My latest NFT artwork – Mars steps out of the box – minted on the Hive blockchain

Hey there art lovers and progressive NFT collectors, herewith I announce the minting of my latest NFT (non-fungible token) artwork “Mars steps out of the box” on the Hive blockchain. You can see it in my collection at https://nftshowroom.com/julianhorack/collection/julianhorack_collages-julescape-q4-2021_mars-steps-out-of-the-box. It’s also a quick seller as a collector has already bought the nine editions of this NFT that I minted for sale. I have the last one for my portfolio.

This is the latest in my collection of handmade paper collage art pieces, created by cutting out pictures from old magazines with a pair of scissors and gluing them together in a newly created image. I wonder who else uses this old school, non-digital style of making art nowadays? Anyone who is aware of NFTs is obviously at the forefront of modern digital technology, so most of the artwork they produce would probably be digital and made on a computer. I am a relic from the old school, yet I have bridged the gap into the new.

Thus my work is unique and rare. It will be legendary in years to come, when collectors discover it. That is my prediction. I like to add a bit of humor to the portfolio sometimes, as you might see in today’s art piece. It’s a color combination of monochrome juxtaposed against some sort of fuchsia or raspberry. Add to that the dash of pink and I could have called this one “Mars steps out of the closet” but decided to not go there.

The overall imagery is simpler than most of my other works. There is the flat background, as opposed to a landscape with depth. Much less cluttering of the picture is visible today. The main focus is at the bottom of the portrait layout, and you can actually see a little bit of landscape depth perception there. There is a degree of layering which I created by cutting out the grey metal box and round space ship image so that you can see through them both.

The main central character in today’s art piece is a black and white image of a martial artist from India, dressed in formal, yet traditional regalia, consisting of sword and shield. He is also wearing some really old-fashioned armor, consisting of spikes of metal. And he is barefoot. I call him Mars, because he looks martial. Add to that the fact that he has the iconic “face of Mars” on his shield. You may be able to recognize it, if you are familiar with the so-called photographs of the surface of the planet Mars, sent back by unmanned satellites and Rovers that have visited the red planet over the years.

Allegedly those satellites have taken photos of what looks like a pyramid structure, near a city grid, and along with that there is this particular structure that looks like a face, barely. I don’t believe it’s a face on the surface of Mars actually. I think it’s just a natural mountainous landscape. It just looks like a face from a distance if you stretch your imagination a bit. Nevertheless, those who know it will immediately recognize the impression as coming from the surface of the planet Mars.

So the military man in armor is here depicted as Mars, the god of war. And he is stepping out of a booth, perhaps an old telephone booth, like Superman would do. Or perhaps it’s a teleporter from his space ship which hovers above him in the sky, as seen in the image. And the planet he has landed on appears lilac in color. The roundish metal image floating at the top of the picture alludes to the iron of the martial artists gear, as well as the metal one might find in machinery or mechanical items, all symbolic of the Mars theme. It’s cold, hard steel at its best.

I wanted to unify the color scheme by echoing the color of the central character, which is in basic black, white and grey, and so added the grey disk above his head. Also he is stepping out of a grey booth. And this is contrasted against an opposing rich berry color as the backdrop. Then I added the pink blocks as more flat border color, and the black outer frame to bring it all together. So there is less color than usual in this simpler palette, as well as less detail in this art piece.

Just behind the head of the main figure of the martial artist is, however, a small dash of extra color in the form of a spiky ball which looks like his halo. I wanted to echo the theme of the spikes on his outfit. Some might think it’s a covid virus image, but that was not the intention. If it is then the martial artist has natural immunity.

Despite the pink and rich berry color of the background, the overall image is a masculine theme, as is natural for Mars, which comes through via the steel and the squares or blocks of geometric shape and the square lines of the metal booth. Of course, there are plenty of circles in the steel disk above, but the disk looks like cold, hard metal, so is more masculine, in my opinion. The overall effect is not so much my usual metaphysical or spiritual theme, but more one of humor today. You could say the landscape, space ship and teleportation booth do still add the usual cosmic sci-fi theme.

I like to use the combination of old antique look in this work, juxtaposed against the futuristic imagery – much like the steampunk genre. The central character, Mars, looks very mean and serious, and yet the pink border adds to the anomalous overall impression, making it serious but cute at the same time. Especially when you consider his armor. He appears to have stepped out of a time machine, wearing an outfit from a long past age.

I had a lot of fun creating this artwork and it makes a great addition to the collection, echoing a previous work of similar subject matter, called “Martial artist – Saxon steel” which you can also find in my gallery as one of my earlier works. Thus similar recurring themes appear to spontaneously emerge in my collages overall. Feel free to check out my gallery at www.nftshowroom.com/julianhorack/gallery and sponsor this artist by investing in an NFT digital cryptocurrency tokenized item for your collection.