{"id":8643,"date":"2023-06-22T18:49:52","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T18:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/22\/grant-yun-on-surviving-the-bear-market-people-who-arent-here-are-going-to-miss-out\/"},"modified":"2023-06-22T18:49:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T18:49:52","slug":"grant-yun-on-surviving-the-bear-market-people-who-arent-here-are-going-to-miss-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/22\/grant-yun-on-surviving-the-bear-market-people-who-arent-here-are-going-to-miss-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant Yun on Surviving the Bear Market: &#8220;People Who Aren&#8217;t Here Are Going to Miss Out&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrantYun2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grant Yun<\/a> is a man of many hats.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being a medical student by day and a break dancer by night, the Milwaukee resident has managed to <a href=\"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/features\/fine-art-nfts-how-a-breakdancing-med-student-broke-into-web3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">make his mark<\/a> on the digital art market with six-figure sales and auctions at Christie\u2019s and Sotheby\u2019s. His Neo-Precisionist artwork frequently explores landscapes and scenery native to the Midwest and has become instantly recognizable in the NFT space.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/podcasts\/how-grant-yun-balances-med-school-with-six-figure-art-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">thoughtful interview<\/a>, Yun explains how he manages time between his art career and studies, shares tips for building a strong collector base, and opens up on staying grounded despite the challenges of the bear market.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Grant Yun Balances Med School With Six-Figure Art Sales\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eqWzlgkTRvk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Medved:\u00a0You have a really interesting backstory. Tell us a bit about juggling medical school, break dancing, and all the different pursuits you do while still also making your way into NFTs and having a real breakthrough in crypto art.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Grant Yun: <\/strong>I\u2019ve been an artist my whole life, and when I went to college, I wanted to start doing digital illustrations. I picked that up, kind of self-taught from the ground up. I started illustrating on PowerPoint, basically because I had no other tools; I didn\u2019t know of any other tools. But I taught myself a lot about artists and knew the type of art I wanted to convey. At the time, I just didn\u2019t have the skills or the tools to create the things I wanted to, but the vision has always been there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then over the years, I\u2019ve just been slowly grinding away at improving my style and finding a unique voice for myself as an artist. When we begin as artists, it\u2019s sometimes difficult to create a style of your own that\u2019s unique. It took me a lot of trial and error to get there. But eventually, I got to a point where I was very happy and confident with the style that I create.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Towards the end of 2020, I started hearing about Beeple, about things called metaverse lands, like on Decentraland. I\u2019ve always been a pretty big proponent of crypto. I always believed in Bitcoin and decentralized currencies. So, I looked into it, and there was this application to SuperRare. I didn\u2019t know what a Metamask was. I didn\u2019t really know that side of Twitter. I didn\u2019t know any of that. But I thought I\u2019d put myself out there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I applied for SuperRare and then completely forgot about it. In February of 2021, I got onboarded and accepted. That\u2019s when I minted my first NFT. The journey of getting from there to where I am today, and even when I started digital illustrations, has always been about pushing the boundaries of what I think I can possibly do with my life.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Story Behind My Art<br \/>-Grant Riven Yun (November, 2022)<\/p>\n<p>Link below and full text in thread \ud83d\udc47<br \/>1\/\ud83e\uddf5 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SUPJmR0iLl\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/SUPJmR0iLl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grant Riven Yun (@GrantYun2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrantYun2\/status\/1588972793156493313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 5, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re also known for having quite a distinctive artistic style. You\u2019ve cited some influences like Grant Wood and Ed Ruscha as influences in the past. How would you describe your style, and where do you draw that inspiration from?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve talked quite extensively about the artists that inspire me, and you\u2019ve mentioned a couple. Of course, I also have some other artists, like a lot of 1900s painters, and more recently, the Impressionists have been inspiring me as well. But something I don\u2019t talk about too often is just following my vision. That seems so cliche and ambiguous, but what I mean is that when I start an illustration, unless it\u2019s a commission, I just start with a very ambiguous concept and just go at it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It has no end goal to it. There\u2019s nothing I want to put in it. The only thing I want to make sure of is that it\u2019s subtle enough that people can relate to it from their own personal lives. And when I illustrate, the concern is, are the vibes right? If the vibes are not right, then I need to go back at it or stop it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I found this sweet spot at this point where I\u2019m able to create illustrations that I want to showcase, but at the same time are ambiguous enough, like I mentioned, where other people can look at [them] and think, \u2018oh, this is something from my life or something from my past or where I live or a particular memory that I\u2019ve had that I can relate to.\u2019 And that\u2019s really what my art is about. It\u2019s really about connecting emotionally with other people.