5 Sep 2023/13 min/Amber Vittoria
MLow X Amber Vittoria
Amber Vittoria on choosing editions over one of one orthodoxy, leaving errors in on purpose, and pricing paintings by labor instead of size.
Amber Vittoria walks MLow through a practice built on accessibility and the visible human hand. Her work has moved from figurative to abstract: early paintings were about seeing herself physically in art after years of Victoria's Secret web design and advertising imagery knocked her confidence, and over time the theme shifted to the emotional experience of womanhood, including her anxiety disorder, carried in ribbons of color and nostalgic palettes. She entered crypto in 2017 through Bitcoin and Ethereum, sold on the idea of medical records and deeds on chain after watching her family struggle through her grandmother's final illness, then found NFTs through friends buying CryptoPunks. Lazy minting is what actually unlocked her: experimentation that cost time instead of hundreds of dollars.
The middle is a collector's episode. She and her husband bought their CryptoPunk instead of a car in early 2021, picking one timeless enough to hand down to future kids; a recent wallet hack (user error, a ledger she never got around to using) pushed everything to cold storage. She names the artists she holds, Tiffatron's textured digital work, Sara Baumann of Women and Weapons, Allison Bamcat, and the painters who shaped her, George Condo (via the video of him painting Kanye West's album cover with no preciousness), Dana Frankfort, and Shepard Fairey, whose fifty dollar signed ICA print taught a broke college student that accessibility can be a career long principle. That principle shows up in her own releases: a ten dollar Dewdrops text to collect drop and an Onchain Summer mint with Indelible Labs on Base where the gas cost was zero.
The craft talk is unusually concrete. AI entered her practice through Claire Silver's influence: DALLE 2 failed to recreate her paintings but sparked forms, and Midjourney's realism finally let her render the large abstract sculptures her migraines and rented apartment prevent her from building, which now fuel installation pitches. Generative collabs came by admitting she did not want to code: In Due Time with Melissa Wiederrecht on fxhash, and the upcoming Labyrinth with the generative artist the transcript renders as Paulo, sparked by a collector tweeting their work side by side. She prices editions accessibly and paintings by labor, cedes 2023 release timing to partners like Coinbase and OpenSea who see the market better, resists trends by closing Twitter and taking a walk, and will not touch Ordinals unless an idea actually requires Bitcoin.
What this episode teaches
- Close the app, take the walk
Amber's protocol for trend pressure is physical: when she catches herself wondering whether to make what sells, she logs off X and Instagram and leaves the house. The world wants you to make what you want to make, not what you think it wants.
- Editions over orthodoxy
Early advice said only do one of ones and limited releases. She chose editions anyway because accessibility is what she believes in, accepting that it may cost her top tier artist status. A parent buying a print for a daughter is her definition of success.
- Leave the errors in
She has no hidden Easter eggs, but she deliberately leaves mistakes in her work, even digital work, as proof a human made it. Imperfection is the signature.
- Price by labor, not dimensions
Editions stay accessible; paintings are priced by the work that went into them, since a small painting can take longer than a large one. She trusts herself over any formula.
- The freelance triage rule
Take the misaligned client job if it is interesting or you will learn something; pass if it is boring and teaches nothing, and only if you can afford to pass. Not everything you make will be your best work, which she calls statistically impossible, so be flexible with yourself.
- Give AI a reason, like any medium
After DALLE 2 failed to imitate her paintings, she asked the question she asks of every medium: what is my specific reason for this one? The answer was sculpture she physically cannot build, and that clarity made the tool click.
- A chain choice needs a thesis
She experimented with Ethscriptions but will not do an Ordinals collection unless the idea genuinely has to live on Bitcoin, because the upfront cost is high and novelty is not a reason. Group drops are her low risk way to test expensive chains.
- Cede timing to partners who see the market
In 2021 and 2022 she released on her own regular schedule; in 2023 she lets collaborators like Dewdrops, Coinbase and OpenSea steer launch timing because they have more visibility into when work will land.
- Cold outreach compounds for years
Most of her brand work, including the H&M Home collection, traces to her own cold emails, sometimes answered years later by people who remembered her for a different project. Even a lost pitch keeps you in someone's mind.
The conversation, topic by topic
From figurative to abstract
Amber describes current work as abstract, digital and hand painted, celebrating the nuances of beauty and personhood with nostalgia in the palette. It began figurative, making images of women she could actually see herself in, and evolved toward the emotional rather than physical aspects of womanhood.
How she got in
Freelancing in 2017 she learned about Bitcoin and Ethereum and believed blockchains would one day hold wills, deeds and medical records, a conviction sharpened by her grandmother's death and the chaos of her records. She bought a little, forgot about it, then found NFTs when high school friends started buying CryptoPunks. Minting was too expensive for a pandemic freelancer until lazy minting made experimentation nearly free.
