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Healing Brushstrokes
Exploring the Scientific Links Between Art and Therapy
I didn’t consider myself an artist until the pandemic hit. I didn’t consider myself a real artist, whatever that means, until several years later.
I hope you’ll see the healing power of art by the end of this article. If you’re an artist, you don’t need science to tell you what it feels like to paint, write, sing, dance, and create things you love. You already know the feeling.
I discovered the healing powers of art by accident. Or, if there are no accidents, art found me.
If we agree that mental health is a major issue for all of us and that art is a powerful form of healing, I hope you use this article as the springboard into the art of healing yourself.
Finding Art
When art found me, I was stressed out. It was March 2020, early in the pandemic.
News of the lockdowns was starting. One day, in the middle of a long, remote meeting, I reached for a piece of copy paper from my printer, grabbed a pen, and started doodling pine trees.
They looked like this.