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cMany of my collectors actually enjoy looking at the pieces they own from me\u2026 there\u2019s a very deep emotional connection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><cite>Grant Yun<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>The collector base you\u2019ve built up over the years is impressive. What advice do you have for artists looking to do the same?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Building a strong collector base is a difficult task, and I think some artists have it easier than others; for example, Tyler Hobbs and Dimitri Cherniak. Their art is exceptional to the point where there is no doubt that it\u2019s going to be something valuable in the future. It\u2019s not up to me to decide who has good art and who doesn\u2019t. The market dictates that. <\/p>\n<p>I think part of the reason I have a strong collector base is that many of my collectors actually enjoy looking at the pieces they own from me. Collectors often reach out to me about how this particular illustration reminds them of where they grew up, where they were born, where they met their partner, where they had their first kid, where they went to school, or where they work now. There\u2019s a very deep emotional connection. <\/p>\n<p>Another thing is being active on Twitter. I\u2019ve learned it\u2019s important to bite your tongue sometimes if you\u2019re heavily opinionated on something. Typically, those things that you\u2019re highly opinionated on kind of work themselves out anyways, and you don\u2019t need to be caught up in the fire while it\u2019s going on. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s being self-aware of your own art style and your internet presence on Twitter. For example, I remember when I first met <a href=\"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/features\/vincent-van-dough-art-of-this-millennium-notable-pepes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vincent Van Dough<\/a> (VVD) on Twitter. It was because I created this random Pepe in 2021. This was before I knew what Fake Rares were. I knew of the Nakamoto card but didn\u2019t know the Pepe community was so strong. VVD commented on it and followed me that day after he saw that. Then another collector reached out to me and said, \u2018Hey, I can onboard you to these things called Fake Rares.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>I met a lot of collectors and artists through Fake Rares, and I\u2019ve helped onboard a lot of artists as well onto that platform. So, one door opens another, as long as you\u2019re receptive and you\u2019re willing to hear people out and be self-aware and also aware of the status quo and the memes that are going on on Twitter and the macro and micro things that are happening in the world.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>How do you manage your time to give your artist career the attention it deserves while seeing through the commitment you\u2019ve made to medical school?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are things that you can sacrifice and things you can\u2019t. For example, I can give up video gaming. I enjoy playing video games, but that is more so a hobby than being an artist, right? It\u2019s very difficult for me to give up being an artist. I think setting a very clear set of absolute musts and things I cannot give up no matter how busy I am is important. Even going for a run, those are things that I don\u2019t think I could give up because a run takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, two hours for me. And I can listen to podcasts. I can listen to online lectures. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s actually what I did for basically the first three years of medical school. I would just go to the gym. I would listen to my lectures for two hours at the gym. It almost felt like I didn\u2019t waste a single minute. I\u2019m actually towards the end of medical school now, so I\u2019ve been through literally the hardest parts of medical school while I was doing all this NFT stuff. So, I know the rigorous demands that medical school has and how to juggle all of that. I would say the first thing is being good at multitasking. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cThere are things that you can sacrifice and things you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><cite>Grant Yun<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s about understanding your priorities. For example, the timeline for being an artist is significantly stretched out compared to being a doctor. Being a doctor means going from room to room, seeing a patient for 15 minutes, and then you go into a surgery. Whereas there\u2019s not this sense of immediacy as an artist. When I\u2019m working on projects, I can plan for a year in advance. Some of the things I\u2019m dropping this year have been in the works for a year. So, I allow myself that time, and I\u2019m given that time, and it\u2019s almost imperative that I do have that time to work on my art, work on the marketing, work on the drops with the company.<\/p>\n<p>I developed my style of art long before medical school. So, I kind of knew what I was doing. At the same time, while I wasn\u2019t on Twitter necessarily, I had a lot of experience on Instagram promoting things. I had that foundation of knowing how to interact, what memes are, and all of that. Coming into NFT Twitter, I didn\u2019t necessarily have to learn all that from the ground up, so when I started medical school, there was no time conflict where I needed to spend all this time developing my art style. Take that time to really develop the things you want to work on when things are slow. When the time comes, and things pick up, and you have 10,000 things on your to-do list, at least you completed the things you wanted to, so you have more time to do other things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s dive more directly into the subject of mental health. Obviously, there are a lot of stresses and pressures of being an artist in a space as volatile and fast-moving as NFTs and Web3. And then there are the stresses and pressures of being at medical school. How do you stay grounded?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The more I think about it, the one thing that grounds me more than anything, besides my family and the very important people in my life, is listening to music. I\u2019m a very big music person. I do my best to explore as many genres as possible. I was thinking about this yesterday actually, funnily enough. I was so sad that I might not have enough years in my life to explore all the music that I would like to.