3 Reasons Living with Art Makes You a Better Person
Decorating our homes and workplaces with art is about so much more than spiffing up the place and adding a finishing touch. Art is more than simply “window dressing”—in fact, it can have a powerful effect on our lives. Read on to learn about three ways that the artwork that you surround yourself with can uplevel your life.
1. Living and Working Around Art Enhances Your Well-Being
Art has a positive impact on our mental health. It can comfort us as we grieve, lift our spirits, and calm us down. We can create an environment that fosters a specific mood by surrounding ourselves with art that engenders that mood. Just like dressing in certain outfits can make you feel happy, confident, sophisticated, or sporty, sitting in a room decorated with certain pieces of art can help you feel serene, artsy, feminine, bohemian, daring, or earthy.
2. Being Around Art Sparks Your Creativity
Do you love art but feel that you’re not an artist yourself? Take heart, because simply enjoying art in your surroundings can stimulate your mind to think more creatively—and we all need creative thinking to face the problems that we solve in our work and personal lives every day.
Your creativity also gets an incredible workout as you collect and curate the art for your home or workplace. This is an eye-opening experience, as you learn more about what pleases (and displeases) you aesthetically. You also make many creative choices as you decide how and where to display the art. Even though you didn’t create the art yourself, you are expressing your creative voice through your art curation and display!
3. Art Creates a Powerful Environment
How do you want to feel in your home or workplace? What goals do you want to achieve there, and what activities do you want to pursue in these important places? The art that you select can support you in these goals by creating an environment that supports those goals. For example, you may want to have a spa-like feel in your bedroom to help you relax and rejuvenate. The right art will set the mood for that! Perhaps in your office you want art that will help you feel confident and inspired as you go for your professional goals. And perhaps you want your kitchen to be the happy heart of your home, so you’ll select fun, colorful, joyful art that will make family members feel like the kitchen is the place to be for family fun.
Power Up Your Life—With Art
Take a look at the art that’s in your home and workplace right now. Is it helping you live your best life? If not, would it contribute better in a different location in your home? Or is it time to offer it to someone else who’d appreciate it more and go in search of art that would be a better fit for you?
If you have something specific in mind, consider speaking to a local artist whose work you admire (and whose work is similar to what you’re looking for) about commissioning an artwork. You could tell the artist about the mood or emotion that you want the art to help create, as well as details about the space where it will be displayed. A custom piece might be just what you need to see your specific needs and vision come to life. And what a way for you to play a role in the creation of a work of art!
Whether you creatively rearrange or go out and seek new art via purchase or commission, I hope that you will find inspiration and joy in the art that surrounds you.