Why looking at awe-inspiring art could lead to a happier, healthier life

Art

Why looking at awe-inspiring art could lead to a happier, healthier life

Published

1 year ago

April 17, 2023

Harry Miller

Written by Eva Rothenberg, CNN

It may be a sunset, a stirring orchestral number or a striking painting — whatever gives you goosebumps or makes you shed a tear. Experts believe that consistently seeking out these awe-inspiring experiences could lead to a significantly happier and healthier life.

People find awe in nature, religion and music, as well as through visual art or architecture. We particularly feel it when we “encounter things that are vast or beyond our frame of reference, and that are inexplicable and mysterious,” Dr. Dacher Keltner told CNN in a video interview. “And then those kinds of experiences initiate wonder and contemplation and imagination.”

Keltner has been studying human emotion for decades. He is also a co-founder and director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, a research institute that probes questions about our social and emotional well-being. His latest book, “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life,” explores the social, physical and mental benefits of this powerful emotion.

Keltner approaches awe, in part, from an anthropological perspective, exploring how this emotion shapes our social fabric. “As a species, we are very interdependent,” he said. “But the central challenge to healthy social networks, which is vital to our health, is unbridled self-interest.”

The power of awe, he argues, is that it motivates us to see beyond our own desires. It “quiets the voice of the self” and, consequently, “makes you share things and collaborate with other people,” Keltner said. Recently, a decades-long Harvard study found a strong link between close interpersonal connections and our overall happiness and health.

Visitors look at an installation, three huge commissioned paintings about Buddhism and materialism inside the six-story Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA, in Bangkok, Thailand. Credit: Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket/Getty Images

But is finding wonder through art as simple as looking at a beautiful painting? Keltner says the answer is complex.

In 2017, he co-authored a study mapping the self-reported emotions of over 850 participants as they watched more than 2,000 short videos. The researchers cataloged 27 emotions, some of which were more likely to co-occur and so were considered related. The study found that awe was experienced as a distinct emotion, different from beauty, although it was often reported alongside “admiration” and “aesthetic appreciation.” Keltner concludes, therefore, that it’s important — albeit difficult — to differentiate stimuli that are simply beautiful from those that tend to evoke awe.

He says to think of beauty as something familiar. When we look at art that fits our understanding of the world, such as bucolic landscape paintings of rolling hills, we recognize that we are seeing beauty. But Keltner argues that awe-inspiring art happens “when we violate expectations, when things are out of place or turned upside down.” In contrast to beauty, awe is overwhelming and mysterious.

Shock value isn’t enough, though. In that same 2017 study, awe rarely occurred alongside feelings of disgust, horror, fear or anxiety. Fundamentally, what separates wonder from shock is that the former invites us to learn and grow.

Awe can also be inspired by music or nature. Credit: Arctic-Images/Stone RF/Getty Images

All this nuance means it can sometimes be hard to recognize feelings of awe when they arise. So Keltner suggests taking careful note of various stimuli, like paintings, music or natural phenomena, and analyzing how they make you feel.

“Do you feel quiet, do you feel humble?” he said. “All of our studies show that your sense of self recedes to the background of consciousness as you’re absorbing this perceptual experience. The “small self” is probably one of the defining elements of awe.”

The art of wonder

Evoking awe poses a challenge to artists because “it’s one thing to astonish people and another to aesthetically point to new ideas,” said Keltner.

Artist Seffa Klein sees science and art existing in harmony with one another. While one is seen as objective and the other highly subjective, they’re “very similar processes,” she said. “They’re ways for people to communicate information.”

In her new exhibition “WEBs: Where Everything Belongs,” which opened in New York on Wednesday, Klein uses materials including molten bismuth (an element rarer than gold), woven glass, plaster and acrylics as she invites viewers to ask metaphysical questions about human consciousness and our place in the universe. She hopes audiences come away from her mixed-media works with a sense of meaning and a recognition that “everything is inextricably bound, not only on the particle scale, but on the social scale.”

Klein’s 2022 work “WEB (Like a Sunflower)” was made using bismuth, plaster and mixed media on woven glass. Credit: Seffa Klein Studio

Through her art, she tries to communicate her own awe to audiences. To do so, she plays with scale, both in the artistic and scientific sense. Drawing from the vast planetary scale of astronomy and astrophysics as well as from the microscopic dimensions of quantum mechanics, Klein strives to create a space where viewers can arrive at their own moments of wonder.

Her work incorporates radiating lines and recurring spirals, eliciting a sense of motion and drawing the viewer in. Intensely bright beams of color emanate like lasers from the reflective centers of the canvases like lightning bolts of inspiration. From farther away, audiences can appreciate the dynamism of the abstract starbursts but, drawing closer, they can admire the minuscule specks of metal that look like cells underneath a microscope.

“Awe is seeing that you are exceeded by something else and finding peace and beauty and admiration in that fact,” she said. “It’s a realization that, once you get past a certain scale, your being as you know it, stops existing.” Like Keltner’s notion of the small self, Klein calls this experience a metaphorical “ego death.”

