David Fairs - Artist

When David Fairs first peered into the world of NFTs and cryptocurrency, he encountered a reality far from his roots in traditional art. On our show, David recounts that pivotal moment when the hefty price tags on crypto art shattered his skepticism and steered him onto a path of digital exploration. Our conversation takes you behind the scenes as David, once an electrician, now a skilled photographer and drone pilot, navigates the currents of OpenSea, the camaraderie of Twitter, and the treasures of family adventures—all through the lens of his newfound passion.

As David's narrative unfolds, you'll hear about a color-blind artist's compelling pivot from potential pilot to graphic designer and drone enthusiast. His diverse job history is a tapestry of resilience, mirroring the tenacity of his favorite animal, the honey badger. It's not all about pixels and palettes, though; David's zest for life also comes through in his love for hearty Mexican meals and the simple pleasures of a homemade pizza.

Our episode wraps up with the intrigue of a globetrotting lifestyle, the cultural gems of living abroad, and a special nod to Japan with its unique offer of inspiration and education. We take you through the birth and growth of the Click Create project, navigating the bear market with strategy and grace, and the community's role in buoying spirits through highs and lows.

https://twitter.com/newlightvisuals

Chapters

• 0:32 Exploring NFTs, Crypto, and Photography
• 8:03 From Workhorse to Passion
• 15:43 Living Abroad and Discussing Art Projects
• 21:43 Questioning the Identity of a Guest

Transcript

NorCal Guy: 0:32

Hey everyone, welcome to this next episode of NoorCal and Shill. In this episode we sit down with David Fairs, an artist and photographer, to explore his journey into the world of NFTs and crypto. David shares insights on his experiences with hardware wallets, his initial skepticism of NFTs and his creative evolution into photography. As he reflects on his diverse career path from electrician to a pilot of drones, david shares his passion for photography and aspirations for family adventures abroad. Join us for an insightful conversation with David in this episode of NoorCal and Shill. Hey, david, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today? Doing well. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm glad we could make this work out. You know we've been. We chat a lot every week around work, mainly you being like hey, where's that voice over?

NorCal Guy: 1:39

at I'm like it's coming. It's coming right now. No, you do good, it's all good. I'm loving it. It's good. I mean, if I could stay on top of it a little more you'd probably be a little bit happier, but it's good. It's good.

David Fairs: 1:54

It's good for me. It's good for me, yeah, good, ok, make sure I'm happy, I'm happy.

NorCal Guy: 2:03

So your day is starting off good, 9 AM over there.

David Fairs: 2:07

Yeah.

NorCal Guy: 2:07

Ready to rock?

David Fairs: 2:09

Yeah, got my coffee. I'm feeling good Nice.

NorCal Guy: 2:13

So I guess, just jumping into it, do you have and use a hardware wallet?

David Fairs: 2:19

I do. I have to. Actually, I have a Trezzo and a Ledger as well. So when my friend got me into crypto, he was very hardcore about you have to set it up right and I wasn't getting into it for art. Nfts was more for investing and back then Ledger had been hacked for all their privacy and so, yeah, he was like get Trezzo. These guys are a little bit lesser known but more secure and you know, obviously that's changed now. Things are much better on that front. But yeah, that was when I decided to come in and, yeah, got my Trezzo set up. That was so alien and weird to me at the time. It felt really sketchy. I didn't have no idea what I was doing, relyed heavily on a friend who did know, so luckily I had that resource.

NorCal Guy: 3:08

Nice, I know I'm still getting calls and texts from that security breach. Oh really, yeah.

David Fairs: 3:16

For real. Wow, yeah, yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that was a bit scary for me. I was like what am I getting into here? This is nuts.

NorCal Guy: 3:25

I just couldn't believe they held onto all those things.

David Fairs: 3:29

You're like Dale you're a crypto company, wallet specifically, and you're holding onto all this data.

NorCal Guy: 3:37

Come on, guys, do better. Yeah, do better, for sure. So what were your first thoughts? Well, you got in pre-NFTs, pre-crypto art. Yes, so you knew about crypto or anything. What happened when you started to dive into the art side? What were your first thoughts?

David Fairs: 3:59

Pretty much like everyone else, that you'd had to be some kind of dodgy scam and I faded it, to be honest. So my brother he's friends with a couple of the younger guys that had a lot to do with Litecoin very early on, so he had that influence and resource and he did his own research a lot and he sent me. So the reason I got into trading was because of him and he was like my friend's now in Lambo's and they're 19 years old and I was like what the hell is this? Yeah, so I took what I had and bought. It was only like $200 or something. I didn't have much to invest, but that was early and so from there, he mentioned NFTs about. I think it was like 2018, maybe I don't know, I can't remember the exact date.

