Why ART is Good for the HEART

"Life is short. Art is long." - John Ringling

I have the good fortune to be part of an mastermind hosted by Miki Agrawal, (author of DisruptHer) where we're working through Julia Cameron's classic book, The Artist's Way.

Every two weeks, we meet virtually to discuss our insights and lessons-learned as a result of doing our Morning Pages, taking ourselves out on an Artist's Dates, etc.

One of our biggest AHA's is that we are ALL artists. Every one of us.

Many of us had an experience early on where we tried to draw something. We either didn't do a very good job or our work got criticized, so we decided we weren't an artist.

But art doesn't have to be painting, or drawing, or dancing, or composing music, or writing.

Art really is just seeing the world - and living in the world - with appreciative senses.

That's why my favorite Artist's Date isn't going to a museum, art gallery, or concert.

It's going for a walk. Because angels whisper to us when we walk. When we listen, Nature sings to us. Our soul, spirit and senses come alive and we are born anew.

That's all art is. Connecting with emotion and deeply experiencing it. Seeing and feeling who and what is around us. Expressing it with our words, fingers, feet, or eyes.

Today, I have the privilege of being on a Clubhouse panel on ART and TRANSFORMATION where I'll be joining some truly visionary creatives - including Kunal Sood, organizer of the NOVUS Summit at the U.N., Von Wong, host of the Impact Everywhere podcast, Dana Vachon, co-author of Jim Carrey's Memoirs and Misinformation, Maria Paz Gaviria, Director of ArtBo in Columbia, etc.

This event is coordinated by Arjunah Ardagh, founder of the Radical Brilliance Project.

I'll be sharing some ways that art - in particularly the art and craft of writing - has transformed my life for good. If you're on Clubhouse, I hope you'll join us.

And in case you'd like some encouragement to carve out time for your own Artist's Dates, here are 30 inspiring quotes on why art is good for the heart (and the mind and the soul.)

33 Quotes on Why ART is Good for the Heart

1. “The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.” – Auguste Rodin
2. “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” – Edgar Degas
3. "The root meaning of the word art is “to fit together” and we all do this every day. Not all of us are painters but we are all artists. Each time we fit things together we are creating – whether it is to make a loaf of bread, a child, or a day." - Corita Ken
4. “Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” – Ray Bradbury
5. “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” – Twyla Tharp
6. “Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.” – Bill Moyers
7. "Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." - Scott Adams
8. "If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself. Also, you will have betrayed your community in failing to make your contribution." - Rollo May 
9. “You can’t use up creativity. The more the you use, the more you have.” –Maya Angelou
10. Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” – Andy Warhol
11. “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
12. “Art is not a thing, it is a way.” – Elbert Hubbard
13. “A work of art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t art at all.” – Paul Cézanne
14. “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton
15. “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” – Pablo Picasso
16. “Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” – Stella Adler
17. “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” – Robert Henri
18. "The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been concealed by the answers." - James Baldwin
19. "Art is science made clear." - Jean Cocteau
20. “The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” – Paul Strand
21. “To be an artist is to believe in life.” – Henry Moore
22. “Don’t be an art critic, but paint, there lies salvation.” – Paul Cézanne
23. “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” – Marc Chagall
24. “To practice any art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. So do it.” – Kurt Vonnegut
25. "Beauty will save the world." - Dosteovsky
26. "I imagine that YES is the only living thing." - ee cummings
27. "What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress?" - Thomas Crum
28. "The goal of life is rapture. Art is the way we experience it." - Joseph Campbell
29. "Creativity exists in the present moment. You can’t find it anywhere else." - Natalie Goldberg
30. "What is possible in art becomes thinkable in life." —Brian Eno
31. “Creative work is a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.” – Steven Pressfield
32. “Creativity is contagious, pass it on.” – Albert Einstein
33. “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” – Vincent van Gogh

Here's to loving people, loving our life, loving the world and passing it on. Here's to giving us what you've got and what you've been given.

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Sam Horn is the Founder/CEO of the Intrigue Agency. Her TEDx talks and 9 books have been featured in NY Times, on NPR, and presented to Intel, Cisco, YPO, Fidelity, NASA. Want twice-monthly infusions of creativity? Join Sam's free CLARITY CALLS here.