Deriving the Supernatural from the Accidental

One sight that always appeals to me is a scene displaying nature in motion. Serene canyon vistas and quiet mornings above a a foggy forest bore me, mainly due to the fact that I grew up on a farm for the entirety of my life. After seeing the slow sun rise over a group of cattle grazing over a pasture or the sun set over large fields of corn and wheat for years on end, the impact of it as an inspiring sight gets blunted. You could say I've been desensitized to the kind of nature images that you see in classic oil paintings of the great outdoors that appear in a dentist's office or from friends who went on hiking trips due to having been exposed to such sights all my life. The only images of nature that truly invoke a sense of wonder and awe in me are ones displaying motion. Whether it be the seductive crash of waves upon jagged rocks or scenes of lightning produced by a volcano's ash plume, it is violence of motion in these scenes that give a sense of life and vitality that tickles a part of my brain that makes my breathing a little heavier and my legs a little shakier.

The image I choose to show the romantic isn't actually a natural scene, The "Door to Hell" gas desposit in Derweze, Turkmenistan, didn't exist until the 1970's. It is the product of drilling rig collapsing a cavern filled with natural gas, which was then set alight to burn up the poisonous methane gas. When the gas didn't burn out, instead continuing to burn for years come, it received the rather ominous name of "Door to Hell". Even though its origin and existence are entirely explainable without delving into the occult or satanic, the sight of it still triggers these relations within the people who view it. The image of a large, eternally burning hole in the ground compares favorably to what our expectations of the entrance to a place of damnation to look like. The background of the image makes it obvious that the area around it is empty and barren for miles around, isolated from majority of humanity except for those seeking the doorway to the underworld. Upon hearing its given name, it's hard to think of a different title that fits this gaping, flaming maw so well.

When we picture the exotic of nature, we see scenes that seem untouched by mankind, scenes of isolation that effortlessly display their natural ferocity. Even though this flaming pit was accidentally created by humans, a viewer makes an ideological connection to it that shuns the idea and replaces it with a meaning that imparts sense of the ancient and forbidden. This connection is a production caused by the feelings that the scene invokes and relates to within the viewer. You wouldn't wander upon this pit and call it the "Door to Heaven", you would draw upon your experiences and define this setting based upon your own knowledge. This structure directs you to the common denominators of the scene (lots of fire, eternally burning, not a pleasant picnic location, large hole in the ground) and points in the direction of the appropriate response, mainly, the entrance to hell.