There is widespread agreement that art is very important, but it can be remarkably difficult to say quite why. This quote from Alain de Botton starts off today's episode all about the seven functions of art that you can use in your everyday life.
Welcome to the Modern Creative Woman, where we explore the power of creativity through neuro aesthetics, art therapy and innovative thinking. I'm Doctor Amy Backos, your hostess and creativity expert, bringing you the art and science of creativity through our conversations and creative insights. I'll provide simple tricks and practices that demystify the creative process so you can live a more authentic and expressive life. Let's get started.
Welcome in. I'm so delighted that you are joining me today. I know your time is valuable and I want to make it worth your while. We'll be talking today about the seven functions of art, and how you can use this to make your days a little more enjoyable, sophisticated, and also give yourself inside pleasure and relief from self-criticism all through the way you're looking at what's around you.
But first, I want to back up and tell you a little bit about what's been happening at the Modern Creative Woman. First of all, we have some exciting new announcements coming up. We have added another date for the Paris retreat. It will be in September, so I will share with you more of the details on Instagram if you are interested. Definitely let me know as soon as possible so we can send you the information. And you can reserve your spot for this incredibly unique experience and for modern creative listeners, I have a discount code for you to. You can take some money off the package.
I just got back from LA with my family and it was incredible. We went on three different hikes in Griffith Park, and one of them was at the cave where they filmed Batman. And I'm talking about like the 1960s TV show Batman, and there was a Wonder Woman episode filmed there. So it was really fun to see that, to hike up into the mountains and check that out. And we saw Marilyn Monroe's grave, did some touring around, saw some mid-century architecture. And it's just a fun place. We usually go once a year. It's a just a drive away, and it allowed me to take a step back from work and switch on creative fun brain. So I've got lots of inspiration that I've come back with.
Let's take a dive into art therapy. And when I was trained to do our therapy, I went to Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio. We learned about two different ways of using art. And therapeutic art can be divided really into two categories. There's art, psychotherapy and art as therapy. Now art psychotherapy is really focused on making art to address specific concerns, promote wellness, reduce mental health symptoms. It uses the creative process as the therapeutic intervention. So it's not like a therapist just using art in the session. And our therapist uses art as the therapy. It's the nonverbal. It's the ways of knowing that can only happen through the creative process. Art psychotherapy is performed by registered or certified art therapists, and the goal is to generate insight, promote change, reduce symptoms, increase wellness. And it's an evidence based practice.
Now art as therapy was a little bit different. Art as therapy postulates that creativity and art making is inherently human. It's part of our biology. It's what we do to express ourselves. And the process of making art is healing. Art makes us feel good. It's enjoyable. It really helps us make contact with the present moment, and it naturally provides the kind of insight and self-knowledge and self-actualization that we crave. It's something that can't be replaced any other way. Making art also gives life's some fun, some purpose and meaning.
There's another way to think about art as therapy, and I came across it first in 2013 with the book Artist Therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong. De Botton is a modern day philosopher, and he takes complex, complicated subjects and distills them down into easier to digest and understand ways that can help us live a better life. And he really broadens our way of thinking about how art can help us. And he focuses on philosophy, aesthetics, and the idea that looking at art, as well as creating environments around us, can help us with both our intimate problems and our really ordinary mundane problems. And we can use art looking at art as a tool to inspire us or console us, even redeem us, guide us. Art can comfort us. It can expand who we know inside us, and it can reawaken us to what's truly important in life. And when we think of art as therapy this way, it can start to answer really interesting questions like how can I resolve the complex problems in my relationships? Why is politics so depressing? It can also answer questions about our work. Why do I feel uninspired right now? Why do other people seem to have a more glamorous life than me? And even how can I be closer to my higher power and deeper?
De Botton and Armstrong have this really interesting way of imagining how we can interact and relate with a piece of art not as want to be art historians. Rather as human beings seeking reflection and answers. And they say works of art are almost always more accomplished, beautiful, intelligent and wise than we ourselves managed to be on a day by day basis. But when we surround ourselves with art and we look at it repeatedly, the art that we love can inspire us and become these implicit role models. And it invites us to be more of who we want to be of ourselves, more like what we're looking at. Now, religious institutions have always known that art can inspire us, and religious art inspires us to be closer to our higher power.
And certainly many places of worship possess great architecture and art and mosaics that can transform our experience of that space. When you think about Buddhism, part of that practice involves looking at the Buddha and the Buddha's smile. Every day. When you think about saints symbols, Milagros architecture that inspires us in so many different religions. I also think about the idea of art for art's sake, and I think it works really well when we're making art, we don't have to have a purpose for making art. We usually kind of stumble across the purpose and the value of it a little later on. But while we're making it, we're just making art. However, when we're viewing art, like in a museum, it can feel really challenging to look at something that's just supposed to be for art's sake, where we try and read the plaque on the wall and make something of it and try and contextualize it instead, we really can shift the way we look at art to trust our intuition, trust our way of knowing and get something from every piece of art we look at. Even if we don't like that art in particular, it can reflect something to us.