David Fairs: 4:46

It was very early, before people had his big sale and everyone kind of went nuts on it. But I was heavily into Instagram and promoting my brand and selling prints as an artist then and that was my focus and I was like that was taking up so much of my time. I was posting two days, twice a day and it was really a huge focus of mine and building that business. So I thought I'll check it out when I've got time and, of course, I didn't have any time, so I faded it. And then I saw the people sale, like a lot of people did, and was like, ok, I need to know what this is now, because it just sounded like I don't know, my brother's into some crazy stuff, like he's into a lot of stuff like conspiracy theories and things. So I just dismissed it like, oh, that's probably just some bizarre thing. Wish I had obviously now looking back, but yeah, when I finally got into it, it was just around 2020, like late 2020. And then I saw so I minted stuff actually of March 21, just wanting to get involved and dip my toe in and I thought, ok, I have to at least give this a try. And it's a funny story.

David Fairs: 5:59

I jumped on OpenSea, minted my very best work for nothing, because I didn't have any understanding of what my art value, of my art had back then.

David Fairs: 6:10

Luckily, no one found it, because I quickly realized later on in the year, when I finally joined Twitter, that you, that was not the way. And the funny thing is, when I joined OpenSea, I thought that's where you networked. So I was like, right, I put a collection of like 36 pieces of art up. It's like right now, how do I find people? And I was like trying to network on OpenSea which is hilarious now when you think about it. But, yeah, then I finally found Twitter through friends that had come over from Instagram and they sort of gave me all of the information I needed, got me up to speed very quickly In doing that. At that time they were selling 60 pieces like overnight, they were making back big time, and that was the bull run for photography that I sort of only just caught the tail end of, and so, yeah, my initial thoughts were big scam, but then, obviously, once I got my head around it, it was like a huge opportunity, great awesome.

NorCal Guy: 7:08

So what brought you to art? How did you get into photography?

David Fairs: 7:14

I've always loved photography, to be honest, but I always thought of it as something that that was for people with that skill and that wasn't for me. I was a painter, I was an illustrator and that was really my focus. And then I started to fall in love with videography and cinematography later on in my career and that's a bit of a long story, but basically that's how I got into aerial photography, because I needed to expand my offering as a business and I bought a drone and I also brought a mirrorless camera. That was a hybrid, so it was like target the GH5, which was targeted at video it could do back in 2017, it could do 4K 60 video. It could do a whole lot of really good stuff, and it's still one of my cameras that I use today. It's such a workhorse, but that allowed me to get into taking steals as well, yeah, and so I fell in love with it.

David Fairs: 8:11

To be honest, I was doing it just to improve my skills as a cinematographer and frame up compositions, and it wasn't really something that I thought of that would be a passion. It was more a tool. And then, as I got into that, so I'd taken photos of my family and all the subjects that I love. Surfing ocean, yeah, I became obsessed with it and it became not just a business offering or a way to make money. It was more a hobby for me that really helped me connect to myself and to nature and to just enjoying the beauty of the world more and more, because you get that real focus in on this little tiny universe is that you'd never see before. As you know, you get sort of exposed to this whole other way of looking at the world and, yeah, that's how I fell in love with it.

NorCal Guy: 9:03

Thanks, love that. So what jobs have you done along the way, like, do you have any of those great high school jobs and then moved on beyond that?

David Fairs: 9:15

As in like what like jobs with photography or just like no, no, pre-photography, pre-art.

NorCal Guy: 9:21

I've done everything. I've done it all the orange work.

David Fairs: 9:24

Yeah, yeah, no, I've done it all. I've tried. Every trade there is Electrical was quite interesting to me.

David Fairs: 9:33

I quite enjoyed that. However, I basically was told late into my apprenticeship that I couldn't really progress any further because of they do like testing on your eyes and everything, and so I got tested with like the tiniest little discrepancy of color blindness and they were like sorry that's. You know, if you can't determine red or green, then that's a big factor as an electrician and that also knocked me out of being a pilot, which was another one of my dreams that I had kind of thought of I could do later on in life because of the expense barrier at the time, and that knocked me out from that as well. So that is interesting, because now I'm actually a pilot, like I fly drones, so that kind of look at it as like I still achieved my goal.

David Fairs: 10:17

My dream came true. It just doesn't look like what I thought it did. True, true, true.

NorCal Guy: 10:22

So don't go ahead yeah.

