Photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash
I just participated in Jessica Swift’s Art Oasis online creative retreat, and I was reminded again of the ability of art and artists not only to entertain, but to make us think, feel, and ultimately change for the better. Enjoying and making art in whatever form most calls to you is not only a simple pleasure—it’s a healing act.
Here are a few thoughts on
art and healing.
“This is precisely the
time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for
self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do
language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and
bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical
to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains
information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.”—Toni Morrison
“We need art and beauty
because survival is insufficient.”—Emily St. John Mandel
“Art opens the closets, airs out the cellars and attics. It
brings healing.”—Julia Cameron
“Art is our one true global language. It knows no nation, it
favors no race, and it acknowledges no class. It speaks to our need to reveal,
heal, and transform. It transcends our ordinary lives and lets us imagine what
is possible.”—Richard Kamler
“Art is not a part of life, it is not an addition to life,
it is the essence of those pieces of us that make us fulfilled. That give us
hope. That give us dreams and provide the world a view very different than what
it would have been without us.”—Hasan Davis
“Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us
see.”—Paul Klee
