Art and Regaining your Sense of Awe
When I was younger I would draw just for the fun of it. It wasn’t about impressing somebody or trying to sell art commissions. I made art because I saw cool art online, in the games that I played, in the movies that I watched, and all of that struck me with the inspiration to create. But after a few years of college I’ve found myself asking: what’s the point? Why do I need to spend so much of my day to create art, only to eventually land a job that won’t pay me nearly as well as other industries? For others this wake up and grind art all day way of life seemed to work for them, but for me this industrialized way of creating seemed to just suck the inspiration right out of my system. Even looking at art on places like Artstation, where some of the most technically proficient art in the industry resides, just didn’t feel inspiring. It didn’t give me the same sense of wonder that I used to get from looking at great art.
I eventually ended up taking a class in art history. For the most part the class wasn’t anything particularly special, up until we got to do our final presentations where we were tasked with making an analysis of any classical artwork of our choosing and compare it with a modern art piece. For my historical pick I chose The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole, which is a series of four paintings depicting the rise of an ambitious, wealthy civilization and it’s eventual downfall. Taking the time to actually learn about the historical context of why this series was made, and analyzing the many intentional details of the piece once again struck me with that sense of awe. Something that I really enjoy in paintings is when they have many small details embedded that all have some significance to the larger narrative of the painting, like little easter eggs that reward you for taking the time to really observe what’s in front of you. I think that what really allowed me to regain some of that artistic inspiration was seeing the humanity in the art that I was analyzing, how each person’s individual experiences and inner psyche got them to the point of being able to create the art which you are witnessing. I think that this whole AI art business and countless images being constantly posted onto the internet has made some people feel a sense of emptiness regarding art. It’s harder to feel a sense of wonder towards art when it’s so disconnected from any individual person, and so being able to reconnect to the people behind the art is more important than ever. For me at least, that’s what truly allowed me to once again feel that sense of awe and curiosity towards it.
I think that for most people looking at art can be a wonderful way to increase how much awe you feel in your life. A painting depicting a vast landscape or massive world shattering event can make your ego feel incredibly small in comparison, taking you out of your own mind and into the scene that you're looking at. In contrast, a piece depicting a smaller, more personal scene can help you empathize with another person’s point of view, even if that’s a fictional person, once again making the ego feel a bit smaller and making you feel more connected to the world around you. The art you’re looking at doesn’t need to be anything super grand or pretentious, sometimes I feel that sense of intrigue just looking at the characters that my friends design, because I know that person’s personality and can directly see that reflected in their artwork along with all the hard work they put into getting to where they are artistically.
In my opinion experiencing awe, whether it’s through art or other means, is incredibly important. One of the reasons for this is what I mentioned earlier, that awe allows you to forget your own ego and let your mind exist outside of yourself. If you’ve ever hiked up a mountain and spent at least a few seconds taking in the scenery around you, are you thinking about what you need to work on or some embarrassing mistake you made a billion years ago? Probably not. When experiencing awe you almost exist in a state of consciousness similar to a meditative state. And it’s not just good for your own happiness either. To an extent I think that we could all benefit from being more empathetic towards one another, especially in a society where being self-absorbed is arguably much more rewarded. The ability of a great piece of art to allow you to experience someone else’s emotions can make you understand them more, which in turn can make you feel more connected to people other than yourself.
If I had to pin down some artists whose work zaps me with that sense of wonder, I would say that in particular artists that depict incredibly vast, fantastical scenes tend to do this the best for me, one famous example being Gustave Doré.
On one hand, I love looking at the epic scenes that he draws. On the other hand, I also love looking at all the tiny strokes that show not only texture but also an absolutely insane amount of work put in to each work of art. Gustave Doré was very obviously inspired by his religious faith, and even as someone who isn’t religious I can feel that when looking at his work. There’s a kind of spiritual wonder in some of these types of works that seemingly transcends your personal identity, whether that’s an identity tied into a particular religion or lack thereof. You can feel it in Gustave Doré’s drawings, you can feel it in John Martin’s paintings, you can even feel it in modern day fantasy art.
Take for example Alan Lee. He’s made plenty of illustrations for The Lord of the Rings, and they all complement the series so incredibly well. He’ll paint these grandiose landscapes that to me also feel weirdly calming to look at, probably because of softer watercolor painting style. He had been a fan of Lord of the Rings for years before he eventually started making illustrations for the series, and you can totally see that love and understanding of the series in his work.
There’s of course many fantasy artists other than Alan Lee, Frank Frazetta and Michael Whelan are famous examples that come to mind. One fantasy artist I don’t see mentioned as much would be Virgil Finlay, and I would highly recommend checking out the drawings he did for Ship of Ishtar which are just so fun and dynamic to look at. Similar to Gustave Doré, he also has this crosshatching style which lets the viewer know just how much time and effort it must have taken for him to get all those tiny little strokes just right to help the piece come together.
I believe that comics are an artform that has also done a great job of filling people with a sense of awe. For example, Blame! is a manga in which our protagonist makes his way through a world made of one megastructure so huge it can’t have been created by normal humans. Admittedly, I haven’t actually sat down and read this manga yet. But I’m absolutely obsessed with the setting and some of the panels I’ve seen so far. Seeing a vast landscape is one thing, but there’s something about a world encompassed entirely by artificial structures that feels so terrifyingly dystopian. Vast landscapes feel serene because they’re natural, they’re meant to be there, but a megastructure of this scale is not. And that’s what makes it feel so uniquely awe-inspiring.
I could probably spend hours here just gushing about every painter, comic book artist, game designer or filmmaker who can create these existential jaw-dropping pieces of work, but what I would personally recommend is for you to find artists yourself who scratch that itch in your brain. And of course those artists don’t have to be super serious classical painters, those artists could just be local painters you find at a gallery or artists who make fanart of your favorite shows. What matters is that these works allow you to forget about your own ego, even if it’s just for a few seconds, and connect you to something or someone beyond yourself.