My Mother was a middle school art teacher for 30 years.
When she wasn’t teaching, she made holiday wreaths and gifts for her friends. Handcrafted cards, elaborate centerpieces, woodcuts, and prints. She retired from teaching and now works as a professional pastel artist. Regularly showing and selling her work.
She taught me that art is not a luxury, it’s a lifeline.
Each budget cycle, she had to convince the administration that what she was teaching mattered. That art, for art’s sake, was valuable.
Now research backs up what she knew all along: making art is healing. It improves how we think, lowers stress, boosts health and well-being, according to a report from the World Health Organization, research, and medical professionals.
In Switzerland, doctors even prescribe museum visits as therapy to their patients.
Art is Discovery
Cheri Carandanis, a recent guest on Polly Campbell, Simply Said knows that firsthand. A traumatic brain injury forced Cheri out of her nursing job. But it was through painting that she began to heal.
Now a professional fine artist, Carandanis says painting didn’t just help her feel better—it helped her rediscover who she is, now, after nursing. She says she’s “turning wreckage into wonder” with her art. Her story is inspiring. Her experience, enlightening. Listen here. Then start creating something yourself.
Bringing Art Into Your Life
You don’t have to create a perfect piece or achieve mastery to experience the benefits of art.
The goodness comes from making something—anything at all. It comes from engaging with art, creating it, seeing it, and sharing it. Art can heal, inspire, connect. It makes us feel something, reminds us of who we are and where we came from. At its best, art restores our humanity. It helps us survive.
Here are some simple ways to invite more creativity and art into your life:
Make something. Paint, write, sculpt, dance—whatever sparks you.
Encourage others. Celebrate their efforts, not just the finished product.
Stand up for art. Defend creative expression in schools, communities, and online. Speak against book banning. Protect access to stories, ideas, voices.
Support artists. Buy their work, share their creations, or simply cheer them on. Go to an author event or reading. Visit a museum. Listen to the busker on the corner and drop a buck into their case.
Art heals, connects, and transforms. Make space for it. Make time for it. And like Cheri Carandanis, you might be surprised about what it brings into your life.
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