Vancouver-made NFT is helping people find balance through community
As business owners and working mothers, Lay Hoon Ho (known by her artist name of Arty Guava) and Tricia Pang know the importance of having a community to support you on your journey.
“As working mothers, we understand the challenges of juggling multiple responsibilities and the importance of self-care,” said Ho and Pang in an interview with Daily Hive. “Our mission is to foster a safe online space for entrepreneurs, parents and artists to come together to support, lift, and celebrate one another.”
Pang, an engineer with over a decade of product delivery experience, and Ho, a freelance senior art director with over 10 years of experience, joined forces to create and launch their first NFT collection, Guava Girls.
The collection of 1000 NFTs lives on the Ethereum blockchain and was recently launched with a mint price of 0.07 ETH.
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“Our Guava Girls NFT project encourages people to work together to find balance and be our best selves,” explained Ho and Pang. “We both come from entrepreneurial backgrounds and were inspired by the strong communities growing in the NFT space.
“We decided to focus on a topic close to heart and created Guava Girls as a virtual retreat to escape from the expectations and pressures of their daily lives. By offering activities around mindfulness and sharing of experiences, and rewarding self-care and generosity, we cultivate a support network of like-minded people and empower us to grow together.”
Pang is the co-founder and project director of Guava Girls and Ho is the co-founder, creative director and artist behind the collection.
Tricia Pang (left) and Lay Hoon Ho, co-founders of the Guava Girls NFT collection/Submitted
Holders of the Guava Girls PFP collection gain access to a number of benefits through the “Care-to-Earn” community, including interactive activities, a rewards program for branded merchandise and partner pre-sale spots, and a chance to help Guava Girls decide which charities to support.
“We have also really enjoyed working closely with the community and using their feedback and ideas to strengthen our project and its artwork. It’s been a dream and we’re so happy to be dedicating our time to this project,” shared Ho and Pang.
Guava Girls NFT/Submitted
According to the NFT co-creators, working on the Guava Girls project helped them both to realize that transitioning their careers over to the Web3 space was exactly what they were meant to do.
“We are leveraging all the strengths and skills that we developed in our corporate careers, and are applying them to a passion project that brings us joy. It has unlocked our excitement for entrepreneurship, and we’ve grown to become close friends, bonding over ideas we’re both excited about driving forward.”
Guava Girls is a generative NFT collection created by illustrating individual traits in the image. Over 500 traits — different backgrounds, outfits, skin tones and items — were created and then combined to create different variations of the Guava Girl image.
Guava Girls NFT/Submitted
“We wanted the Guava Girls to be representative of the people in our community, so we sourced ideas from the community for the individual trait, such as surveying the responsibilities that they are balancing,” said Ho and Pang. “In listening to their stories, we are able to recognize them in the artwork and make them feel seen and appreciated. In addition, we also had a team of 12 community members from diverse backgrounds review the art to ensure that the work is authentic with no negative connotations.
“We’re also grateful to have the support of our team of advisors, who are women leaders in known NFT projects, including Mai Akiyoshi, CEO of Curious Addys; Lily Wu, co-founder of WoW Pixies; and G.D Anderson, founder of Honey Badges.”
Guava Girls NFT has already won over fans with its unique styles, with minters praising the collection on Twitter.
Minted our first @GuavaGirlsNFT tonight! Love the dedication and effort that’s been put behind this collection.
— Chairman Ting 🇺🇦🕊️ (@Chairman_Ting) June 30, 2022
So excited about @GuavaGirlsNFT #512 is my girl and I can’t wait to meet her. My daughter LOVES your art – we are going to do a study after reveal! @artyguava so lovely … amazing work ladies @trishamafish
Honored to have met you ladies at our discord space with @MyBFF 🌺 https://t.co/U39Vixc6c4 pic.twitter.com/hquicEBxcs
— PiliYarusi (@PiliYarusi) June 30, 2022
Just minted my Guava Girls!!! So excited for reveal, this art is beautiful and magical and insanely good AND an absolute bargain. GET ON BOARD 🍑 https://t.co/wknBnlPqNa
— ASLAN RUBY 🦁 (@aslanruby) June 29, 2022
“The NFT community is also very encouraging of emerging artists, with buyers seeking innovative artwork, creators helping one another to onboard and gain momentum, and influencers amplifying new artist voices,” said Ho and Pang. “It’s easy for an artist to be inspired by the community – we can share both our creations and our creative process, and receive immediate feedback which we can infuse back into our work.
“As the technology develops, there will be more innovative applications for NFTs, drawing even more people to the NFT space”
To learn more, head to guavagirlsnft.com.
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