Our Emotional Connections with Art

“Days and Nights”

A recently sold mixed-media piece by Cathy Lynn.

In sharing her idea about the purpose of art, a popular art historian summed it up in these general terms:

If I want to remember what a person, place, thing, or event looks like, I will take a photograph. The details are all there, captured for me to remember it exactly.

If, on the other hand, I want to remember how I feel about someone or something, I would create or purchase a piece of art that represents the subject in some way, but does not exactly duplicate it.

Artists choose to create pieces that represent emotional connections with their surroundings. The work can help us feel the moment, solidify a memory, or prompt us tell our part of the story. When our emotions, relationships, or connections are similar to what the artist shares, the pieces “speak” to us.

The next time you are looking at works of art, allow yourself to fall into it, to feel it, to immerse yourself into the emotional response the artist captured.  Think about which styles and particular pieces speak to you and why.