Art - a Golden Thread through Life

Art seems to exert an extraordinary power over so many different people. Artists, understandably, have a passion for what they are doing. But then there is the other side of the equation - the collectors, the public that views art of all description, the sponsors and all those who form a constituency for art. It is no wonder that more and more people view art not only as an investment per se but also as an economic driving force for communities who actively embrace the arts.

Historically, for instance, the great museum collections of the world have been largely formed, at least initially, by wealthy private art collectors who then donated their collections. Names such as Frick, Morgan, Getty, Guggenheim, Whitney, Rockefeller, Mellon or Annenberg all evoke remarkable monies and energies poured into collecting art. In the same way, kings and nobility in Europe and beyond had done the same thing down the centuries. Early in the 20th century, Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov carried on that tradition in Russia. Today, a plethora of collectors worldwide follow suite - from Baron Thyssen to Charles Saatchi, Ronald Lauder or Francois Pinault. But beyond the wealth and connoisseurship, there is a driving force involved with art - people just get hooked.

We have all experienced it at some point. You round a corner in a museum, or walk past a gallery window, and you spot a piece of art - painting, sculpture, drawing, whatever... It stops you in your tracks. You are drawn back to it, to look more closely at it, to ponder, to enjoy, to understand, to remember... often eventually to buy for yourself, if possible.

That is when the golden thread of art re-twists itself around you, enriching and expanding your world. The artist may not even be aware that the created work will have such a reaction in a viewer, but the passion in the art clicks with a passion evoked in the viewer. Of course, there are innumerable sensible and hopefully educated criteria by which to judge and appraise a work of art. In the end, however, a true collector and lover of art will boil down all the considerations to one : do I love this piece of art enough to want to live with it?

Art's golden, silken thread weaves though life in so many unexpected ways. You never know when you are going to fall in love with a piece of art, nor what form that art will take. From the artist's point of view, you never know what form inspiration will take next nor where your art will take you in the creative process. Nor, for that matter, what experiences will present themselves or which kindred spirits one will meet through art.

The more I travel though life as an artist and art-lover, the more I understand how necessary it was already to our ancestors of 30,000 years ago that Lasceaux, Altamira, Chauvet and other caves were being filled with wonderful art. People knew even then how important it was to the human psyche that art should grace our lives.

Art and Meditation

I recently read a fascinating review in Art in America (April 2009) by Edward M. Gomez, entitled Altered States. It was a review of the just-closed exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum on "The Third Mind", which examined the influence of Asia on earlier generations of artists. Apparently, many of those artists meditated, a result of their interest in Buddhism. Their ability to pay attention to matters deemed "ordinary" and to be able to "suspend time" derived, it was thought, from their practice of meditation. Artists as diverse as Arthur Dove or John Cage were cited in the article.


Thinking about the role of meditation in my own experience made me realise that although I do indeed meditate, I find that the act of making art is in itself a form of meditation. Most artists I know find that time becomes a very variable affair, since we all lose track of time very easily when creating art. However, I also find that I become much more efficient at using the rest of my time, away from art, to do all the other daily chores when I am working on a painting or drawing. I wonder if that is a common occurrence? It is also easy to pay close attention to whatever art and subject of art I am involved with, although I don't know that I would attribute that aspect of art-making to the practice of meditation.

When I am not able to work as an artist, I find I get really dislocated, and so it is a relief to revert to mediation to make life more serene. Brain circuitry in artists must be predicated on a daily "fix" of art, apparently!


The rhythm of observation and creation, drawing and looking, is indeed addictive. Even when I find myself inside because of bad weather, as happened when I was Artist in Residence once at Wild Acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains, there is a meditative peace and serenity from trying to create harmony and yet accuracy in a silverpoint drawing. Even with the most humble of materials!


This was the result of two days of solid rain and yet I had little realisation of how much time elapsed during the execution of the drawing.

Blue Ridge Mountain Meditation

silverpoint 11 x 15" image
collection of Evansville Museum of Arts, Science and History, Evansville, IN

More Proof of the Value of Art in Education

Although most artists instinctively know how valuable a tool art is in all aspects of their life, helping in so many ways that don't seem directly connected with art-making, it is always interesting to have it "officially" confirmed.

The Guggenheim Museum in New York has just held a conference entitled "Thinking like an Artist: Creativity and Problem-solving in the Classroom". This is the culmination of a four-year research initiative focusing on the Art of Problem Solving, using arts education as a pathway to foster creativity and help problem-solving techniques. The U.S. Department of Education funded the study and conference.

The bottom line at the end of the study is that the Learning through Art instruction methods help in developing different skills: flexibility (the ability to rethink or revise one's plans when faced with challenges), the connection of means of achieving goals and the results achieved (the ability to assess the success of meeting the goals one had set out in the work of art) and resource recognition (the ability to identify additional materials that could be used to complete the project). Imagining, experimentation and self-reflection are other benefits mentioned in the study.

So, after four years and a million dollars spent, we can all know for certain what artists knew already: art is hugely helpful for problem-solving and general coping with life. An earlier study done under the same auspices had already confirmed that Learning through Art improved students' literacy and critical thinking. But as a result of these studies, more children might at least acquire more tools to prepare them for life if they have art incorporated into their curriculum. That would be really good.