“Awe is seeing that you are exceeded by something else,” said artist Seffa Klein. Credit: Seffa Klein Studio

Instead of existential dread, Klein finds comfort in that abstraction and mystery. When people realize the limits of their understanding, she said, “they can feel like they belong to a greater sense of order in the world.”

Creativity, curiosity and civic engagement

Research shows that awe and wonder improve positive social behavior by helping people feel as though they are a part of something bigger than themselves. One study examined people’s actions after spending time in a grove of giant evergreen trees. Participants who spent one minute looking up at the trees demonstrated an increased tendency to help others. Another study found that consuming and creating art, whether that’s music, visual art or literature, correlates with increased empathy and civic engagement.

There are a host of other benefits that make awe, as Keltner puts it, “a pretty good state to be in.” He and other scientists have found that awe was among the positive emotions associated with less inflammation in the body, a major trigger for chronic disease. Awe has also been shown to calm our sympathetic nervous system, which activates when we feel stressed, increasing our heart rate and blood pressure.

There may be mental benefits to being awe-struck, too — specifically a reduction in stress and anxiety. Keltner says that people who experience wonder tend to find a greater sense of wellbeing and purpose in their lives and this, in turn, makes them less self-critical. It is also associated with more creativity and curiosity.

Researchers worked with Google’s Arts and Culture project to map the emotions people felt when looking at different works, including J.M.W. Turner’s “Vesuvius.” Credit: Paul Mellon Collection/Yale Center for British Art

To feel the full extent of these benefits, it’s important for people to seek wonder in their everyday lives, even if they don’t have access to galleries, concert halls, mountain peaks or lakeside sunsets, Keltner said. Simply looking at art online could make a difference, he added. “I think one of the promises of our digital lives is (having access to) more aesthetic awe, and getting you to artists that you wouldn’t ordinarily find in a museum,” he said.

Watch: Mesmerizing new Yayoi Kusama opens

In 2021, Keltner and other researchers partnered with Google Arts and Culture to map the emotions that users reported when looking at 1,500 different artworks online. Of those, participants reported that some 60 artworks made them feel some level of awe. Other words they chose to describe these works were “mysterious,” “striking,” “cosmic,” “spiritual,” and “intimate connectedness.” One way to tune into your own sense of awe, Keltner suggests, is to explore these pieces and ask yourself what emotions they elicit in you.

Most importantly, he urges people to slow down and be receptive to their surroundings. “Look for things that challenge your scale, both small and vast,” he said — anything from a pattern created by flowers near the sidewalk to the silhouette of your city’s skyline on your commute.

He promises you’ll thank yourself later.

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Art

Couple transforms Interlake community into art hub, live music 'meeting place' – CBC.ca

Published

6 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Harry Miller

A trio plays a cover of The Eagles hit Take it Easy as a dozen people settle in for an intimate open mic night inside Derrick McCandless and Dawn Mills’s cozy spot off highways 6 and 68 in Manitoba’s Interlake.

Strings of antique-style light bulbs cast a soft glow over the mandolin, banjo and dobro guitar that hang on a wall behind the band. An array of pottery shaped in-house by Mills dots the shelves behind the audience.

The Eriksdale Music & Custom Frame Shop is full of tchotchkes — like an Elvis Presley Boulevard street sign and vintage Orange Crush ad — that create the rustic country-living vibe the couple dreamt up before buying and transforming the vacant space over the past three years.

“I have met so many people in this community through them that I probably wouldn’t have … because of this hub,” says Mills’s cousin Dana-Jo Burdett.

Mills and McCandless are bringing people together in their rural community in more ways than one — though a return to Mills’s hometown wasn’t always in the cards.

The couple met in Winnipeg in 2011 while McCandless was playing a party at Mills’s cousin’s place. They had plans to settle in the Okanagan in McCandless’s home province of B.C. until he suffered a health scare. After that, they decided to head back to the Prairies.

WATCH | McCandless and Mills channel creative spirit into Eriksdale community:

Couple transform Manitoba Interlake community into music, art hub

11 hours ago

Duration 4:07

Dawn Mills and Derrick McCandless host the RogerKimLee Music Festival in the Manitoba Interlake community of Eriksdale. They also turned a long-vacant space in town into a live music venue, instrument repair and sales store, and pottery and framing services shop.

It was the height of the pandemic in fall 2020 when the pair relocated to Eriksdale, about 130 km northwest of Winnipeg. They bought the old Big Al’s shop, once a local sharpening business that was sitting vacant.

“He was an icon in the community. He was a school teacher. He did a drama program here,” said Mills. “He brought a lot to the town.”

The building has become their own personal playground and live-in studio.

“It keeps evolving and we keep changing it and every room has to serve multi-function,” says Mills. “It’s a meeting place.”

While they love the quiet life of their community, they’re also a busy couple.

McCandless is a multi-instrumentalist with a former career in the Armed Forces that took him all over. Now, he’s a shop teacher in Ashern who sells and fixes instruments out of the music shop.

