Architectural Paintings Visualize The Many Distinct Worlds Our Minds Occupy

When we talk about the atmosphere of our contemporary world, conversations often hinge around ideas of isolation and detachment, imaging each individual floating along as if in a bubble. Barcelona-based artist Cinta Vidal might agree with the latter visual of drifting personal universes, though her conclusion is much more positive.

"We all have built our own particular vision of the world for ourselves, visions that have a lot in common with those of our friends, partners and family and gradually less to more distant people and strangers," Vidal told The Huffington Post. "It's easy to talk about this concept in a negative way, seen from the perspective of the lack communication in modern societies, but that's not what I'm trying to express. It shouldn't have a negative connotation. In my paintings I want to show an understandable and tangible image of this notion of people's minds building and drifting to self-comforting worlds, maybe staying there for a while and maybe coming back together for an instant."

Vidal manifests this vision in the form of hallucinatory architectural images, a mix of M.C. Escher's drawings and Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle." Although visually stunning, enough to keep us dizzy for days, a closer look reveals an additional layer: the startling beauty of a world filled with endless pockets and perspectives.

"I'm mostly inspired just by the relationships and conversations with people around me -- friends, family, or just people who happen to be around. When we are actively communicating with others, we can be sharing the same mental space-time, but I feel that, as soon as the conversation ends, participants thoughts drift to other places, other dimensions where everything is slowly transformed by their own minds, to comfort their own minds," said Vidal.

"I enjoy thinking about the idea of minds that have been slowly navigating to very different worlds," he said, "but a spontaneous act of communication -- two strangers' eyes meeting for an instant or bumping into your partner in the kitchen -- makes those worlds suddenly transform and fit in a common place."