We can project something onto it that allows us to feel more human, more connected to ourselves, and gain some insight that we couldn't gain in any other way. Art as therapy really helps us reject the old ways of looking at art in an art museum. And I want to say, you don't need some kind of degree or classes in art history to appreciate a museum, although sometimes going into a museum, I feel that way and I don't know enough about the art. I haven't learned enough to kind of capture whatever I want to capture, and reading the tag next to the art can usually make us feel worse. That the room is categorized by the time period in which the art was created, and maybe they could categorize it instead by a room full of art that inspires the emotion of love, and another one that gives a feeling of grief. And in this way, we could go seek reflection. That we're looking for. Somehow thinking that we should like the important pieces of art, can make us feel hollow or disappointed, or we're not getting what we could from a piece of art because we think we're supposed to like it. And historically, museums have often been for some people and not others that they would be. Maybe in wealthier neighborhoods, we would find the spaces were set up in ways that were uncomfortable for a lot of people. And museums are doing a lot in the last, maybe 20 or 30 years to remedy that and make them more inclusive spaces.
So when we go to a museum, we need to really shift how we focus on things. So instead of trying to memorize the dates or the title, or learn something about the artist and report back to a friend, we can focus on looking and really seeing a few pieces of art. We can look for answers to our questions. You can walk in the door of a museum with a question in mind, and I bet you'll walk out with some answers. You can look for art that reflects your current mood, or art that inspires you to move towards who you want to be in the future.
All the research shows that when we are in the present moment, we enjoy what we're doing so much more. And of course, the same holds true for looking at art. When we are able to let go of being like, impressed simply because the art is important or you saw something famous or important, we can let go of those expectations. And honestly, those are society's expectations. And someone else decided that this piece of art was important. You can shift gears and really rate a work of art according to what it can do for you and for your soul, and really allow yourself to be authentic and honest with what's happening internally. While you're looking at a piece of art, it's incredibly therapeutic. As a child, I always wanted to go to the art museum, and at that time it was playful and fun and looking just to see. I thought the architecture was so beautiful. And the Cleveland Art Museum is an incredible space, so beautiful and just filled with the kind of art that a kid wants to see. And then as I got older, I thought, I really should be reading the tags and take this more seriously and try and learn about the artists. And that should enrich my experience. If I knew what the artist was going through, I would somehow know something else that I was just out of reach. That would make me a better art consumer. And that's not true. So that was my second phase of looking at art.
And then when I had a child, I had to go back to just looking at the art playing. I spy in front of a painting, being able to laugh and have fun and just enjoy and see…see what was in the art. Experience the moment with my child and not try and learn something or make it like I knew something about the art I was knowing, something about myself, about my child, and about the art itself and what it did for me. And I thought, oh yeah, that's the really fun way of looking at art. So Department and Armstrong talk about seven functions of art, and I want to share those with you and really invite you to consider how you can build this into your day. And looking at art doesn't have to just be in a museum. There's art, of course, everywhere. There's the building you're in, the architecture, there's the art you've hung on the wall. There's a coffee table book with some beautiful pictures, photographs, paintings. There really is art everywhere. So you can apply this everywhere you go. There's no need to go to a museum. Although I think you should.
The first function of art is to remember what matters, to realize what your values are, what's most important to you. It feels so good to be inspired to see love in a painting, or to see a family reflected back. There is whatever your value is. There is a painting or a sculpture or a weaving that will reflect it to you, and it makes our life so much more rich when we are in contact with our values and what's important to us.
The second function of art is to lend us hope. All we need is hope to go on to the next day to believe that we're able to overcome our current sorrows, to know that we'll be able to move through what's difficult for us. Hope is a sign of optimism, and it's a sign of good mental health. When we have optimism about the future.
The third function of art is all about dignifying the experience of sorrow, and when we have grief and sorrow, it can feel so heavy and so deeply painful, and we feel often very alone in that experience, and we imagine no one else could feel so bad, or we don't want to burden others with our pain. And what we need to do is recognize that our pain connects us to the human condition. It's part of being human to experience loss and sadness and grief, and it's actually giving it some dignity that it's worth instead of pushing it away, trying to hide it, pretend it's not there. It. Giving some space for your heart to grieve gives the grieving process some dignity. It allows you to experience the full range of human emotion.
The fourth function of art is to expand our horizons, and I love being open to new experience and seeing things from a different perspective. And art can do this for you. You can see that people all around the world share your values, your passion, the wish to make the world a better place, to support our families, to have a community. We can see this in art all around the world. We can also look at art to understand different perspectives, different viewpoints, and when we can imagine someone else's viewpoint that's very different from ours and hold them both together, not as one is right and one is wrong, we've reached a real level of maturity when we can have this dialectic in our mind of of holding two seemingly contradictory ideas. And the more you practice that, the more mental control you have, the more love and compassion you have for the world. When you no longer see right and wrong, and you start to see that someone else has a different way of living their life, art can also help us understand ourselves.