<\/p>\n<p>If I\u2019m creating a particular illustration, then I\u2019ll have some songs that I listen to. Sometimes when I\u2019m illustrating something that reminds me of, for example, my drive home from work, then I\u2019ll be listening to just the stuff that I listen to when I\u2019m driving home from work. That puts me in the mood to convey exactly what it is I want to show. I\u2019d like to play that while I\u2019m illustrating to really fully immerse myself into whatever it is.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/grant-yun-ocean-1-1200x675.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43089\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/grant-yun-ocean-1-1200x675.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/grant-yun-ocean-1-700x394.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/grant-yun-ocean-1-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/grant-yun-ocean-1-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/grant-yun-ocean-1-150x84.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/grant-yun-ocean-1.jpeg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p><strong>One of the things that is characteristic of the NFT and crypto space is the volatility. There are the bulls and the bears, and all of the market cycles. For many artists in the NFT space, this kind of bear market is a new experience. From your own experience, having been in the NFT space for a long time, what has it been like to navigate as an artist, and what have been the challenges and opportunities you\u2019ve found within that dynamic?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been fortunate. I\u2019m aware of the situation that we\u2019re in as a space, but there\u2019s also luck mixed in for sure. I haven\u2019t been hit as hard. I think I\u2019m doing fairly well in the space, all things considered. But the space is difficult right now. I think a lot of artists can build. I know talking about building is almost a meme at this point because everyone\u2019s building.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But I think any artist who is genuinely building and creating and improving upon themselves, as long as they\u2019re seriously looking into constructive feedback and improving upon whatever it is they want to, when things turn around for the better, it\u2019ll become very clear who actually was doing the building and who was just saying they were and weren\u2019t doing anything.<\/p>\n<p>I also think that those who are here now and haven\u2019t left, despite maybe not having a sale [in a long time], will probably be more rewarded, not only because of the bags that they\u2019re holding or the art they\u2019re putting out. There are things that other people are going to miss out on that are going on right now. There are some unique and exciting things happening in 2023 despite the condition of the market. People who aren\u2019t here are just going to miss out.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thrilled to announce &#8220;Midwest&#8221; will be included in Christie&#8217;s Post-War &amp; Contemporary Art Day Sale happening live in NYC on May 12th! <br \/>Physical you say? included alongside the NFT \ud83e\udee1\ud83d\udcaf<br \/>Link below to the auction.<br \/>1\/\ud83e\uddf5 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0WoHGIIky3\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/0WoHGIIky3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grant Riven Yun (@GrantYun2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrantYun2\/status\/1649458117845942284?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April 21, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>When we talk about your artistic career, you have achieved some major milestones; the major auction sales at Sotheby\u2019s and Christie\u2019s come to mind. What do you consider to be on your bucket list? What are some things you want to achieve in the future?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a great question. The next thing that I\u2019m looking toward is probably a show. Either a solo or a group exhibition would be something that I\u2019m looking forward to. I\u2019m working on a body of work right now that I would like to showcase at some point, hopefully within the next year. I guess we\u2019ll just have to see how it pans out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been really difficult to wrap my head around what it means to be an artist in the NFT space and the overarching art space because we\u2019re like a self-sufficient, sustainable community here, right? I mean, no Christie\u2019s, no Sotheby\u2019s, no galleries. We can, and we have been, kind of self-sufficient. The NFTs that are being purchased, for the most part, are from crypto-native sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re slowly branching out to different sectors and different areas of the world and trying to onboard as many people as possible while we\u2019re doing that. But finding an identity as an artist has been more challenging than I thought it would be. I say that because it\u2019s easier to find an identity on the internet as an internet persona creating NFTs. But now that I\u2019m doing my best to try to break out into a different space, it\u2019s essentially starting from the ground up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sure, my art might have a higher price tag, but that doesn\u2019t really mean very much, personally speaking, compared to gaining those experiences working with galleries or museums and working with a different side of art that a lot of us just haven\u2019t seen and haven\u2019t gone through. I think it\u2019s going to be challenging but also really exciting. My next big goal really is just to try to grow a career in art from the ground up.<\/p>\n<p><em>This interview transcript has been edited for concision and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>For the full and uncut interview, listen to our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eqWzlgkTRvk&amp;ab_channel=nftnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">podcast episode<\/a>\u00a0with<\/em> <em>Grant Yun.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/features\/grant-yun-podcast-interview-feature\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grant Yun is a man of many hats. Despite being a medical student by day and a break dancer by night, the Milwaukee resident has managed to make his mark on the digital art market with six-figure sales and auctions at Christie\u2019s and Sotheby\u2019s. His Neo-Precisionist artwork frequently explores landscapes and scenery native to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/062123_Grant_Yun_Editorial_Graphics_feature1-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}