The punk instead of a car
Right before vaccines were announced in New York, she and her husband weighed buying a car against a roughly twenty thousand dollar CryptoPunk. Vaccines came, the city reopened, and they took forever choosing a punk cool but timeless enough to pass to future kids and grandkids.
The hack and the ledger
Her wallet was recently compromised, which she calls pure user error: the cold storage ledger sat unused too long. Everything, especially the punk, now lives on a new ledger, and she keeps only replaceable editions in warm wallets.
What she collects
Tiffatron, whose digital work carries texture Amber cannot explain, and which she saw huge on Sara Baumann's wall in Texas. Baumann herself, the former occupational therapist behind Women and Weapons, whose recent portrait paintings Amber would buy if she won the lottery. And Allison Bamcat, whose physical painting was lost in the mail, so Amber bought NFTs that cannot be.
Painter influences
George Condo, ever since a video of him painting the commission for Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, moving a huge canvas around with zero preciousness. Dana Frankfort's abstract paintings with buried words. And Shepard Fairey, whose fifty dollar signed print at the ICA Boston show she could afford as a college student, an experience that made lifelong accessibility a design principle for her own career.
Dewdrops and Onchain Summer
She experiments with distribution the way she experiments with mediums: a ten dollar Dewdrops text to collect drop (she compares it to wine subscription texts, though the platform it was built on later shut down its stores) and an Onchain Summer release with Indelible Labs on Base, where listing cost zero gas, which she hopes normalizes fee free minting for artists and collectors.
Womanhood as subject
Working in advertising and at Victoria's Secret as a web designer, she saw women portrayed as maternal, religious or hypersexualized and none of it matched her. The figurative work answered that; the current abstract work carries the emotional side, including life with an anxiety disorder, in hopes others see themselves in it.
Brands and The Hundreds
Clients span Facebook, Warby Parker, Apple, The New York Times and Gucci, unified by brands celebrating art through an artist's lens. H&M Home put her work on pillows and plates after reaching out directly. Her favorite collab is The Hundreds, the streetwear brand she idolized in high school: she redrew Bobby Hundreds' Adam Bomb logo in her style and digs the shirt out of a moving bin on camera.
AI and impossible sculpture
Claire Silver inspired her to tinker. DALLE 2 could not recreate her paintings but sparked compositions; the real unlock came from feeding her sculptural ideas into Midjourney, whose realism finally rendered the large abstract sculptures that migraines, rented walls and storage questions keep her from building. The outputs inspired postcard paintings and pitches for installations at fairs like Art Basel.
Generative collabs
She started teaching herself to code, decided against it, and collaborates instead. In Due Time with Melissa Wiederrecht on fxhash imagines everyone as dust particles drifting past each other at the end of time, merging Melissa's forms with Amber's palettes; people loved it and hated it, which she takes as proof it works. Next is Labyrinth with the generative artist Paulo, born from a collector tweeting their pieces side by side, aimed at release before the end of 2023.
Pricing and release strategy
Editions stay accessible; paintings are priced by labor, not surface area. Release timing used to be her own regular schedule during the 2021 demand wave, but in 2023 she lets partner platforms steer because they know when work will resonate. Not everything she makes ever sees the light of day.
Process and patience
Paintings start as rough sketches in a sketchbook or her phone's notes app; the first ribbon sketch sat from May 2022 until the idea worked. Pencil forms come next, sometimes left visible as a mark of growth, then paint section by section around drying time, a practice that taught her patience after years of single sitting work.
Ethscriptions and Ordinals
Her Ethscriptions collection was a fun but expensive experiment she is happy to leave up. For Ordinals she would only join a low cost group drop with artist friends; a full collection would demand a reason the work must live on Bitcoin rather than Ethereum.
In their words
“The world wants you to make what you want to make, not what you think it wants you to make.”
Amber Vittoria“A lot of folks were like, don't do editions, only do one of ones. I'm like, that goes against what I believe in.”
Amber Vittoria“Not everything that you work on is going to be your best work. That's just statistically impossible.”
Amber Vittoria“I do leave a lot of errors in my work, intentionally. I'm a human being, I'm making this by hand, even if it's digital, and I want it to reflect as such.”
Amber Vittoria“If I'm going to do that, then it really has to make sense for why it's inscribed on Bitcoin and not anywhere else.”
Amber Vittoria“Try and enjoy the slow time, because it'll eventually be crazy again, like it always is.”
Amber VittoriaCite this conversation
Amber Vittoria in conversation with MLow, "MLow X Amber Vittoria," The MLow Show, 5 Sep 2023. https://show.mlow.xyz/e/2023-09-05-mlow-x-amber-vittoria.html. Quoted from a machine transcript.
Quotations come from machine transcripts. Check wording against the audio before republishing.