My latest collage artwork – “Treasure Diving” minted as NFT on the Hive blockchain

Here is my latest collage artwork to add to the collection. It’s called “Treasure Diving” and depicts the sea bed filled with sunken relics and treasures. You can see the silver coins predominating, along with some pottery and a skull filled with pearls. What a fine hoard.

The theme is one of divers going down to the depths to retrieve sunken treasures from the sea floor. The skull is perhaps the dominant image, yet I show it filled with pearls. So the treasures to be found in the depths are of two kinds, namely monetary as well as those of consciousness. The actual physical treasure hunt is a metaphor for the real treasure, which is of course consciousness and self-realization of our hidden potentials.

I like to create an overall color scheme in each work and here the theme is that of silver or white upon an ocean of emerald green or aquamarine. The symbolism in this art piece is inspired by the current cryptocurrency bull market where coins that have lost value are now starting to regain their value. Hive coin, the one used for buying and selling these NFT artworks, is just such a coin.

The cryptocurrency world is busy accessing profits from their coins and investments this year. Finally prices are making new highs and profits are being realized. The image of the divers plummeting the depths to retrieve the sunken coins shows this concept. Curiously there is a little American Express credit card down there too – a jest referring to the actual monetary profits available to cryptocurrency traders and investors in the coming 4th quarter on this year.

The skull may appear initially macabre but it is a common theme in sunken treasure. Here I show it not as a sign of death but as a source of rich valuable pearls. Pearls of wisdom fill the skull like brains. The symbol implies that pearls of wisdom and insights into our real identity beyond the physical body and mind are all available in the depths of our psyche too.

These are equally as valuable as any coin or material treasure. If we dive deep into the depths of our psyche, or the unconscious as Jung called it, we can find vast treasures of untapped psychic potential. Particularly the collective unconscious or source of archetypes of all humanity, is available to those who are able to tap in by becoming introspective or practicing meditation.

The pearls show a thread, like bubbles of air flowing up to the surface, implying that creative inspiration can be accessed in the underworld or unconscious and brought to conscious awareness, thus empowering and inspiring the artist, yogi or seeker. We have so much treasure of consciousness hidden as untapped potential within each one of us, we just have to go deep and tap in to it.

Curiously there is another stream of bubbles on the left of the scene, also rising up to the surface from the depths. These bubbles – if you look closely – are made up of numerous little Buddhas. In other words, rising up from the physical vessel – here in this image depicted as the pottery urn – is the spirit soul, who is an eternal, fully conscious and blissful being. Each one of us is a Buddha in their own right at the end of the day, when the body is transcended.

These are the treasures to be found by the aspiring seeker, whether physical coin or psychic inspiration or transcendent spiritual identity. All of these are available to us with just a little endeavour.

Admittedly it took me multiple repeated attempts to actually upload and mint the artwork to my gallery at nftshowroom.com, probably due to the wifi signal. Coincidentally Mercury has just gone into retrograde motion in recent hours. Slowing down of the lines of communication correlates to this astronomical condition. On the positive side, the Mercury retrograde phase is said to be good for retrieving lost items, so it adds to the theme of today’s artwork.

As a non-fungible digital token (NFT) this artwork is limited to two editions, with only one on sale for 55 Hive coins, while the other one stays in my gallery for posterity as part of my portfolio. Not that I expect sales of these artworks, I just like creating collages and they will be on display in my digital gallery now. In 2017 my portfolio of physical paper artworks was lost to fire, so now I simply upload the new creations as NFTs to be recorded and imprinted on the blockchain indefinitely.

If you want to buy this artwork, you can obtain it at https://nftshowroom.com/julianhorack/gallery/julianhorack_collages-julescape-q3-2021_treasure-diving. And you can view all my other collage artworks at my gallery wall there too. I may be in a grey area when it comes to copyright, since I’m actually cutting out pictures and photos from magazines to remix into a new image. So I actually just borrow the images of others and remix them. Anyway, anyone who is offended can call me a pirate. After all, the skull and buried treasure of today’s artwork are in fine pirate tradition.