We’re really excited to be part of a groundbreaking new fundraising project created by Alex Echo for Tibet Relief Fund!
Alex has been creating abstract art for four decades, working with such names as Paul Smith, Prince Charles and Eric Clapton, and has also raised nearly a million pounds for charity over his long career.
You might have heard about NFTs in the past few months. It’s the new frontier of the art world, a meeting of art history with tech, and not an easy concept to grasp! Read more about non-fungible tokens and what they mean for art collecting.
Alex, who has Parkinson’s, has recently embraced digital art as a form of creative expression in place of painting. He has now created “We can shape the future”, a set of ten amazing images, each with a quote from the Dalai Lama’s teachings. To add to the uniqueness of this collection, the quotes have been voiced by Tenzin Lodoe from the Gaden Phodrang Foundation and approved by the Dalai Lama’s office. 108 NFTs of each of the ten images will be available to buy, with a new image released each week for ten weeks.
Proceeds from “We can shape the future” go to Tibet Relief Fund and the Gaden Phodrang Foundation. You can get your very own Alex Echo NFT here.
Each image has been approved by the Dalai Lama and voiced over by his nephew Tenzin Lodoe. They are simple, lighthearted and heartwarming.
NFTs have come under fire for their environmental impact, but Alex has carefully chosen Hyprr, who are committed to making the NFT art world more ethical and carbon neutral, to sell this work.
“the biggest project of my entire 43 year long art career.”
Alex Echo
We are so glad he has chosen to fundraise for Tibetan communities at a time when so many Tibetans in exile are struggling with the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns.
Thank you to Alex for your deep love and care for Tibet, and to everyone who supports Tibetan communities by buying an NFT.
Guides to help you get started
Create an account on Hyprr to buy your NFT
A wide range of wallets can be used when buying an NFT including MetaMask, Coinbase and Trust Wallet. Various cryptos can be used to make a purchase, these are: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Paxos Standard, USD Coin, Gemini Dollar and Binance USD.
How this project came about
Well known contemporary artist Alex Echo (@AlexEcho5) was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Painting has become increasingly difficult, but his creativity and curiosity took him to digital art and then NFTs! Through the recent somewhat isolated times, Alex began a series of portraits based on world leaders and important figures. In his words he says, “I kept returning to the Dalai Lama creating version after version. To me beautiful and playful renditions appeared, his happy cheery face giving me comfort as I created them during the pandemic and lockdown. Remembering his words I began adding text of his quotes, and the simple playful images suddenly took on real meaning and a deeper beauty. Here was an 85 year old man, year after year of his entire life practicing compassion, tolerance, peace, and love, dedicated to humanitarian and environmental goals, staring up at me from my tablet, giving me peace and warmth during the winter of world wide pandemic and lockdown”.
Alex says of this wonderfully generous gift, “since 1969 at the age of ten I have been aware of, and quietly following, the path of the Dalai Lama and his teachings. Now during an extremely dark time I was creating his image and using his words and I was finding calm. It was an easy ‘connect the dots’ moment when I realised the new world of social media and the expanding NFT art experience was where these simple, meaningful little images resting on my computer screen belonged. And I knew immediately that I had to give them away”.
He went on to say, “my renewed love of the humanitarian teachings of the Dalai Lama giving me comfort in extraordinarily painful times, and the advancing age of His Holiness, I knew it simply had to be NOW!”
