Many people who were home because of the COVID-19 pandemic started home businesses and six year-old Emilio Barrera is now different. Emilio, is the son of former Corcoran residents Lupita and Cecilio Barrera who now reside in Clovis and he is making a name for himself in the digital art world.
Emilio’s digital art creations which he sells as NFTs were born out of the pandemic. Barrera began to draw to pass the time and that has turned in to a business—a successful business. Emilio is one of the youngest in the NFT field and he has sold his art pieces and made nearly $4,000. His recent creation called “Full of Promise” sold last month for over $900. In fact since he has gotten worldwide attention his entire collection has sold out!
What is an NFT? An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency. Emilio is ahead of his time as he delves into the NFT and cryptocurrency world. The normal six year old may draw pictures but they don’t usually understand what NFT means or how to sell their artwork online. An NFT is created from digital objects that represent both tangible and intangible items, including art, GIFs, videos, collectibles, music and more.
His latest work of art entitled, “Full of Promise” was his highest paid piece of art. He can be seen on his YouTube channel in the process of creating the piece at https://youtu.be/j2n7TOQXm6o.
Emilio will be starting first grade and he doesn’t really care for the interviews he’s done since gaining in popularity. Emilio has done a couple of interviews on virtual platforms from the Czech Republic and got some invites from Podcast in the east coast.
His favorite part of the entire process is creating his art.
“I create every day,” Emilio added.
When he creates his art pieces he says he doesn’t have a picture in mind but instead he creates as he goes.
He first heard of NFT’s from his father, Cecilio.
“My dad told me about NFTs and because I am an artist I decided to make my art into NFTs,” Emilio noted.
Cecilio added that as Emilio started sharing his art with family and friends that included Bay Area artist Gabe Weis who introduce them to NFT art.
And he says, he will continue to do his creating in the future as he would like to be both an artist and an engineer when he grows up.
His favorite piece he has created so far has been his Full of Promise art because he says “it took a lot of work”. When Emilio introduced Full of Promise on an online platform called Foundation it was auctioned and received seven bids and sold for $904. Full of Promise is influenced and inspired by Pixopo buy Sabet. Ali Sabet is a contemporary artist, and Sabet sponsored Emilio’s art lessons at Pixopop Academy.
Every day Emilio says he is creating some art. Currently he working on a canvas collection using Krink paint, which collectors really like and it shows as his last piece sold out in six minutes. Emilio loves to draw but when he is not creating art he also likes to build with LEGO, play video games, play piano, play tennis and read books.
Emilio has sold dozens of NFTs since his initial listing in April and his artwork can be found at https://linktr.ee/arte_de_emilio. However, those looking to purchase one beware there may be competition when bidding on Emilio’s art as he has a famous follower on his list of followers– MC Hammer.
Emilio is the grandson of Grandmothers Guadalupe Velazquez and Isaura Barrera; Grandfather Alfredo Barrera; and Great-Grandmother Maria Rivera, all of whom live in Corcoran.
