Meet Arreah Bihary, 19, Making First Steps Into the NFT World
In 2021, NFTs became widely popular — and while there is still a larger number of Millennial males interested in the space — younger artists and collectors begin to come along and make a mark.
In the case of Arreah, the artist behind the Kissers collection, it was actually her mom Brecky, who brought her to DeSo, the blockchain where her collection is minted and available for sale.
“My mum jumped on board with crypto and the NFT space. She told me about it and said, it’s an interesting way to get your artwork out there.”
The Bihary Family: Growing up With Creativity
Arreah’s parents are the renowned face and body artist Dutch Bihary and his wife Brecky who is mostly responsible for the entrepreneurial part of their small family business.
They lay the foundation for Arreah’s own interest in art.
While growing up she and her sister would join them at different conventions, such as Comicons or Haunted House conventions. These places were their playground.
Since she can remember Arreah loved to draw. Obviously, pencil and paper are the most accessible form of art.
“I grew up with art and creating art in different forms. Usually it would be drawing. Pencil and paper were always with me.”
Another form of expression was being involved in small community theatre projects. At first, Arreah would take part as an actor. But one day she got an assistant director role. And even though, she didn’t love the ‘assistant’ part of it, she learned a lot during that time.
“Working with others. Being open to others’ creative ideas. You actually have work to do in that role. There’s independence in the collaborativeness of that.
I really love the fact that you get to create this sort of masterpiece together and everyone gets to be proud of it.”
The work of her dad serves her as one of the biggest sources of inspiration to pursue her own creativity. He’s ignited the spark in Arreah to learn and understand art in all shapes. This made her try out a wide range of different ways of expression.
“The drive and inspiration to learn and understand art in all forms comes from my dad. I dabbled in theatre, painting, writing, and film ultimately.
One of the programs that was most inspiring in school was writing and literature. And classic literature inspired me.”
Ultimately, the ability to combine storytelling and art was the reason for Arreah to find her passion in film.
Today, the 19-year-old is finishing up on her film studies in the Seattle area.
Focus, Dedication, and Constant Learning at the Core
Arreah is very dedicated to learning everything necessary to advance her dreams.
In school, she was all about getting a good education.
While others got easily distracted and would throw paper planes around, Arreah was focused on studying.
This led her to take part in a special education program called “Running Start” that allows students to take college courses at community and technical colleges. Students earn both high school and college credits for these courses. And that’s what Arreah did.
Her focus drives her to pursue and reach her goals. At the same time, she’s looking to work collaboratively with others.
When it comes to connections online, she sees them as a way to enable that collaboration as well as learning.
Her first contact with social media was on Twitter when she was 14 years old. She had just gotten her first mobile and went for a social media experience that was more streamlined compared to Facebook or Instagram.
“Twitter was easy to access and to communicate. I believe it’s also good for broadcasting, as soon as you have enough followers. And it’s a way to connect to other artists.”
As for DeSo she hopes to network with creatives in the NFT space who she can learn from or work together with.
“My mom told me about DeSo.
It’s an interesting way to get your artwork out there. She said: you can finally sell your artwork. It’s not my main goal. Networking is more important. Making money is a good motivator but I see it as a learning opportunity. It’s a new community. Sort of learning and listening to try to figure out where it’s going. It’s a fascinating thing. It’s a part of the future. And it includes NFTs and artwork. It’s all been a little surreal.”
Her First NFT Project “Kissers”: A Wonderfully Surprising Success for Arreah
The idea to sell her art came from Arreah’s mom Brecky. Originally, she had proposed to her to bring some of her work to the booth they had at a convention.
Arreah worked hard on the “Kissers” — figures with big goofy mouths, different bodies, and a set of varying attributes. But in the end, she didn’t manage to print them to bring them to the convention.
But she ended up storing the files to keep for later.
Being introduced to the world of NFTs she found it was time to put them out there.
The genesis edition of Kissers was minted from 10th February this year.
36 unique Kissers came to life on the DeSo blockchain. All of them were sold.
Arreah was surprised by the popularity of her Kissers. Yes, she was proud of them which also led her to put them on sale, however, she didn’t expect so much support and love from the community.
“It was my 36 genesis kissers and I was in awe to see how fast they were going. I’m starting to think more about what can come next.
At first, I thought this might be a one off. Now, I am just realizing that this has potential.
It’s nice to be appreciated and have people wanna purchase your artwork.”
Continuous Growth and a Little Improvisation
Her success caught Arreah by surprise. Now, she is growing with it. There is no concrete plan yet, but she hopes to be able to continue to learn and meet like-minded people.
“Because I’m so new to the NFT space I still not have set goals. My mom’s first idea is to find someone to do generative NFTs. I would also be down to collaborate with other people on projects. I’m always grateful to meeting people who are more knowledgable and open to teach. I think of it as an honor to be able to have that.”
In the future, Arreah can imagine venturing out to other blockchains. However, at the moment she still has a lot to learn that has to do with orientation around DeSo. Knowing and using the main DeSo nodes, the different places to communicate outside DeSo, such as Clubhouse, Connect.Club, or Discord, can all be a little overwhelming for a newbie.
Brecky, Arreah’s mom is there to help though. And then there are all the other people on DeSo who are also supporting.
This is actually something Arreah was surprised by: the world of NFTs and the people in it are much better than expected. Somehow, her friends in the independent art space distrust NFTs and their creators. Stories of NFT “artists” stealing others’ work and selling them as their own NFTs have put them off. Arreah’s experience on the other hand is now very much the opposite.
“Some of my art friends distrust the NFT community as a whole. I learned that it wasn’t as unpleasant as my friends would easily sum it up to be.
I think, there are less kind individuals in any space and any community. Through DeSo I am able to see the goodness in this community.”
The community orientation of DeSo is definitely something that speaks for continuing there.
It’s a good starting point for new artists. They come to a supportive place where people are willing to help each other out. It’s these traits that Arreah often sees as missing in other online communities.
“It’s hard to find anything on Social Media that has such a supportive following. Somewhere else, people harshly criticise other artists because they don’t like the way someone draws a certain character.
Strong community is little on social media. DeSo’s got something that seems stronger than other spaces online.”
Looking Forward: Building a Platform to Help Others
Thinking of her own creative endeavors and the near future, Arreah hopes to continue to be able to share her work. Seeing her artistry being viewed and shared is definitely something she loves.
The money she made with her NFTs will help to further promote what she is doing. She appreciates the fact that independent artists can have a space and be seen by the world.
But it will also be important to help others to come on board and make them a part of it. Maybe she will also be able to get her artistic friends to see what she is seeing in the NFT space and in DeSo.
“Even though I am not there yet. Attempts will be made to get to that point.” she says laughingly. “Honestly, I want to be able to further others. It’s like give and take. So everyone can get up there.
I wish everyone could experience it like I did: Someone buying your artwork through the NFT space. And it went so quickly on DeSo. That was very inspiring.
I’m definitely hoping to make my friends see it as well. Just that the whole NFT space is developing and to convince them it’s a safe space. It’s a risk worth taking.”
For the DeSo blockchain, she thinks there’s no doubt it will continue to grow. From her perspective, something that has managed to develop into a community of inclusive, inspirational, and supportive creators has all the potential.
And to everyone who’s on DeSo she wants to say:
“Thank you for being you and so inclusive and inspirational to other artists and creators, and bolsting each other up. It’s important to have that in a global online space. Thanks for being around.”
Getting on Board
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