Art Heals: Bread

I’ve spent much of my life working with, and envying creatives. My artist friends always seemed to be working on new projects, responding in brilliant new ways to the events in their own lives and in the world. On the occasions I developed a “concept show” for my gallery, my artists gifted me with unique and original takes on my theme, beautifully executed in paint or clay or poetry or photo.

I, and I think many of us without these talents, have come to rely on artists to give us these gifts. To illuminate our moods, to interpret our feelings, to shed light on the darkness of injustice, to offer beauty when we feel pain.

I want to thank them all for this, and to offer a thought.

The current crisis can put a lot of pressure on artists. While they are worrying about illness and finances and families and confinement, and for many, severe economic hardship, we somehow expect them to be our physicians and psychiatrists, providing us with an endless array of creative efforts to entertain and solace us.

How often have I heard “this isolation must be wonderful for your creativity and production,” or “what are you making to address these issues creatively?”

Stop. Artists, we need to give you a break, and you need to give yourselves one. Do what you need for your hearts and your minds and your hands, to solace yourselves. Put yourselves first. Play. Bake bread, or brownies. Nourish yourselves and those around you in the way you feel is right. Sure, make art, share art if that is what you wish to do. We will always be here, no matter what.

I will be trying, with the rest of us, to find ways for you to thrive, and survive economically, and create a future when you can share with us again, all those talents. Art Heals.

This image, by  Claudia Borgna, titled “Crumbs of Land: Khobz, A Word for Freedom#4,” was made for another time and another issue, but her comment about it has resonance for today. “…I am still tied in the same cosmic string of molecules: humanity trapped inside a spasm of drops bleeding across territories.”