He's probably not the first person to conceptualize the mind as a mysterious or even perilous landscape, but he's an artist who has captured that idea in a hauntingly beautiful way.
Gabriel Levesque, who operates under the name OSKA Design, created a series called Mind's Eye that you won't soon forget.
The series, digitally painted in both detail and simplicity, is gorgeous and unsettling at the same time. The featureless black figures could be anyone, but inside their minds, we can see a fantastical landscape and a tiny traveler.
And we can all immediately relate to this feeling.
Navigating the journey of life is manifold and difficult, but somehow, the image of the journey, of exploration, is something that people have been drawn to for centuries. It's inspired literature, music, and, as we'll see here, artwork.
Levesque's artwork overall is at once nostalgic and futuristic, and calls to mind vintage sci-fi novels and old 8-bit games. The landscapes he creates — both in and outside of people's heads — look like a futuristic world with primitive roots, something like these proposed floating colonies dreamt up by an environmental architect.
Take a look at Mind's Eye, as well as some other pieces by Levesque to feel yourself transported to another place.
[H/T: My Modern Met]
Right now, Mind's Eye is still a new series. Levesque creates tiny, but very detailed landscapes inside the heads of his otherwise featureless figures.
Even though they don't have faces, these are actually portraits.
We can see what kind of interior landscape they're navigating, and a personality begins to take form.
While Mind's Eye is as of yet only three pieces, Levesque's art has long explored the concept of journeys through inner and outer planes of being.
Small travelers navigating the alien worlds inside heads is also something that comes up a lot. It's a fascinating way to visualize growth, emotion, inspiration, and almost any other human experience.
It's clearly something that fascinates not only Levesque, but all of us.
Because as we grow, we all encounter the frontiers of our own minds — and go exploring.
Even his work involving photos comes back to the idea of the vastness of a human mind. Sometimes it's a bit unsettling!
And when we look at some of his other landscapes, it's as if Gabriel is showing us the spaces inside his mind. Which, ultimately, is really what art is!
His other pieces also involve explorers in alien spaces, and they look like the sci-fi novels you may have read as a kid!
He also draws inspiration from the digital world, full of geometry and polygons.
Things can get pretty trippy!
And you may find yourself making up stories about what's going on in each one.
And even when he does use photos as part of his work, he still manages to insert an otherworldly element. And of course, a road represents a journey. It's amazing how these themes transcend the style!
While they can be a little unsettling with their strange physics and impossible geometry, Levesque's pieces are also beautiful and meditative.