That's the fifth function of art, and I think this fit so well for art therapy, for making our own art, as well as for viewing art being a part of an aesthetic experience. Now, understanding ourselves might be understanding that if we work in a hectic job, we need to come to home, to a home that's restful. We want to come back to a kitchen that doesn't have dishes in it, and we want to have soothing colors. Understanding ourselves in this way can also lead to if we have a sort of a more simple office, we want to come home to something that's more vibrant and inspiring. Art really lets us know about ourselves in a way that it can't be known any other way. In the making and in the viewing. There is no way to take in the knowledge through words or a lecture that viewing a picture can have for us.
The sixth function of art is about rebalancing us, giving us that ease and peace of mind to know what we need in any moment. If you're exhausted and you need rest, you can find art that reflects that to you. If you are burned out and you want to reconfigure your home, you can make it more soothing colors, more restful places to sit. The idea that we can rebalance ourselves and come back to a natural homeostasis of energy, of emotion, of interest, art can help us do that. It can really soothe us when we're burdened, burned out, exhausted. And the seventh function of art is to appreciate what is familiar in a new, fresh way. And how exciting is that? When you open your eyes to what's in front of you and you see it new, it's beautiful, you have gratitude for it, and you really are inspired. The ways that we can overlook what's important that's in front of us are profound, and it does a lot of damage. We stop appreciating the people around us. We stop admiring and being grateful for what we have. If we wanted a dog and we got a dog, we forget that we wanted a dog. We need to keep wanting that dog. So we get a picture of the dog, put it on the refrigerator. We can see it often be reminded that this was something you once wanted, and the same holds true for your personal growth, your business growth.
All of the things that you have now were once just in your mind, in your imagination. You created them. And being able to appreciate what you have, what's familiar to you in fresh, new ways also rejuvenates our love life. It helps us value our friendships more. It helps us love our neighbors and our community in a different way. I'd like to invite you to have a look at a piece of art. It could be something in your home, in a book. You can even find something online. And if you have the time, head out to a museum. And what I want you to do is have a look at the art. If you're going to a museum, look it up in advance. Find a piece you would like to see in person, and look at the picture before you get to the museum. This kind of primes you to appreciate it when you get there. And if you're going to use a picture from a book, look at it. Come back to it, look at it again, look at it over the course of a few days, and ask yourself how you can use this piece of art as a tool for your own self-understanding. I think that's a really powerful place to start.
And what happens when we look at art? If we can get out of our head and stop wondering what the artist wants us to know and just ask ourselves, what can we know? What does the art give us? What do we imagine is in the art? Then we have a totally revolutionary experience. We are out of our head. We're not trying to think of the art history part of it. We're thinking of how can this art? And looking at and seeing this art really inspire me and speak to me. You can take it one step further by asking yourself to create a statement. When you look at the art, what does this mean to me? What is true about me that I see in this art? So you. I started looking at different paintings and photographs, and I ended up writing a statement for about 12 different pieces of art. And inside the Modern Creative Woman. This month we did an incredible process of looking at art and reflecting in this way, and what I found was a really fun way to project myself into the art, to know myself. And I discovered things that I just didn't know, that I'd forgotten, things that I want to become.
One of the statements I wrote was sometimes I feel very adventurous. Another one was sometimes I feel like I'm in it alone. I also wrote I'm allowed to grieve, even many years later. There's so many profound emotional connections that you can make when you're looking at art. So I really want to encourage you to give this a try. And if you like the way this sounds, check out that book Art as therapy 2013, and it's published through the School of Life in London, so you can find it on their site. It's on other booksellers as well, but maybe check out their site and see what you think.
I'd like to leave you with one last thing. It's an affirmation that I've been really reflecting on the last month or so, and this is the way I say it. I'll offer it to you, and you can decide how you might want to use it, change it up to make it your own. I say I'm a modern, creative woman who knows her own mind. I'm a modern, creative woman who knows her own heart. I'm a modern, creative woman who knows her own soul.
Have a wonderful rest of your week. Now that you know about how important creativity is, what will you create?
Want more? Subscribe to the Modern Creative Woman digital magazine. It is absolutely free. It comes out once a month and delivers you creative ideas that you will be able to apply immediately in your life. Now, I know you can get a lot out of this podcast and the digital magazine. And when you're ready to take it to the next level, you have options inside the modern Creative Woman membership. If you're interested in having a conversation, just book a call with me. Even if you have some questions and you think you might want to do this work later on. Feel free to reach out. You can find my contact in the show notes and you can always find me on Instagram. Do you come join me in the Modern Creative Woman on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest at Doctor Amy Backus? And if you like what you're hearing on the Modern Creative Woman podcast, I want to give you the scoop on how you can support this. You can be an ambassador and share the podcast link with three of your friends. And that would be amazing. I would be so appreciative. You can be a community supporter by leaving a five star review. If you think it's worth the five stars, and you can become a Gold Star supporter for as little as $3 a month. Those links are in the show notes. You can grab your free copy of the 21 Day Gratitude Challenge, and I created this book in hopes of generating a space for us to work on our inner peace so that we can work on peace in the world. The link is in the show notes, and you get it for free when you subscribe to the digital magazine. Have a wonderful week and I cannot wait to talk with you in the next episode.