As the creator of this drawing, which I call “The Awakening,” I see it as a visual manifesto that contrasts the shackles of modern existence with the liberating power of decentralized systems and awareness of original human nature.
 
Inspired by archetypal Renaissance imagery such as Michelangelo's “The Creation of Adam” or “The Pietà,” I have chosen a style that blends hyperrealistic detail with surreal symbolism. The drawing is executed in a wide range of graphite and colored pencils, with a dramatic contrast between light and shadow that underscores the duality of enlightenment and oppression. The golden-orange glow around the Bitcoin symbol—the only colored element—serves as a focal point that draws the viewer into meditative contemplation, similar to the aureoles in medieval icon art. This style is deliberately archaic yet contemporary, connecting the timeless human longing for freedom with the chains of our era.
 
Symbolically, the upper figure represents a messianic presence revealing a dazzlingly bright Bitcoin logo—a symbol of unmanipulable, decentralized value creation and self-determination. It reaches out its hand to touch the lower, bound figure and free it from its blindfold. A metaphorical representation of rising with clarity and consciousness from the deep veil of illusion and deception in which collective humanity finds itself: a tormented being trapped in chains of dollar bills, surveillance cameras, and political staging.
 
Take a closer look: The billboards “War for Peace” and “Act Now: Man-made Climate Change is Real!” depict manipulative narratives that sow fear and obedience, while “Vote Right” and “Vote Left” mock the illusion of choice in a binary system that is ultimately controlled by the same powers. The IRS Form 1040 symbolizes the oppressive tax burden, the hammer and sickle, the failed collectivism, the all-seeing eye, the omnipresent surveillance of the state, corporations, and the powers that control them. These chains are not only physical but metaphysical—they tie up the mind, as Plato describes in his allegory of the cave, the shadow world in which people mistake illusions for reality.
 
The banner “Know Thyself” – “Gnothi seauton”, the Delphic maxim – floats above it like a reminder, carried by a white dove of peace: true freedom begins with self-knowledge. Philosophically speaking, I refer here to Socrates and the Stoics, who taught that external shackles can only be broken through inner insight. In our era of fiat currencies, where money is created out of thin air and inflated to exert control, I see Bitcoin as the modern oracle – a protocol that enables transparency and autonomy without intermediaries, as well as the potential for general reflection on the entire, deeper worldview, not just superficial parts of it such as economics, finance and politics.
 
The intention of this work is to awaken the viewer: it is a critique of the centralized tyranny that keeps us in perpetual debt bondage, and a call to return to clarity, discernment, intuition, and recognition of the manifold veils of deception and manipulation that keep us down.
 
This drawing is not mere protest; it is a philosophical meditation on the conditio humana in the post-truth era. It asks: Will we continue to writhe in the shadows, or will we recognize the divine spark within us? In a world ruled by algorithms and authorities, it reminds us that salvation does not come from outside, but from our own innermost selves—infinite consciousness.