Art, provides us with chronological records of periods in human history and contemplative windows into how broader humanity has been experienced and lived in different lifetimes. Art plays a role because it gives us permission to daydream about the future, envisioning the person we’re striving to be.
It is important to ask ourselves about the art we choose to live and surround ourselves with: Is the art you live with a reflection who you are today or does it best reflect the person you were yesterday or a long time ago? Does the art you currently live with represent the person you aspire to be? If it is who you are today—then it will reinforce your current situation and will help to keep you there. If the art that you surround yourself with reflects who you aspire to be, then the art you are living with will help to reinforce that person you desire to become and in the process elevate you to that better vision of yourself.
Take for example, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby resonates so much in our psyche is because it represents a piece of cultural narrative of what it means to be part of society, that is, the idea that we can reinvent ourselves again and again and again. Similar to this literary masterpiece, other forms of art is a raw representation of what we project personally and socially and which moves us to imagine something more for ourselves. Art gives us permission to strive for and achieve something higher. It allows us to imagine that there is something unique, special, and powerful in each of us.
For example, when fashion designer Ralph Lauren was asked to share his thoughts about his fashion label, he simply replied by saying that he doesn’t design clothes, but that he designed dreams. The tweed jacket and the linen dress, just like a Picasso, represent much more than the canvas or material that make up the pieces. If done right, this wearable art represents your potential, the vision of who you are or can become. The first step to reaching a higher self is to attain a sincere and true belief that it is possible—it is arguably this same belief has allowed so many to succeed. There is power in that simple and profound truth—mountains and feats at unimaginable levels suddenly become attainable realities.
Ideals drive much of what we do in business and our own personal lives. It is ultimately these ideals that come to define and enable us to reach our goals both materially and spiritually. These ideals allow us to continue on despite the forces around us that seek to consume us. The key to success, happiness, and living a fulfilling life is to nurture the idealistic part within us. That part that so much of modern life has relegated to second-class status. Art has always been an expression of these ideals, of who we are or would like to be as individuals and collectively as people. Art is also a tool and marker to be used for our benefit when dealing with blessings and challenges in life: births, heartaches, unions, breakups, losses, illnesses, deaths, mortality, and even long-lasting legacies of ourselves and for our loved ones. Throughout life, we are confronted with situations and stages that serve to prepare us for the bigger challenges we are all destined to face. This is why we choose to surround ourselveswith art that helps us understand our places in the world and to cope with the existential reality many of us have been taught to avoid in our modern life. Art has power and it seeks to transform. If art is incorporated well into your life, then it can serve to enrich your life’s journey.
This is why incorporating art into all aspects of life—in the office, classroom, and home—is an opportunity to turn seemingly mundane experiences into enriching and empowering moments—ones that can elevate us both materially and spiritually. Joseph Campbell says it best when he writes, “the goal in life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.” Art in all its melodious mysteries gets us there both personally and collectively.
Extracted from the article from observer.com