It can’t be denied that Marcel is a phenomenally talented artist in his own right, and the quality and beauty of his individual pieces is next level impressive. But he’s also wise enough to realise that more can be achieved when great minds come together.
This is especially true in the cryptoart space, where art is rapidly evolving from flat, static images to immersive experiences, which combine images, music, animation, and even VR elements to create something never before seen. And so many artists are coming to recognise the possibilities available when different art forms are merged together. But when you’re not an expert in music, animation, or VR, this often means calling in back-up to make creative dreams become reality.
And that is exactly what Marcel van Luit has done, and the results speak for themselves.
As part of his ‘Flower Series’, Marcel has joined forces with Scott Lipps, the founder and CEO of Lipps management in LA and passionate photographer, and John Ewbank, the accomplished and much-loved Dutch composer, to create two unique and stunning pieces that raise the bar for artists everywhere. (You can check out these amazing pieces at the bottom of the blog).
But this is far from the first collaborative work Marcel has been part of. Marcel has a long history of merging minds with other creative people to build something special together. He’s worked with other artists, photographers, sculptors, musicians and even chefs in the pursuit of his work, and in all cases it’s been a match made in heaven.
Food Meets Art
One of Marcel’s most notable collaborations was with a restaurant in Antwerp, where the chef created a custom menu based on Marcel’s work. Each dish represented a piece of art and invited diners to absorb and interact with the art in a brand new way. “My first collaboration in Antwerp was with a Michelin star restaurant. We showed my work and the chef cooked a bespoke menu. The chef made food inspired by the work I did, and as people were admiring my work, they could eat something related to it, and they could smell the scents inspired by the work.”
Having a whole menu designed around your artwork? Now, that is pretty cool! And it inspired Marcel to pursue new creative outlets, eventually leading to his foray into the NFT space (which we are obviously extremely excited about).
For Marcel, and so many other artists, this is an incredible time to be in the creative space, and NFTs, in particular, allow for a degree of creative freedom we’ve never seen before. When we sat down with Marcel, he shared his thoughts on the excitement he feels about this new realm and the opportunities it offers: “I think since the NFT space exploded, there are so many creative people coming to me, and there are other creative people looking for options. Musicians want to create something to do with videos, and they’re looking for video editors, or contemporary artists who paint are looking for sculptors to transform their work. There are so many new options.”
Taking Art to New Heights
When choosing who to collaborate with, Marcel is understandably, very selective, but as he wisely said, “if it’s complementary to each other, you can really get your work to a higher level.”
“When we were talking to Scott and John about doing this in NFT instead of the physical world, a lot of boundaries disappeared. Normally you have boundaries in what you can do, but in this new space we did a brainstorm session and without any limits tried to brainstorm about all the creative options they could come up with. These are super creative people, who if you put them together at a table, they won’t stop. Never. If you take away those borders you just go ‘wow’. And this NFT space is just so inspiring on so many levels. I see so many things coming through and it opens doors in my mind seeing what other people are doing, and other concepts.”
Building Worlds Together
It’s also quite a departure from the ways things are typically done in the physical art world, and opens up the door to make new connections where creatives build each other up and support one another. This sense of community and encouragement is something we at Terra Virtua love about the cryptoart space, and it’s something Marcel also highlighted as a high point for his work, “It’s different to the traditional art world, because normally everyone is on their own little island, but I think here in the NFT space you get the feeling that people aren’t going to bite each other and instead, can work together. You can share the same path and work together for better outcomes. The thing I really like about this is getting to meet other creative people, and other people that you just wouldn’t meet in the physical space. That’s the thing that gets me really most excited.”
Aside from the active collaborations, Marcel told us that he values being able to make these connections, because meeting new people offers such inspiration for his work. “The thing that really adds value for me, that I really strive for in the future, is to meet more people I can connect with and get inspired by. As an artist I’m always looking for inspiration, and of course, you get inspired by others. Especially now because we cannot travel. In normal times we would travel a lot, and I get so inspired by everyone that I meet, and everything that we see, and all the countries we visit, and the cultures that we experience. Obviously we couldn’t do that recently, and I think this is a really nice alternative, to still get inspired and meet other interesting people and connect to them easily.”
We are so grateful that Marcel happened to meet Scott Lipps and John Ewbank and that they have collaborated on these upcoming pieces, because they are truly exceptional. And we are extremely thankful to Marcel for sharing his thoughts with us on what it takes to create a collection like this.
If you want to hear more from Marcel about his creative process, and what inspires him, be sure to join us on 2nd June at 4pm BST on our Twitch channel for a live exhibition and Q&A, and the official unveiling of this awesome NFT art collection.
