Thursday, February 12, 2009

Angels and Art vs. Me

I've loved angels for years. I have a little image in my head of what an angel looks like. But unfortunately, my vision of the angel is difficult to find in any works of art. I've seen several depictions of angels, from little orbs of light to people with wings. I tend to lean more toward the people with wings side of things, although I like the orb of light idea.

Just about right


While I like the above picture, I have some problems with it.

The main thing that I like about the above picture is the size of the wings. Too often (in film especially) angels, demons, and other 'flying people' have wings that are simply too small. This one has the wings about right. One of the few problems I have with her is her body is almost completely solid. While I have no qualms with that, I like seeing angels that look a little more spirit-y.

Also, I take issues with halos. The little floating disc thing doesn't make much sense to me. I understand that it is a representation of holiness and radiance, but I think that the symbolism is better when applied in an aura encompassing the entire body.

Check out their little bodies


These little bastards still have halos, but check out their bodies. Some of them are more complete than others, but some are completely missing their legs. Why would an angel need legs when it doesn't need to walk? Or, perhaps an angel only has legs when it feels the need to have them. Same with wings.

There's several accounts of personal engagements with angels. They're almost exclusively really tall people dressed in white without wings. Perhaps angels (should they exist) don't have wings, and just appear and disappear whenever and wherever they feel like it. Angels didn't even have wings according to the Christian and Jewish mythology until they interacted with the Babylonians next door, who worshiped gods with wings.

Since then the angel has been depicted with wings, and they've kinda stuck. Personally, even if existing angels don't have anything even related to wings, I like their symbolic value if nothing else.

I would love to draw/paint angels. However, my drawing/painting abilities are that of a stink bug. I do what I can artistically with the skills that I have. But as far as making a realistic representation of anything, stick figures is about as far as I can go while still being satisfied with the result.

That being said, my vision of the angel might not ever make it onto paper, but I think I'm going to do a few more blog posts about angels to expand upon these thoughts.

1 comment:

DaiKamonohashi said...

You have more money than I do and I can draw.


Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.