How Art Improves Your Mood – #2 in Series Art is Good For Business
“Art Communicates What You are In the Mood to Receive” – Larry Rivers
Featured Painting: Room For Blue – Harmony Thiessen 2021
Art is Good For Business Series #2
How Art Affects Our Mood At Work
Let me say it straight: Art affects our mood. As an artist, of course, I think business should have art around. I think the world is a better place because of the contributions of the great artists of history and the contemporary poets of culture – in dance, music, theatre, writing, photography, sculpture, and paintings. But so what? How can it benefit your workplace?
Paintings, no matter how realistic they are, depend on the viewer to give them meaning. And even more so with abstract art. You see the art with your “insides,” and those internal impressions manifest a sensation, feeling, emotion, and often an answer. Although we attribute art to the right side of the brain and its creative juices, engaging in art helps to synthesize the brain connections and clarify jumbled thoughts and impressions.*
The Teenagers Bedroom
Why did you have posters in the room as a teenager? Ok, I know, we had our fantasies. But beyond that. We put up posters of our musical heroes, cars, horses, graffiti – whatever you were into at the time; you wanted it on your wall. I think it went beyond our walls to our lockers! We reinforced our dreams through what we saw every day around us.
The Break Room
At work, if all we see is stale walls, sterile rooms, and cold coffee in the coffee pot, we reinforce a message: This place is not important. It’s what I do for a living, but not a life. They can have my 8 hours a day, but I’ll be on my way at 4 pm. You may not attribute that feeling to the lack of art, but the right art in the right place at work- will change the mood.
What happens when people have the music station at work on a channel you don’t vibe with? It affects you. The wrong beat, the swing when you don’t like swing, or even the volume can make your workplace become dull or incite anxiety and irritation. What happens when you get in the car to head home and you turn on your playlist? Point made. (smile)
Waiting for the Doc
I am not telling you anything you don’t know. What if you put a color coat of paint on the walls that had some life to it? What would happen if you had a tv screen in the lobby that showed a slide show of interesting art? While people wait to meet their accountant or lawyer, or the dreaded visit to the doctor or dentist, what if they had sculpture to look at, or you provided a way they could listen to a short story being read or poetry?
I could list you the results of scores of studies that show that the arts affect our mental health. When we sit down in a waiting room waiting to see someone who may tell us bad news, art is smart. If paintings on the wall are interesting enough to make us forget for a moment about our worries and engage with our imagination, our reception to news, good or bad, will be altered.
The power is in the conversation art has with the sub-conscious mind.
Or is it better just to let them stew a while so that their nerves are ripe for a blow-up when they finally arrive in your office?
Art Affects Our Mood
Whether you work at home, in a manufacturing plant, or a busy office tower, the arts’ effect on your mood is significant. Maybe even more potent is the effect of the walls and halls without the arts.
*More on that in the upcoming edition on Art and Problem Solving
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