The meditative/healing qualities of art

[Aether]

ever find yourself just losing yourself whilst drawing, painting or playing an instrument?

even though i cant paint for shit i often find myself in a totally different space when im drawing or painting.
With painting its even more effective because you can see the colors and how they react to eachother.

sometimes however its the other way round, as we start progressing in art and our goals become higher we usually get disappointed with our creations, so the ideal would be to be able to draw with the same mindset as you did back as a child, celebrating the creative process itself instead of worrying about the end product.

id say that art has both healing/calming qualities, but it also can have disturbing qualities, it all depends what is being protrayed in that particular piece and how it effects the viewer.


Discuss. thanks

[dfacto]

If by healing you mean "Is so terribly dissapointed in his artwork that he gets pissed off and plays UT until the rage subsides" then yes, art is very healing.

[Blahm]

i miss video games.

[Blue]

I was just thinking that dfacto :)

[Aether]

im beginning to see what Marko meant in his post

[Jens]

the thing you described about the kids drawing already exsist under the name the Cobra movement.. led by Karel Appel

like this

http://www.artmulti.se/Appel%20Cat%20red1.jpg

[Evil_Sloth]

I think art opens up your mind to the world more because one of the skills all great artists have is observation of the world around them, you notice how complex and beautiful nature is, how awesome light is and how it works on things. How different shapes and colours affect people. And creating a good piece of art work makes you feel good about yourself.
So I think it can change the way you look at the world and can make your feel more relaxed and have respect for people and life more. Just make sure you relax while your doing it. As Feng Zhu said his drawings are to do with 50% body and 50% mind. So if you don't force your self in art it will be more relaxing and look better.

[Mike Frank]

Check out whats inside this book. Just the intro is enough to help explain your experience. I think I'm going to order it though.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060920432/002-6346565-4800840?v=glance

[Aether]

Sorry for phrasing the whole drawing like a child so badly. what i meant had nothing to do with ones technical ability, but more so on being open minded and letting things flow instead forcing them out.

of course one needs to hone his skills otherwise its usually just a bad excuse for not being able to draw or paint or whatever, tho i understand that some might enjoy creating that particular style of art and i have no problems as long as the artist doing it is happy with it.

[Magic Man]

I thought this went without saying? Like having an erection while having sex?

[Aether]

"I thought this went without saying? Like having an erection while having sex?"

hhaha you may call it that lol, theres alot of other things around here that go without saying yet theres a hundred threads about them :)

i mean this whole thread pretty much got inspired by a few people that i went to class with who built every piece of art they made with such precision that it wasnt even funny

ok forget about this thread, theres so much more to discuss

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56139

[dfacto]

Sorry for phrasing the whole drawing like a child so badly. what i meant had nothing to do with ones technical ability, but more so on being open minded and letting things flow instead forcing them out.

I find that to be problematic most of the times. Sometimes, when I'm in the "zone" I will be able to simply sketch loosely and then it will just flow into what I had imagined, or at least something vaguely familiar but still "good enough." Most of the time though, I do find myself forcing my drawings, which is mostly related to my inability to achieve what I have in mind. I have a very vivid imagination, but my skills aren't anywhere as good, which generally leads to the afformentioned "UT Therapy."