David Fairs: 10:26

So I've done lots of you know, lots of jobs. I worked as a kitchen hand, scrubbing dishes and helping prep food for chefs while I was studying design. And yeah, I really was. Just before I found design I was really just really looking for what it was that I wanted to do. You know, I school didn't really agree with me. I didn't go the university route and I just was, I don't know, not lost, but just really couldn't find a passion or something to sink my teeth into. Art was always it, but I just never thought that would be possible career or way to make any money. I was always told you know, if you're an artist, you're a loser, don't even bother trying, kind of thing. So yeah, uh-huh, yeah. And then eventually I found art as a graphic designer and built a career around that.

NorCal Guy: 11:14

Nice. So going back to the pilot thing, so do you have an FPV drone as well?

David Fairs: 11:20

No, I don't. I really need to get one. It's just a time thing of like now with kids. I just don't have the time to. You know, I started playing with online simulators and things, but I just don't have the time to dedicate to level up.

NorCal Guy: 11:34

Yeah, the only thing I, because I love those drones, those FPV ones, and I was like you know what? I'm just going to get a tiny whoop so I can like fly around my house. Yeah, cool, that's actually the way. So that was the best way to do it, because I can't go anywhere, I like don't have time to go anywhere and even now I like hardly get it out anymore, but that was like the best thing for me because I could do it in my house.

David Fairs: 11:57

That's actually a good idea. I think now my kids are old enough that I would get away with that with my wife. She's probably she's not as protective of the little ones now because they're a little bit more robust.

NorCal Guy: 12:09

Nice, nice. So if you were an animal, what would you be and why?

David Fairs: 12:14

Oh, so I've stolen this one from a friend that I used to work with in the trades when I was a landscape, and it's honey badger, okay, which everyone knows now. But back then when he told me it I was like that is the weirdest answer to that question I've ever heard. But he said his answer was really good and it stuck with me as like they're just kind of indestructible. They just keep getting up after, no matter how many times they get knocked down by the big guns, and that's kind of a metaphor for me, like I've been through a lot and always managed to pull myself back out of it and keep going, and stronger every time. So yeah, I kind of resonate with the honey badger.

NorCal Guy: 12:53

No, it's crazy Watching some of those like nature videos of them, like dealing with lions or wild dogs, you know, and they're just like or hyenas, whatever it was, and they're just like don't care. They're like, yeah, they just shake it off like it's nothing. All of you come at me. I'm going to hurt one of you really bad. None of them want to get hurt.

David Fairs: 13:18

Yeah, I wouldn't put it as the fighter violet kind of thing, but like definitely the most awful life yeah.

NorCal Guy: 13:23

Yeah, so do you have a favorite food?

David Fairs: 13:27

Oh, yeah, I'd say Mexican. I love Mexican food, pizza as well. I know that's a pretty cliche one, but everyone loves pizza, but I love making pizza. So I've got like this little portable pizza oven at home that I bought. It's like gets up to like 500 degrees but it sits on your bench top and runs off of gas bottles really cool. Yeah and yes. So my favorite thing to do is make pizza for the family and guests when we do have them around Nice.

NorCal Guy: 13:57

That's great. I love a good homemade pizza. Yeah, it's right on the point.

David Fairs: 14:01

It's a bit of an art form. You've got to get it right.

NorCal Guy: 14:03

It's hard, right it's not easy, especially the dough and everything. Like I had a buddy that was always like, hey, I found a new recipe. You guys should come over for pizza. Yeah yeah, it's good fun. What's the best piece of advice you've been given? Or do you have like a mantra that's always in your head, like that you kind of live by?

David Fairs: 14:29

Yeah, I think, particularly in the NFT space now, it's kind of like slow down, like take your time with things more and take steps backwards when you feel panicked or like you should be when you're in a rush. That's been the best for me. It's really served me quite well this past year and I find that in doing that it's actually opened a lot of doors and allowed good things to come in, rather than constantly being anxious and fearful and that can feel like you're just banging your head against the wall and it's almost like you don't get anywhere doing that. You kind of just keep banging against the wall. So, yeah, slowing down and people say being intentional and things like that, those sort of words but yeah, it's really been great for me to just be a bit more relaxed and patient and respectful of the process. It's like there's no shortcuts and there's no way to kind of jump the queue. You've got to serve your time and support others and be a positive force in the space rather than just be me, me, me all the time.

NorCal Guy: 15:40

Very true, very true. So if you could live or move anywhere, where would you live and why?

