It’s a similar effect to one experienced while being surrounded by religious relics or statues– art can make us feel invigorated and influenced by something greater than ourselves.
It’s almost like experiencing what John Keats called the Sublime in a more easily accessible way.
According to Romanticist writers like Keats, the Sublime is defined as a meeting of the subjective-internal and objective-external, and is the strongest emotion we as Humans can experience.
It typically requires us to put ourselves in awe-inspiring situations like seeing the sunrise from the peak of a mountain or looking up at a statue that towers over us.
Instead of climbing a mountain or finding a huge statue though, with art we only need to go to a museum or into our living room, if we’re collectors.
There are many different types of art and genres, all of which can have a powerful effect for different reasons, but in this post I want to highlight one particular artist who takes Surrealism to a new, modern level.
Anna Panunto, a local artist from Montreal Canada who gets much of her inspiration from her Italian heritage, has created myriads of hauntingly surreal pieces which are filled with empowerment and passion– all of which are capable of bringing us closer to experiencing The Sublime.
Take for example Yeshua, which is one of Anna’s most recent pieces having been painted just earlier this year. In this piece, we can see the outline of what appears to be a face surrounded by abstract, almost chaotic, brush strokes. Aside from the piercing bright eyes and blue around the head, the piece is dark and somber.
How can such a piece be inspiring, you’re probably wondering?
I see the face as representing the shadow-self we all have inside us– the source of our ultimate power. Around the face is the chaos that exists in our minds when we lack control of this power. Think of our anxieties, worries, and fears.
It is only by controlling this shadow-self– i.e. our inner darkness– that we can find inner peace and turn that chaos into order. The inspiration in Yeshua is that it brings us face to face with who we could be. It can give us hope and empowerment.
No matter how dark or bleak things might currently be, we all have this same power lying dormant within us. It’s just a matter of waking it up.
And being in the presence of such a piece might be all that’s needed to awaken our own shadow-self.
One last thing to note about this piece that may even add to its inspiration is how if you look closely you’ll see several individual paintings within Yeshua. These individual pieces can be seen as representing the different stages of unlocking the shadow-self. These stages include acceptance of who we are, emotional control, and taming our ego.
Only once these stages are complete can we truly embrace this immense source of power withinus
The great thing about Anna’s style is, unlike many other artists, her art conveys a gambit of different emotions. Some of her pieces are dark and mysterious like Yeshua while others are more upbeat and inspiring like the next piece we’ll be taking a look at.
Utopia, created by Anna in 2023, can be seen as a depiction of the journey towards success. The painting itself consists various colors and abstract brushstrokes going in seemingly random directions, but the potential meaning of the painting can be seen by looking at the piece from right to left.
On the right side of the painting we can see what appears to be a patch of grass. It’s not very large, but appears orderly enough. This could represent what many of us refer to as “the comfort zone”.
The comfort zone is typically not a place of growth; in fact, it’s a place of stagnation. But the one appealing factor of the comfort zone is that it is familiar and safe.
In Utopia look at the vast majority of space that consists of chaotic strokes and colors– it almost appears to be a storm of color. A bit left of the middle of the piece we can see what appears to be a tidal wave.
But if we look past the wave, all the way to the left of the canvas we can see what appears to be a golden radiant light. It seems peaceful and calm. To get there though, we must venture outside of the comfort zone and through the hellish storm that separates the patch of grass with the light.
This is what success requires.
We all start out in our own version of the comfort zone. But to attain greatness and success we must venture out into the unknown.
We must face trials and tribulations and even suffer to a degree, but once we make it through the unknown we come out on the other side as a much more confident, successful person.
In Utopia that’s what I see the light on the left of the piece representing. It represents success. It represents who we could be if we only dared to step out of our comfort zones. If we only dared to face the unknown with enthusiasm and faith.
In a recent interview with Anna– I will be putting the link to it at the end of this post– she was asked what her art represents. She said that part of being an artist is realizing that upon completion, art transcends the artist.
In literature, it is called “death of the author,” and it means once something is written, composed, or conceived, and once the public gets to see it, the creator relinquishes sole autonomy over the piece.
They're still the creator, sure, but once publicized their creation must be shared to a degree by everyone in their audience
This means Anna’s paintings no longer belong to just her. They're everyone’s in a sense because everyone is going to see and interpret her work differently.
Like my interpretations in this post are just that– my own. I see Anna’s work as empowering and inspiring, but that doesn’t mean you might not see it in a completely different way.
That’s the beauty of art– whether it’s painting, musical composition, or writing– the meaning tends to vary from person to person and there really isn’t a right or wrong way to interpret art.
However, be that as it may, there are certain pieces which perhaps are more closely cherished by artists and creators. For Anna, that piece would be her self-portrait called Giaconda–revisited. As you probably can see, this piece is much harder to interpret probably because that’s not the intent of self-portraits.
The piece is entitled Giaconda-revisted because it is a reflection of past lives and imbued with a warriors spirit which may explain the three daggers near Giaconda and her broad shoulders.
One thing to take note of about the shoulders is how, despite being broad, they are also rounded which make them look like the top of a heart shape. This could imply that despite her warrior spirit, Giaconda is also incredibly empathetic and maternal. The entire piece is filled with symbolism, but the shoulders are what stand out most to me.
Regardless though of how we look at this piece, it is filled with inspiration and meaning, and that’s the beauty of self-portraits. They, in essence, allow us to create ourselves or reclaim a piece of who we feel we once were.
Seeing a piece like Giaconda-revisted makes me want to try creating a self-portrait of myself– although rather than paint it, I’d probably stick to writing!
Art is perhaps one of the most powerful external sources we can draw inspiration from. There are many, many different kinds, but the one thing they all share in common is that they provide a more accessible way to experience the Sublime.
Sure, it might not be as powerful as seeing the sun rise from the peak of a tall mountain, but art is capable of filling us with some powerful, visceral emotions nonetheless.
And sometimes these powerful emotions are exactly what we need to get back on track or move forward in our own lives.
What are your thoughts on art though? Do you agree that art can be inspiring and motivating?
If interested in watching the aforementioned interview with Anna, you can do so here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGiUxwwRHBg
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