Yevgeny Yevtushenko once stated “Be equal to your talent, not your age. At times let the gap between them be embarrassing.” Today, at NFT Malayali, we are pumped to present the 13-year-old talent from Chennai — Laya Mathikshara, in the eighth edition of the Artist Spotlight from the NFT Malayali Community.
For Mathikshara, who entered the world of paints and palettes at the age of nine, her first NFT was a big step. It all began during lockdown last year, when, taking a cue from her sister, a computational neuroscientist at Stanford University, Laya started to learn programming languages such as Python and C++. This naturally transitioned into an interest in digital art. “I had just three to four hours of [online] school, so I began looking for hobbies. I found digital art and animated videos cool,” says the student of Chennai Public School.
“I started by learning programs like Blender and Cinema 4D. It was hard and I messed up a lot, but I watched YouTube videos and figured it out.”
She started her journey in the world of NFT in May 2021, with her genesis piece — an animated artwork titled What if, Moon had life? — which depicted the active core of Moon gurgling. The teenager listed the reserve price as 0.384400 ETH — “inspired by the distance between the Earth and the Moon (3,84,400 km) in Foundation marketplace. The work caught the eye and mind of Melvin, the co-founder of the NFT Malayali Community, who placed a bid and collected the genesis piece of this budding talent at a whooping 0.39 ETH (≈$1,280.80). This was undoubtedly the stepping stone for Laya into this space. Currently, she has 17 creations listed on Rarible, 22 on Foundation, and 10 on the Indian platform WazirX.
Among her most recent works is Gratitude, a 110-second short film minted on WazirX. It was screened at the 16th Busan International Kids and Youth Film Festival last month. Next, the typography-and-animation work that pays tribute to Covid-19 warriors will be screened in theatres in New York City in October, for the All American High School Film Festival.
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