No canvas is too big

Breath In - Breath Out is a tribute to the Amazon rainforest that provides fresh air

NFT is child's play. But only if the youngster you're talking about is Laya Mathikshara, a 14-year-old artist from Chennai. She says, "My journey with digital art started when I was 13 years old. I've always loved art and coming from a family full of tech nerds, I was always interested in that space." Curiosity led this artist to research - from learning about 3D art, animations from YouTube tutorial videos and an online course to reading about art online - till she stumbled upon the world of Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs. "I started minting my work and animating my NFTs by integrating simple mathematical formulas and programming languages like Python to create simulations," she explains.

Laya Mathikshara combined 2D (painting) and 3D (sculpture) to create Fifth Dimension #24

Mathikshara draws inspiration from her experiences, whether that's new perspectives learnt at school, spending time with family and friends or interacting with the world as a teen. "It's the usual artistic process," she says. "I like to capture the things that interest me, my work is an artistic representation of those ideas and thoughts." A chapter in geography about the Amazon inspired Breath In-Breath Out, a tribute to the rainforest, is portrayed through a "snapshot of the Amazon's vegetation optical depth - a measure used to estimate changes in vegetation biomass, captured over a decade," the artist states. The artwork is a 10-second animation that strikes and mesmerises the viewer, immediately speaking of the magnitude of the rainforest's destruction; her aim for the piece. It is currently for sale on SuperRare, a CryptoArt marketplace. Her latest work was three pieces created for India Art Fair this year as part of Terrain Art, a South Asia NFT platform. The work is collectively called See the Sea. "I used simple mathematics to create a satisfying animation around aquatic animals and the seashore."

Laya Mathikshara's work, Abstract Lifestyle - Winter

Today, 80 of Laya's artworks, including a collection, have been sold for a total of $1 million across NFT selling platforms. "If I entered the art world through the traditional academic way, I would not be able to share my work as an artiste at this moment. But NFTs have given me the freedom to create, put my art out into the world, interact with platforms, get new experiences and create more work. Because with NFTs, no one looks at my age or education." There is a diversity that is obvious in her work as it shifts shapes, colour themes and effects to embody a range of ideas.

Laya Mathikshara

Mathikshara is still exploring her endless artistic and tech abilities to narrow down on one signature style. It's evident that her exploration is coupled with genuine love for what she does as she concludes, "I combine art and technology and just have fun with it."

Log on to @layamathikshara