Today I'm bringing you a conversation with multidisciplinary artist Oveck Reyes. Oveck is one of my best friends here in New York City, and his work and ethic inspires me daily to dive deeper into my own creative universe.

To begin, can you introduce yourself to our readers? Where you are from, where you are based, your name and the mediums you work in?

My name is Oveck and I’m a visual artist and musician from Dominican Republic based in New York City. I’m a photographer, musician and painter.

Awesome. What is your earliest memory of realizing that creativity would have an impact on your life?

It all started with my mother and her love for The Beatles. At a very young age music impacted me in a very strong way, it was later when I came to realize that my childhood’s love for music would reflect in my work as visual artist.

That's beautiful. The impact they had on the world cannot be overstated. You are a multidisciplinary artist, which I find very interesting. Is there an interplay for you- do your various creative outlets bleed into each other or do you keep them siloed?

I totally agree. My creative outlets definitely bleed into each other, in fact some if not all of my paintings/illustrations are based on my photography. On certain occasions I keep them separate but not by choice, it just happens.

What are your thoughts on social media vs. NFTs? You've had a lot of experience in both worlds, I'm wondering what your hopes for the future are.

That’s a very interesting subject, one can’t be compared to the other but both work well together. I’ve worked hard on my social media as an artist for years like many of us have. Late last year I had a brief conversation about NFT art with you; you showed me some art pieces you bought and how excited you were about them.

At the moment, I was not that interested in it, but it had me very intrigued, it was only about 2 months ago when I finally saw the potential and the lightbulb in my head lit up. I began to realize that there was a whole new world of opportunities for artists like us to showcase our work and have potential collectors buy our art.

We all know that as artists living in New York City is not easy to thrive and be able to be seen in a highly populated city of talented artists, this new medium made the communication possible. Now there’s a beautiful community of artists and collectors who support each other and it’s a very exciting thing- all thanks to NFT & cryptoart.

Well said. I feel that new community washing over the art world, as if the technology itself is enabling new ways for us to connect- because in reality, it is.

I'd love to hear more about the genesis of your interest in painting. How did this new interest come about?

In early 2020 “end of days” as the world was literally falling apart, here in the US we had even bigger issues that we were dealing with and one day as I was documenting the Black Lives Matter movement rally, I went home very depressed and anxious about what was happening to our country and our city and as I was driving home and pulled up to my garage I literally wiped my tears from my eyes, keep in mind I hadn’t wash my hands at the moment and with dirty hands rubbed my eyes without realizing I was exposing my them to a bacteria that almost left me blind.

After many doctor visits and treatment I was able to control it and not go fully blind. Between COVID lockdown and the unfortunate situation I had, I was left with a lot of time and anxiety in my hands. That’s when my girlfriend asked me to maybe grab a brush and some canvas, I immediately said no way, I’ve never painted in my life, why would I start now, but I did and fell in love with it and went all in, with an obstructed eye sight and anxiety but very determined I started my journey in painting.

What a beautiful response to a tough situation, taking something so difficult and channeling it into such beauty. Cheers to you for that, its been so fun watching your visions unfold.

What is your advice for artists who are earlier on their creative path?

As I’m still learning even though I’ve stabilized myself as an artist I always keep one principle, do it for yourself, whatever it is, it needs to come from the heart, forget trying to please or compete with others your work will speak for itself and the audience and collectors will notice. Lastly know when to walk away from a work your doing, it’s easy to get caught up and frustrated with something you’re working on and that would only lead to a failed work of art.

Thank you so much for taking the time to open your world to us. To the reader, connect with Oveck via his twitter, and check out his work up for bidding on Foundation.