Most times, Joel Meshak works on Naivaa, a fashion brand he created while still in university. But when the inspiration hits, he sits in front of his computer and creates digital art that he sells over the internet.

That might sound simple and straightforward, but it is not, because the art he creates is not physical and might never be downloaded and printed to be hung up on a wall.

Joel’s creative visual work is now available as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and is stored on a blockchain, a digital ledger of sorts that cannot be changed.

The 24-year-old creative director and fashion designer is among Kenyans riding a global NFT wave.

NFTs are products in the digital world that can be bought are sold but have no tangible form of their own.

While they have been around for a while, NFTs caught the attention of Kenyans in 2021 when news broke that record-breaking marathoner Eliud Kipchoge had sold his NFTs for KES4 million.

Joel caught on in 2021.

“I didn’t get to hear about NFTs till March last year. The biggest motivation was seeing other people making money through digital art. But with time I realized there’s so much more: you get connections, you meet new artists, you get to see people’s stories and you generally build an actual community online,” says Joel.

His digital art pieces, which are inspired by his personal, business and social life, are created through photography and videography and aim to celebrate black culture.

He uses the software applications Photoshop and Lightroom to create the artwork.

And in this new global marketplace, his visual art is paid in Ethereum. Joel shares how this cryptocurrency finds its way into his M-PESA on his phone.

Watch his story.