Welcome dear friends to the #4 of the Hive community spotlight! In this edition, we have the pleasure and honor to interview Julia k ponsford (@juliakponsford), also known as Alien Honey, a multifaceted artist and visionary behind some of the most pioneering initiatives within the Hive community.
In this interview with Julia, she shares her insights, experiences, and aspirations, offering a glimpse into the dynamic realm where art meets technology.

Let us please sit in and read from her own words and get ready to be inspired!

° Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you found yourself in the hive community

Julia: My name is Julia K. Ponsford, I also go by Alien Honey as an alter ego artist name. I love everything art and music and love experimenting with new art forms wherever I can. I primarily make visual art (collage) but also have done some electronic music, videos, fibre arts, sculpture, photography etc.

I first heard about HIVE when it was STEEM back in 2016. I had already been interested in crypto and when I heard about the Proof of Brain concept and the token distribution model I was very interested and quickly found it to be a great place to share my art! I started a contest called Art Explosion which went on for a pretty long time and later founded Alien Art Hive which is one of the most active art communities on HIVE, and NFT Showroom which is an art and music focussed marketplace.

° Can you tell us about your journey as a musician and artist, and how it led you to the world of NFTs?

Julia: I believe I was contacted by SuperRare in 2018, I think they actually found me through my blog here and invited me to try tokenizing art. It was totally unheard of at the time to be able to sell digital art so I uploaded a few pieces of art and was surprised when they sold. My interest in NFTs was piqued and in the following years explored many platforms that were popping up.

° What inspired you to found NFT Showroom, the first NFT marketplace on Hive? What challenges did you face during its creation?

Julia: In 2020 NFTs were getting huge hype and attention, around the same time gas fees on ETH started getting crazy and it went from 25 cents to 20, 30, 40$+ to tokenize an artwork. Most artists can't afford this realistically and the idea to make an NFT marketplace on HIVE emerged. It made a lot of sense since we don't have gas fees and have extremely fast transaction times.

° How do you see the future of NFTs evolving, particularly within the Hive ecosystem?

Julia: I think NFTs will eventually become an everyday part of our lives, any asset can become digitized and I am guessing it will be used to register property (like homes, cars), purchasing tickets (concerts), voting in elections etc. Basically anything that needs a proof of ownership, the possibilities are endless.

° Could you share some insights into the AlienArtHive community, its goals, and the type of content it supports?

Julia: Alien Art Hive initially launched to be a place for strange, experimental type art. At the time there was another big community called Onchainart but it has become rather quiet so we are now embracing all artsts as long as they are posting their own creations. We want more niche communities to thrive so if there is a better place we would encourage posting there but for now we are a catch all for all types until the user numbers of HIVE can support many communities.

° How do you balance your various roles and responsibilities within the Hive community with your personal artistic pursuits?

Julia: This is a tricky one :) I have brought on more mods and helpers for @alienarthive since I can't keep up with everything and am aiming to decentralize the community even more if possible. Aside from that I just need to set aside specific blocks of time to focus on my own art. At the moment I have a lot of incomplete projects and I am trying to be more organized so they can come to life.

° What advice would you give to aspiring artists and creators looking to enter the world of NFTs and blockchain technology?

Julia: It sounds cliché but COMMUNITY! Interacting with fellow artists and supporting them is the best way to get support for your own art. This means commenting on their blog / tweets, sharing, and giving them encouragement and feedback. My second advice is share your art as often as possible.

Selling art is difficult at the best of times as there are literally millions of artists vying to get seen. I've seen artists mint one NFT, make one blog post or tweet, then never mention it again, then wonder why it didn't sell. Art is timeless, share it again, share new work, show your process, tell people a bit about yourself. In order to succeed you need to put in some work. I hate promoting myself so I understand the reluctance but if you want to sell art you need to treat it as a job.

° What are your hopes and goals for the future, both personally and within the context of your involvement in the Hive community?

Julia: Personally I want to continue making art and hopefully be able to support myself doing what I love. As for HIVE I think we need a lot more adoption. HIVE has so much potential due to the tech but we currently have shaky onboarding tools and very little marketing. There are lots of people trying to address those shortcomings so hopefully we will see improvements in the future.

° What advice would you give to newbies joining hive?

Julia: I would advise them to join communities that match their interests and interact with other users and get to know them. Otherwise if you have no followers you will just be posting into the void. I also think if there ns't a community for your interests this is a prime opportunity to create one and onboard other enthusiaists. It takes effort and passion to foster a communities growth but it can be done :)

Favorite music:

Favorite art:

https://nftshowroom.com/gallery/juliakponsford_alien-collage_lovebomber

small version for post?:

To Learn more and become more inspired, I invite you all to please:

• Follow @juliakponsford on Hive to stay updated on her latest artworks, insights, and community initiatives.

• Subscribe to the Alien Art Hive community and join fellow artists in sharing your own creations or engaging with diverse artworks.

• Explore the innovative NFT Showroom platform to discover unique digital artworks and support artists within the Hive ecosystem.

Thank you, Ms Julia, for being a guiding light and a true beacon of creativity and innovation. It was an honor to have you in the spotlight!

Thanks also to you @thekittygirl for this suggestion once again, and for all your support!

There are a lot of beautiful users on hive yet to be spotlighted here and we look forward to learning a lot from them.

Thank you for staying to this point, your suggestions will also be appreciated in the comments.

Who else do you want to be featured here?

Let me know in the comments! See you in the next edition!!!

Previous Editions

Community spotlight introduced

Hive community spotlight #1. Premiere with @thekittygirl 🌟

Community spotlight #2 Featuring @shadowspub

Community Spotlight #3: Interview with Dreemsteem