Fantasy Art is a popular art genre. Warriors and wizards, dragons and
faeries as well as mythical creatures like unicorns and Pegasus
typically dot the landscapes of fantasy artwork. Fantasy Art often draws
on science fiction as well, depicting far-off worlds and alternate
universes.
Artists specializing in Fantasy Art are usually great illustrators and highly skilled at their craft. Their figures are very lifelike and often idyllic in their stature and form. This type of art hearkens to a time when gods and goddesses walked the earth and when unicorns roamed the lands.
In my own art, I find inspiration in stories that include creatures like Pegasus and Unicorns as well as the worlds of angels, warriors and spirit beings.
So here's a couple of questions to ponder...
Does Fantasy Art represent pure "fantasy?" Or is there a collective memory
of a time when life was truly filled with magical creatures and
Amazon-like warrior women and men?
Do worlds exist where angelic beings soar through the skies and where majestic structures rise from the earth, and does fantasy artwork reflect these worlds?
In other words, is human imagination simply "imaginary", or does Fantasy Art reflect something more real?
I'm going with that old cliché here, "truth is stranger than fiction." Also, if you look at the recent history of science fiction literature, much of what's been written over the last 100 years has come true.
Think Star Trek, Star Wars, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Even the Jetsons seemed to have had a bead on what was to come!
Maybe there is some collective memory that writers and artists tap into when in their creative state. When I am in that place, for example, it seems like time and space stand still. My "thinking self" moves to the side, allowing something intuitive and more universal to step through and step forth.
Really good Fantasy Art has a similar feeling to me of some of the better science fiction writing.
Either humans are endowed with extraordinary imaginations that can conjure up warriors, wizards, angels, unicorns and the like, or there's something else going on. Certainly many of the world mythologies speak of a time when unicorns, elves and even leprechauns pranced about in the earth.
The legends of King Arthur and his knights refer to elves, dwarves and wizards. So do the writings of J.R.R Tolkien and his world of hobbits and magical creatures.
Many have contemplated about whether there is something greater that exists either "out there" or "in there".
The movie "Contact" with Jody Foster illustrates this very well. Its writers were suggesting that time and space may not operate the way we think of them operating. "The Matrix" is another movie with a similar point of view.
Fantasy Art asks that belief be suspended, and that the imagination be allowed to run free. And who knows, maybe the "reality" of those imaginary worlds will lead us to something long forgotten but no less real...
Artists specializing in Fantasy Art are usually great illustrators and highly skilled at their craft. Their figures are very lifelike and often idyllic in their stature and form. This type of art hearkens to a time when gods and goddesses walked the earth and when unicorns roamed the lands.
In my own art, I find inspiration in stories that include creatures like Pegasus and Unicorns as well as the worlds of angels, warriors and spirit beings.
So here's a couple of questions to ponder...
Do worlds exist where angelic beings soar through the skies and where majestic structures rise from the earth, and does fantasy artwork reflect these worlds?
In other words, is human imagination simply "imaginary", or does Fantasy Art reflect something more real?
I'm going with that old cliché here, "truth is stranger than fiction." Also, if you look at the recent history of science fiction literature, much of what's been written over the last 100 years has come true.
Think Star Trek, Star Wars, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Even the Jetsons seemed to have had a bead on what was to come!
Maybe there is some collective memory that writers and artists tap into when in their creative state. When I am in that place, for example, it seems like time and space stand still. My "thinking self" moves to the side, allowing something intuitive and more universal to step through and step forth.
Really good Fantasy Art has a similar feeling to me of some of the better science fiction writing.
Either humans are endowed with extraordinary imaginations that can conjure up warriors, wizards, angels, unicorns and the like, or there's something else going on. Certainly many of the world mythologies speak of a time when unicorns, elves and even leprechauns pranced about in the earth.
The legends of King Arthur and his knights refer to elves, dwarves and wizards. So do the writings of J.R.R Tolkien and his world of hobbits and magical creatures.
Many have contemplated about whether there is something greater that exists either "out there" or "in there".
The movie "Contact" with Jody Foster illustrates this very well. Its writers were suggesting that time and space may not operate the way we think of them operating. "The Matrix" is another movie with a similar point of view.
Fantasy Art asks that belief be suspended, and that the imagination be allowed to run free. And who knows, maybe the "reality" of those imaginary worlds will lead us to something long forgotten but no less real...