I’ve started seeing the world differently lately. I think it’s my entry into motherhood. When I hold Tobias and see him looking around I’m slowing down to notice what he sees. Knowing he can only see 8-inches in front of him I realize that whatever captured his attention is very simple and most likely blurry. But I can see how the light hits the walls or reflects off picture frames. He loves the bold striped mat around the painting we brought home from Nice, France last fall (a trip he was on as just a little peanut inside of me). Day by day more comes into focus for him and he lights up with every change of room or change of lighting. What a way to be able to see the world, literally in new light every moment he opens his eyes.
Art is the passageway to seeing like this. It allows us the moment to slow down and pause, to notice. We think about the colors used, the textures created, and the story the artist is trying to tell. We witness the world through their lens and maybe even start to take on that lens to better view more of our world too.
Seeing the World With New Eyes
In her book, How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell goes in-depth about how seeing the world with new eyes will change your world and that art is just one of the doors that opens this new way of seeing.
Nothing is so simultaneously familiar and alien as that which has been present all along
How to do Nothing, Jenny Odell
Art, whether it’s my art, the great artists of our time, or your child’s art, has the ability to show you the world in a new way. The things around you that you see every day, but now you see them in a new way.
This becomes so true when you are taking your children someplace new to them but you’ve seen a million times. Or when you have relatives from out of town come to visit and see your sites for the first time. You see the magic in the world around you again.
Odell goes on to say, that “when the pattern of your attention has changed, you render your reality differently. You begin to move and act in a different kind of world.”
The reality is, our attention has to go somewhere. And perhaps spending hours on social media or flipping through Netflix is no longer serving you. Maybe you’re ready to take back your attention and put it somewhere that matters, somewhere that feeds you. There’s no better place than to start with art…
Slowing Down to Experience Art
This week, my husbands cousin came to visit and we got to talking about his recent trip to Paris. He explained his trip the Louvre and how incredible it was and also depressing. “Have you ever seen the Mona Lisa?” He asked. We hadn’t. To be honest, going to and seeing famous artworks isn’t usually my cup of tea (unless it’s a Claude Monet, I always have time for that!)
He went on to describe his experience seeing the Mona Lisa.
First of all, there were about 200 people in front of it. The Louvre staff push your through a line that leads you in one direction only, making you feel a bit like a salmon swimming down stream after hatching, it’s quite the jam. As you approach the painting the security is screaming to only take one photo and move on. Most snap their photo without ever looking at the painting outside of their phone and then move on. However, he told us, if you really stand in front of her and take her in, no photos necessary, it’s breathtaking. For him, this was when he fully understood why they call them the “masters.” Art has the power to take your breath away, to freeze time, and also to allow you to time travel. It’s the greatest magic we have.
As for those who simply got in line and snapped a photo? They were just checking off something on their bucket list to say they did it. But did you actually do it if you didn’t slow down long enough to experience it? In my opinion, you didn’t. You missed the whole point of this painting.
Another quote from How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell put it perfectly, “(David) Hockney valued painting because of the medium’s relationship to time. According to him, an image contained the amount of time that went into making it, so that when someone looked at one of his paintings, they began to inhabit the physical, bodily time of its being painted…These paintings taught me about attention and duration, and that what I’ll see depends on how I look, and for how long. It’s a lot like breathing. Some kind of attention will always be present, but when we take hold of it, we have the ability to consciously direct, expand, and contract it”. (emphasis mine).
Breath, Art and Slow Living
In yoga we talk a lot about breath. Every posture is meant to have you connect with your breathing. You breathe throughout the day no matter what, but something happens when you intentionally put your attention on your breath, you find ease. You loosen up. You feel lighter. You might even feel more like you, the real you. Whether you’re doing square breath, skull shining breath, or simply breathing in through your nose and out through you mouth, the style doesn’t matter as much as the attention to this simple action.
The same could be said about art.
When you look at your favorite painting, you take a moment to really see it. You witness the brushstrokes, the colors, the contrast. You see the subject matter and maybe put yourself in the painting. You allow it to transport you to another moment in time, whether that be the moment you bought it, a moment it reminds you of, or something you’re dreaming up for the future. This painting has the power to take you there.
In the moments you spend looking at it, day after day, you might discover something new. Or perhaps just being with the painting will give you a sense of peace. A breath in your day of to-lists, productivity, and having to prove yourself.
Art is the intentional breath you take in your day.
It’s the door to seeing the magic that’s all around you.
It’s my favorite way to practice slow living.
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