About Emonee LaRussa
Emonee LaRussa, a 27-year-old digital artist from Sacramento, California, made visuals for Kanye West, Ty Dolla $ign, and the Internet. Today, her colorful, psychedelic animations are part of the GRAMMYS x OneOf NFT partnership.
You might recognize her from her YouTube channel, her Emmy Award-winning animation, or the excellent tutorial she did for some online MoGraph school. Emonee is also the founder and CEO of Pamanama Studios LLC., an animation studio specializing in music visuals by diverse digital artists, specifically artists of color.
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Approaching NFTs
Around the time of the GRAMMY Awards in 2021, Emonee LaRussa sold her first NFT. Despite her famous motion graphics work for music and engaging personality on her fast-paced YouTube tutorials, LaRussa didn’t think anyone would want to buy an NFT to own her digital art.
One year later, she was a natural choice as one of three digital artists to create the first NFTs as part of GRAMMYs and OneOf’s NFT partnership.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a way to productize digital files by assigning them a certificate of title. Depending on demand, the final bids are pretty high, making NFTs a lucrative source of income.
LaRussa’s distinctive animation style lends itself nicely to the GRAMMY x OneOf NFTs. Her characterful, exaggerated figures meld psychedelia with a classic cartoon aesthetic.
Her NFTs do not represent musical artists, which makes the fact that they’re selling solely on their artistic value even more impressive.
It was an excellent opportunity for her as she was making an additional income doing NFTs allowed Emonee to do things that she thought would be later goals.
About JumpStartDesigners
One of these goals is JumpStart Designers, a non-profit platform to give every child in underserved communities an equal chance to express themselves in the digital art space.
“As a child, I dreamed of making art and music videos. But I quickly realized that I’d keep dreaming without access to tools or money. My mother saved up and bought me a cheap laptop where I could start designing. It was a game-changer. Just imagine how many kids encounter this same limiting factor and this creative potential that is left stalled. JumpStart Designers gives every child an equal chance to express themselves in the digital art space.”, Emonee explains on the website.
The reason why I’m changing the future of digital art… and why you should too! pic.twitter.com/EfHnJBoF7b
— Emonee LaRussa (@Em0n33y) October 24, 2022
How does it work?
Digital artists would submit a 60-second video on what art they want to create. Then, based on what type of art medium they want to do, JSD would provide them with specific tools. They would also recommend curated playlists of YouTube tutorials. Their goal is to give not only access to equipment but education too.
In the future, JSD aims to build its classes that would be completely free.
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