Ivanna Orliuk on Gematria Art, Dollar-Bill Paintings, and Symbolic Financial Systems
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Vocal.Media
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2026/05/25
*Further details about the art after the interview.*
Ivanna Orliuk is a Ukrainian artist whose practice explores art gematria, money, financial systems, symbolic transformation, and numerology. Her circular paintings are created from original U.S. dollar banknotes arranged according to their serial numbers, forming what she describes as a material analogue to blockchain and an artistically ordered, non-random sequence. She also creates large-scale sculptures connected to construction, technology, spiritual transition, and the emotional states currently experienced by Ukrainians. Orliuk combines art, economics, numbers, frequency, vibration, and collective belief, viewing currency and language as symbolic systems open to interpretation.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen interviews Ivanna Orliuk, a Ukrainian artist whose circular dollar-banknote paintings, gematria systems, and construction-site sculptures connect money, numbers, language, and transformation. Orliuk explains how serial numbers become symbolic sequences, how simple gematria links letters to numerical patterns, and how financial technologies such as SWIFT, Stellar, Ripple, and future protocols shape her visual language. Her work treats currency, code, belief, and wartime emotion as mutable symbolic systems of memory and hope in Ukraine.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What is your process? What materials do you use?
Ivanna Orliuk: These circular paintings are created from original U.S. dollar banknotes arranged sequentially according to their serial numbers.
Placed one after another, they form a material analogue to blockchain; a flow of uninterrupted numbers. The concept of the series is a structure of memory: the monetary system embodied in paper.
The modern financial messaging system is changing, and new standards and technologies are being implemented, as has repeatedly happened throughout history.
Jacobsen: Why specifically the circular form? And why do you follow the serial numbers?
Orliuk: Because I work with numbers, and all of my paintings are connected to numbers and gematria. I work with numerical combinations.
Gematria is a method of transforming letters into numbers. Gematria is associated with assigning numerical values to Hebrew letters, though in my work I also use an adapted simple-gematria system with the English alphabet. I can translate any word into numbers. In this way, I feel that I uncover patterns because I can calculate the digital root. Through certain resources, I can find analogous phrases that become interpretive keys in the search for truth.
I feel that everything around us can be understood through numbers. Numbers are connected to the Universe, frequency, vibration, and the structures that surround us.
I would very much like to show you my polyptych series From SWIFT to the New Standard, currently located in Miami. It is also connected to gematria-based art.
Each painting measures one meter by one meter, and there are ten canvases in total. Each painting represents a specific number and a protocol of the future.
We have nine canvases representing the numbers one through nine. The final canvas, zero, represents SWIFT – a major global secure financial-messaging network used by banks and financial institutions worldwide – although I believe that this system may eventually be replaced by future protocols.
The preceding numbers are associated with future financial and digital infrastructure systems:
1 – XLM
2 – XDC
3 – IOTA
4 – XRP / Ripple
…
Ripple is of particular interest to banks worldwide in the context of international payments and settlements. Ripple markets blockchain-based payment and financial-infrastructure services to banks and financial institutions.
XLM is connected to the Stellar network, which was designed for fast, low-cost international payments and integration between digital and traditional national currencies. I am interested in how such systems may influence global payments and transform the course of the entire economy.
I love working with gematria. I love working with numbers. Here, each number corresponds to a letter of the English alphabet. We have words and phrases encoded through numbers. None of this is accidental – it is all CODE.
We have twenty-six letters in the English alphabet and nine single-digit values in the simple gematria system I use, from 1 to 9; decimal numerals themselves are ten digits, 0 through 9. Let us see how your name translates into numbers.
Jacobsen: Scott. S-C-O-T-T.
Orliuk: S is the nineteenth letter – 19. C is 3, O is 15, and T is 20 and 20. Altogether, we arrive at 77. Then 7 + 7 equals 14, and 1 + 4 equals 5. The final single-digit number is the digital root.
For me, gematria is less about fixed answers and more about discovering hidden relationships through mathematics, symbolism, and visual form.
One thing that especially inspires me is that I have never encountered anyone making art in quite this way before.
Many of my gematria-based artworks and conceptual systems are officially patented and legally protected, particularly the painting series that I consider especially significant within my artistic practice.
I continue developing these works as part of a larger artistic and symbolic framework connected to numbers, language, financial systems, and transformation.
Jacobsen: Where did your initial interest in the relationship between numbers and the letters of the English alphabet originate?
Orliuk: There are different systems of gematria. The one I use in my art is simple gematria. There are also Hebrew forms of gematria that use different structures and numerical correspondences.
Sometimes I compare these systems when searching for patterns or interpretations. I am especially interested in numbers within economics, business, and financial markets.
For example, within cryptocurrency and other financial markets, fundamental news plays a key role in analyzing any current situation in order to understand where prices may move.
This inspires me greatly. I have painted in different styles since the age of ten, but gematria is what truly motivates me toward a deeper understanding of numbers on the level of intuition and feeling. I see a connection between gematria-based art and ideas related to economics and future technological transformations.
Jacobsen: How does each work fit into this system? What exactly do these circular paintings express through mathematics and language?
Orliuk: They function as a kind of memory of the financial system – one that may eventually be transformed or replaced over time.
The paintings also emphasize that money is ultimately symbolic. People often perceive money as something fixed and material, but I see it more as a system of energy and collective belief. In the same way, numbers can also be understood symbolically – through ideas, thoughts, frequencies, vibrations, and patterns.
That is why I am especially drawn to the idea of using banknotes from the same series.
I have never seen anything similar before. I travel extensively, and whenever I arrive in a new city or country, I try to visit as many museums and galleries as possible. The fact that I have never encountered anything resembling my gematria-based artworks or circular dollar paintings inspires me to continue developing them even further.
I also create sculptures. This sculpture, Synchronicity, was created at one of my construction sites. My two primary fields are construction and art connected to gematria. In my perception, both are deeply connected to systems, structures, numbers, and economics.
This sculpture was created on a construction site using heavy construction machinery, including a crane.
For me, the sculpture symbolizes a transition from the third dimension into the fifth. In this context, I understand that transition symbolically, as a movement from difficult emotional states toward transformation, connection, and hope. Many Ukrainians are currently living through extraordinarily difficult emotional realities because of the war. People experience anger, fear, uncertainty, and emotional exhaustion because of what is happening and because they do not understand what will come next.
The sculpture represents transformation beyond these emotional states.
Butterflies embody light, positivity, love, and spiritual transformation – the world of the fifth dimension. They symbolize the possibility of movement toward something more connected and hopeful in the future.
This sculpture is currently located at the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine in the Pechersk district.
Jacobsen: How should gematria be interpreted correctly?
Orliuk: Gematria is a system in which letters are translated into numbers in order to explore symbolic connections between words, language, and meaning. Historically, gematria most commonly refers to numerical values assigned to Hebrew letters, though artists and numerologists may adapt comparable systems to other alphabets.
In my work, gematria functions as an interpretive and artistic system connected to language, numbers, and patterns.
I use numerical structures and digital-root calculations as part of my artistic process, exploring unexpected connections between words, information, economics, and collective perception.
I am especially interested in how numbers operate within financial systems, media, and human communication.
Jacobsen: Thank you very much for your time and for this opportunity, Ivanna.
Orliuk: Thank you very much for the conversation and for the opportunity to speak more about my ideas, artistic practice, creative vision, and creative process.
Image Credits: Ivanna Orliuk.
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