{"id":33777,"date":"2025-07-30T07:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/33777\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T07:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:28:09","slug":"making-art-is-critical-especially-in-hard-times-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/33777\/","title":{"rendered":"Making art is critical\u2014especially in hard times: Here’s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making art<\/a>, whether it be pottery, poetry or dance, doesn’t often rank highly on most people’s daily list of to-dos. Carving out time for creativity can feel frivolous in an already busy day \u2014 but it’s critical, experts say, especially in times like these.<\/p>\n

In stressful moments and when the headlines won’t stop coming, picking up a pen or brush can give creators a sense of control, says Amie McNee<\/a>, artist and author of “We Need Your Art: Stop F—ing Around and Make Something.”<\/p>\n

“As an author, when I write my novels I become like a God of my own little realm,” she says.<\/p>\n

According to the Mayo Clinic<\/a>, creative arts can bring joy and help distract from pain and anxiety. The act of creating<\/a> can also have an incredibly positive effect on the person doing it.<\/p>\n

“When you see destruction, it’s a horrible thing, but it reminds you, you know what? I can counter that,” says Louis Henry Mitchell<\/a>, creative director of character design at the Sesame Workshop. “I can counter that by being creative.”<\/p>\n

Mitchell is also the author of “Qreative Evolution: How to Question Everything to Find Your Creative Fulfillment.” Making art allows you to be “deliberate about enjoying this life and adding the positivity that we need,” he adds.<\/p>\n

When you give someone a piece of art, they see themselves.<\/p>\n

Amie McNee<\/p>\n

Artist and Author<\/p>\n

The art you create can be helpful to others, too \u2014 regardless of how many people get to experience it.<\/p>\n

Art is a mirror, McNee says and “when you give someone a piece of art, they see themselves.” Maybe that makes them feel validated or less alone.<\/p>\n

Art also serves as a much-needed escape. McNee points to the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown when she says folks really relied on artists to get through it: “We were watching movies, we were reading books, we were listening to music.”<\/p>\n

If people didn’t have their various arts to turn to, “how deeply, deeply dark those days would have been,” she says.<\/p>\n

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