Courtesy / Charlie Hewitt
“Sharks & Squids” is an NFT that’s part of Hewitt’s digital collection.
October 6, 2022
‘Hopeful’ artist Charlie Hewitt launches NFT collection
Courtesy / Mainermedia
Charlie Hewitt is surrounded by artworks that he is turning into a non-fungible token collection.
Charlie Hewitt, a Portland artist perhaps best known for his retro-styled “Hopeful” neon light marquees, has turned to a new form of art with the creation of his first digital collection of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
NFTs are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata, according to investopedia.com.
Collectors have sought NFTs for their value – in this case, as artwork.
“NFTs have the potential for several use cases,” the website says. “For example, they are an ideal vehicle to digitally represent physical assets like real estate and artwork. Because they are based on blockchains, NFTs can also work to remove intermediaries and connect artists with audiences or identity management.”
“NFTs are shaking up the art world,” said Hewitt. “With NFTs, there’s no institutional gatekeepers. These works are completely accessible just like a photo on your iPhone.”
New technology
At 76, Hewitt is no stranger to embracing new technology.
A Lewiston native with studios in Jersey City, N.J., and Portland, his artwork is represented in numerous collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Public Library and Brooklyn Museum; the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; and the Portland Museum of Art. His paintings, prints and sculptures are rooted in expressionism and surrealism.
In recent years, he discovered new creative possibilities with neon sculpture when he was commissioned to make an exhibition at Speedwell Projects, a nonprofit gallery in Portland.
Hewitt decided to make a lighted sculpture and visited Neokraft Signs Inc., a sign manufacturer in Lewiston whose work includes neon lighting. Hewitt embraced the idea of illuminating images as retro marquee sculptures on a large scale in neon and came up with “Hopeful” as a bold statement. David Wolfe at Wolfe Editions — a printer and publisher of letterpress and fine art books, prints and posters in Portland — helped Hewitt design a retro automotive font for the sculpture.
To date, he’s created Hopeful installations across seven states at dozens of sites, both public and private.
As the size of his light sculpture collection grew, Hewitt in 2021 bought a former florist shop in Portland and converted it into a new showplace that he calls the “electric greenhouse.”
Courtesy / Charlie Hewitt, Kristen Levesque
Hewitt’s Electric Greenhouse in Portland features a “Hopeful” sign and other sculptures.
Energized creativity
Hewitt said for him, creating NFTs has re-energized his creative process as he thinks in a new way about making bold, strong images.
“Now anyone can show multiple images on a screen and change the art in a digital frame whenever they feel like it,” he added.
Each NFT in his collection is intended to depict a story using bold, colorful images in humorous works.
The NFTs started as original artworks that were created with Sharpie markers, cut out, collaged and digitized. The images were inspired by Hewitt's life experiences with art and travels, as well as the lives of artists before his time.
Hewitt said the release of the collection includes 50 NFTs and represents a first phase.
To market the collection, Hewitt created a digital platform designed for NFT e-commerce.
Hewitt said he was inspired by the “power” of digital images through his ”Hopeful Project” — illuminated marquee signs made of aluminum that have been installed in outlets ranging from shops to museums from Maine to New Jersey.
In April, he started drawing, doodling and working with paper – a departure from his paintings and large, lit signs. Hewitt learned of the blockchain and the idea of a “decentralized” art world as a technology that can preserve artwork for the future.
A collection of Hewitt’s NFTs will be on view Jan. 15-22, 2023, at Moss Galleries in Portland.
To view the collection online, click here.
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