ART: AN ESCAPE FROM THE UGLIEST THINGS OF LIFE

What will you do if there is no door to escape?!

That is the question I ask in the beginning of “The Door,” a video that I have created some years ago (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yBNutvbDBA). The incarcerated artist in the animation escapes through a door he creates by painting on the wall, using two colors made from a dandelion that happens to grow on his prison cell’s window and his blood, with a brush made from his hair. As in the artwork as well in real life, quite literally, art has been for me a door to escape from the ugliest things of life, the main one being the struggle as a starving artist, the consequence of which is being employed full-time on positions not associated to art, in order to earn my living.?

So, to me, as an artist, art is elemental for my complete existence, a necessity for my being as is the air. When I create art I am the true-self, liberated from every external restrictions; time and space disappear into nothingness and I find myself submerged into a timeless, peaceful, and meditative concentration, as in an ethereal activity! It’s similar as in “[t]he fourth and highest of the stages of dhyana (…) a state of equanimity (upekkha) in which the world has vanished and with it all joy and suffering” (Dumoulin & Heisig & Knitter, 2005, p. 17). It’s like in the Zen’s “no-mind,” (“mushin” in Japanese; “wuhsin,” in Chinese, which literally means the “mind without mind,” and it is commonly called “the state of no-mindedness”), that “[i]t is a state of mind where mind is not fixed on or occupied by any thought or emotion, and is thus connected to the cosmos” (www.zen-buddhism.net). But, this “[n]o-mindedness is not unconsciousness, some kind of vague spaciness. On the contrary, it is a precise awareness during which one is undisturbed by the mind’s usual distracting inner chatter.” (Goleman & Kaufman, 2012). “[I]t is a mind fully present, aware and free” (www.zen-buddhism.net).

However, can art be an escape door for the non-artist? The empirical evidence shows that art is beneficial psychologically and physiologically to artists and non-artists alike. For instance, “[i]n [a] study, surgery or critical care patients who participated in guided imagery or had a picture of a landscape on their wall had a decreased need of narcotic pain medication relative to their counterparts and left the hospital earlier” (Stuckey & Nobel, 2010). Moreover, research show that being a viewer of the creativity of an artist, or participating in visual art activities can not only help with spirituality and adjustment disorders, but can improve one's mood, heal emotional injuries, decrease stress, anxiety and depression, and can also lessen symptoms and reduce the weight of a persistent disease. Also, it can be a sanctuary from the powerful negative feelings, like fear, anger and guilt, linked with an illness, as is cancer, for example. In addition, art can be a healing force in the healing process, as well: “[R]egression analyses showed that high levels of program participation correlated with improved SF-36 social functioning, bodily pain, and physical role functioning scores, as well as a trend toward greater albumin levels, but also higher phosphate and lower calcium levels” (Stuckey & Nobel et al., 2010). Also, participation in the creative art therapy correspond with improved weight gain and serum carbon dioxide content. Furthermore, it can expand the comprehension of oneself and others, develop a capability for self-reflection, and modify actions and reasoning systems patterns (Stuckey & Nobel et al., 2010).

While acknowledging and considering each other’s different personalities, art creates linkage and communication on one-to-one, in families, in communities, and among cultures. It’s been so since the earliest known (that don’t necessarily represent the first made) beautiful and exceptionally achieved works of art of the Homo sapiens, of the latest, or Upper, stage of the Paleolithic period, more than c 40,000 years ago, who, along with the Art Mobilier, or “miniature art,” as is referred commonly, created murals (low-relief carvings and engravings in day-lit rock-shelters and, in more sheltered deep caves, engravings and paintings, in naturalistic motifs, mainly large herbivore animals, such as horses, bison, and mammoths, and the schematic element of signs). Those small objects and cave decorations show a continuity of a social strength and harmony (A History of Art). ?

What we might conclude is that art can be truly a door to escape from the ugliest things of life. It can be beneficial psychologically and physiologically to artists and non-artists alike. It can be a healing force in the healing process and can decrease the need of narcotic pain medication. Art can improve one's mood, heal emotional injuries, decrease stress, anxiety and depression. It can also lessen symptoms and reduce the weight of a persistent disease, and it can be a sanctuary from the powerful negative feelings linked with an illness. Furthermore, art can expand the comprehension of oneself and others and can create linkage and communication on one-to-one, in families, in communities, and among cultures.

REFERENCES

A History of Art. (1995). Paleolithic art. In L. Gowing (Ed.). (pp. ?-?). City, State: Barnes & Noble Books. ?

Dumoulin, H. & Heisig, J. W. & Knitter, P. F. (2005). Zen Buddhism: India and China. World Wisdom, Inc.

Goleman, D. & Kaufman, P. (2012). The art of creativity. Retrieved February 12, 2016 from?https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199203/the-art-creativity

Stuckey, H. L. & Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: a review of?current literature. Retrieved January 25, 2017 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804629/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yBNutvbDBA

www.zen-buddhism.net