David Fairs: 15:49

Yeah, that's a good one, I think I mean, to be honest, I wouldn't move anywhere to live, but because I love where we are now. We moved out of Sydney City two hours drive south, which is really quite nice and quiet and there's everything I need here. So I love where we are right now as a family. It's really nice. But I would love to take the kids overseas for a year and live in a different country and give them an educational experience like Japan or the States anywhere in the world really Europe, it doesn't really matter where, it's more about the experience.

David Fairs: 16:31

So that's something that my wife and I are really looking forward to doing. Actually, because she's a teacher. Japan keeps coming up, so neither of us have any experience with Japanese or anything like that, but she could teach our kids, homeschool them while we were abroad. So, yeah, that's something to look at. But I will say I would love to be in the States and be able to join all of the events with NFT NIC in Miami and meet you in person, meet Clarkson and all the friends I've made this past year. Would be very cool.

NorCal Guy: 17:04

Right, yeah, but definitely, yeah, I feel you on that. It feels like the big events happen, but you know that recently, I mean, yes, there's NIC, maybe some in Korea, occasionally in Japan, Like there's one event in each of those countries, I believe. And then also it seems like Paris was pretty big, and what was the other one? Was there one in Portugal? Lisbon, yes, yes.

David Fairs: 17:34

Lisbon that was just racing actually and also Barcelona, 2M Barcelona, with ready P1.

NorCal Guy: 17:43

Yeah, which is awesome. Like it makes me want to kind of go to all these ones Because I've only stayed within the States, and it's making me want to kind of like, oh, it'd be cool to go over there, but I've got to be one of those trips where you have to bring the family, because there's no way it gets expensive right so many trips. Right, so I'm going to make like a vacation out of it. So do you have any questions for me?

David Fairs: 18:14

I totally blanked on this one. I had a question for you. Um, I've gone blank. This is bad. Can we edit this Sure? Um, okay, so when did you? Okay, I've got a question when did you come up with the idea for Click Create, like? When did that actually happen?

NorCal Guy: 18:43

It was during a show In a NorCal and Clutch show. We were in Miami last year at the Pepe Gallery discussing curated collections and we just were going back and forth about like what is good about collections and not so good, and you know, like what could be improved on some of these, and then we're like, oh well, why don't no one is doing this right now, like what we had envisioned or came up with, like maybe we should do that and try it out. And so that's what. How it came about is from that show us talking about it, wanting to do something a little bit bigger in the space, and that's how we got into it. Very cool.

David Fairs: 19:35

Yeah, that's the first thing that came to mind. Because it's such a great project, obviously I'm stoked to be on board.

NorCal Guy: 19:42

Right, yeah, we're stoked to have you. It was so great that you, you know, reached out to us in the beginning and we're like, hey, I'm willing to help out video editing. We're like, perfect, because we don't know what we're doing.

David Fairs: 19:54

No, it's worked out really good. It's been fantastic and really excited for next season as well.

NorCal Guy: 20:00

Same Same. Any other questions? No, not that I can think of now, sorry. Do you have any upcoming projects or anything you'd like to talk about for your own art?

David Fairs: 20:19

Yeah, so this year's been really interesting. I sort of noticed that the bear was going to set in pretty severely back in late 22. And I sort of looked around at what people were doing and how they were succeeding, and Open Ditions was a big one at that time. You know, people were selling sort of 50, 60 editions at a low price point, which ended up being quite a decent amount of ETH for a single piece. So I went the route of monthly open editions this entire year and I've got one more left to go. You've been a big supporter of that, thank you very much and clutch as well, and I've got one left to do for December and I've got big plans for that. I've got something in the works that will actually be different to the rest of the series and kind of go out with a bang on that one. So, yeah, I'm excited about that. It's all down to whether someone can help me out with it from a coding point of view, but fingers crossed it does work.

NorCal Guy: 21:21

Nice, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm glad I could participate in some of them. I definitely have missed a few of them, unfortunately.

David Fairs: 21:30

I'm sure you miss a lot of things in the space. There's so many, it'd be hard to keep up with every single one. For sure, you've been a huge supporter and I'm really grateful. Thank you very much, yeah of course.

NorCal Guy: 21:43

Well, david, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for coming on this show, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you.

David Fairs: 21:53

Thanks for having me. It's been really good who is this guy?

NorCal Guy: 21:55

Who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy? Who is this guy? Rincal Guy, rincal Guy. Who is this guy? Rincal Guy, rincal Guy, rincal Guy. Who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy? Who is this guy? Rincal Guy, who is this guy, who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy, who is this guy.