Trish Gianakis’s Keeper of Tides: Tradition, Innovation, and the Future of Fine Art
- Sep 3
- 4 min read
At The Fine Art Ledger, we are honored to feature the work of Trish Gianakis, an award-winning immersive artist and educator whose practice seamlessly blends physical craft with cutting-edge technology. Her sculpture Keeper of Tides (2025) is not only an artwork but also an example of how blockchain and mobile interactivity are transforming how fine art is collected, authenticated, and experienced.
About the Artist: Trish Gianakis
Trish Gianakis is a sculptor, immersive media artist, and professor with over two decades of experience in design and technology. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Art Installation from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and has earned numerous accolades, including a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award for on‑air graphics and recognition for her UX design work. Her career spans working with high-profile clients like Major League Baseball, Merck, and AMC TV productions, before shifting focus to her passion: art that bridges the physical and digital.
For the past nine years, Gianakis has dedicated her creative energy to merging traditional sculpture with immersive technologies. Her work explores healing, spirituality, innovation, and transformation through sculpture, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). As a professor at Saint Peter’s University, she teaches XR, traditional art, and ethics in AI, shaping the next generation of artists working at the intersection of creativity and technology. Her residency with the CRNY Artist Employment Program (2022–2024) allowed her to create AR art tours in New York and VR set designs for television, further cementing her role as a pioneer in phygital art.
Keeper of Tides (2025): Craft and Concept
Keeper of Tides is an original raku-fired ceramic sculpture with encaustic wax, measuring 14 x 22 x 2.5 inches. Gianakis uses the ancient Japanese raku firing technique, which emphasizes unpredictability, transformation, and elemental interaction with fire. The encaustic wax adds depth, luminosity, and texture, embodying her ability to fuse old-world craftsmanship with contemporary innovation.
Thematically, the work reflects the cycles of tides—resilience, flow, and transformation—echoing the rhythms of human experience. Gianakis’s choice of materials and method embodies fragility and strength, permanence and impermanence, stillness and motion.
Provenance and Blockchain Record
Through The Fine Art Ledger, Keeper of Tides has been cryptographically stamped on the Polygon blockchain, ensuring its authenticity and secure provenance. Details include:
FAL Contract Address: 0x7B35D058bE626c5aA79587d79e112f27EB9522eC
Token Standard: ERC‑1155
Token ID: 686
Blockchain: Polygon
Last Transaction Hash: 0x66bc48bd5159e38fe558af042c1add0447db3e064edc465f21e968b5e611dcb6
The Mobile Fine Art Experience: Step-by-Step Walkthrough
What makes Keeper of Tides truly groundbreaking is its integration with The Fine Art Ledger’s Mobile Fine Art Experiences™. This feature transforms the sculpture into a living, evolving digital companion. Here’s how it works:
Tap to Connect – A smartphone tap on the embedded NFC tag immediately opens a secure digital portal to the artwork’s record. No apps or logins required.
New! Scan to Explore – In addition to NFC, collectors can now unlock the experience simply by scanning a QR code. Just point your smartphone camera at the code, and the Mobile Fine Art Experience™ for Keeper of Tides opens instantly in the browser.
What You Can Do with the QR + AR Experience
View the Certificate – Instantly access the blockchain-stamped and NFT-generated Certificate of Authenticity, title document, and provenance history.
3D Scan Interaction – Rotate, zoom, and explore a detailed 3D scan of Keeper of Tides.
Augmented Reality Placement – Place the sculpture virtually in any space using AR, whether in your living room, office, or classroom.
Exclusive Video Content – Watch curated video footage of the sculpture at exhibitions, including the Port Moody Shoreline Trail AR Art Walk and the Monmouth Museum.
Artist Insights – Access interviews, process notes, and behind-the-scenes stories directly from Gianakis, enriching the artwork with context and narrative.
Dynamic Updates – The content evolves over time. Collectors and audiences can return again and again to discover new layers of information and media.
This dual-access system (NFC + QR) ensures that fine art is not just seen but experienced interactively — transforming every sculpture into a living digital companion.
Why This Matters for Collectors
The integration of blockchain, NFTs, and mobile interactivity ensures collectors enjoy:
Trust: Immutable authentication and ownership generated from blockchain transactions and transferable NFTs.
Transparency: Real-time view of ownership, transactions, and certification.
Engagement: AR and 3D scans expand the experience beyond physical limitations.
Enriched Provenance: Records of each owner embedded in the transferable NFT and viewable with a tap of a mobile phone.
Looking Ahead
Keeper of Tides demonstrates how artists like Trish Gianakis are redefining fine art for the digital age. By blending traditional techniques with blockchain permanence and mobile AR interactivity, Gianakis ensures her work transcends static display and becomes an evolving, immersive experience.
At The Fine Art Ledger, we believe this fusion of tradition and innovation represents the future of fine art—where sculptures, paintings, and installations exist simultaneously as physical treasures and digital experiences, secured for generations.
Discover more about how the Mobile Fine Art Experience™ is transforming the art world at fineartledger.com.