NF: Firstly we organized a public fund. We sold several NFTs through Solana currency. We sent some of the money to a maternity hospital because there were newborn infants living in the basement there.
With my sales, I’ve been sharing the profits since then. You’re around so many homeless people that have nothing—I’m ten kilometers from Bucha. They have nothing there, just clothes, what they fled in.
So we provide them with bread, food, clothes. I always share when I make sales. These aren’t just strangers, they are families that you know, members from your community and their children. So I always share some part of my profits to people who need it.
I have a soul, so I have to share.
You understand that you could be in their place—they lived like you down the street, and now they need clothes. It’s not possible to avoid this in these times.
The problems in Ukraine, there’s a lot of corruption now, some groups have organized funds and collected money—and then they don’t share it with those who need it; they buy things for their own purposes. So I have found that it’s better to buy food and medicine directly so the money doesn’t ‘fly away.’
RE: How do you choose where to send the funds to? GoFundMe, or through PayPal, or do you just bring funds directly?
NF: All of those. For example, my friend called and said a family with three kids she knew, they were trying to travel somewhere more safe, they had no gas in the tank of their car, no food. So she asked me to bring them what I could; bring them food, give them some money for gas. Necessary, emergency things. If somebody needs you, you go!
RE: What an amazing unity you’re describing amongst the refugees and civilians from Kiev.
NF: Yes, you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who could use some help, so everyone comes together.
RE: Have you worked with other artists to raise funds?
NF: I’ve helped some Ukrainian artists, explaining what freelance is. Many people have lost their jobs and are now turning attention to their hobbies, so if they’ve always liked art, they want to try and create some to sell. So I’ve explained in free lectures, people can show up, or tune in online and I explain how to create NFTs, how to get signed up.
Everyone now has the Internet. Even if it’s hard, I really try to work with a schedule. I decided to just make a free lecture so people could access this information for those who have jobs and don’t. I explain the risks, scams online, I get it. I was hacked several times. I explain how to avoid it, how to be careful, how to create work that can be sold in the future.
RE: Tell me more about the challenge of ‘remaining human,’ as you described it.
NF: When it happened first, of course, I was in shock. Everyone was in shock. For a week, I was in shock, it was not possible to deal with, it sounded like a washing machine, it was a scary sound, hearing too many ‘booms.’
Then I realized, you have to work. It’s really helpful when you dive into the work, when you communicate, for example, like the SuperRare community, a lot of them have been asking how I’ve been doing, they’ve organized a workspace. It’s really good to dive into.
Because the news around you, it’s absolutely horrible. You hear every day that people are dying, bombs are going off. In this case, the work has really helped me to stay alive. To be human. To concentrate. Even when you’re working with a digital template, you’re able to forget for just a little bit what’s going on around you. So thank god I’m fortunate enough to work, it’s been great.
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