How a formerly imprisoned woman became a prominent NFT artist

Maryanne Chisholm took up the painting while spending over a decade in the Perryville Women’s Prison in Goodyear, Arizona.

“I started by drawing pencil drawings and crayons on the back of envelopes,” Chisholm told Insider, adding that art helped her cope with various mental health diagnoses. “I just did the best I could with what I had at the time.”

She was convicted after a conviction for white-collar crime, and spent time behind bars from 2005 to 2018. When she was released, she pursued art full-time in 2018, and later switched to NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which a way to earn a living.

After Beeple’s “Everyday: The First 5000 days” sold for nearly $ 70 million at Christie’s last year, Chisholm began learning about the nascent NFT space. She contacted other artists and creators online and ended up gaining more than 64,000 followers. Her artwork addresses themes such as mental health, often combined with colorful abstract paintings and portraits.

“NFTs for me are about taking control of our future. We can create our own income. We do not have to work for big companies,” she said. “We do not have to go to these nine-to-five jobs … It gives us a tool to share our creativity and our stories.”

The 57-year-old brought in sales of around $ 117,000 in about a year, according to a screenshot of her accounting records reviewed by Insider. Chisholm says she has sold around 330 pieces of her digital artwork so far. Over the last

beef market

she worked 80 hours per week to pursue a career as an NFT artist.

Chisholm made approximately 19.3 ethers, per dashboard cryptoart.io, on ether-based NFTs alone. During Ethereum’s all-time high in November, this would have been about $ 93,000 per crypto-dashboard Messari. Currently, this amount is $ 22,125 due to the steep decline in tokens in recent months. The artist sold NFTs on other blockchains such as Tezos as well, but they were not added to the total.

Bear market impact on NFT sales

Ethereum, which is used to shape and buy NFTs, is down 76.08% from a record high, according to Messari. Later, blue-chip collections have also seen their values ​​fall, according to an industry report from DappRadar on June 7. OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, fell 65% in trading volume last month.

In the midst of the broader downturn in the crypto market, NFT artists have made hits for their livelihoods. Creators like Chisholm say that their income is changing due to crypto

volatility

.

“We are in the middle of one

bear market

right now. Business was really amazing, and then it was really awful, “she said, adding that she has earned extra income in other ways such as coaching other creators to earn rent.

Ethereum gas taxes also take a large portion of her income. To use Ethereum, you incur costs when performing any function on the network. These fees can be even more expensive than the NFT itself. Many have turned to other blockchains and Layer-2s such as Polygon and Solana because they have lower costs and shorter transaction times.

When this market cycle has subsided, Chisholm predicts that she will take home an even larger sum of money than the six figures she made when she started.

Large companies that flow millions, and sometimes billions, into NFTs and blockchain integration, leave the artist optimistic about the future of the industry. For example, Twitter announced plans for blockchain integration on its platform in January.

“I think this is the year I’m going to make a lot of money,” she said. “I actually do not doubt it at all. I feel it in my legs.”