Why you should look at art
Hey smart human,
Last week, I spent a wonderful long weekend wandering around Venice and taking in as much art as I could manage.
Pre-Covid I would visit at least 50 museums or galleries a year, and I hadn't realised how much I'd missed it.
Not just because it's wonderful travel - not to mention to eat Italian food and gaze at the mesmerising blue of the Laguna.
There is a lot of evidence that our brains thrive when they get transported to different environments and exposed to new, non-threatening stimuli.
So yes, go for walks, sit in different spaces, travel!
But the art part is important too.
The reason I quite happily walk at least 15km a day to look at hundreds of works of art, and feel the luckiest person alive, is because it is the BEST food for my brain, not to mention my soul.
Art makes me ask questions.
It delights me, angers me, frustrates me, makes me laugh.
It makes me think about communication, culture, codes.
It gives me an insane amount of new ideas.
And sometimes it just downright breaks my heart - like the wall of mothers who have lost their sons in the 'This is Ukraine' exhibition. [Project by “Mirror Weekly,” “Mothers series, 2019. Photo: Julia Halperin].
Art reminds me of my humanity.
Of my privilege.
Of how much I don't know.
Art opens thousands of new doors in my head.
Like Yunchul Kim's Serpentine Sculpture 'Chroma' - check it out in this video.
Shiny tech - yet deeply poetic.
It's incredibly hard to pull this off - to create something that works on so many levels - conceptually, aesthetically, physically, emotionally...
Anish Kapoor and his vantablack confronted me with a very basic fear: to disappear, to be sucked into eternal blackness. His work played with my senses and made me question my perception.
And Art reminds me to stay playful and curious.
I love walking around museums looking for a specific theme.
One of my 'lenses' in Venice was #mood - and the gothic art collection in the Museo Correr played along nicely.
So this weekend, I would love for you to check out some art.
You don't need to go to Venice - it can be a simple as a sculpture in a local park.
Really take time to look at it - and get curious.
Ask yourself questions like:
Why this?
Why here?
Why now?
What do I see?
What do I feel?
Why do I think I feel that?
See if it invites you to become creative in any way.
Maybe you want to use it as inspiration to write, take a picture, write an essay.
Maybe you want to write an angry letter to the local council.
Whatever it evokes in you, use it to expand your mind - to grow as a human.
And feel free to share your experiences underneath this article!
Have a wonderful, art-filled weekend,
Else a.k.a. Coach Kramer