Growing up in the artist family and having worked in the creative industry for a little over 10 years now, the one fundamental lesson that I have learnt is the following. If you want to be better at your job, dedicate as little as 2 minutes a day to look at an artwork.
There is an increasing amount of scientific evidence proving that art enhances brain function. Some even suggest that art has the capacity to increase blood flow in a certain part of the brain by as much as 10%.
Not to get too deep into the science of it, here are a few reasons why you should invest a couple of minutes a day to view an artwork just to make your brain upbeat.
It puts your brain to work.
…without you even knowing about it. When you look at a new piece of art, your brain automatically starts looking for patterns, shapes, and anything else it finds familiar to help you connect with it. So you don’t necessarily even need to make sense of it, your brain will still be working and doing a lot of “processing” when you simply gaze at it.
It drives innovation.
Innovation is the process of connecting the odds. So the more you look at an artwork, the better you become at observing details, recognizing patterns, specific peculiarities and making sense of how they all function in the “big picture”. And the better you become at it, the easier the disruption happens.
It calms you down.
Really taking the time to look at an artwork, considering the perspectives, seeing the patterns, observing the color combinations, gets your mind off from the distress and eases the overwhelm, anxiety quite swiftly.
It’s the chemical of love.
Looking at the artwork you find beautiful brings out the same feelings as looking at the beloved one. A University of London study proved that there is an instantaneous release of dopamine into the brain, when looking at a piece of art that one finds beautiful.
Thumb through an art book or view an artwork in the web or buy one, regardless of what you do, I bet, you’ll be surprised.