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Introduction 

On July 27th, 2022, British artist Maxim will be launching an NFT collection featuring 888 still images of four different butterflies on Crypto.com NFT in a joint effort with the Snowcrash NFT platform. 

The collection is titled Lepidopterror.

Let’s get into the background of the artist and details of the collection below. 

Who is Maxim aka Visual Artist MM? 

Maxim, who sometimes goes by Visual Artist MM, is a British contemporary artist who is also known for being part of the British electric punk band called Prodigy. 

He has over 17 years of painting experience including solo shows in London and Los Angeles. You can check out some of his artwork here. 

His passion for art started organically when he began painting to add unique artwork to his own home.

While Maxim is also in a well-known band, he keeps his music and art separate as art gives him a sense of freedom to do as he sees fit: 

“I wanted my art to be accepted in its own right and was worried about being criticized as a musician trying to be an artist. All of the work is just me; whether it’s art or music. In music you are always aiming for perfection, you’re never 100% happy. Art is much more liberating than that; even mistakes can be beautiful.”

Freedom is so important to Maxim with his art that he went as far as saying that “The one thing I’ve learned about art is there aren’t really mistakes in art, are there?”

Maxim’s work expanded beyond painting and into sculpture art, including physical objects like bullets, blades, and pills into his work. His edgy style is his unique mark in the art world. 

You can take a look at some of his sculpture art here to get a sense of his style. 

What is Lepidopterror and what does it have to do with the NFT art?

Lepidoptera is a type of insect that includes butterflies and moths, which accounts for the “lepidop” aspect of the project name. 

The butterflies will be mixed with skulls and deadly weapons, accounting for the “terror” part of the collection (more on the reasoning behind that choice is explained in a later section of this article). 

The dark contrast of butterflies with weapons is also part of Maxim’s signature style, often described as “edgy”. 

Lepidopterror Collection Details

The NFT collection will feature images of butterflies mixed with skulls and deadly weapons and will include:

• 50 Royal Butterflies

• 50 Warrior Butterflies

• 50 Worker Butterflies

• 738 Butterfly Citizens

The various NFT classes are part of the larger story, which is shared in the final section of this article. 

The Origin of Lepidopterror 

The origin behind the idea for this collection is a mix of innocence and charm. 

Maxim first visualized this collection back in 2009, when he remember seeing an ad that depicted a young girl making her way through a cornfield with a net trying to catch a butterfly. 

The childhood memory triggered an interesting response from the artist when he thought to himself: 

“What would it be like if I armed that butterfly?”

Closing Thoughts

What strikes me about Maxim is his willingness to pair natural beauty (butterflies) with a darker side. 

It might not be the first thought that comes to mind for the average person, but what if the butterflies being chased were armed? And what if there were a deeper, more imaginative storyline behind that scenario? 

The play on imagination with a stark contrast spawned what’s likely to be a unique set of NFT artwork from an established artist who is no stranger to pushing boundaries. 

The story of the characters in the NFT art is even more enchanting, starting with a child from an elder butterfly family (the Lepidopterrors) who stumbled on some magical Golden Pollen. 

After ingesting the pollen, the child realized it had healing powers and went to tell his family (the Royals). 

The family of butterflies realized it needed to keep the Golden Pollen safe from its enemy Clown Wasps in order to have a reserve always available to heal the sick. 

Because of this realization, some of the butterflies trained as Warrior Butterflies as guardians of the Golden Pollon for the Royals, Workers, and Citizens. 

Artists take risks to differentiate and express themselves in the marketplace, hoping to resonate with a collector base and the detail of the story taken from the nugget of childhood memory is both deep and fascinating. 

Maxim’s style and concept for this project remind me of Damien Hirst, another British artist whose work was sometimes seen as controversial. 

Mark your calendars for July 27th!