Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Happiness Group Journal | Page 13

The Outside
We began to create our
image by developing an overall
theme of contrast (or paradox)
between what the viewer
normally sees as their everyday
environment and what they may
be yearning for in their soul. The
general differentiation that is
displayed in the artwork is
between being indoors, whether in
a classroom or some other
building, and being outside in
nature. So either through a door-
way and/or through a window the
viewer can see a
landscape that includes blue skies,
bright sunshine, puffy white
clouds, and plenty of trees and
flowers. The bright colors outside
contrast with more muted and
gray tones inside. There is also a
disparity evident between the
natural glow of sunlight outside
and the artificial fluorescent
lighting in the interior room.
As the artists, we attempted
to demonstrate to the audience
that there is a connection for the
human soul with the vastness and
hugeness of nature, called the
sublime. Sublime includes things
that are of such size, excellence,
grandeur, or beauty as to inspire
great admiration or awe and
beyond measurement or
imitation. One might think that it
would be fearful to observe such
immense parts of geography (like
tall mountains). However, it has
the opposite effect in that it
creates a happy feeling. Human
reasoning recognizes that the
mountain is but a small part of
the overall scope of earth’s
topology, let alone the universe.
The glimpse of nature in this
artwork hints at the Biophilia
hypothesis. Biophilia is a term
used by psychoanalyst Erich
Fromm and biologist Edward O.
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