I took this photo in my studio on election day. I was stressed and anxious and trying very hard not to look at the news, knowing that we wouldn’t have definitive results for days. While trying to stay busy in my studio, I happened to glance up at this wall and couldn’t help but just smile.
So I snapped a quick pic, in order to document that moment and remind me of the power art has.
And it’s not like I was seeing this site for the first time. This gallery wall, while often in flux, is something I see every day in my studio. I can see it from my work table (I literally sit facing it) or if I turn my head slightly to the left while working on the computer or packing orders.
But this ubiquity doesn’t make it any less powerful. A quick glance is still enough to make me instantly happier. (This isn’t my imagination, there’s actually lots of science and research to back this up. For more on that, I recommend reading Joyful.)
I think one of my favorite things about this picture is that it’s not perfect. You can see little glimpses of the mess and chaos that are often happening in my studio. (Like the necklaces waiting to be photographed.) But that’s what makes me love it more. We are so often fed images of art displayed in perfect spaces, that it can make us feel like if our home isn’t perfect, we have no business buying and collecting art.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Life, if you’re busy living it, is, like my studio, messy and chaotic.
Which is all the more reason to live with art. Because it gives us something, in the midst of stress, or anxiety, or chaos, to glance at, and that just might, even if only for a moment, make us smile.
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