Don’t you love it when the scientific community comes out with proof of something you have instinctively known all along? Most artists have experienced that delicious feeling of well being when they get into the’zone’. But now there is empirical evidence that art is good for your overall health.
No news to me. Anyone who has immersed themselves in a creative process can attest to a feeling of calm, of total engagement with the senses, of putting on hold life’s demands and worries. But don’t take my word for it.
Making and looking at art can even reduce doctor’s visits! C’mon guys – get yourselves off to that gallery opening! And if that’s not enough to move you, recent studies show that Art not only holds off Alzheimer’s but creating art actually lowers stress indicators. The Experience Life article contends that “Creative types may have de-stressing down to an art. Researchers at Philadelphia’s Drexel University recruited 39 adults, ranging in age from 18 to 59, to participate in 45 minutes of art making by using clay, drawing with markers, or creating collages.
To measure cortisol levels (an indicator of stress), researchers collected saliva samples from participants before and after their creative work. The results, published in Art Therapy, noted reduced levels of the stress hormone in roughly three-quarters of the participants. I can’t help but think that being so prolific must have contributed to Picasso’s long life. What a chill dude!
One L.A. doctor who puts her faith in the art and wellness correlation into practice is celebrated endocrinologist, Dr. Katja Van Herle. She and her husband have opened a gallery so they “could work with artists who want to engage with the community, provide a calming space for anyone to interact with art for free, and raise funds for causes we believe in—mainly, exposing more art and its effects to more people,” explains Van Herle.
Van Herle sees Denk Gallery in downtown Los Angeles as a extension of her medical practice. “Art is healing, in all of its forms—that’s what we want to communicate through DENK.”
So it’s time to dust off those paintbrushes or get out the modelling clay and try to make the most of what has so far been a stressful beginning to the year following the 2016 elections…
Art and Beyond 