14-year-old Laya Mathikshara’s digital art is mesmerizing! With the support of her sister Priyanka, they are a formidable team with Laya’s unique creations attracting much attention around the world in the NFT space.
Laya and Priyanka, who hail from Chennai in South India, describe how being ‘stuck at home’ during the pandemic catapulted their journey of discovery into the Metaverse and NFTs. Laya, who enjoyed art from a young age, exhibited her paintings at age 10 and by age 11 she was exploring programming and electronics, learning how to design and develop websites. She always felt that programming and electronics was a medium to enable art on a global platform, so during the pandemic, with much time on her hands, Laya became intrigued with 3D animation and through exploration and joining clubs and rooms, she began learning about NFTs.
Laya’s sister, Priyanka, an undergraduate in electronics and computer engineering who now resides in San Francisco, has worked as an intern at various organizations such as the National University of Singapore, Google, Stanford Robotics Lab and NASA. Most of her work during that time entailed building smart and intelligent computing systems which led to her exploring computational neuroscience.
“During the same period,” expresses Priyanka, “I was also stuck at home during the pandemic while I had the incredible opportunity to see my little sister blow our minds with her amazing art. Her artistic prowess in the digital space inspired me to explore various opportunities to leverage her skill set during which we were both exposed to NFTs.
Laya’s work represents the spectrums of art and tech working around the mediums of 3D animation, generative art and augmented reality (AR) art. She explains that drawing perfect sine and cos waves by hand may not be possible, but it is with programming, hence she distinguishes generative art as representing mathematical equations in a beautiful art form.
One of the first projects that Laya and Priyanka embarked upon was the construction of a virtual gallery in the Metaverse which showcased Laya’s art plus 20 top artists from different parts of the world. Thousands of people visited the gallery in just two weeks which led to Laya connecting with many different artists.
With an intense curiosity for NFTs, Laya and Priyanka spent a vast amount of time gaining all the knowledge they possibly could around NFTs, minting, cryptocurrency, digital wallets, and digital marketplaces. Once Laya minted and dropped her first NFT and sold it, there was no looking back. This built her confidence and motivated her to continue along her journey.
Laya has minted numerous exciting works on various platforms, such as OpenSea and Foundation. She enjoys constructing and working on Metaverses, describing it as a three-dimensional social media. She has grossed over a million dollars from NFTs.
It’s no wonder that this inspiring and talented young lady is catching the attention of the global media having been interviewed by Fortune and the BBC and even making it on to a billboard in Times Square New York.
Commenting on what has changed and evolved in regard to the Metaverse and web3 in the past year, Laya says, “When I joined the space, it was all about 1:1s and Profile Pictures (PFP) collections but now it has gradually moved towards generative art and games. I believe the space has also onboarded a lot of folks in the past year. Back then, to learn about cryto was pretty hard as there were barely any resources online. Now it is filled with onboarding tips and tricks. I feel our daily interaction in terms of connecting, meeting and learning would be around the Metaverse, like we use social media today.”
Working as a strategy manager for Laya, Priyanka’s role entails building creatives such as virtual immersive experience design for Metaverse and AR art, advising on the technical stack of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, managing inputs from cross functional teams such as financial advisors and lawyers, and overseeing major art launches and assisting with creative content creation.
As Laya builds her career as a renowned artist, Priyanka expresses her honour of seeing, participating and mentoring the whole process behind the scenes. This has given her major insights regarding the creator and community economy and NFTs in general. She is amazed at the process of how blockchain and its virtues could radically change the life of a ‘simple 14-year-old kid stuck in a room in South India’.
In the near future, Laya is looking forward to creating art that wild have a meaningful impact in the scientific community in addition to its aesthetic beauty. She also hopes to inspire other young people to pursue digital art as a career.Together, these two are a creative force to be reckoned with. We’re sure to hear a lot about them both in years to come.
