Art Reaching Deep
Michael J. Foy
Specializing in Speculative Science Fiction -- (free novel at michaeljfoy.com)
We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow
The hammer of the gods
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? — Immigrant Song
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The work of art above is a painting by Frank Frazetta that recalls Norse mythology. Thus, the opening lyrics from Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. I discovered Frazetta’s mythic brand of heroic artwork early in college; a friend of mine turned me on to it. We were both in engineering school. Here’s why that’s remarkable:
Engineers deal in a black-and-white world, with observable and measurable phenomena. You dispassionately apply the math and physics of that reality to engineer solutions for a better product, or outcome for society.
In school, we were mostly discouraged from taking elective courses that would stray from that black-and-white mindset. There was little room for gray, or for the creative arts, in our coursework — and heaven forbid if you ever thought in primary colors.
The funny thing is, most students were drawn to engineering by the colorful genre of science fiction. As kids, our imaginations went way beyond the black-and-white. Still, it’s the rare engineer who appreciates the power of art and literature to move us. To this day, I call those subjects brown category topics. The brown category in the Trivial Pursuit board game was Arts and Literature. It almost always tripped me up.
Yet this Frazetta art reaches something deep in me, where gods exist and men battle ethereal forces. I’ve been known to thrill at stories like that. I’ve been known to emulate stories like that in my own writing.
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领英推荐
As winter continues, do you ever gaze at the gray cloudy skies? What do they make you think of? Oftentimes, I visualize that painting. A poster of it used to hang on my bedroom wall, so it’s ingrained in my memory. It was inspiring. Mere mortals could challenge the gods. Or at least, that’s the uplifting theme I took from it.
People can be moved by the arts — and I include myself in that group. We need them to stoke our imaginations. Why is that valuable?
Any invention or enterprise that has benefited mankind was first dreamt up in someone’s imagination. Numbers and equations helped bring those visions into reality, but they are only useful tools in service to those lofty visions inspired by the arts.
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The End
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