WATCH | McCandless plays an original song:

Derrick McCandless plays an original tune at music shop in Eriksdale, Man.

19 hours ago

Duration 3:01

Derrick McCandless plays one of his original songs on acoustic guitar at the Eriksdale Music & Custom Frame Shop in March 2024.

Mills helped found Stoneware Gallery in 1978 — the longest running pottery collective in Canada. She offers professional framing services and sells pottery creations that she throws in-studio.

They put on open mic nights and host a summer concert series on a stage next door they built together themselves. They’re trying to start up a musicians memorial park in Eriksdale too.

A woman with grey hair wearing a brown apron creates pottery on a pottery wheel. — Dawn Mills describes a piece of her pottery made in her studio in the back of their shop in Eriksdale. Mills has been in the pottery scene for decades and helped found the first pottery collective in Canada in the late 1970s. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)

One of their bigger labours of love is in honour of McCandless’s good friends Roger Leonard Young, David Kim Russell and Tony “Leon” — or Lee — Oreniuk. All died within months of each other in 2020-2021.

“That was a heart-wrenching year,” McCandless says.

They channeled their grief into something good for the community and started the RogerKimLee Music Festival.

A three-column collage shows a man with a moustache in a black shirt on the left, a man with long grey hair playing a bass guitar in the centre and a man with short grey hair smiling while playing acoustic guitar., — Roger Leonard Young, left, David Kim Russell, centre, and Tony ‘Leon’ — Lee — Oreniuk. The RogerKimLee Music Festival in Eriksdale was named after the men, who all died within months of each other a few years ago. (Submitted by Derrick McCandless)

Friends from Winnipeg and the Interlake helped them put on a weekend of “lovely music, lovely food, lovely companionship” as a sort of heart-felt send off, said Mills.

That weekend it poured rain. Festival-goers ended up in soggy dog piles on the floor of the music shop to dry out while Mills and McCandless cooked them sausages and eggs to warm up.

“It was just a great weekend,” says McCandless. “At the end of that, that Sunday, we just said that’s it, we got to do this.”

A group of six people sing along to a performance while seated at a table. — Dawn Mills, second from left, Dana-Jo Burdett, centre, Dolly Lindell, second from left, and others take in a performance by Derrick McCandless, Dave Greene and Mark Chuchie at the The Eriksdale Music & Custom Frame Shop in March. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)

Mills says the homey community spirit on display during that inaugural year is what the couple has been trying to “encourage in people getting together” ever since.

The festival has grown to include a makers’ market, car show, kids activities, workshops, camping, beer gardens, good food and live music.

This summer, Manitoba acts The Solutions, Sweet Alibi and The JD Edwards Band are on the lineup Aug. 16-18.

A woman with long brown hair in a green sweater and green tuque smiles during an interview. — Dana-Jo Burdett, cousin of Dawn Mills, took over marketing, social media and branding for the RogerKim LeeFestival. She says Mills and McCandless are bringing people together in Eriksdale through their artistic endeavors. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Burdett has been a part of the growth, helping with branding, social media and marketing. McCandless and Mills’s habit of bringing people together has also rubbed off on Burdett.

“There’s more of my people out here than I thought, and I am very grateful for that,” says Burdett.

Their efforts to breathe new artistic life into Eriksdale caught the attention of their local MLA.

“The response from family and friend and community has been outstanding,” Derek Johnston (Interlake-Gimli) said during question period at the Manitoba Legislature in March.

“The RogerKimLee Music Festival believes music to be a powerful force for positive social change.”

Two people lay on the grass in front of a stage while musicians play. — People take in a performance at the 2022 RogerKimLee Music Festival in Eriksdale. (Submitted by Derrick McCandless)

Dolly Lindell, who has lived in Eriksdale for about three decades, said the couple is adding something valuable that wasn’t quite there before.

“There’s a lot of people that we didn’t even know had musical talent and aspirations and this has definitely helped bring it out,” Lindell says from the audience as McCandless, Dave Greene and Mark Chuchie wrap their rendition of Take it Easy.

McCandless, 61, said there was a time in his youth where he dreamed of a becoming a folk music star. Now his musical ambitions have changed. He’s focused on using that part of himself to bring people together.

“I think it’s that gift that I was given that that needs to be shared,” he says. “I don’t think I could live without sharing it.”

WATCH | Trio plays song at Eriksdale music shop:

Trio plays intimate show to small crowd at Eriksdale music shop

11 hours ago

Duration 2:40

Derrick McCandless, Dave Greene and Mark Chuchie play a cover of The Eagles hit Take it Easy at McCandless and Dawn Mills’s music shop in Eriksdale in March 2024.

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Art

Meet artist J-Positive and the family behind his art store – CBC.ca

Published

7 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Harry Miller

1 day ago
News
Duration 4:42

Joel Jamensky’s sunny disposition explains why the artist with Down syndrome uses the name ‘J-positive’ for his online art business, started with the help of his parents two years ago. “There’s a lot more going on in [Joel’s] art than may be at first glance – just like him,” said his dad, Mark.

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