Globe wall art is a unique category of map art. Unlike traditional map art, globe art is the portrayal of maps, particularly the maps that focus on depicting the entire Earth. While there are some globe illustrations that bend this definition, the majority of these geographic illustrations help viewers to understand the instruments that people have used throughout history to understand Earth's geography and document it.
Historical images are a common form of globe wall art. These images document the machines that astronomers and explorers used to help them understand the world. Pictures such as 'Antique Globes' and the 'Armillary Sphere' series by Vision Studio help viewers to understand how their ancestors discovered the world around them through map art, a process that many people today are unaware of or take for granted.
Many works of modern globe wall art are meant to evoke the same sense of thrill and wonder of discovery that ancient explorers and astronomers must have felt when first mapping out the world. Works such as 'Explore' by Stella Bradley and 'Journey's beginning' by Chariklia Zarris are typical of this form of inspirational picture.
Globe wall art is a unique form of geographic illustration whose simplicity belies a deeper purpose. These works are meant to evoke a sense of wonder and exploration in a modern world that seems to have no more places to discover. These historical images are also meant to show how innovations in thinking and simple machines changed the world and brought a fuller understanding of it. Although they aren't technically maps, globe wall art reveals the reason why map art was first created—because of human curiosity about the unknown.
