If you have reached this page, you have somehow managed to prise your eyes away from our breathtaking wraparound cover – an original, previously unexhibited artwork created by Jingwen Luo, based at the Institute of Poetry, Calligraphy and Painting in Sichuan, China.
This piece was created especially for her article, co-authored with geoscientist Mike Stephenson, on page 18. Crafted using mineral pigments and metal foils on silk, Jingwen’s painting is inspired by the poetry of Li Bai, one of the greatest poets of China’s Tang dynasty, who was immensely influential in his own time and remains so today.
Jingwen and Mike provide beautiful, original translations of some of Li Bai’s poems before delving into the influence of landscapes on creativity. They reflect on how the poems resonate with our experiences as geologists – particularly the often-encountered rugged terrain and the precarious yet exhilarating nature of some fieldwork. For me, the poems evoke conflicting feelings from my days in the field: the joy of wild camping under vast Montana skies tempered by a longing to share the experience with those back home.
Geoscience and creativity are profoundly connected. The visual richness of geology, with its dramatic landscapes and striking, textured rock formations, inspires painting and sculpture, literature and music. Rocks provide the raw ingredients – vibrant mineral hues, as well as both malleable and durable materials – for artistic creation, while the almost unfathomable temporal and spatial scales of planetary processes stir explorations of time, scale, transformation, and human significance.
In a Society first, these connections were explored during a recent meeting in which Burlington House was transformed into an exhibition and concert space. The wonderful Earth’s Canvas meeting is summarised on page 30, and a full report and image gallery is available at Geoscientist.Online.
Geoscience and creativity are profoundly connected
Art is critical for visualising geoscientific concepts – the field sketches, maps, and diagrams essential for depicting geological features and communicating interpretations of planetary processes. Yet, as Lucía Pérez-Diaz notes on page 36, in our quest to create accurate graphics, we may baffle non-scientific audiences. We must not lose sight of the need to engage a wider audience. At the heart of that engagement, argues Lucía, is empathy: understanding what drives people and what may connect them to our science.
We have previously explored the links between geology and creativity (e.g., Geoscientist 28(11), 2018), but it is impossible to do the topic justice within single print editions. We hope to explore this theme in future issues. But for now, take another moment to enjoy that beautiful cover!
Amy Whitchurch, Executive Editor
