Inspiration Fridays! Can art create resilience?
Can art create resilience?
Art serves as a vessel for what we can’t contain, a kind of silent witness to our experience. When we create, it’s an expression that is both deeply personal and collective. A way to take a stand, or sometimes more importantly, just to take a breath.
“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.” – Louis L’Amour
It gets dark here early in the northwest. Today the clouds were thick and the rain steady. It was easy to stay inside. The dark came in too. It’s in these moments of feeling “finished” when our confidence wanes, the light seems far off, and our creativity becomes a lifeline. There’s comfort in holding a brush or giving something a shape. It grounds us in the present, even when it feels like the rest of the world is beyond our control.
Art, in its most honest form, comes with the power to lead us. Its threads suspend us between the heavens and the underworld. Picking up a brush in defiance of despair or choosing color to express our joy is enough. These creations are the seeds of our beginnings. Our art comes armed with the ability to move through doubt and even get past anger.
Refuge – Gabriel Mark Lipper What keeps us safe? What is that worth? In this abstracted floral bouquet, each discarded life jacket represents a human being.
The best art comes from our ability to live with uncertainty. To embrace it and use it. Creating isn’t just therapy. It’s a way of defining our own path forward.
It’s a space for intention, purpose, and if need be, even peaceful protest. Art, in all of its forms, offers us a way to discover beauty in the ugliness. Slap some paint on an old canvas or sculpt a new world out of leftover materials, each is a symbol of new possibility. Reconnect with your hope and work toward something better.
If it feels too big, start small. Even if you don’t feel the light yet, it’s there. Every act of creation is a quiet act of resilience. Art has the power to reestablish our connection to those infinite threads, to help us express what words might not convey, and ultimately, to inspire the changes we wish to see.