Art can (and does) help us all
Hello and welcome to issue #63.
I don’t know what it’s like for you, but my brain has always existed in a perpetual state of chatter. Something I’ve been spending a lot of time on recently has been considering my practice, and the question of why I do what I do has come up a number of times.
The obvious answer as to why I make art is, well, that I love it. But that’s not really enough to explain why I’ve chosen ‘artist’ as my job title. The reason I’ve kept the job title and continue doing what I do is because I’ve discovered that I can help people through art, and if there’s something I really love to do it is to help (occasionally to my own detriment, but I’m working on that).
Art may be considered a luxury, but that doesn’t make it any less of a necessity. (In fact, I argue that viewing art as a luxury is a serious problem because it perpetuates this idea that spending time on art is frivolous, when in reality engaging in any way with creative pursuits is proven to promote feelings of overall wellness, but this is a conversation for another time.)
The right piece at the right time can have a profound impact on its viewer (my first experience of this was in front of Boticelli’s Primavera, the second was in a room full of Rothkos). Art is a vessel for connection, and we all need to feel connected in some way or another. If what I do can help someone experience that in some way, then I’ve succeeded in my job for the day and work to succeed in it for every day thereafter.
The most direct way in which art helps is by adding a little something to a space. BPOFY has its own special way of doing that making it perfect for today's spotlight. (Last time we focused on What nature gives, grab. You can refresh your memory of that here if you like.)
BPOFY is a 50x50cm piece from 2019 and one of the first I made when my job title became ‘artist’. It is a study of a Valentine’s Day bouquet given to me by my dad (love you dad!), and it highlights this idea of how art creates connections that I’ve just been talking about.
Painting this piece helped me grow as a painter and taught me a fair bit about the cut flower industry. More importantly however is that since its completion it has helped facilitate numerous conversations about the act of giving, human nature and nature herself with a wonderful variety of people. And for those that perhaps don’t always want to get into a piece so deeply, BPOFY is the kind of painting that adds that little something to a space by gently inviting the attention without demanding it. It gives you, the viewer, the choice of how you’d like to experience it. Kinda neat, no?
To find out more about this (or any other) piece, please enquire here.
As always, thank you for reading and I look forward to writing to you again soon.
Wishing you a wonderful rest of your weekend,
Arietta xx