• Art appreciation is good therapy for the brain – Looking at art that is composed of random splashes of colour, or seemingly wild brushstrokes, puts our brain to work and can be good for stimulating it even further. Whenever we look at art – especially abstract art – our minds are constantly scanning for recognizable patterns and familiar things. In fact, if you look at art enough times, you will start to recognize specific painting styles and be able to tell impressionists from surrealists or neo-classical vs. contemporary art. Appreciating art also allows you to learn more about the lives of artists, their techniques, and their allegiance to an artistic movement. And looking at art allows us to get into the painting itself and feel the emotions the artist felt while he or she was creating it and get immersed in the subject matter. This artwork below by Jacques-Louis David, a French painter in the neoclassical style created this large painting of Napoleon’s coronation. It’s sheer size (it’s 33 ft wide x 20 ft high) catches your attention unlike any other piece of art. The level of detail and technical skill is such that your interest is piqued as the painting seemingly depicts an important moment in history. A figure resembling Napoleon Bonaparte seems to be crowning an important person. The painting is actually a snapshot in time when Bonaparte tries to turn back the clock and make France (now a republic) into a monarchy. He tries to assert his supremacy over the church by seizing the crown from the Pope and putting it on his own head, before placing a second crown on his kneeling wife, which is an act that is typically performed by the head of the church.
• Looking at art helps us to lower our stress levels and allows us to relax – One of the things that people did while they were isolating themselves during COVID was to engage in creative activities such as painting, sketching or collage. Not only was there increased levels of stress from work – especially for front line service workers – there was also increased rates of depression, anxiety, and insomnia brought on by job loss due to business closures, particularly in the hospitality industry. Normal education and/or work routines were interrupted as many were told to work from home to avoid spreading or catching the disease. Younger adults who lived alone were hit the hardest, with some turning to drugs or alcohol to help numb the pain of being cut off from family or peers. Some turned to creating, buying or simply looking art to help cope with their deteriorating mental state. Pablo Picasso once said, “art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Many studies consistently show evidence of lower blood pressure and heart rates after people were made to look at art in a museum or gallery, especially if they were shown images of nature such as the one pictured below. University of Auckland researcher Dr. Mikaela Law found that landscapes, forested mountain ranges, and seascapes had the biggest impact, and found that these had a restorative effect, most likely due to the fact that human beings once lived in the natural world before later moving to man-made built environments, like the cities where we all find ourselves living in.
• Surrounding ourselves with beautiful things helps overcome negativity – Are you surrounded by people with a dark and heavy sort of energy? Do you work in highly toxic environments? Simply looking at art – and surrounding yourself with objects that give you pleasure – can help take your mind off situations (or people) that cause your mind or body to develop higher levels of stress and anxiety. My design team and I like to create interiors that provides relief from problems at work and all manner of worldly cares. Most people have to deal with all sorts of challenges that need to be overcome in their professional and personal lives. At the end of the day, we all need to be able to easily unplug from the stress and negativity that we encounter wherever we go which is why I choose not only soothing colours for their space (like greens and blues) and comfortable furniture where they can rest their tired minds and bodies, I choose decorative objects that enable clients to reach a relaxed and even meditative state that allows their minds to slow down and their bodies to heal. I like to strategically place eye-catching objects in corners, table surfaces, and walls that enable people to more easily press the “pause” button in their lives at the end of the workday to allow them to reconnect with their values, dreams, and the people that they care about. Having your home designed to give you that same sense of calm that you find in a church, an art gallery, or a well-appointed hotel room is critical to maintaining your mental and physical well-being. It has become the default state for most people to live in a state of never ending motion – or distraction – due to ongoing concerns at work, school or in their personal lives. Being surrounded by a carefully curated collection of art and decorative accessories provides the necessary reminders that as human beings, we are more than the sum of our problems. We are beings or pure possibility who have the power to overcome whatever challenges life throws us. And we need to remember that every single day by surrounding ourselves with beautiful things.
• Art allows us to connect with others and build community – One of the unexpected benefits that I’ve experienced as an appreciator and purveyor of beauty is that I stumble upon other souls who value the same things. I met a very interesting fellow named Andrew almost 20 years ago at an art gallery. We ended up becoming fast friends. Turns out that he went out a lot to these things and even had a budget for purchasing art each month. He comes from a very old family with royal and church connections that collected paintings throughout their 800-year existence. His house is a treasure trove of art hung on every possible surface (except the ceilings and floors). I’ve also befriended an international artist who exhibits all over the world and organizes group art shows in North America and Asia. The world of interior design has enabled me to also become friends with clients who have an appreciation for beautiful objects and living in spaces that not only inspire them to do their best every day in their profession, but which connect very deeply to their very soul. Art and design are two interrelated fields of interest that resonate with and unite people, some of whom go to great lengths to really appreciate it by going to art fairs, furniture shows, and gallery exhibits all over the world. My work as a designer (and art dealer) has enabled me to connect with entrepreneurs, professionals, and creative experts that I would never have met had I not had such a strong interest in the visual arts. If there’s anything that collecting beautiful objects had allowed me to enjoy, it’s having built a collection of interesting friends who’ve become wonderful and reliable companions on this journey called life. You can certainly collect things and they can give you happiness up to a certain point, but nothing compares to the happiness and fulfillment of sharing your life with other people who like and trust you as well as support you as you go along.
• Looking at art improves our critical thinking ability and our level of creativity – Author and Harvard professor Teresa M. Amabile says in her book “Growing Up Creative” that children will engage in abstract and analytical thought and learn to develop to out-of-the-box problem solving abilities when parents create an environment that encourages their creative thinking. Amabile adds that teaching kids about colour can help young people develop better vocabulary, complex thinking, and strong observational powers. Art historian Amy Herman takes it a step further and teaches art analysis to homicide detectives, aspiring doctors, lawyers, and engineers as a way for them to approach their own profession in a more methodical and open-minded way. By teaching her students how to look at the big picture and analyze the smallest of details all at once, she shows her students how to approach problems from different angles in order to arrive at an array of solutions. How that works is that whenever we have an intractable problem to solve, we need to be occasionally pulled out of our own normal environment every now and then to get a fresh perspective about the challenges we face. That’s why we like to go on holiday, take a coffee break, or go visit an art gallery. We need to that extra step back and get away from our problems for a few minutes (or hours) so that when wen come back to our desks, we can arrive at that ‘Eureka!’ insight that looking at art or nature (or even just taking a simple break from work) can trigger. If you try and analyze this Theodore Gericault painting called ‘The Raft of the Medusa’, see if you can figure out what’s happening. Where the subjects involved in a shipwreck? Were they on a journey that went horribly awry? Are some people dying or seasick? Are they calling out for help? Even if you don’t know out exactly what’s going on, leaving this scene and returning to your normal life will have activated your reticular activating system (or RAS, which is the brain’s filtering system that enables human beings to survive and to thrive) to help you notice other things about your seemingly insurmountable challenge that you may not have picked up at first to help you achieve a breakthrough. Looking at art isn’t just about observing what’s in front of you. It’s about learning how to analyze a situation from various perspectives so that you can dig deeper as you attack your own set of problems at work or in your personal life. And that’s what being creative is all about: it’s about learning how to arrive at a desired outcome by exploring various ways that you may never have tried before.
