Meet NLV
NLV’s artistic journey began almost as soon as he could hold a pencil. He started illustrating around the age of four, inspired in large part by his grandmother, an oil painter who lived nine hours away in another state. During visits, she taught him how to create with his mind and translate that vision onto paper and canvas. From there, he became obsessed with pop art. Marvel comics, Looney Tunes, Disney, surf logos, Mattel toys, anything he came across, he drew. His parents even worried at times because he mimicked all imagery, including taboo and satanic symbols, which led to serious conversations about what those symbols meant.
At age eight, everything changed when he stumbled upon a group of breakdancers performing on cardboard mats outside the ferry terminal in Manly, Sydney. Ghetto blasters blasted Run DMC as dancers spun on their heads, and for NLV, it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. From that day on, he was immersed in hip hop culture. Shell toes, Adidas, Nike Air 87s, baggy pants, backward caps, and eventually graffiti became central to his identity. He practiced letters and characters daily, and his parents eventually supported his path as an aerosol artist. The leap from Poscas and pencils to spray cans was huge, but he loved every minute of it, spending over 15 years getting into all kinds of mischief and scrawling anti system messages wherever he could.
Eventually, life intervened. NLV decided the system was not so easily defeated and shifted into graphic design. Graffiti had already taught him typography, composition, colour, balance, and the rule of thirds, so designing campaigns for businesses and brands felt natural. He hustled his way into becoming a creative director, only to realise that while he was proud of the work, the title itself felt meaningless. He left the morally bankrupt corporate world and started his own company, hoping to work with brands that genuinely cared about the future of the planet and humanity.
He survived six years as a video production company director, but ultimately had to face a hard truth: no one cared about high quality video skills anymore, and AI was threatening the industry. As a result, he began studying IT for a year, followed by cybersecurity for another year, in hopes of building something more secure for his future.
Rewinding to 2018, his younger brother, who had introduced him to BTC and Ξ in 2016, messaged him about NFTs. He tried to explain how pixelated JPEGs were selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars on the blockchain and suggested NLV figure out how to get involved with his photography and art. NLV dismissed it, thinking it was some hare brained scam from Alex Jones group chats about the Bilderberg lizard people.
Then he saw the Beeple sale. He saw XCOPY, whom he knew from DeviantArt, blowing up. In early 2021, he watched Instagram friends sell batches of photos overnight for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Ethereum. That’s when he reached out to PHLY Images and Ben Mack, who showed him how to move some Ξ to MetaMask and lazy mint on OpenSea in March 2021. Still, he stepped back, as he had a baby daughter and life was hectic.
Everything shifted when he found CT in September 2021. Suddenly, everything went mental. He sold lots of works, including a 1/1 on FND for 1.5 Ξ, nearly $7k AUD at the time. His mind was melting. He still had no idea what the fuck this was, only that it was working in his favour. From there, he dove in head first, spending hours learning the who, what, and why of everything, and forming friendships that remain important to him today.
He was even lucky enough to land a role as media and content manager for ClickCreate, achieving many wins that still blow him away. Later, he saw artists like Wild Alps and Haftka talking about ordinals, a brand new protocol allowing art to be inscribed on the mother chain. He dabbled, tried to understand it all, but time wasn’t on his side, so he didn’t make the leap immediately, even while championing BTC and the new collector base to friends like Intrepid and Timmbo.
Keeping an Open Mind
NLV has always believed in trying new things in Web3 and keeping an open mind. He kicks himself for not committing earlier, especially after seeing friends succeed, but he’s proud to now be a Gamma partner and to have made sales of his work there. He strongly believes BTC is a great store of value for art and possibly the best hedge for which chain will last for artists. Either way, having his art there makes sense for permanent provenance.
NLV began minting ocean photography first, and that work has always been tied to his mental health journey. Flying his drone at dawn over the coastal regions of Australia’s east coast changed his life. Anxiety was all but cured. He found solace and passion in being present and sharing those images with the world.
He began to realise that how he lived his life was unusual and that people enjoyed his posts about it. Then people enjoyed collecting his NFTs too. It became a deeply enjoyable process, almost like therapy. For nearly a year, he woke for almost every sunrise, often driving hours to specific locations, sometimes coming away with nothing but loving the process regardless.
After eight years mastering aerial photography, he wanted to share more of his stories through other mediums. While he still loves photography, he’s always done much more with his art, and this year he decided to take the plunge into minting mixed media works. This allowed for a more layered and complex approach to storytelling and gave him a way to express darker themes from his life and mind.
He fell in love with glitch art after being introduced to Patrick Amadon and the artists curated for ClickCreate’s glitch art month. As a photographer focused on harmony and nature, he hadn’t understood it at first, but the graffiti artist in him was intrigued. Hearing from artists like Empress Trash and Glitch Queen hooked him. He went deep, researching the history and origins of glitch art, and realised it was the perfect medium to express himself and his stories.
In 2023, he began experimenting, using After Effects and video production skills to develop his own styles and effects, but he hesitated to share them. He was warned it was too hard to do multiple styles, that collectors would be confused, and that he should start again under an alias. But NLV never met a rule he liked. A graffiti kid at heart, he refused to be boxed in. He began putting ideas together and formed a plan to introduce Web3 to his other styles, with graffiti and hip hop culture playing a central role.
