberating elements of creating and iterating in Web3, Solomon drew attention to the “invigorating” nature of being able to create things that cannot exist in real life, like a “planet inside a hollow basketball,” but also the process of taking the physical elements into digital renderings and composites. For Solomon, building a collection and a community to rally around it was second nature. His extensive experience in the traditional art world gave him the same insight and structure on how he releases digital collectibles. Drawing inspiration from other NFT projects like Nouns, Solomon’s digital collection, VesselVerse operates similarly to his real life pieces, except one “vessel,” or basketball is auctioned off every hour. Contrary to physical installations or show pieces in a gallery, Solomon noted that creating within…