I’d be okay with never hearing about the stock market ever again. This year has offered up yet another reminder of how little it reflects the current state of most Americans’ lives. But beauty can be found even in the most unlikely of places, and that includes the continued rise and fall of Wall Street’s fortunes. One artist has turned stock market charts into beautiful landscapes, and they offer an economic outlook we can all enjoy.
Artist Gladys Estolas (whose work we first learned about at Laughing Squid) describes herself as a “data visual insights innovator.” She uses companies’ individual stock charts to craft gorgeous landscapes, which she posts under Stoxart at her Instagram and Twitter accounts. Some pieces look like serene locales where you would go to contemplate the finer moments in life. Others are violent celebrations of nature. But all of them are quite striking.
The end results of the charts can be dramatic, as huge changes for a stock can lead to pinnacles that fall into deep valleys, hinting at the real dollars swinging wildly from one bank account to another. Or in this case virtual Bitcoin, which transforms into a sci-fi paradise.
Gladys Estolas
But why look to something so cold and analytical for inspiration in the first place? She says, “The stock market is a story worth telling so why not tell them through art.”
The stories her photos tell are definitely preferable to the ones the regular charts do.
Estolas uses the Robinhood trading app and Yahoo Finance’s stock charts as her basis. Her art is literally world’s apart from their foundations. And for more interesting.
Because while I don’t know, and definitely don’t care, what company “XOM” represents on the market—it’s ExxonMobil Corporation for the truly curious—I would very much like to visit the world it inspired.
Finally a stock market that offers something for all of us.
Featured Image: Gladys Estolas