Submitting a meme card to 6529 became the perfect way to do this. It went well. His first meme card was animated, so people already knew he wasn’t just a photographer. His second card was voted in by peers and featured a graffiti re emerging of SGT Pepe and a mural Arsonic paid for, painted by NLV and his old friends during a 20 year reunion. That was the moment he decided to go all in. Since then, he’s been creating glitch works and mixed media pieces and minting them intentionally each month. Signals will play a role soon, and he’s loving being able to express himself through these new mediums while still continuing his aerial and in water surf photography. Going forward, he plans to do all art forms and styles he loves at the same time and mint both.
Inscribing on BTC
What drew NLV to ordinals was seeing other artists champion the movement and hearing their reasons. Knowing BTC was forever made sense to him, and he believed collectors would eventually understand it too. He wishes he had made the move earlier, but fees were prohibitive at the time and life was too busy.
Then he watched friends he’d persuaded to open their minds to BTC make big sales. He pulled out his Trezor with his precious 2016 BTC and contacted Gamma to learn how to create ocean photography ordinals, with thanks to Timmbo and Intrepid for their advice, and to Andrew Hooker for vouching for him to become a Gamma partner artist. So far, it’s been a great experience, with some existing collectors bridging from Ξ to BTC and picking up prints already. He’s very bullish on ordinals and plans to invest more of his hard earned money into inscribing more photography works and new styles going forward.
So far, NLV has released two 1/1 artworks on Gamma: Beware of Sharks and Chain Reactions. Both hold deep emotional power for him. Beware of Sharks is a drone capture he spent years searching for, a great white shark in clear water, perfectly visible from above. When his dream finally came true in 2024, he wanted to leave the image for all to enjoy for eternity, a proud moment immortalised.
Chain Reactions is equally special, rooted in his lifelong love of surfing and the ocean, his second home. The image came from a day charging heavy shore break closeouts with his younger brother at their favourite sand bank spot. The conditions were so good he went to grab his camera, and they spent hours playing in the shallows, taking waves to the head and beating after beating just to capture the beauty of the waves they were dropping into. It was a day he’ll never forget, and now it will live forever on the mother chain.
Finding Web3
NLV holds a diploma in Graphic Design, which included life drawing, painting, and other traditional art forms as part of his studies. The core focus on multimedia and technology helped open his mind to the power and freedom of digital creation, shaping the way he works today.
Finding Web3 helped NLV take his art more seriously while still having maximum fun creating and sharing it. Before Web3, art was never financially viable for him despite trying galleries, awards, and social media. Art was deeply personal, and he was hesitant to go deep in sharing his work. When collectors began paying large sums and telling him his art had value to them, it changed everything. His self esteem rose exponentially, and his belief in himself and his work grew massively. Encouraging friends in Web2 to join has been incredible too.
His growth has been huge. He’s entered awards, gained accolades, exhibited around the world in prestigious galleries and exhibitions, been published by National Geographic, and earned respect from his peers. The confidence and self respect he’s gained, and making his family proud, has been incredible. Opportunities in Web3 keep expanding, and he continues to find more.
NLV cites DAIM, SEEN, and CAN 2 as massive influences on his artistic style, later discovering Ben Frost, Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Dali, Brett Whiteley, and others. In photography, he was inspired by PHLY Images, Ben Mack, and Anj Semark, who shaped his obsession with coastal imagery and set him on his own path.
He doesn’t consciously worry about balancing influence and originality. He simply creates what he loves and lets it flow outward naturally. If something doesn’t feel right, he leaves it and comes back when the spark returns. Some pieces take years and remain unfinished, others take an hour and feel complete. He loves both outcomes.
FOMO and Trust
Seeing others succeed while he struggled early on became one of NLV’s biggest growth factors. FOMO hit harder here than anything he’d experienced before. Missing out felt constant and overwhelming at first. Over time, he realised missing out is just part of the process, and showing up anyway is when the magic happens. Opportunities are everywhere, which is why FOMO is so prevalent. Once he accepted that, it became easier to feel grateful for his wins rather than fixated on what he missed.
His journey has taken longer than others, but he knows some people would kill to be in his shoes. The journey is meant to be enjoyed, not compared or rushed. Being himself, trusting the process, helping others win, and celebrating their successes have been huge factors in his maturity and growth in all aspects of life.
Signals is the next project NLV wants to explore. The idea of seeing how art lovers connect to his work before minting anything feels clever to him, though he admits he’s always nervous to see if anyone gives a shit about what he’s releasing. Still, he loves experimenting and plans to put his new AI photo inspired mixed media and collage works up for voting soon.
Look After Yourself
Based on everything he’s learned over the past five years, NLV says the most important advice is not to get caught up in hype. The excitement of Web3 led to multiple burnouts early on, mainly from being online too much and trying to do too much at once. Taking time, looking after yourself, and regularly being offline will set you up for a healthier Web3 journey. The rest will fall into place over time.
He also notes that people in the space are mostly very helpful, so artists shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions. Just don’t rush into anything. This is a long term path, and it’s only just getting started.
Explore NLV's art on Gamma
